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Recruitment Marketers, now more than ever, need to deliver real value. With Covid creating either distraction, furlough, or redundancy, recruitment agencies are focused on lead generation and conversion.
But where does and should marketing fit in to this landscape? And how are they prepared for the new normal?
The Sales-Led Marketing Challenge
As chairs of the APSCo Marketing Forum, Niomi and I are keen to ensure that the regular meetups and webinars contain content which drives the members to deliver commercial and relevant outcomes. We surveyed APSCo marketing members to find out answers to the following questions:
What were your plans to improve prior to Covid lockdown?
What are your biggest challenges during lockdown?
Where do you see the biggest wins for you in the next few months?
Where do you feel you need additional training / knowledge?
The answers were compelling, and a little worrying.
1.What were your plans to improve prior to Covid lockdown?
The majority said “Brand Improvement”.
This is always a red flag for me and tweaks my “colouring-in department” nerve. What were the businesses these marketers worked for doing before Covid… was lead gen / sales already taken care of?
I get how important brand is, but in a saturated market, where recruiters are often 360+ and have too much to do, (too much data, systems, and not enough process) I love hearing stories about marketers deliver MQLs (marketing qualified leads) or perfect candidates / colleagues into the sales teams.
2.What are your biggest challenges during lockdown?
The majority said “Lead Generation”. So, as soon as lockdown happens all eyes go to marketing to do something that may not have been their priority or skillset pre-lockdown. A reaction that we have all had, but one that may have fallen flat due to the lack of skill / expectation of marketing prior to Covid. Some of them don’t even have access to the database that their recruiters use… so how are they supposed to help with the conversion, or reconversion, process?
3.Where do you see the biggest wins for you in the next few months?
Worryingly, lead generation scored low, and brand and client experience scored high. Kids are back at school, local lockdowns, rules of 6, are the new normal, but to move so quickly away from lead gen feels too soon, or perhaps, inappropriate.
4.Where do you feel you need additional training / knowledge?
SEO and monetisation of the CRM and data scored high. This is interesting, and predictable, as these two areas drive leads. Does this answer tell us that marketers haven’t got the training (or perhaps confidence) to stick their hand up and say:
“leave the leads to me”
When I mentor marketers, I lift the lid on SEO and make it a simple task. It’s about:
persona-led keyword decks,
threaded into content,
which is aimed at the data (you likely already have) and assertively used to convert or reconvert.
Leads are generated and actively handed over to sales. Easy!
So the marketers have spotted their weaknesses… but what next?
What else scored low?
Automation – this is needed to create space and time to attract and convert
Internal comms – this is needed to keep the workforce engaged and motivated
Inbound sales – this is just needed.
Social media – use this to drive content ROI
Candidate attraction – I’m worried that recruiters are being bombarded by the wrong candidates and this is preventing best practice.
Marketers Need to Generate Leads
Going back to lead gen and sales-led marketing…
Marketers, ask yourself:
what are you doing to skill up in SEO and monetising your data and CRM?
Recruitment Leaders, ask yourself:
what access does your marketer have to your data, and your sales team? What needs to happen to turn your marketing into a sales-led, data-driven, lead generative function?
Attend our webinar on 30/09/20 14:00 to find out what Niomi and I think you need to do.
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