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The challenge of marketing in today’s recruitment sector A BlueSky PR Think Tank Report INTRODUCTION The recruitment sector is evolving. Employers have a choice of more routes to market than ever before and so adding value – and being able to demonstrate that value - has become business critical. But how can a recruitment company truly differentiate itself – and is there really any such thing as a true USP? The findings presented here are the results of a think tank which brought together a number of senior managers and directors responsible for marketing to discuss whether a USP can ever really exist and what the real challenges are for today’s marketers. The Delegates: Beatriz Bailey – Marketing Manager – Huntress Jodie Finn - Associate Director - Venn Justin Firth – Marketing Manager – Just IT Nicola Gray – PR & Marketing Manager – Healy Hunt Simon Lythgoe- Former Head of Marketing - Cielo Alan McBride – Managing Director – Camino Partners Roger Tweedy – Head of Communications – APSCo Emily Varns – Marketing Manager – Aquent/VitaminT Robert Woodford – Marketing Consultant to the recruitment sector The Facilitator: Tracey Barrett – Managing Director – BlueSky PR The Key Themes In a marketplace where ostensibly we all do the same thing how do we begin to define what really differentiates us? How is marketing really perceived in the recruitment sector? How can marketing departments demonstrate ROI? How are we managing the myriad of different routes to market – routes that simply didn’t exist a decade ago? Recruitment is a process – so what’s unique? “I can be in one of our offices listening to marketing calls and even within that office consultants will describe what we do – and what we offer - in numerous different ways.” All the delegates agreed that recruitment is a process and consequently there is very little within that process that is actually unique. In reality, most recruitment websites refer to USPs that simply aren’t unique, but rather say the same as everyone else repackaged in a slightly different way. Perhaps then, it’s time we all stop talking about USPs and begin to talk more about how the way we go about our business actually adds value to our customers – because in essence – that’s all that really matters. It is clear then that it is engagement, rather than selling which is key. One firm explained how it uses sponsorships and events as ‘conversation starters’ and a way to engage with clients and candidates to let them know about added value services on a one to one basis rather than ‘pushing’ sales messages and that works well. Another delegate gave examples of two firms that were really ‘stand out’ in terms of commanding their market and adding value through engagement: Oasis HR a company which has built up a network though its HR Think Tanks. Because the company is now in the middle of a hub of senior HR professionals, recruitment happens! Differentiation comes about by the value you add rather than the process you go through. But how do you define what value you add – and what if your consultants are all saying different things? The internal communications piece is crucial here in ensuring that brand messages are both consistent – and appropriate. As one delegate pointed out: “I can be in one of our offices listening to marketing calls and even within that office consultants will describe what we do – and what we offer - in numerous different ways.” However on the flip side of that, recruitment firms with a number of different regional offices may well have to develop different brand messages. “A client in Birmingham will look for a very different type of firm than one in the City – it’s a matter of setting the guidelines – but not going so far as to dilute the value of the local brand”, explained one of the attendees. The recruitment and appraisal process should also reflect the brand values - it has to be inward facing because if the messages are consistent then your value-add USP begins to live rather than being something that’s just stated on a website. Trust honesty and transparency, for example, are words that appear on many recruiters’ websites but the key is how they are demonstrated. One of our delegates shared their strategy of asking every customer what was important to them from their recruitment consultancy – and whether it was being delivered. The results were going to be measured and published – including the negative comments. In fact there was general agreement around the table that publishing a few complaints on a website – together with the action taken to remedy it would say much more about the brand than all the glowing testimonials. What’s the business plan? “Often I was trying to build a marketing strategy around the gut feel of the MD as to the general direction in which the company was going – it’s pretty difficult to build a marketing strategy without the context.” And it seems this can be rolled back even further. One marketing professional described how with every marketing role he has had in recruitment, he has been asked to spend the first week getting to grips with the business and the people and then to start work on the marketing strategy. As he became more senior he started to ask whether he could see the business strategy first – so that the marketing strategy could be aligned with the business objectives. He has lost count of the number of times that a formal business strategy didn’t exist. “Often I was trying to build a marketing strategy around the gut feel of the MD as to the general direction in which the company was going – it’s pretty difficult to build a marketing strategy without the context.” The perception of marketing vs sales One delegate felt that this was more about how marketing is perceived within an organisation. Recruitment firms are sales driven and marketing has historically been seen as an expense rather than as an investment. It seems though that this perception is changing. Digital campaigns and the ability to measure metrics around reach and engagement mean that return on investment is becoming easier to demonstrate – and because marketing is becoming more technical, CEOs and MDs feel as though they need to have an expert on board. As an example, a digital campaign for Blue Arrow’s catering division was cited. While the firm was well known at the more junior end of the sector, there was a need to engage with senior chefs. A campaign was created that comprised a complete content plan including blogs and editorial comment as well as a Chef of the Year award. This achieved a 40% uplift in engagement levels with senior chefs. So targeting is key with content and brand messaging because if you blanket everyone with the same thing then it simply has an adverse effect on your brand. It needs to look considered – and also needs to provide a warm opportunity to pick up the phone. Company brand or personal brand? One question that sparked much debate was whether an employer or candidate engages with a brand – or with a consultant. The general consensus was that it was both, but that in itself can create challenges. Today’s consultants have huge personal branding tools at their disposal and while a recruitment firm may want their customers to engage with the corporate brand, a big biller with an equally big ego may well get in the way of that. It then becomes about connecting that person – and their content – to the company brand – arguably much easier today because of social media. But what if the big biller only wants to promote their own personal brand – is a CEO going to let that person – and that revenue go? This is obviously more a question of culture and authority and that has to filter from the top down. While one delegate said that they had never seen a top biller fired, another pointed out that in their organisation it is dangerous for big billers to think that they are bigger than the company and that on occasion they have let people go because of it. But is the answer engagement – and nurturing - rather than firing? There was a feeling from some around the table that if those personal brands are made to feel part of the corporate brand by asking for their opinion and input, then there was a bigger likelihood of getting their buy in. However, there were some that felt that as recruitment will always be sales led, there is a danger that by empowering these personal brands, their egos will just be fuelled further. “When I joined the company, we were making most of our placements from Accountancy Age – which was strange given that we hadn’t advertised with them for the past two years – it was simply the first option on the drop down menu!” The ROI of marketing While metrics are becoming more important and many around the table felt it was easier to demonstrate success factors around likes, shares, and engagement, there was still a big challenge in terms of equating marketing and revenue. As one delegate said: “As soon as a candidate lead hits the sales team it becomes their lead! Another shared the story of a consultant who had earned a £17k fee from a client who had called in ‘out of the blue’. Upon further investigation it appeared that the new client had visited the website – and that the website traffic had come from Twitter! Clearly then there is a need for a really robust measurement system for marketing activity – but this obviously has to rely on the consultant accurately reporting the source of candidates and clients. There were numerous stories from around the table of how this just never happens. “When I joined the company, we were making most of our placements from Accountancy Age – which was strange given that we hadn’t advertised with them for the past two years – it was simply the first option on the drop down menu!” Another said that the vast majority of their candidates were sourced though ‘headhunting’ – and yet there was an outcry when it was suggested that if this was true then all job board advertising would be cut! So while there are obvious improvements to be made in terms of measuring the revenue gained from marketing efforts there are also more long term metrics that are harder to measure such as the candidate and client experience – and whether that engenders brand loyalty. A passive candidate for example is exactly that – they are unlikely to apply for a job and are more interested in content which means a longer term engagement strategy. And what of the wider candidate experience? Response to candidates that aren’t the right quality was a big issue. One delegate shared with us the example of a US RPO that employed a candidate care team purely to deal with candidates who were rejected. That’s a huge commitment, but showed how serious they were about the candidate experience. While the consensus around the table was that it was very high touch there was agreement that if you consider big brands like Virgin, they start from that high touch customer experience – and that’s how big brands are made. While the investment would be high – and in all likelihood vetoed by CEOs of what are very sales led organisations – this could be a big differentiator in term of engaging with and building up future talent pools. The rise and rise of social media Social media has enabled engagement to a level which would have been impossible a few years ago and recruiters can have real conversations and so, rather than having a USP proposition, you can create that conversation to bring real personality to a brand. However, some delegates admitted that they do far more telling than asking and use social media as push platforms rather than engagement channels. This was mainly due to limited resources as there was an acknowledgement that to utilise social media to its full advantage is a labour intensive exercise. Listening was seen as an important facet of social media engagement and being able to deal with complaints or concerns was highlighted as a real advantage – particularly on Twitter. It reminds stakeholders that there are real people behind the brand and that there is a human side. Dealing with complaints well gets real goodwill and one of the delegates cited Domino Pizza as a brand that does this really well. If your pizza is delivered more than ten minutes late then you get it free and apparently in many cases, new customers get theirs delivered 11 minutes late on purpose. Domino then recruits a real brand advocate and a customer for life. Identify the Audience There are still a lot of recruiters who will disseminate the same information to all channels through a tool such as Hootsuite or Buffer when in fact it is obviously better to target effectively. This appears to be particular prevalent on Google+ which, at least for our delegates, doesn’t seem to have really taken off. It was felt that this was mainly due to the fact that it is never anyone’s first choice of channel and so it just doesn’t get the same momentum. There are the obvious SEO benefits, but it does seem that the developers at Google have left the platform to lay fallow – we shall see. The key theme that came out of the discussion was that recruiters who try and do all the platforms will not do them all well and the crucial thing is to pick the ones where you know your clients and candidates are. While this seems obvious there are still many recruiters who suffer from a culture of presenteeism across as many platforms as possible. “The answer I get from some consultants is that we are targeted on phone times – not tweets. You need to focus on the teams where you do have buy in and pick your battles – that’s how you’ll build it up.” Facebook was seen as a good ‘social face of the company’ platform to both give some personality and also to use as an employer of choice channel. One delegate shared that at one of her previous employers Facebook was used purely as an internal communications website and achieved huge engagement. Experiences were mixed, however, with another delegate outlining how consultants were very reluctant to like and share content on a company Facebook page from their personal Facebook accounts. Engaging the staff This reluctance to like and share also seems to extend to LinkedIn although the consensus around the table was that this was more inertia than reluctance. Delegates voiced frustration that when creating content designed to promote consultants’ business areas or divisions, the consultant was often not ‘doing their bit’ to make it work. So while the brand is important, it’s the person that needs to be the engagement tool. Some delegates try to solve this problem by having brand ambassadors in the business who can lead by example. As one delegate said: “The answer I get from some consultants is that we are targeted on phone times – not tweets. You need to focus on the teams where you do have buy in and pick your battles – that’s how you’ll build it up.” Conclusions The over-riding conclusion was that there is really no such thing as a USP – it’s about engagement and experience – and the way in which you conduct your business because the recruitment process is just that – a process. The communication of consistent messages was seen as a massive challenge – especially when the firm is a multi-branch operation with a real variety of regional and sector based client and candidate needs. Ensuring that the brand is more important than the individuals within it will remain a key struggle – especially for smaller firms and unless that brand message comes from the top so that the culture and values are driven by the brand, it is unlikely to be a struggle that will be won. The accurate measurement of what value the marketing department generates in terms of revenue, brand loyalty and brand advocacy continues to evade many of us. This has to include building brand identity, keeping your competition out of the spotlight and cultivating useful relationships for the company – and that’s not always just a set of numbers to be crunched. However, while recruitment remains a sales led sector, that’s unlikely to change any time soon.