Using Email Campaigns to Build Your Brand
Email marketing campaigns are a great way to build up brand recognition and to allow clients and candidates to identify your staffing firm as an industry leader. By positively linking a brand with a particular staffing firm and establishing a sense of familiarity, potential clients and candidates begin to associate with the firm and build up a sense of trust in their services. Email campaigns, if executed correctly, have the potential to create brand awareness around your staffing firm and differentiate you from the competition. The perception of quality services is an important factor in the reason why clients and candidates search out one firm over another, so it is important to do everything possible to nurture that perception.
Be an Authority
Establish your staffing firm as a leader in the recruiting field by showing your customers that you are competent and know the business inside and out. Without sounding like you are bragging, create emails to highlight your strengths and showcase your successes. Build your staffing firm brand by sending out emails that share your knowledge and provide value to your target audience. Remember, when people receive information that they feel is helpful, they are bound to share it with their friends and co-workers. The best form of advertising is always word of mouth, so be sure to send out content that is not only worthy of being shared, but also in a format that is easily sharable.
Team Buy-In
In order to build a successful brand, you need a strong support team. The more your sales and recruiting teams buy into your brand, the harder they are going to work to make sure that your staffing firm is a success. Exceptional service is the cornerstone of every great business, and clients and candidates are looking to sign on with staffing firms that are going to go the extra mile on their behalf. Work closely with your team and hold regular staff meetings to ensure that everyone is on the same page. Ask for input on proposed email marketing campaigns and incorporate their ideas when possible. Prep them before the campaign rolls out and be sure to provide them with the key ideas so that they are able to refer to those touchpoints in conversations with clients and candidates.
Brand Recognition
A great way to build your staffing firm brand is to create an email campaign based on the idea of increasing brand recognition. Instead of attempting to gain immediate business, the goal is to regularly touch base with your target audience so that they recognize your brand and associate your staffing firm name with superior service. Create an email campaign schedule and send out different interviewing tips each week to the candidates in your target audience. Educate prospective clients on new regulatory language or current trends in hiring practices. Company newsletters and holiday greetings are also examples of ways to keep your staffing firm name front and center. When clients find themselves in need of new talent, yours is the first name they should be thinking of. If candidates are looking to move to a new opportunity, your staffing firm must be on the top of their mind.
Not Ready Yet?
In addition to trying to build your staffing firm brand and establish a sense of trust among those who have never used your staffing services, you must also remember to nurture your current clients and candidates. Even though there are no open positions at your client’s company, that doesn’t mean that you stop reaching out to them. Email them on a regular basis but be sure to not overdo it and become pushy. Remind them of past successful placements and keep them abreast of new additions to your talent pool. Happily placed candidates are always a testament to your excellent service, but don’t forget that all good things must come to an end. Time limited contracts mean that those same candidates are going to be in need of a new placement soon, and don’t think for a minute that they aren’t already being courted by several other recruiting firms. Touch base with them regularly and peak their interest by giving them insight into some of the new clients who have signed on with your staffing firm.
Email Marketing Analytics
Pay close attention to your email marketing analytics. If you see a huge spike in your unsubscribe rates, you are definitely annoying people rather than winning them over. There are always going to be a few people who unsubscribe because they are no longer in need of staffing services; however, if a larger number of people start opt out after the second or third email, consider making some changes to your campaign schedule. Perhaps you are sending out messages too frequently. Spread out your emails further so you don’t turn people away. Conduct market research to determine whether the time of the day or day of the week are serving to annoy people rather than engage them, and adjust your schedule accordingly.
Key Takeaways to Using Email Campaigns to Build Your Brand:
- Establish your staffing firm as an authority by demonstrating that you know your business inside and out
- The more that your team buy into your brand, the harder they are going to work to build up the business
- Regularly touch base with prospective clients and candidates to build up trust
- Keep your staffing firm front and center with current clients and candidates
- Pay attention to your email marketing analytics
About S.J.Hemley Marketing
S.J.Hemley Marketing is a marketing and sales consulting firm focused on driving tangible results for professional services firms. Brand matters, but not without ROI. With over 20 years of sales and marketing experience within staffing and recruiting, we have helped to drive successful branding, sales training, lead generation activities as well as defining marketing strategy for top organizations.