Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Transcription:
(Prefer to read? Here is the transcription. Please excuse any typos.)
Here is a bit of a social history lesson for you to put this week’s article into context. Cast your mind back to your school days and I am sure this will ring a bell for you.
Across time there have been various “ages”. From the industrial through to the current information age. As human beings our social evolution develops our behaviour. By all accounts we are still very much in the knowledge age, where we all crave information.
Enter the World Wide Web that makes the whole process so much easier. Why? Because we can hop onto a piece of metal, of any size, and get an answer to our question, usually within a matter of seconds.
Now think about your target customers, be they candidates or clients. They are looking for information and answers to questions. This is exactly what you can give them.
The web means you can do this in numerous formats: a blog post that answers their question, a podcast that explains a strategy, a video that engages, a checklist that gives them a step by step process to follow.
All these different mediums can form part of your content marketing that will deliver warm leads to you. The exact premise of inbound marketing.
Provided you deliver what they both want and need at the right time in their career or recruiting journey; it all works swimmingly……….and this is where most recruitment companies go wrong.
How do you start? A first step is to know your market and what they are looking for, then give them what they want.
Simple well yes and no. Your content needs to serve your market at different points of the purchase cycle. Often referred to as the buyer’s cycle.
Rarely do human beings purchase things of significant value on a whim e.g. your recruiting service. Instead they go through a classic process.
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Intent
- Decision
At all points of this process they are looking for information that will help them make their decision. Most recruitment companies miss this important part of creating their content.
For instant a range of emails, guides, blogposts, white papers, checklists, salary surveys webinars etc etc can be used at all parts of this cycle to both convince and convert your customers that you are the recruitment organisation that is an authority in their market……. And the one to work with.
Think about it? Though you may think writing a guide on crafting a CV or how to be confident in an assessment centre is old hat it isn’t. Especially if you are a passive candidate with great skills who hasn’t been on the job market for years.
To illustrate the point, last week we were having a conversation with a consulting client about his content marketing strategy. We explained this process
The company in question then admitted their most read blog post was about CVs! Yes, it is still topical. Now you probably understand why.
It might be boring for you, yet remember your experience level and skill set. A nervous candidate isn’t an experienced recruitment pro. They need help with the basics.
Content marketing is the foundation of your inbound lead generation strategy. Are you using its power?
