Effective Email Marketing Tips for Your Staffing Firm
Email marketing – a strategy that has been around for over 20 years now and is often overlooked in today’s digital climate. However, email is still very much alive and well and, especially in a pandemic, continues to be a main source of communication across the globe. So, how do you market effectively using this tool? This blog gives you some staffing firm email marketing tips to help you level up in your marketing game.
Read the Room
First off, realize that the pandemic has changed a number of ways in which we market. If we thought everything was moving fully digital before, COVID has increased the ability to contact people twofold, thus causing email marketing to grow even more rapidly than before. Now, the strategies you use around subject lines, CTAs, and content within your email campaigns are much more critical due to the fact that there is twice the email traffic than what we had previously.
Spend Time on Your Subject Line
With more email marketing, comes having to break through the noise. How do you stand out? How do you resonate with your audience and earn their trust? The first step in catching your audience’s eye is your subject line. If you’re seeing low open rates, this is likely the culprit. No one is going to open your email with a subject line of “Following Up”, or even, “Ready to see the value and difference we can bring to your hiring?” These types of subject lines are identified as email marketing, and turns people off immediately, to the point of not even bothering to open your message to see what else you have to say.
When crafting your subject line, it is imperative to be creative and conversational. A good rule of thumb is to write how you talk – act as though you are talking to a friend! Many people don’t spend the time needed on this step and pay for it later. Take the time to write 10-20 subject lines (yes – actually write that many!) and choose the one you would be most likely to open yourself. Because, let’s be real…what good is the rest of your staffing firm email marketing efforts if it’s not even opened?
Focus on Your Prospect
Okay, so you’ve gotten them to open your email – now they want to know, “what’s in it for me??” No one wants to open an email and read about a stranger droning on and on about how qualified he is, how is company is the best, and how it would be in your best interest to work with them. Focusing on your prospect gives you much stronger response rates, as they’ll actually feel like you care about them and have value to offer them. Highlight the things that you can do to make their lives easier – because who can resist reading about that?
Use CTA’s
Begin with the end in mind by using CTAs in your emails. By doing this, your reader knows exactly what you want them to do right up front. Do you want them to sign up for an event? Schedule a 10-minute call with you? Follow you on social media? Whatever your goal is, make it as clear as possible right up top, and again throughout your content. Without this, prospects are unsure of what the point of your email is, don’t know what action to take, and thus are more likely to not take any action at all.
Content is King
If you’re lucky enough for your prospect to have clicked through to the juicy part of your content, you better make it worth their while! There are various things to think about when constructing the bulk of your email. Are you using mainly graphics or mainly text? Either one is beneficial depending on your style, but one thing to keep in mind is, putting all your pertinent content in a graphic is risky due to the face that it may not show up for everyone. Make sure you’re aware of this, as you may want to put the most important content in text and utilize graphics just for extra pizazz.
Secondly, you want to keep it as short and sweet as a Kit-Kat bar. No one wants to read a novel! State your key points (in an interesting way), tell your prospect what action you’d like them to take, and boom, you’re done. We know this is sometimes easier said than done, as there are times when you have to say more to get your point across, however, you want to make sure you find a balance of good length to ensure a higher response rate.
Lastly, as said previously, highlight the value you bring. Even if the prospect doesn’t take you up on your offer, it may at least get them thinking, and may keep you in the back of their mind for the future. This approach also creates a favorable impression of you and your company in the minds of prospects, which helps your reputation and may even spur word of mouth sales.
Using these tips in your staffing firm email marketing are sure to drive results. Do you need some help crafting your campaigns? Reach out to us and we’ll be happy to get you the results you’re looking for!
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. www.sjhemleymarketing.com