The Recruitment Marketers I mentor are keen to demonstrate and deliver Recruitment Marketing ROI. Recruitment Leaders want them to do more than simply "colouring in". Recruitment Businesses are often known for their KPI and Scorecard cultures... but marketers are often left out of what I call "sane" KPIs, in favour of "vain" metrics. This creates even more suspicion over what marketers actually do to add value. This blog will give you some tips on what you need to measure in recruitment marketing.
The Colouring-In Department and Greg Savage
I’ve written about recruitment marketers being more than simply a colouring-in-department and the brand police.
There is often the perception that the average marketing department has lots of felt tipped pens and Canva, and is awaiting requests for another PowerPoint deck and job advert image creating. This is exacerbated by the KPIs they have (or often don’t have) and the metrics that they measure.
You will have all heard the term:
Revenue is vanity. Profit is sanity. Cash is reality
My friend Greg Savage wrote about it in the recruiting sense back in 2015.
I regularly talk to my clients about vanity vs sanity metrics in recruitment marketing. When I start working with a recruiter I see:
Sales people have KPIs / targets / goals / commission
Marketers have… well, er… communities to grow, time to tweet, lists of documents to brand…
And then the marketing function appears to offer little ROI.
Vanity Metrics for Recruitment Marketers
Here are some examples of what I call “vanity marketing metrics”:
Impressions / Likes / Followers / Engagement – none of these make money and leads
Get shortlisted for an award
Numbers of web hits / unique visits
Email open rate
Increase Glassdoor Rating from 3 to 4
Increase CEO Approval on Glassdoor from 70% to 80%
Generating advocates for your content
Google Analytics Goals
The reason that these are vanity metrics is that a sane person / sales person who is not close to hitting target is likely to say “so what” to the above. Winning an award doesn’t make you more money, it’s what you do with it that counts (I have a blog for Awards ROI!). Generating a higher ranking on Glassdoor does not generate recruiter talent all by itself. Gathering more followers… well with GDPR coming, your chance of spamming them is about to disappear (or is it?). Your web is attracting lots of people who don’t apply for jobs… read my mind!
Recruitment marketers need to be allowed to demonstrate sanity to generate ROI.
This does not mean that the “vane data” I often see measured is not needed – vanity is key, but it is just the beginning. Start with the vanity scores, but have a plan for sanity.
Have a plan for the C-word!
Sanity is a C-Word!
The 3Cs of recruitment marketing: Candidates, clients, consultants! They are the key three audiences of a recruitment marketer, so KPIs and day to day metrics need to be focussed on these. And if the leaders or the recruitment business are looking to sell / gain investment, then add an I!
Sanity Metrics for Recruitment Marketers
My clients will often hear me say:
Marketers should never be targeted with the sales generated, but they should absolutely take credit for them.
How about these as some example sanity metrics?
Convertible leads generated
LTV (life time value of leads)
Recruiters attracted (of the correct “grade”)
Candidates registered (of the correct “grade”)
Client meetings generated from events
Marketers in recruitment need more sanity measures. They need to be allowed to develop lead generating / recruiter attracting / client engaging strategies – otherwise, it’s back to making things look pretty and managing job board budgets.
Let’s also not forget that often recruitment marketers are not set SMART goals. Too often I see a lack of expectation of marketing demonstrated through the “woolly” goals which are set.
ROI is Vain and Sane
So, recruitment leaders, if you want ROI from marketing, have SMART and sane expectations of your marketers. Recruitment marketers – develop strategies and tactics to deliver goals around sanity, as well as vanity.
And don’t forget the c-words in recruitment marketing. I train and mentor recruitment marketers to deliver the 4Cs - candidates, clients, colleagues, and cash!
HIIT Us, Recruiters!
Our high intensity interval training - Recruitment HIIT - helps recruiters source, convert quicker, and develop healthy pipelines, and recruitment marketers attract, engage, and retain candidates, generate clients, and colleagues (3Cs).
TRY RECRUITMENT HIIT
BOOK A CALL TO DISCUSS MARKETING TRAINING
READ ABOUT OUR MARKETING TRAINING
media centre
Read more-
Blog
AI Recruiter Tip ~ Turbo Your Candidate Screening and Sales Calls with AI
Try this intelligent 1-minute AI tip to help you turbo-boost your recruitment screening and sales calls. AI is the new black... but its impact on recruitment and recruiters has yet to be truly understood.And whilst it's not yet going to handle the full recruitment life cycle, I wanted to share my take on how AI could be used to drive great recruitment phone calls! (In seconds!)Pickup the Phone!I'm a big fan of recruiters using tech to help them drive profitable desks.I'm also a massive fan of picking up the phone and speaking to people.But it seems the more tech and data recruiters get, the less time they spend talking to candidates and clients.Having access to tech should not reduce the need to speak to people, but somehow, recruiters seem to be making less calls.Phone calls ~ MonetisedWhat I also often hear from recruitment leaders is that screening and sales calls are not structured well enough.But…Candidate screening / registration calls need to be more than box-ticking “are you alive?” chats.Dropouts and counter offers can be avoided if screening and registration calls are more structured.Leads could be better qualified, or even disqualified if sales calls were more focussed.On my Recruitment HIIT recruitment training system, we have lots of tips and tricks to help you recruit better, sell more effectively, and use tech to create a rewarding and profitable recruitment desk. AI is top of many a recruiter's "how can I?" list - so I’ve created a short 1-minute tip to help recruiters use AI to “SPIN” their screening and sales calls.Watch my 1-minute Bullhorn tip - then go to your preferred AI tool and use it to help you generate some killer questions to help you turbo your screening and registration calls, and sales calls.Watch My AI SPIN Selling Tip for RecruitersNeed more Linkedin / Bullhorn / Automation / Recruitment Tips? Try our 1-minute tips.Be sure to sign up for (or watch the recordings of) our regular free Bullhorn and Automation webinars.CHECK OUT OUR WEBINARSRecruitment TrainingWe deliver the best Recruitment and Bullhorn training through live webinars and our online training platform, Recruitment HIIT.TRY HIIT FREE HERE
-
Blog
5 Reasons Why Recruitment Leaders Need to Monetise Their Data
In today’s competitive recruitment landscape, data is your most valuable asset — yet many recruitment leaders fail to leverage it effectively.Instead, recruiters hoard data, struggle to find it, and then pay LinkedIn and job boards to gather more.Sound familiar?It’s time to break the cycle and start monetising your recruitment data.Join our next Automation RoI webinar, where we’ll dive into data health and monetisation—and why it’s critical for your business. Register HereAnd whilst you wait, let's get you warmed up...5 Reasons to Prioritise Monetising Your Recruitment DataReduced Costs - Less Need for Linkedin and Job BoardsRecruitment leaders collect vast amounts of data—candidate applications, interview feedback, calls, emails, CVs - but too often, it remains uncoded, unquantifiable, and unused. And then more job adverts are written and more data is collected... What a vicious cycle!Increased EfficiencyInefficiencies in recruitment waste time and money. Get your data cleaned and valuable. Shorten sourcing and placement times. Keep active candidates and clients focused on you. Stop missing opportunities with protracted sourcing and recruitment times.Stronger 3Cs (Candidate / Client / Colleague) ExperienceCandidates expect transparency and efficiency. Clients expect intel, speed, solutions. Colleagues need easy processes and barriers removed. New Revenue Streams - Old to Gold?Weaponise your old data - turn it into gold! Which juniors from years back are sat in your Bullhorn database waiting to be contacted now that they are more senior? Which placements are now viable contacts you can sell to?Protect Your Process, Brand, and BusinessSimply mining data that everyone else (clients and competitors) have access to isn't a great strategy for protecting your business. Let them waste time, money, and tears on dirty data. Build your brand on the USP of "I have what you want, desire, and need". Be known for your people, process and communities. Old to Gold...Your data is a goldmine—if you clean and use it properly. Whether through automation, better insights, or revenue-generating analytics, monetising your data gives your recruitment business a competitive edge.📅 Register now for our data webinar and learn how to monetise your recruitment data.Register HereAutomation Buddy and Bullhorn1stWe are Automation Buddies and Bullhorn Experts set on helping ambitious recruitment businesses who want to increase speed and sales.We coach to inspire, and build your automations so you can recruit and sell!READ ABOUT OUR AUTOMATION BUDDY SERVICERead about our Bullhorn 1st Service
-
Downloads
Your Recruitment Training Playbook