by Amber Loach

Marketing in Uncertain Times: The Dos and Don’ts

We’ve had our fair share of ‘uncertain times’ in recent years and marketing is often first on the chopping block as a ‘non-essential’ business item when it comes to cutting costs.

But there is so much data to support the fact that maintaining marketing activity through turbulent times results in businesses coming out stronger than ever on the other side. According to the Harvard Business Review “failing to support brands or examine core customers’ changing needs can jeopardize performance over the long term”.

While your recruitment competitors will likely be thinking of how they can scale back, you can stay front of mind, build trust and ultimately be there when you’re needed by investing in your marketing strategy – in the right ways. When things look rocky, clients and candidates will need reassurance and to know you’re still there for them. Not to mention there will be recruiters out there whose jobs aren’t secure – it’s the perfect time to find top talent in the market for your own business.

“By maintaining your position in a customer’s mind, you can give them a feeling of normalcy when other parts of their life might be in turmoil. They will come to think of you as being reliable, particularly if your competition scales back or even halts their own advertising,” says Forbes.

The other impact of cutting marketing budgets is the effect it will have on your team. While it’s a good time for you to keep an eye out for recruiters moving jobs, you also want to ensure your team don’t begin to panic and look around for other jobs in what they see as more secure companies. Having a robust employer brand is just as important for attracting good recruiters post-downturn as it is for retaining the ones you’ve got.

There’s a huge opportunity to come out the other side better than your competitors. If other companies are struggling it can mean there are less recruiters vying for the same candidates and clients – it’s much easier to be seen and to cut through the noise.

So, with all this talk of ‘what’s going to happen in the few months’ here’s our advice for your marketing strategy.

  • Stay Consistent

The worst thing you can do is disappear. That real estate you’ve spent years building up will quickly be taken up by your competitors.

  • Focus on Your Loyal Customer Base

Recruiters in particular are guilty of going after new client leads and not paying enough attention to their existing ones. Look at who you have good relationships with,­ is there an opportunity to build out that account?

  • Shout Even Louder Than You Were

There’s never a more important time to shout about your wins. It may feel wrong to highlight positivity in what can be a negative time. But this is where your clients, candidates and even other recruiters (if you’re looking to grow) need to see that you’re seeing successes to continue to trust you.

The scope of marketing activities you can get your teeth into may feel a little overwhelming, so our advice is to focus on the strategic avenues.

Social Media

It doesn’t have to be every day but make sure you’re posting your latest roles, testimonials from clients/candidates and sharing your success stories. Your network needs to know you’ve not gone anywhere. By looking at the data you can focus your time on the social posts you know get the most engagement.

Email Marketing

Capitalise on your database. When was the last time you reached out to clients or candidates you worked with more than a year ago? And we don’t mean spamming them with generic sales emails every day. Instead, curate quality and relevant content that employers and job seekers will appreciate. You want to be the first company they think of when it’s time to recruit or look for a new role. Building and maintaining relationships is the key here!

Automation

Look at how you can streamline a lot of your processes – especially if you see a rise in applicants due to higher unemployment rates. You can automate things like rejection emails or interview confirmations to free up your time so you can focus on other priorities.

SEO Strategy

People will never stop using Google. Focus on how you can update your website to ensure you’re on the first page of Google. SEO is a long process but once it’s done it’s free marketing­! You do need to keep your website refreshed with content though.

Bringing in the Experts

Working with a recruitment marketing agency like Prominence means you don’t have to go through trial and error ­we know what works first time around. When there’s no time or money to lose, it pays to do it right first time around.

A long-term commitment to marketing and resisting the urge to panic and cut costs is the key to ensuring you thrive in times of turmoil. When companies stop marketing in a downturn there is so much evidence to suggest they struggle to come out the other end when compared to those who have maintained strategic marketing activities.

If you’d like to have more of a chat about how we can help with your recruitment marketing strategy, drop me a line!

 

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Tracking & Measurement

Monthly analytics reporting on campaign performance through platform analytics, data includes impressions, click rate, conversion rate, specific advert performance, landing page results and call metrics.

×
Conversion Rate Optimisation

It’s the most important element in a successful campaign, and the old saying ‘you snooze, you lose’ is very apt, and it’s where most fail. Using the analytics data, we continue to test and refine the campaigns to increase conversation rates and therefore the results for your recruitment business.

This includes:

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Phone Call Tracking

A large percentage of Social Media Advertising campaigns generate phone calls to your recruitment business or individual recruiters. Because of this, usually this is where the ability to track return on investment ceases. However, on all of our campaigns we enable a proprietary piece of technology that tracks and records each phone call. Not only can we now track the success of each call, we can give you access to the call recording platform to use the calls as training and service improvement tools.

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Customised Landing Pages

A social media advertising campaign without a landing page is a bit like a candidate with an unexplained gap in their CV. There is a chance it will be ok, but also a big risk that it won’t. We use our own landing page tool to create customisable experiences that are centered on generating outcomes.

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The success and failure of a social media advertising campaign often relies on the quality of the advert itself. Using our in-house design and copywriting teams we’re able to create the very best visual and copy based adverts. This is across a range of mediums, from text and static images to moving GIF/HTML5 files, Facebook Canvas adverts and even video.

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