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When we first started to talk about marketing to recruitment owners, we got a lukewarm response, and to be honest, we found it a bit odd. You see, we had both come from companies where marketing would put millions on the bottom line.
It took a while before we realised that many business owners didn’t understand what marketing was and how it worked. Not surprising when you consider that recruiting has always been pretty transactional.
Pick up the phone, ask if someone needs help with recruiting; if you are persistent, and they say yes, you fill the job.
Hopefully, you do a good job and referrals come your way. You have a website, a snazzy logo on your business cards, and you go to networking events.
Marketing ticked; umm, not quite.
Maybe that was OK ten years ago, but it’s all different now. In the last few years, the number of recruitment companies has exploded. As I write this, we are in the strangest of economic times where companies are losing longstanding clients and suddenly having to create demand for their service.
This is where marketing scores big for you and your bank account. Greg Savage explains it well when he talks about ‘digital dinosaur recruiters’ who might not have a business in less than three years.
Picture the scene: you make a BD call, and later your prospect hits Google looking for you and your expertise. You know this is how it works because you do it too when you are making a significant buying decision.
What will they find – enough to convince them you are the recruiter to work with or not? This matters now more than it ever has before.
- Are your messages clear?
- What social proof do you have?
- Do you stand out as being someone who could help them?
- If you aren’t visible online, how will you market their job?
They have lots of questions about you and your brand, which marketing will help you answer.
Here is the thing; marketing enables you to stand head and shoulders above your competition.
Good News Alert!
We are in unprecedented times as small businesses, where the worldwide web means we can finally compete against Adecco, Michael Page and Hays in our local market and sector.
Not sure this could work for you?
Then let me share a few examples of how marketing has worked for some of our clients.
Mark’s company was the best-kept secret in Yorkshire for years. Within a few short months, a focus on marketing brought a new website that paid for itself almost immediately it was launched with a new temp placement picked up through the website.
A month later BBC Radio Leeds offered them a slot, and six months later they hit their annual sales target three months early.
Then there is Heather. A fantastic recruiter who had been a senior consultant with one of the big players who decided to start her own company.
She got her messaging spot on for her market and stepped out onto social, and within weeks a campaign she ran on LinkedIn rekindled old connections and five 20% fee placements.
Over the last couple of years, Heather has consistently marketed her brand and service, and this has enabled her to go from a low 6 figure turnover to over seven figures.
Let me tell you about a sales recruitment company who had always been ‘old school’. Within a month they had made their biggest placement ever which was then followed by their best quarter and a holiday; the first one in years. Why? Because their marketing was in place working for them on autopilot and consistently.
The list goes on.
The truth is that marketing works by creating demand for you and your service. Fact: Real businesses understand they need to develop consistent demand and know that a focused marketing plan will do that for them.
[Important: We must point out marketing works when you do. Take consistent, relentless action on the strategies we teach, and you could experience similar results.]
Thanks
Denise
P.S. Ready to act on your marketing now? Then get in touch by calling ++44(0)1524 784 331
