Recently, Parqa presented and hosted booths at the Naps and TechServe Alliance annual conferences. It was enlightening for me to hear the pain points of two aligned but very different industries, recruiting versus staffing, and the everyday struggles that digital marketing can help to mitigate.
Most people are aware of the historically low national unemployment rates we are currently seeing. Unemployment this low means the qualified candidate pool is only going to become more limited. What I took away from both conferences was the opportunity for staffing and recruiting firms to look at how they position themselves to candidates through digital marketing to grow revenue.
Right now, some of you are saying, “Clients pay the bills, not the candidates! I would never invest in them!” But wait and hear me out.
In a candidate driven market as we have right now, the candidates pay the bills. It comes down to the application of supply and demand. Even if you make the placement, how much harder did you have to work to find the candidate than five years ago? Wouldn’t it be easier if candidates come to you?
Here are three examples of how digital marketing provides ROI from candidates.
Related Post: Why Partnering With a Specialized Digital Marketing Agency Makes All The Difference ➢
Contingent Search for an Engineering Role
A potential client reaches out to you who have been trying to fill a role internally for a niche engineering role. They’ve not had any luck so far, so they’ve called three to four search firms including you in the hopes that someone had the perfect unicorn candidate waiting.
What happens? No one has the unicorn waiting, other firms don’t put much effort towards it, and another has 50 different contingent roles they have a better chance of filling. Your firm is taking the candidate focused route.
You’ve set up a social media campaign on Linkedin and Facebook and put some budget toward paid advertising. Target the top 20 companies in your region that you know employ the same position. Within ten days you present a panel of three candidates to the client and eventually one of them is placed. You’ve now gained a client for life because you filled a role they couldn’t and went above and beyond your competitors.
One of our clients recently completed a search just like this. Now all their counterparts are following suit, trying to get jobs sponsored.
HR Consulting Firm Attempting to Attract Contract Talent
You have two consultants who have worked for you in the past. The last time their contract ended you were not able to redeploy them, so they took a role with your competitor. You do your best to set a reminder to follow-up with them in a couple of months, but you’re so busy filling current roles that you lose track of them or make contact only to find out they were extended. How do you stay top of mind with them so that you are not continually trying to keep tabs on them?
Set up a candidate nurturing campaign that targets your past employees allowing you to send them relevant market information, company successes, and upcoming roles. When they begin preparing for their next role they’re reminded to reach out to you for future opportunities. You can then market them and have them placed before their previous contract is completed.
One of our clients had this happen twice in the last two weeks.
Related Post: Why Recruiters Should Target Candidates With Their Content Marketing ➢
Retained Executive Search for CFO
You’ve tapped out your network of CFO’s in the market and begin to source for new talent. You find someone that you like and reach out to them on Linkedin. They are currently employed and likely a very passive candidate. The fact is, you’re probably one of many recruiters reaching out to them on a weekly or monthly basis. Why should they respond to you over the others?
They go to your Linkedin company page, your personal Linkedin page, and your Company’s website and see that you are a boutique firm that specializes in executive level finance positions. Even if they aren’t interested in that job description, your profiles showed them that you are a credible recruiter. They reach out to get to know you and your firm better and to keep an eye out for future endeavors because you gained instant trust and credibility.
Sounds like a stretch, right? Well, it works – I’m proof of it because that is how I became employed by Parqa and Versique.
It’s easy to tie your ROI metrics to a call-in that closes or to a networking event you sponsored. In the end, growing revenue and profitability is about how efficiently you get the client, get the candidate, and close the deal. They’re not mutually exclusive in the process of recruiting or staffing. One hundred leads with no qualified candidates = zero revenue and zero ROI on those 100 leads. It’s simple math.
