Marketing for Staffing Firms: 2022 in review & Predictions for 2023

Marketing within staffing firms are always on the move, every month, every quarter, and year, making it hard to keep up with what has happened and what will happen. Fortunately, I have you covered, and we’ll look back at what transpired in 2022 and what continues in the new year, along with a few predictions for 2023 as well.

Ready. Set. Go!

A look back at 2022…

Marketing in the recruiting space during 2022 could be best explained as juggling several moving parts. One is how candidates and clients would adjust to the workspace. And the other is its relation to how marketing would have to adapt to a new demographic dominating the talent pool.

Messaging For Staffing Firms

The most significant change in 2022 was how messaging aimed its efforts toward a more candidate-centric marketing focus. In the past, clients have been the group that saw the bulk of attention because it was difficult to get them on the phone or to get in contact with them regardless of the method.

Prior to 2020, money and the number of hours available were viable selling points for candidates, but that tactic is no longer the end-all-be-all for most candidates. And this began an imbalance between available work and candidates eager to start a career they aren’t sure about.

Leading with terms like balance, flexibility, community, and organic is essential for engaging with the current crop of talent. And using these terms wasn’t enough, staffing firms needed to properly support them with content that addressed their needs and desires; if not, you likely didn’t see the progress you hoped for in 2022.

Lead Generation

In the past, lead generation heavily favored the client, but in 2022 the market flipped to candidates. There were many reasons for that, including that the talent was slower to make career choices and the mindset of the emerging millennials and gen z workers.

Furthermore the change in what a career meant to the new demographic made traditional marketing and lead-gen tactics that staffing firms deploy obsolete. Moreover candidates needed more attention and more assurance, making the volume of content and marketing materials overwhelmingly favoring candidates.

Building an Audience with Staffing Firms

Remote work and hybrid work are workplace norms now, which means building an audience offline, but more importantly, online was priority one. Reaching out to candidates on the phone 25-50 times a day quickly became 150-200 times a day. The reason is market thinning, staffing firms needed to start working to create communities apart from a phone call, with solutions such as:

• podcast to discuss industry topics and share tips and how to gain better results
• Newsletters to help candidates with insight on how they can improve their interviewing skills
• Understanding where your candidates are in life no matter the industry or specialization and creating content tailored to their career path; these could be videos, drip campaigns followed by downloadable eBooks, and other informational content.

These content ideas helped staffing firms establish trust and authority for clients and candidates.

Leveraging Facebook Groups

One tool that saw the most growth as remote and hybrid working models began to soar in 2022 was Facebook groups. In the past, Facebook was seen as a social platform that embodied family and friend interactions, but recently Facebook has prioritized career and professional support. The idea of community is the driving force for Facebook groups.

The platform allows professionals to commune, not to sell a service or product but to help candidates and even clients by creating a space where they communicate and give each other solutions.

Think of Facebook groups like a PG-rated Twitter or Reddit with far less anger and 100% more topic focus. But many think, well, what is the point if the  success of the Facebook group means I can’t advertise or sell my services? Why invest time?

When creating content or figuring out what your audience needs, do you ever get stuck while trying to develop more topics? Well, that’s what a Facebook group is for; successful Facebook groups provide inside information about clients and the candidates you want to attract with little to no advertising. This also helps in lead generation and sales.

This action is called social listening.

Social Media Marketing

It has become more evident in 2022 that the talent that staffing firms and their clients seek is on social media. And it is not just the millennials and the older generation Z candidates; even the younger gen X candidates find themselves on social platforms more often than in years past.

However, it is never a good idea to have social media as your central platform. But understanding how to extract your target audience from social media to bring them back to your website is   extremely important.

Opportunities with social media:

• Creating awareness and deep dive campaigns about careers relating to skills required to be successful in your next role.
• Investing in creating video/clips that are engaging and speaks to what the environment is today as it relates to staffing firms and recruiting.
• Running multiple-choice surveys to get inside information on candidates and client
• Asking polarizing industry questions that could spark debate and different perspective

A look ahead to 2023…

Digital Transforming Your Platform

Digital transformation is the process of using technology to change the way a company operates. It has been called “the most important business trend this century.”

Actually, that’s just what I call it.

But seriously…

Digital transformation promises to make companies nimbler and more efficient and, in turn, more profitable in website sales and more effective with recruitment enablement. Digital transformation helps improve your website sales and recruitment in several ways:

• IT Infrastructure
• process redesigns
• new business models
• product/service development
• content personalization

And keep an eye on AI, it is emerging in other markets rather quickly, and staffing firms will naturally gravitate toward a tool that could help handle volume. One tool that not just staffing firms but many companies use is AI assistants, also known as chatbots.

These chatbots answer questions quickly about products or services and guide candidates/clients through your website with ease. This technology helps you establish a better user experience for visitors which results in higher relevancy scores on your website.

Personalized Approach

There has always been an internal approach highlighting team and culture first within staffing firms. But now, the audience, mainly candidates, wants to hear staffing firms’ inner vision through its content. Candidates want to make sure you know exactly who they are, and if you are somebody they choose to trust with their career.

However, this is where technology helps segment candidates into buckets beyond just the industry and speak more to their specialty. By doing so you create more meaningful content relative to a targeted persona. It ties back into how social listening helps create content that readers resonate with.

Creative Company Functions

Most businesses are used to holding events and company parties while everyone is still at the office. Because of the lack of in-person interaction, companies find that their employees have fewer interactions overall, weakening community efforts. In 2023, companies will explore elaborate ideas that motivate employees to leave the comfort of their homes.  Hoping to build better relationships with their colleagues and leadership staff.

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