The sobering truth is that many recruitment companies have websites that just aren’t set up to generate leads for their recruitment consultants and consequently aren’t helping their consultants fill their pipeline.
A scary thought when the recruitment sector is growing fast and opportunities to accelerate the growth of your own agency abound.
Your recruitment website is your authority position in the market and should be the hub of the lead generation activity for your recruitment company, through the way it positions you and your brand and encourages both candidates, clients and potential talent to get in touch.
Here are the classic mistakes we see every day on line:
1. No obvious telephone number?
The question is do you want people to pick up the phone and call you? If you do you only have a few short seconds to grab someone’s attention. So make your phone number obvious.
In marketing circles there is a saying called; “above and below the fold”. In today’s mobile world it’s also known as the finger scroll.
In other words important parts of information need to be where potential ‘searchers’; your candidates and clients land first. If they have to start scrolling to find out what they want; they won’t.
Make sure your web developer or designer adds your telephone number to your header bar and that it appears on every page.
In today’s internet world people have minimal attention span? If want they want isn’t obvious? They will just ‘bounce’ off your website’?
2. Who are you and how can you help?
Not every recruitment company has a name that gives away who they are and what they do for clients and candidates.
Using words like; search, staffing, people and consultants does help, however it’s much better to have a clear statement on your home page about who you are and what you do. Remember the outcome is to demonstrate to your website visitors that you can help them clearly and concisely; because if you don’t someone else will.
The more specific you are the better. Avoid vague at all costs it will cost you both time and money.
A few weeks ago we were looking for a new IT supplier who could deliver a VOIP phone service. It took longer than I appreciated as three of the websites were totally unclear on the home page about what they could deliver. It’s still common in lots of B2B sectors not just recruitment.
If I land on DIY.com I know where I am and what is on offer. If I land on KennedyMartin it could be a firm of solicitors or a recruitment company. Therefore I am quickly going to read what the content says to validate that I am in the correct place; common sense isn’t it.
This might sound simplistic and in today’s online world it’s vital that you get it correct because many companies don’t.
If you are a smaller organisation you can really score by demonstrating your sector experience and niche capabilities. For instance here are two do’s and don’ts.
Don’t use this…..
“We provide bespoke intelligent recruitment solutions”
Instead something like this…….
“We provide experienced medical liaison managers for Pharmaceutical Organisations throughout the EMEA region.”
You can read more about how to make this work in one of our blogs posts on value propositions.
3. No lead magnet #AKAwhatsisinitforme
Inbound marketing is one of the easiest ways to generate leads who are more likely to convert. In other words leads (candidates and clients) come to you, start to have an experience and then you keep in touch with them, build a relationship and take them through the know like trust process with you.
The effective way to do this is offer something of value in return for their email address and the unspoken ability to market to them in the long term.
That something of value is known as a lead magnet. You can experience ours on the website at the top of every page on the website.
The beauty of a lead magnet is that rather than somebody visiting your website never to be seen again you have started the process of engaging with them.
4. Mobile responsiveness
Did you know that over 50% of users are accessing websites through smart technology? So much so that Google changed its search engine ranking criteria in April this year to rewards websites that are mobile friendly.
Have a look at your own Google Analytics data and you will be able to work out the percentage of mobile visitors you have. It’s only going to increase. If your market is candidate driven; especially so.
An old fashioned website that isn’t set up as a marketing tool for your recruitment business will be losing your company leads and hence revenue on a daily basis.
What next?
- Get your number in prominent places on your website
- Be clear on what you can provide and for who #thedevilisinthedetail
- Create a relevant lead magnet for your website; this will help you capture targeted leads; consistently
- Make you website mobile and tablet responsive- it doesn’t cost the earth.
P.S. Need help with marketing your recruitment business? Get in touch here. Contact us.
This podcast was hosted by Denise Oyston. Follow us on Google+
Important
To accelerate your marketing at speed, you need to know your starting point and be clear on what good marketing looks like.
That is why we have designed a complimentary Marketing Audit Checklist that you can download here.
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