Lead Generation for Staffing in Today’s Environment
When we talk about lead generation for staffing, we can’t forget the environment we are all living in today. “Business as usual” in your marketing efforts is not going to work. If you were using direct mail as a lead generation tactic previously, it’s time to rethink your strategy because that is currently not a solid option. Your email efforts and many other digital marketing avenues are now at the top of the list for your approach to lead generation. We hope this article helps each of you conduct lead generation in the modern day.
Defining Your Audience
All of the various marketing efforts that you take on in lead generation for staffing today will likely be digital assets. These digital assets include email, your website, targeted social media advertising, individual reach-out through a variety of sources, and traditional online advertising. When you look at all of these sources, you have to consider a more specific audience than you have had in the past. Your digital marketing efforts require a better understanding of your audience in order to create success. The tools that are available to you allow you to segment your audience by title, geography, the size of the company, the type of company, and more. Truly understanding your audience helps you deliver the lead generation results that your staffing firm requires. When you’re developing your detailed audience, be sure to have options to both expand the audience as well as condense them in order to work efficiently with the various platforms.
Website for Lead Generation
We have talked for years about the value that your website brings. We have even gone as far to say that if you are using your website as an online brochure, you are not taking advantage of all of the opportunities at hand. Using your website as a lead generation vehicle means that you must determine which marketing assets you have that your target audience would like. If you don’t have these marketing assets, you simply need to create them. For example: case studies, white papers, and surveys are all valuable commodities in your marketing efforts. Have you conducted a survey about working from home? Have you conducted a survey about the various tools used for collaboration that can help your clients reduce research and make you the thought provider they need? There is a wide array of marketing assets that you can assemble that don’t take a great deal of time but provide a great deal of value.
Now, you may be asking, “how does a case study, white paper, or survey turn into lead generation?” The answer is quite simple. When these resources are placed on your website strategically with a strong call-to-action, they will get noticed. Keep in mind that these assets need to be behind a lead generation form on your website. Your marketing professionals or your web development team are able to easily accommodate this.
So, now that that’s cleared up, the only question you should have is, “how will I lead people to these new marketing assets?” The lead generation form delivers the people you want to talk to. Be sure that your website is search engine optimized in order to deliver the best organic results. Set up your landing pages and your lead generation forms and you will be off to the races. The tactics for email, online advertising and more all bring potential prospects back to your landing page and the audience will complete the lead generation form in order to get the item they are interested in.
Emailing for Success
For years, we have all been building prettier and fancier emails that were designed to attract attention once they were opened; however, the reality is that we all did such a great job with creating elaborate designs that people began opening less emails and are simply just looking at the subject lines. Our question to you is, how good are your subject lines? Follow up question: are you spending a lot of time creating highly design-oriented emails or are you mixing in standard text-based emails? Between your subject lines, content, and calls-to-action, you need to refine your message through your content marketing strategy, which we will deliver more information on next week.
Your emails need to be looked at for what they are saying, how long they are, and how easy it is to see the desired information with a call-to-action that brings people back to your website. “Contact us now” is not a strong call-to-action in your emails. You need to give them a reason to contact you. Is there an offer you provide? For instance, some people consider good offers to be discounts. Other people consider an offer to be something that is given to the client for their betterment. We obviously believe in the latter. Really think about what your case study, white paper, or survey is delivering so that your potential leads find it valuable. Once you’ve thought that through, tie an appropriate offer to it.
Online Advertising at its Best
Many of our clients are turning to digital marketing by determining which organizations their clients are members of and advertising within those organizations. Other clients have turned to using the content they’re creating and sharing it though LinkedIn and Facebook advertising. The options for online advertising are endless! But going back to what we talked about with your audience, you need to not only establish your target audience for your online advertising, but you also need it to qualify the online medium that you want to use. For me, marketing through TechServe Alliance, Staffing Industry Analysts, and American Staffing Association delivers the best audience for my company. For you, you need to look at where your buyers tend to be online. One of our clients is trying advertising through gaming systems in order to drive candidates. Other clients of ours are using LinkedIn and Facebook advertising to drive their messages. The possibilities are endless with digital marketing lead generation for staffing.
LinkedIn for Everyone
In addition to LinkedIn Advertising, I have referenced marketing through LinkedIn in its traditional outreach. The precision for how you say things in your LinkedIn messages to potential prospects is incredibly important. If your LinkedIn notes include messaging such as, “can I get 15 minutes of your time?”, they probably won’t deliver well. However, if you spend the time using your content marketing strategy, then your content should be on point and well received by the audience. With our current environment, the number of individual users on LinkedIn is unprecedented; therefore, it’s a great opportunity to reach them.
Tools You Can Use
There are many marketing automation tools, such as HubSpot and Yesware, that can improve your lead generation. Each of them gives you an opportunity to recognize incoming leads at a high rate. It’s important that you take advantage of the opportunity these tools provide. In many cases, you are able to see the visitors of your website, track them across your site, and know what they are looking at and when they are doing so. If the tool is a solid fit for you, it’s worth using. All of your lead generation efforts are enhanced by today’s technology and it gives you the ability to turn a visitor into a lead.
Want to know more about lead generation for staffing in today’s environment? Give us a call at 978-664-1221 or email us at larry@sjhemley.com.
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