Blog Content
With Google for Jobs, GDPR and Brexit really “helping” Recruitment leaders focus on a sustainable recruitment business model, your website has become front and centre of your marketing. You need it to make you money and not simply build your brand and clicks.
With the launch of the new Barclay Jones website, I’ve been waxing lyrical to clients about my experience of the web development and launch process and I’ve come up with 4 mistakes that every recruitment website may be making.
Recruitment Websites Need to Make Money!
We regularly help recruiters with the project management of recruitment websites, and digital marketing strategies, so this was a busperson’s holiday for us.
During the design phase of the new Barclay Jones web, it was clear to me that focus needed to be given in areas what we take for granted. Recruiters often forget about the journey that the website needs to take the 3Cs on:
Candidates
Client
Consultants
and Cash!
Often, a recruitment marketer is too busy to see beyond the launch of the website – and hence the goal appears to be “launch and wave goodbye”. But any finance/managing director who has freed up marketing budget to buy a new recruitment website wants more money – they want candidates, clients, colleagues and cash (not just an online brochure).
How to Build a Recruitment Website
There’s lots of content out there about how to build a website, and many a recruitment marketer will know the pain of launching a new site whilst holding down their normal day job.
There are a decent number of recruitment specific website companies – many of them offering really valuable advice… but I discovered few practical tips for recruitment marketers to help them drag surfers through the critical buyer’s journey.
Recruitment Website Mistake 1 – Look Dumb!
With GDPR, the focus on the 3Cs and recruitment leaders wanting to invest more in their recruiters, personality has never been so important. But often I look at a recruitment website, then meet the business leaders and recruiters and it’s night and day! In the board room I see passionate advocates of their niche – online “we are the fastest growing, boring, USPless job board” (sorry – tough love!)
Why? Because when recruiters “go online” they dumb down… they “de-niche” and they lose their personality. Confidence disappears and recruitment websites do not “sell”. And the blog just talks about “recruitment”
Have a think whilst you read this blog about how you can inject some personality into your recruitment website.
Recruitment Website Mistake 2 – Ignoring your 404 Page
So – this is the page you’d rather not have people go to – the page which people get to as they have entered an incorrect page on your site, or you have directed to them to a page which no longer exists. Why is it that some many recruitment websites go “doh!” amend don’t take the opportunity to drive the surfer to somewhere useful?
Check out this blog about great 404 pages and then check out Barclay Jones’ 404 page – we loved creating this one for our very own Barclay Jones 404 error page.
If people give a damn enough to come to your site, and then accidentally hit a page which has been deleted / moved, then why are you just saying “computer says no!”? Stick out your hand and guide them to where you want them to go.
Recruitment Website Mistake 3 – Having a Pants Search Results Screen
To be fair I did quite a bit of research on this and there was nothing that I could plagiarise! My instincts are that if people want to find “stuff” on your website, then making the results screen as engaging as possible is crucial. Have a think about how to get them to click on the bits YOU want them to click on to. And if you have any great ideas on this, share them with me
Recruitment Website Mistake 4 – Contact Us – Or Rather, Kill the Lead!
So you spend a fortune in time, money and emotion on getting people to come to your website. They surf about and bingo!, they want to catch up with you. Then you flick your hair and wander away…? Crazy recruiters!
I feel that the Contact Us page is THE most important page on your site. They are coming in to your shop asking for help… Hubspot agrees and has a helpful blog about the best contact us pages.
So many contact us pages are uninspiring, “templatey”, prone to getting people to NOT contact you.
What can you do with your contact page to engage and CONVERT? It’s not enough that they come to your site and your Google Analytics stats improve. You want them to “buy” from you with a subscription (GDPR alert!) or a job application, or dare we suggest that they want to speak to you… Let’s get recruiters’ phones ringing again!
Let’s Make Recruitment Websites Great Again
I couldn’t resist the “Trumpism”. Take a look at your site… figure out which pages you really want people to go to and then ask yourself if they are working hard enough for you… and can you use a little personality in them to drive conversions.
Recruitment Takeaways…
Personality
Capitalise on errors
Turn searches into conversions
Make contact easy!
Create a recruitment website that attracts and retains clients, candidates and consultants…
I train and mentor recruitment marketers to generate 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. Recruitment HIIT is an exciting recruitment training platform for recruiters to speedily learn skills to be more successful with Adapt, Bullhorn, LinkedIn, Job Adverts, Inbound Sales, Digital and Email Marketing. Try Recruitment HIIT for free, or arrange a call with me - press one of the magic buttons below.
TRY RECRUITMENT HIIT
BOOK A CALL TO DISCUSS MARKETING TRAINING
READ ABOUT OUR MARKETING TRAINING
Extra Content
Blog Image
Extra Content 2
media centre
Read more-
Lisa Jones
Blog
4 Things to Help Recruiters Bill More Sales During and After Covid
Recruitment Leaders, before Covid, was your tech delivering profit? Or, did you have the feeling that you were over investing in tech? Did you suffer:Too much data, not enough information?Too many applicants, not enough candidates?Too many jobs, not enough placements?Too many systems, not enough process?I recently spoke at Rec2020 and the topic was: Recruitment Technology – The Future and Making it Work for You – and the take away was:you need to seriously accelerate effective tech adoption in your business – now is the time!But with the current climate, frustrations, and "new normal" changing every day, how do you do this? We answered these four questions...1. Recruitment Tech! All The Gear, No Idea?Perhaps, due to:Massively distracting market conditionsStaff returning from furlough, and possible not firing on all cylinders (fair enough!)Recruiters drowning in candidates applying for jobs that they can’t doRecTec supplier invoices needing paying…you now feel that you were “over investing” in recruitment tech. What did it actually do to help you through this period, and what will it do in the coming months?For example, my team reviewed a 25-person recruitment business with a tech stack costing £200k+. (This excluded their Bullhorn CRM, which ironically, they were not using effectively.) The business wanted to be more effective at attracting, sourcing, engaging, converting, retaining. But they had great tech, data, and passionate recruiters…2. The Problem Between the Chair and the Keyboard? (Recruiters?)Did you have PIBKAC before Covid, and do you want it now and in the future?Ask yourself:How was your business performing before Covid? Did you:Have a team of highly trained, super-engaged recruiters, delivering super-happy candidates to clients who couldn’t cope without you?Have a fully monetised set of systems, data, and processesAnd a marketing department generating awesome leads that your sales team could convert?Or were your 3Cs (candidates, clients, colleagues) not being as effective as you’d like, and you seemed to be buying more and more tech just to stay the same?Perhaps you also suffered from a high attrition rate (average before Covid = 43%). Note that 2/3 of people who quit their jobs in 2019 stated “lack of training” as their reason for leaving. Perhaps you’d used up your business growth budget on salaries (who) and tech (what) and neglected the training (how)? Perhaps you thought "automation" would fix everything?3. Is Recruitment Automation the Goal?Recruitment automation has become a real turn on for some in the industry (including myself!) Systems like Herefish are really kicking butt and doing things to the recruitment process that fixes a lot of the issues outlined above. It’s a great time saver and processes speeder-upper!But - in our march to “automate” we’ve forgotten a step...Systems can only automate processes, if the processes (or at least the sentiment) exist.Humans are still pretty viable (understatement) in the recruitment agency world. The key is to understand where and how they deliver their marketing, sales and recruitment, so you can delegate some of it to a system, then leave the recruiter to do the bit only they can do.But in an industry that is drowning in data and systems, it suffers a lack of process. And there is a distinct lack of systems and process training for recruiters which compounds the problem.Look at your processes:Can they be automated? What’s possible (and plausible)?What isn't being done consistently, forgotten, or what would you like to do that will improve candidate/client experience and free up consultant time for more valuable activities?What needs automating so that your staff can work from home, and you can lead / manage them more effectively?How can you create time for recruiters to develop stronger relationships with clients and candidates (hence stronger pipelines)?4. How Do You Generate the Buy-In for Using Recruitment Technology Effectively?You need buy-in for this for effective rectec adoption. So, gain an understanding of two things (thanks Andy):How will recruitment tech drive an increase in performanceHow will it solve a business-critical issue (eg. Covid) which will enable point 1Often recruiters need more time to manage the sales process. (They likely have enough data and systems). Ask yourself:If I could save each of my recruiters 1 hour a day (hence 30 days a year) how much more could they bill?What could they do with that hour?Through the Bullhorn, Adapt, and other recruitment training my team delivers, we aim to give recruiters back 1 hour a day. Case study:A recruiter who has a £100,000k target.They’re full time and take 20 days hols a year.My team trains them to use their tech more effectively and saves them 1 hour a day.This generates 30 days extra time per year.This equates to a potential pipeline of an extra £12,500You have 10 staff? This means £125,000. What’s the commission for you and your team on that figure?And how much does it cost to train recruiters to generate that level of fee? (not as much!)That’s a simple way of measuring performance improvements and generating buy-in from all levels of the business.Recruitment Leaders, You Need… 1, 2, 3You need to seriously accelerate effective tech adoption in your business – now is the time!Look at your tech stack– is it delivering value to you, or just the people you bought it from?Look at your processes - are they clear enough for remote workers to adopt, managers to manage, and where possible, to automate?Admit that your staff are extremely unlikely to ask for help in the current market. It is too risky to admit a lack of skill? Be the leader and get them trained.If the rest of 2020 is about linking your systems, data, processes and people, imagine what 2021 could be like!Watch the Rec2020 Webinar HereHIIT Us, Recruiters!Could you save an hour a day, and make an extra £18,750 a year (or £187,500 if there are 10 of you?)Our high intensity interval training - Recruitment HIIT - helps recruiters source, convert quicker and develop healthy pipelines with Adapt, Bullhorn, LinkedIn, Job Adverts, Inbound Sales, Digital and Email Marketing. We aim to save every recruiter at least 1 hour per day - more billing time, more fees!TRY RECRUITMENT HIITREAD ABOUT OUR RECRUITMENT TRAININGBOOK A CALL TO DISCUSS RECRUITMENT TRAINING
-
Joni Smith
Blog
Bullhorn Sourcing Tip for the Best Located Candidates
Recruiters! It’s frustrating spending 13 hours a week sourcing! (UK Average!) Plus, then thinking you’ve found the perfect candidate, only to realise that they live on the wrong side of the Thames or they’d need to take a literal ferry across the Mersey to make it to work every day.This Bullhorn sourcing tip is for recruiters who need an alternative to the radius search, and a speedier approach for the 73% of you who tell me that you're suffering a candidate shortage!Recruiters! Reduce Your Sourcing Time With this Bullhorn TipWe run the best Bullhorn Training, and create monthly Bullhorn tips to improve your speed and ROI. And we're almost about to launch our Bullhorn HIIT OnDemand training.The recruiters I train on Bullhorn love how this tip will help you get more localised results for those hard to fill jobs and ultimately help you to source and place quicker! Do you recruit for jobs in areas that render radius searching useless? Are your candidates declining roles due to distance or commute times? Do you need more time? This Bullhorn sourcing hack will show you how to: Generate a more localised candidate search Quickly rule out irrelevant candidates. Improve your sourcing time (and give you more time on the phone)!Watch this 1-Minute Bullhorn Sourcing TipOur recruitment community loves our Adapt, Bullhorn, Inbound Sales, LinkedIn, Job Adverts and recruitment training hacks. Click the links to get more, and sign up to our Recruiter Hacks Newsletter to receive them as they are published.Talking of Recruiters Saving Time...Could you save your recruiters an hour a day, and make an extra £18,750 a year (or £187,500 if there are 10 of you?)Our high intensity interval training - Recruitment HIIT- helps recruiters source, convert quicker and develop healthy pipelines with Adapt, Bullhorn, LinkedIn, Job Adverts, Inbound Sales, Digitaland Email Marketing. We aim to save every recruiter at least 1 hour per day - more billing time, more fees!TRY RECRUITMENT HIIT FOR FREEREAD ABOUT OUR BULLHORN TRAININGBOOK A CALL TO DISCUSS BULLHORN TRAINING
-
Downloads
The Adapt Playbook
.png)
.png)
