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    5 Ways Recruitment Leaders Can Transform Their Email Marketing Content

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    Every day, four billion email users are tapping into email marketing – a low-cost but highly effective digital comms tool. And for recruiters, it’s not only an easy way to engage with candidates on a one-to-one level, but it can also open up doors to new opportunities.
    However, that doesn’t mean to say that each piece of content landing in a jobhunter’s inbox will be acted upon or even looked at. There must be a compelling reason as to why they should interact with what they’ve received and ultimately place their career search in the hands of specific recruitment professionals.
    What that means today is, it’s no longer best practice to send out hundreds of bland emails to a bunch of prospective candidates – containing an irrelevant message that’s loosely received by all – in the hope that an individual might take up the offer presented to them. It’s about providing comms that are valuable and helpful to ease the strains of a monotonous job search.
    The good news here is, there are a multitude of ways in which email marketing can encourage candidates to engage, and even if they’ve never previously interacted with the recruiter too. Here are five areas recruiters should focus on if they want their next comms campaign to be a raging success…
    1. Always opt for clickable subject lines
    If a job hunter isn’t interested in the first line they see, they’ll be highly unlikely to open and digest the content – regardless of how carefully crafted the content is. After all, 50% of a user’s decision to engage with an email is all to do with the brand itself. The other half? The subject line. So remember:

    Get straight to the point: Examples such as ‘Junior PHP Developer Wanted: Near Newcastle’ or ‘Experienced B2B Copywriter Needed’
    Think about verbs: What should the recipient do? Will it be ‘Read Our Top Tips Guide On Job Interviews’ or ‘Learn How To Create A Cover Letter’
    Don’t forget the proof: In a nutshell, ‘88% Of Candidates Want Hybrid Working’
    Could there also be a question? To provoke debate – examples include, ‘Are You Tired Of The Commute?’ or ‘What Would You Do With A £45k Salary?’
    Then there’s the urgency: ‘Hurry, It’s The Last Day To Apply!’ or ‘Be Quick, Send Your CV Today!’
    And remember to personalize where possible: This is ideal when it comes to adding an ultra-individualized touch. For example, ‘Hi [name], I Was Impressed With Your CV’ or ‘[first name], [company name] Was Mentioned Today…’

    2. Be clear with what the recipient needs to do
    Once someone has engaged with the subject line, what should a recruiter do next? Here’s where the nurture comes in – and it’s easy to do.
    Simply split up valuable email content over a series of email sends to truly keep a candidate interested throughout the journey. Plus, this technique provides recruitment professionals with even more opportunities to say what they want their readers to do without it coming across as aggressive or a ‘hard sell’.
    A 10-word headline and focused call to action work well. Not only is this a succinct way of doing it, but there also won’t be any confusion as to what the end goal is. For example, ‘Book An Appointment’ or ‘Download Our Guide’.
    And never alienate people with jargon-heavy language or tiny text that’s impossible to read on a desktop, laptop, or mobile device. Think about font size, colors, and the overall sentence structure to ensure candidates are provided with ultimate accessibility to all the relevant information.
    3. Ever heard of the ‘Squint Test’?
    If not, do it now. Sit back and squint before reading the email headline, call to action, and viewing the main image.
    Does it still read well and look engaging?
    If elements are spaced out, sized nicely, and are still able to stand out – that’s gold dust! Plus, the recipient is more likely to interact with the comms because they’re not trying to figure out a clunky sentence or being taken aback by a sea of color clashes. Simple and effective is the way forward.
    4. Think about including ‘trampoline’ email content
    Whatever sits below the email headline and call to action is what’s referred to as the ‘trampoline’. Why? Simple – it’s designed to bounce the reader back up to what they should be clicking on if they want to access more detail.
    If recruiters are still unsure as to what this copy might entail, think about including reviews and testimonials to invoke trust and authenticity, or reference related products and articles such as ‘You Might Also Like…’
    5. Personalization, personalization, personalization
    For every piece of content that’s heading into a candidate’s inbox, always hyper-personalize the comms. The easiest and swiftest way to do this is by plugging in an intuitive marketing automation platform that’s built to enable users to send targeted, ultra-individualized emails specifically to segmented groups. And it’s more than a ‘Hi [first name]’ introduction – it’s all about sending the right message to the right person, at the right time.
    These are only some of the ways in which recruiters can drive a greater level of interaction and get to know candidates on a much deeper level. Having a relationship built on trust – and which is beneficial to both parties – can be powerful, and that’s before considering how much it can positively impact a professional’s conversion rate.
    By Adam Oldfield, CEO of marketing automation platform Force24
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      How Recruitment Marketers Can Utilize Data to Drive Candidate Success

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      More than two million job vacancies are currently available throughout the UK. And so, while it’s still a difficult market to cut through the noise as several organizations restructure in a post-pandemic world, savvy recruiters – and their marketing departments – are tapping into insight in a bid to stand out from the crowd.
      That’s because they realize that a generic ‘InMail’ message via LinkedIn or cold email sent off-the-cuff is unlikely to pique interest in a job seeker who wants more from their recruitment contact if they’re searching for a role with an organization that displays a similar level of passion as them and fits with their culture and values, a flat, impersonal piece of communication simply won’t cut it.
      Yes, there will be recruiters out there who will experience some success when they send out hundreds of ‘batch and blast’ marketing messages to scores of recipients in their contact base. But when a blanket piece of irrelevant content is loosely received by all – and subsequently ignored or deleted altogether – are they making the most of their time, effort, and resources?
      Plus, does this type of content show that they’re genuinely interested in ensuring the right candidate applies for the right job? Perhaps not.
      Like customers searching for products or services, candidates want to feel like the brands they’re communicating with and understand their wants and needs in real-time. That means delivering hyper-personalized content covering available roles that suit that individual’s of-the-moment circumstances – from location to salary requirements – and skillset.
      When that type of marketing message hits the bullseye, recruiters are in a solid position to not only successfully fill a vacancy but attract more talent in the future because they’ve taken the time to get to know their recipients and have responded to their interests. Plus, word-of-mouth endorsement can be an exciting thing.
      Moving away from delivering bland messages
      So, can recruiters make sure they’re sending ultra-individualized comms that effectively cut through the online noise? It comes back to data. When savvy professionals unlock and understand their insight, they’re better placed to deliver digital comms to the right person at the right time.
      Many recruiters have seen them plug in marketing automation to do the ‘heavy lifting’ for them. Armed with an intuitive tool, users can extract critical information on each candidate’s preferences and respond swiftly to their online behaviors.
      To put this into context, if a candidate searches for a particular role and has downloaded a recruitment brand’s guide on ‘The X skills a modern-day construction manager needs,’ users can take this piece of detail and tailor comms specifically for that individual. It could be an invite to a relevant webinar with a construction company CEO or a blog covering the questions to ask in an interview.
      It’s all about utilizing the data they’re already sat on and creating something meaningful for each audience member.
      How to evaluate the strength of your content
      When roles become available, many recruitment marketers might opt to place all their vacancies in a newsletter sent to their database. And for them, a high open and click rate of that email is the measure of success.
      However, while it might be a good piece of content, these ‘vanity metrics’ don’t always tell the whole story. For example, a candidate could have accidentally gone into the email while scrolling through their newsfeed. If they’ve then hit ‘delete’ seconds later, it shows they’re not interested, but the statistics will tell a different tale.
      Instead, recruiters who have plugged in automation can unlock the powers of lead scoring. This means placing a metaphorical figure against each interaction – a ‘9’ for highly engaged recipients down to a ‘1’ for those who aren’t that bothered. As a result, recruiters, and their marketing teams, can prioritize the more significant numbers for further communication because they know they’re speaking to someone keen.
      Not every piece of comms will work
      And finally, it might not be something recruiters, and their marketing teams want to hear, but there won’t always be a winning outcome to every single email sent. That’s because nobody gets things spot-on all the time. So, why should they expect their content to achieve the impossible?
      The difference here though is that, when professionals have data and marketing automation to lean on, they’re immediately in a better position to deliver digital comms that land perfectly into the right person’s inbox at the right time.
      They can also use their clever tool to analyze each email, newsletter, or webpage to understand what’s working and what’s not. And when the latter occurs, they can swiftly tweak and alter copy to try another way of breaking through the noise.
      Overall, recruitment marketers who arm themselves with data – and use it to drive effective content – should soon see their success rate soar, putting themselves way ahead of the competition as a result.
      By Adam Oldfield, CEO at marketing automation platform Force24.
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      in Talent Acquisition

      The Marketing Metrics that Matter for Recruitment Brands

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      When it comes to crafting and delivering an email marketing campaign that attracts candidates and encourages them to find out more about the latest vacancy, measuring how each piece of content has done can help recruiters to truly understand if what they’re saying is hitting the mark.
      As 300 billion marketing emails are sent to people’s inboxes every single day – on a global scale – it’s often difficult to not only achieve the desired cut-through when there’s so much competition from brands, but also know how well it’s been received… or not.
      To overcome this hurdle, many recruiters might take this opportunity to analyze open and click-through rates to determine the success or failure of their latest email campaign – after all, many free email marketing platforms have this insight available at the click of a button. However, while these measurements are giving some of the detail, are they really telling the full story? Perhaps not.
      That’s because this data doesn’t delve into the fact that several recipients might’ve seen the email and given it a short glance, but then hit ‘delete’ without truly engaging with it. Others could’ve accidentally clicked on the comms before discarding it altogether.
      The point is, open and click-through rates never truly tell the whole tale. Yes, they might show how the latest email campaign has achieved above-industry rates because recipients have opened it, but there’s no bearing of the level of engagement that’s also been involved. And, for a savvy recruiter, they want to know that their vacancy or top tips email is driving the type of interaction that helps to get the right person into the right job.
      So, while other recruiters are still accessing these so-called ‘vanity metrics’, forward-thinking professionals – who want to get ahead of the competition – should be exploring another form of analysis to truly cut through the online noise. That means plugging in marketing automation and tapping into the powers of lead scoring.
      What is lead scoring?
      This is where imaginary numbers are placed above the heads of every individual who has engaged with the recruiter. For those who have interacted with the brand lots – for example, downloaded a guide on interview techniques or spent time on a specific webpage covering a sector they’re interested in – they’re classed as being the ‘hottest leads’ and could therefore have a figure of ‘9’ or ‘99’ attached to them.
      These individuals are the ones recruitment firms should be prioritizing with hyper-personalized comms because they’re already ‘bought in’ to what the organization has to say. What that results in is typically a greater level of engagement too because they want to hear from the company.
      By focusing on those who are the most interactive, there is also a greater chance of a conversion-rich opportunity via a human touchpoint – such as a one-on-one phone call – and this can go a lot further than sending an irrelevant message that’s loosely received by all.
      Always segment the audience
      Technically this isn’t a metric, however, it plays a pivotal role in exactly how a recruiter analyses if their latest campaign delivers the correct message to the desired person, at the perfect time.
      Segmenting individuals into specific groups based on their of-the-moment interests and interactions with the brand means that recruiters can send hyper-relevant content the recipient wants to read, rather than what the organization thinks they might be interested in.
      This is a great way for recruiters to have a laser-beam focus on who to speak to, and when – all of which can be made possible in minutes, rather than hours, via savvy marketing automation.
      Web engagement can tell a far greater story
      Having discussed the powers of lead scoring and the importance of segmentation, another step recruiters should take if they’re to evaluate their campaigns effectively is via website interactions.
      For example, is a candidate viewing videos on the ‘most frequently asked questions in an interview’? Or maybe they’re trawling a top tips guide on how to craft a must-see cover letter. These are critical areas that a recruiter can respond to in terms of personalizing their content. If they’re not tracking this type of activity, it’s a missed opportunity.
      Plugging in marketing automation and accessing website data can equip recruitment brands with a deeper level of insight from each individual’s online experience, and provide detail into what they’re most interested in, in real-time.
      While these metrics only scratch the surface at to what recruiters can do when armed with marketing automation, the important thing for them to remember is that they must be responsive to what the data is telling them. And, while it might seem disheartening to have unsubscribers or discover a piece of digital comms has received little engagement, it often tells a lot about a contact base – from the level of interaction to identifying whether they need to address the ‘send frequency’ or refresh content… before a competitor does.
      About Sam Duggan: Head of marketing for marketing automation platform Force24, Sam has a laser-beam focus on driving bottom-line revenues by utilizing customer data. 
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      in Talent Acquisition

      3 Reasons Why Recruiters Should Invest in Marketing Automation

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      When the world is extremely busy online, ensuring that a carefully crafted piece of email content doesn’t end up straight in a candidate’s ‘delete’ folder, should be a high priority for a recruitment agency’s marketing department.
      But when over 300 billion business emails are sent globally every day, it can often seem an uphill struggle when trying to cut through a vast amount of digital noise. However, industry professionals can give themselves a competitive advantage and ensure they’re speaking to the right people about the right jobs opportunities when they plug in intuitive marketing automation.
      That’s because it’s designed to not only make life simpler but, in this instance, liberate marketing campaigns for recruiters who want to create and send humanized content that engages recipients with content they want to read via their preferred channels.
      Here are some of the reasons why more recruitment agencies and their marketing teams should be turning to automation if they want to interact with candidates on a more granular level and improve their overall conversion rate…
      1. Every piece of digital comms can be hyper-personalized
      With savvy technology at their fingertips, marketers can analyze millions of pieces of critical data that tell them all about a candidate’s of-the-moment job interests and needs. From this insight, they can then begin to build up a more complete picture about their recipient and know the type of ultra-personalized content they will interact with.
      When an enigmatic and energetic recruitment agency is keen to engage with a jobseeker about a relevant role, the last thing they want to do is be seen as another cold caller who sends the same tired – and often irrelevant – message to hundreds of other candidates that are ultimately received loosely by all. Not only is that a waste of time but can damage brand reputation immeasurably because those candidates will soon go to a competitor who understands their specific career requirements.
      2. Have a problem with email deliverability? Not any more…
      The latest news bulletin full of job roles has gone out but it’s received little to no engagement or had a vastly low engagement rate. If a marketing team experiences these problems, there could be an issue with deliverability.
      Utilizing automation, marketers can begin to draw out the data that links to why engagement is low – for example, it could be that bot traffic is to blame or the bounce rate is high because the recruitment agency’s CRM isn’t automatically updating ‘dead’ email addresses when people leave their jobs and move on. Being equipped with this information, and acting on it, should help recruiter brands to stop these recurring issues at the earliest opportunity and ensure they’re sending emails to the right candidates.
      3. Jobseekers feel they’re being supported throughout
      A cold email sent without thought is likely to either be deleted straight away or ignored altogether by the recipient because a recruiter isn’t taking the time to get to know them – and it shows.
      It’s important to help candidates throughout their next career move – and marketing teams can assist that nurturing process from start to finish. Not only will it build trust, but it’s an additional level of support that will endorse positive word-of-mouth and build brand loyalty.
      A great way to foster a relationship with a jobhunter is via a five-step marketing automation email sequence, which is:

      The ‘introduction’: explaining who the recruiter is and why they’re getting in touch
      Next is ‘gain’: underlining what the candidate will achieve by taking up the recruiter’s services
      Then there’s the ‘fear’ of missing out: designed to detail what would happen if the recipient did not act on the advice of this particular recruiter
      The fourth stage is ‘social proof’: evidencing other candidates’ experiences through testimonials and case studies
      And finally, ‘urgency’: requesting readers to act now before the opportunity goes to someone else.

      By following this framework, recruiters and their marketing departments should begin to build up a bank of highly nurtured candidates who are receiving relevant roles for them.
      It’s important to stress that automation shouldn’t do all of the work when it comes to the relationship between a recruitment brand and a job seeker. There have to be lots of human interaction throughout – after all it takes six touchpoints before someone is truly engaged. However, this technology should enable a deeper understanding of what every candidate is interested in at that specific moment in time while saving marketers several hours each week because they’re creating emails in seconds to strengthen their overall digital comms delivery. 
      By Adam Oldfield, CEO of marketing automation platform Force24.
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