Recruiters spend a fortune on LinkedIn - either in time or cash! Both is great if they can demonstrate ROI from LinkedIn. But the recruitment industry is not known for focusing on ROI from recruitment systems - being focused on the placement means that often recruitment leaders are left frowning at end of year at the costs associated with running a recruitment business. This blog highlights some ways to measure the ROI from LinkedIn.
We’ve been talking a lot lately about what recruitment leaders should stop doing; how they can STOP messing up their critical job adverts and START getting real, decent applicants, as well as how marketers need to STOP delivering tactics instead of strategy.
A theme which links all of this together is my new acronym:
FORMO – Fear of Recruiters Missing Out
We have become a generation of tech / app / extension / data proliferation and the process is screwed up. This has never been more so than with LinkedIn Recruiter (RPS Licence). I’ve written before about how recruiters do not expect ROI (return on investment) from LinkedIn. I often see this when I work with recruiters to help them confidently purchase / renew the licence.
Yes, they have the LinkedIn Recruiter training to get the ball rolling. Yes, they run the reports on usage… but they often don’t analyse data what I feel is critical to seeing ROI. They also don’t check in with recruiters and how they plan to implement their LinkedIn Recruiter Licence.
When I work with recruiters, I’m not into ‘wham, bam, thank you ma’am’ training. I’m into ROI. It’s sustainable and as cheap as chips!
70 20 10 – Recruiters Only Retaining 10%?
Imagine if you studied your client and talent (and staff) retention figures and realised that you were at 10%? You’d faint, scream, hide… But as humans, there is the theory that we retain 10% of the training we receive and the rest is a split between watching others and on the job challenges. I’ve been in training in some form or another for 20 years and I totally agree with 70 20 10 training this theory.
Aiming to Get (at Least) 100% ROI from LinkedIn Recruiter
Why is it that we often only “do the math” at the end of the day? We often use finance figures from previous activity. We look back at last month and what do we do differently this month? We possibly don’t have enough predictive analysis to help us predict success (or failure).
I often get told by recruiters that they need help understanding how to measure ROI from a LinkedIn Recruiter Licence and waiting on placement data is too long a wait (AND this assumes either success or failure, rather than a journey which needs constant management and focus).
Here are some data points I feel are critical to helping you understand the ROI of LinkedIn Recruiter:
LinkedIn Recruitment Company Page Metrics:
LinkedIn Company post Impressions
LinkedIn Company page followers
LinkedIn.com Recruiter Profile Metrics:
Followers not connections
Number of Connections
Weekly profile views
LinkedIn Recruiter (RPS Licence) Metrics
LinkedIn Recruiter Usage and Success:
InMail Acceptance Rates – I would clarify that this needs measuring against sends/ declines too
Activity – LogIns/Searches/Profiles Viewed/In-mails sent – plus projects and alerts setup
Recruitment Website Metrics:
Hits to Website from LinkedIn and which pages were the most popular
Flow to website and applications – I would add referral rates in Google Analytics
Recruitment CRM Metrics:
Placements – Value by month – have a think about LTV too (life time value)
Opportunities – In CRM with LinkedIn as source
Leads – In CRM with LinkedIn as source
Candidates / Contacts – source = LinkedIn
You don’t need me to tell you that buying a system, especially LinkedIn Recruiter, is not the goal – using it “well” and happily paying the invoice is the goal. Saying “of course we’ll renew” to LinkedIn is a great statement to make, as opposed to FORMO.
Your FD telling you that you’ve spent a fortune on tech just to stay the same, is not what you want to hear at year end.
Telling your clients that you have every bit of tech going and still you’re having issues finding talent is not a sales pitch, an excuse or even a USP.
Stop waiting for placements to happen / not happen before you measure ROI. Habits will have been formed and the system perhaps devalued by then.
Start to measure the effectiveness of your LinkedIn Recruiter licence and take action (Recruitment Training) on how effectively and successfully it is being used.
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How Recruiters Can Turn Bounces and Unsubscribes into $£€
Recruiters, marketers, automators... If you’re regularly emailing candidates or clients—especially using tools like Bullhorn Automation - you’ve likely become familiar with two things: unsubscribes and hard bounces.At first glance, they can feel like a blow to your efforts—but they’re not always what they seem. In fact, how you respond to them is where the real sourcing and sales opportunities lie.Through the free consultation calls I have with recruiters who have Bullhorn, a hot topic is unsubscribes and hard bounces. Neither outcome gives a nice fuzzy feeling. If someone unsubscribes it limits your chances of reaching out to them again.If you get a hard bounce, their email has failed or the server has blocked you.But rather than get frustrated, slowing down your marketing / automation efforts, get active and turn these apparent dead ends into business opportunities. I've got some tips to help you monetise the "no"!💡Be sure to also read my other blog: Tired of Unsubscribes? 5 Email Tips Every Recruiter Should Knowto help you reduce the volume of unsubscribes.Unsubscribes and Hard Bounces Aren’t Always the EndTake it from someone who sends regular campaigns with Bullhorn/Automation/Sales/Sourcing tips. Here’s what I’ve learned:When you start poking around a database that hasn’t been touched in a while, you need to plan for:Inevitable bad, dirty dataLow trust due to radio silence / low communication volumeBounces and unsubscribesSo:1️⃣ Don’t burn out your entire database all at once and overwhelm your recruiters with pointless "leads". A flood of bounces and unsubscribes is overwhelming—and tempting to ignore. Instead, work with your recruiters to identify the data that matters most (roles, skills, locations), so responses are relevant and recruiters engage.2️⃣ Stagger your outreach. A gradual send schedule helps you build a better picture of your data, keeps your sender reputation healthy, and gives you the time to review and action what’s coming back.3️⃣ Use and A/B testing to tell you what works (and what bombs).4️⃣Then, and this bit is crucial, have a battle plan to turn what seems like a "no" into an opportunity.Not Every Unsubscribe or Hard Bounce is Final🏴Unsubscribes: What we often see—especially in recruitment—is that many unsubscribes are "false flags". It’s not the person opting out; it’s often their old email being shut down or a system admin / manager clearing mailboxes.Often, that person hasn’t unsubscribed —they’ve moved to another company.⛔Hard bounces should be an opportunity to follow the follow the leaver to their new company - and rekindle a relationship.Instead of blindly trusting your email system, build a workflow to monetise the "no".Here’s how I manage unsubscribes at Barclay Jones:Two months after each mailer, I check the unsubscribes.I investigate if they’ve left the company or simply moved jobs.If they’ve moved, I update their details in the CRM and re-engage them.I do the same with hard bounces by checking LinkedIn and updating records.Recruiters can recover valuable contacts this way—some of those “dead” leads could be placements waiting to happen! 💸Campaign the Clean ~ Create the Opps!Treat every email/automation campaign not just as marketing—but as a data quality (and data wealth) activity.Hard bounces? Check if the contact has left.Unsubscribes? Investigate the source.Build this into your CRM workflows—it doesn’t have to be hard or time-consuming.With the right process, they’re signals—not setbacks.Want help building an outreach and automation strategy to keep candidates and clients opted in?📅 Let’s talk!I offer free consultations to help leaders, recruiters, and automators unlock the power of their Bullhorn database.BOOK YOUR FREE CONSULTATION
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Tired of Unsubscribes? 5 Email Tips Every Recruiter Should Know
Recruiters, marketers, automators... If you’re running regular email campaigns to candidates or clients, with tech like Bullhorn Automation, unsubscribes are either a fact of life or something you dread, and may even be the reason you are not ambitious enough with your outreach.Through the free consultation calls I have with recruiter / leaders / automators who have Bullhorn, I’ve been finding myself talking a lot about managing recruitment campaign outputs, and dreaded unsubscribes.Unsubscribes can feel like a blow to your efforts, but there are ways to prevent them which I'll explore below.💡Be sure to also read my other blog: How Recruiters Can Turn Bounces and Unsubscribes into $£€- so that when you get an unsubscribe or hard bounce, you could actually create more recruitment opportunities.5 Ways to Reduce Your Candidates and Clients from UnsubscribingI've got lots of tips to share, that we coach in our Automation Buddy programs, but here's 5 to get you started today.1️⃣Clean up / segment your data I guarantee you have data which you no longer need (old sectors / job titles you no longer recruit for).Perhaps the data you need isn't coded well enough for you to segment it, hence you risk hitting parts of your community with the wrong content.But, don't procrastinate over this - you don't need a 100% clean database to start a campaign, or to make an approach. Clean up some data, and hit it. Then move on to the next layer to attack.2️⃣Subject lines need to punch above their weightKeep them short and sweet, but personalised (about them, not you (or recruitment) and relevant to your community.Think "mobile first" and ensure that your subject line can actually be read on a mobile device. For example, the Mail app on iPhones displays up to 78 characters in the subject line area.Emojis can help you stand out in a big list of emails, too.3️⃣Content, creating contentment (not consternation)I'm still seeing way too much recruitment content online, and not enough sector-specific content form recruiters.I yawn at interview tips / what to wear to interviews etc... It works less well than content aimed at your sector and job titles.At a stretch "Interview tips for Accountants" is better than a more generic topic, but even so, if that's the best content you can create, you need to try harder.What tech does your community use? Find out and talk about it.How is AI / world events affecting them? Find out and talk about it.It's never been easier to find out more about what makes your community tick - ask them, ask Google, ask AI!4️⃣Formatting to attract attention (but be WCAG-aware)I recently spotted a recruitment campaign where the email content was centred throughout and black and white - very uninspiring, and actually quite difficult to engage with.In the very least breath your brand colours into your content and check WCAG guidelines to ensure that you're not inadvertently muting your content.If your community uses Instagram / Facebook etc... be sure that they expect your content to have a life beyond black and white copy. Colour, emojis, personality - shine!5️⃣"Pitch" the unsubscribeWhat does the unsubscribe footer in your mailers look like?Is it simply an invite to unsubscribe? Or have you pitched that if they do, they'll miss out on future helpful content, and life-changing jobs?I see way too many campaigns that look like the goal is to generate unsubscribes! Ironically the footer is often more engaging than the mailer itself."We're fixated on helping our teaching community stay up to speed with the best tips, tricks, and jobs. You can unsubscribe, but then you may miss your next best teaching hack, or career move"...is better than..."Unsubscribe".A great tip is to allow candidates and clients to "Update their Preferences" which can provide your community with a way to help you make ore relevant the communications you are sending to them and/or update you on what they do find interesting. This can be done within Bullhorn Automation and is a useful way to reduce the Unsubscribes.📍Final Thought: Create Recruitment Campaigns to Keep Your Community SubscribedYour data, message, design are crucial to keeping your community from opting out.By keeping your content relevant, valuable, and human—you’ll build a database that’s active, engaged, and ready to work with you.Want help building an automation and outreach strategy to keep your community of candidates and clients opted in? Let’s talk.I offer free consultations to help leaders / recruiters / automators unlock the power of their Bullhorn database and create opportunities .BOOK YOUR FREE CONSULTATION
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