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Marketing funnels in the recruitment and search sector? Let’s discuss why they’re important in recruitment and some of the things that you could be doing differently to get better results.
Let’s start with a definition.
What is a Marketing Funnel?
What is a marketing funnel?
A simple top-line overview takes somebody from unawareness about you and your brand to awareness, to a level of engagement, to having a conversation, and to consider working with you.
Finally, hopefully, I will work with you and shout all about you on LinkedIn and everywhere else about how good you are and that you are the recruiter or search pro of choice to work with.
That is fundamentally what a funnel delivers for you.
One of the reasons it’s called a funnel is because we are funnelling potential clients and candidates. We want to work with them from a big area to a smaller one because not everyone who comes across us will want to work with us and vice versa!
Some people will come across you, and they will like you, what you’re about, and your approach, and they will start working with you.
Now, that number will be much smaller than those you first start interacting with.
That’s the reason it’s called a funnel.
The Many Benefits of Marketing Funnels For The Recruiting Sector
That is why it is so important in the current market that you have several marketing funnels where you are conversing with your market. You are funnelling them down to conversing with you and working with you.
It’s pretty straightforward. Let me share with you some of the many benefits of using funnels in your marketing and then explain how they can help you.
Firstly, they help you to avoid sales resistance.
Let me share an example. It has been interesting that we’ve been talking to several people recently who are considering working with us.
We’ve talked about why what they’re currently doing isn’t working.
As recruiters become ‘desperate’ to bring on new clients quickly, they are ‘over pitching.’
Yes, you can overpitch, and that puts people off.
They’re selling to people who are just not ready to buy yet. This is a normal phenomenon in the market because, at any one point in time, only 3 to 7% of people are ready to buy.
This is how we work as human beings. We go from unaware to aware, from thinking about our problems to wanting to solve them, and then to being in a position where we are happy to have that conversation.
This is one of the beauties of using a funnel: You can help move people through the buyer cycle from being unaware to ready to work with you.
I don’t think recruitment and hiring are any different. People have to go through a phase to get to know, like, and trust you before they’re ready to start collaborating with you.
That’s the beauty of a funnel.
Now that we’ve discussed this, 3 to 5% of people are ready to act; however, what about the other 93%?
The benefit of using a marketing funnel is that you can continually be on the radar of the other 93% of people who aren’t acting now and who will be your clients and candidates of the future.
Your particular marketing funnel can take a candidate or client from being unaware of you and your brand to collaborating with you when they are ready to do so.
The upside of having a marketing funnel in recruitment is you have two distinct groups that you need to work with, three if you’re also building your team.
- Clients
- Candidates
- Your own talent
Using marketing funnels in this way means you can nurture these different groups in multiple ways.
You can set your marketing funnels up very easily.
As an example, you might be in one of our marketing funnels.
You may have heard this podcast, encountered us at a networking event, or seen our content on LinkedIn. You might also have entered your name and email address into one of our funnels to receive our marketing checklist.
You are now on our email list, and you receive one or two emails a week from us about marketing, which adds value.
People on our email list will then contact us when they are ready. Of course, we will also reach out and speak to them, helping them make the decisions.
You can see the multiple benefits of having an actual funnel in place that works. Creating a funnel is easy. You can provide something of value. People get into your LinkedIn feed, they become a connection, and they join your email list.
Then, you can start connecting and working as they go through their own buyer cycle funnel about when they are ready to work with you.
Ironically, we were on a call with one of our clients today. Her business model is that she finds really, really good-quality candidates, talks to companies, and represents those candidates.
She has a 12-month funnel, as her market does not jump into action quickly, so she’s nurturing them all the time.
All this is happening in the background for her, and people constantly contact her.
We support her because she’s part of Superfast Circle, and we provide the marketing collateral and consulting she needs.
This is how using a funnel can work in your business, and it has done so for years.
We all know that people do not make snap decisions about career moves. Candidates and clients will work at their own pace, not yours.
A funnel supports this process.
People say, “Ah, but I want to stand out in the market, and funnels aren’t going to do that for me because everyone’s doing them.”
Fact: Let me share that everyone is not using marketing funnels.
Because of my role in our organisation, I will often enter my name and email address on a recruitment company’s website.
And it’s sad that unless I do it with Hays or Adecco or somebody like that, I put my name and email address into forms on several company websites that have significant numbers of recruiters, and I have Zilch.
Nothing!
I’ve not even got an email to say thank you.
I could be somebody that is looking for a job or is looking to hire.
You can see the difference that having a funnel will make and how most people aren’t doing it; they really are not.
They are missing out on so much by not being able to nurture candidates and clients who will get back in contact with you because you are the person who can help them.
Today has been all about funnels, which I encourage you to use.
Thanks
Denise
How We Can Help You
As a member of Superfast Circle, you can benefit from our support in building your marketing funnels. We provide all the email campaigns and reports you need, and our Tech genius can teach you exactly how to get your first funnel up and running.
If you want to learn more, call us at +44 (01524) 920 700 or book a slot in my diary here.
