Selling commoditized services is hard in 2020...
This is what a day in the life of your top salespeople looks like:
They pick up the phone, dial the number in front of them, and hope somebody picks up or that the gatekeeper doesn't screen them out. If they're properly caffeinated, they'll maneuver and pivot as best as they can. If not, they'll be half-hoping they can just leave a voicemail...
Sound familiar? It's the age-old cry of the cold-caller, and in staffing, where your service offering is well known and often margin-driven, it's just as much of a numbers game as it is a game of resilience.
But there is a better way... a way where you as a business leader can help generate leads for your recruitment agency - leads that are engaged, interested in your services, and often, ready to hire... from you.
The staffing industry is going through a major identity crisis.
Perhaps you've noticed.
Marketplaces are popping up everywhere. Businesses in all verticals are trying to replace human contact with ai and databases... and everybody is scrambling to build the V2.0 of recruitment through platforms, automation, and whatever else they can get their hands on.
On the other side, you're trying to hold onto as much of the past as you possibly can.
You're still cold-calling as a main means for generating business, and marketing is STILL considered to be a cost center. Certainly, your ATS isn't communicating with your sales or marketing tools, and you're relying on relationships driven by high turnover positions to grow your business, causing you to stall out over and over again.
Let me help you reconcile the past with the future with these 5 Steps for Generating awesome leads:
1. Fix Your Website
Most of your websites are awful.
A.W.F.U.L.
They're confusing in their messaging and structure, and they look like they were built 20 years ago. Those are the easy criticisms. I've seen blue collar agencies with office folk on their home page, and others that make NO mention of the fact that they are a staffing agency without clicking multiple times.
Don't even get me started on those that only fit one screen size.
Here are some ways to improve your website experience -
STRATEGY:
- Build out a marketing targeting strategy with personas & journey mapping
- Maybe do some research about your prospect's problems?
- Apply Google Analytics and Search Console to discover what's working and what isn't
- Map out the intended user experience
- Create a Pillar SEO strategy to attract organic traffic
EXECUTION:
- Trim down the walls of text
- Put the user first - meaning, ENOUGH with the "About" button being #1 in your menu
- Drop it into a new template to make it look better and fit different screen sizes automatically
While there are certainly basic best practices you can follow in terms of user experience and design, generally speaking, every website is going to be unique if you listen to your customers. So, always start by listening!
2. Create an Offer
You have valuable data locked up in your company somewhere.... and likely in the form of a content offer that your customers and prospects would appreciate having.
Maybe it's a salary guide.
Maybe it's something you come up with during your strategy phase...
Whatever it is, make sure it has the following attributes:
- It's something your customers said they want to see
- It has keyword value (try the Chrome extension "Keywords Everywhere")
- It is created specifically for a persona
- It addresses 1 of the 3 stages of the buyer's journey
- It is gated behind a form - free isn't FREE
3. Blog like the wind
During the strategy phase, particularly when you're going through the journey mapping exercises and SEO pillar strategy development, you should be able to come up with a series of blog ideas that connect your offer to other search queries and concepts.
Keep blogging.... every month. Hit a new topic. Support the offer... and you'll see visitors clicking on links and calls to action you have posted throughout your blog. They'll land on your offers, then give you their information in exchange.
4. Promote your blogs and offer and other stuff
Get people to your website through blogging, social media marketing, and paid clicks on Adwords and other platforms (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc).
The more eyes, the better - so long as they're relevant eyes.
CONCLUSION:
By attracting people to your website, which is wired to be intuitive, helpful, and consultative in nature, then pointing them to content offers that provide value in exchange for contact information - you will have created a lead generation machine that keeps on giving.
Want to learn more about how to generate leads for recruitment agencies and other related strategies for growing your business? Click HERE:
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