4 Marketing Campaigns to Get Recruiters Up and Running in 2021

We did it! The long-awaited new year is finally here. It’s time to put the weight of 2020 behind you and start anew with new ideas, new initiatives, and new strategies to get you started in 2021. This year, more than ever, people are eager to start with a clean sheet of paper. While there may still be challenges in 2021, the best way to prepare for the new year is to start on a high note.

So how can you start working in 2021? One way is to put together effective marketing campaigns. The more personalized your marketing campaigns are to your audience, the more successful they will be. In this article, we’ll take a look at the client and candidate email campaigns you can run to start the year off strong and lay a strong foundation for the rest of the year.

Client campaigns for recruiters

We will examine two types of customer campaign initiatives. The first initiative will be to reach its top-performing customers in 2020 and the second will target potential customers in high-performing industries.

Reaching high performing customers in 2020

If you missed our article from last month, “Naughty or Nice? Staff Reports That Should Be on Your Hot List in 2021,” I encourage you to check it out as the article discusses the key reports you should be making reference to determine your top performing customers in 2020. These are customers you want to stay close to in the new year, as they generate the most revenue and work orders.

Once you have a list of your top performing customers, create a customer contact pipeline in your CRM and build an email template. Since these are contacts you’ve been in close contact with, please send a plain text email from the recruiter or contact at your staffing company who’s been in the most contact with them. A plain text email will feel more personal than a normal marketing email from the company.

In the email, you can simply wish them a happy new year and let them know you are ready to help complete work orders if they have any current needs or see any needs in the near future. The email doesn’t have to be long, but something short that includes a New Year’s greeting and shows that you’re ready and eager to help complete work orders in 2021. If you don’t hear back in a few days, please contact us. Follow up with a phone call to check in. A campaign as simple as this will keep you top of mind with your top performing clients and hopefully even generate a few new work orders to start the year off!

Target high-yield industries

The next type of campaign targets potential customers in industries that are doing well. This is where you can use the search capabilities in your CRM to find customers you’re not already doing business with in high-performance industries such as food/alcohol/grocery, medical/device, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, delivery services, trucking. /railways etc. Based on the industries you are looking to target; you can build a contact pipeline by industry and create your campaigns. Each campaign must be tailored to the industry to be most effective.

You’ll want to think of an engaging subject line that will draw the recipient to your email. The more tailored you are to the industry, the more likely they are to open it if they feel it’s relevant to them. Some examples include, “How can we help recruit your nurses in 2021?” or “Find drivers faster in 2021 with YOUR COMPANY NAME.”

In the body of the email, include points of sale to work with your company. This can be done through testimonials, a client case study, through an infographic that includes statistics promoting why they should partner with you, etc. You can also create a downloadable whitepaper of why they should partner with you for their staffing needs versus another staffing company. The more personalized this content is by industry, the better. If you don’t have the wherewithal to customize everything by industry, personalize it as much as you can so the recipient can still relate to it. Also, if there are common pain points often found here about staffing in the industry, try to address them in the content you’re providing, and consider how working with your staffing company will resolve those pain points.

Both customer campaigns are aimed at companies that are doing it right. By starting the year by working closely with your top-performing clients and targeting leads in high-performing industries, you can help set yourself up for a successful 2021.

Candidate campaigns for recruiters

Next, we will analyze two candidate campaigns. The first campaign will focus on candidates you have been in contact with in the last 6 months and the second campaign will focus on candidates you have not been in contact with for 6 months or more.

How to get in touch with candidates you’ve been in contact with recently

The First Candidate Campaign allows you to get in touch with candidates you were in contact with in the last 6 months, but were never placed for one reason or another. You can use your ATS to find these leads and add them to a lead pipeline. A relevant subject line could be something like “How’s your job search going?”

Since you’ve recently been in contact with these candidates, you might want to prepare a plain text email from the recruiter. A plain text email will again make it more personal. The body of the email can be a simple touch base to see how your job search is going and if you can still help them find their next job.

Adding personalized videos to emails is also becoming more and more popular. If you want to take email to the next level, you can create a quick 30-60 second video per lead. The video should be informal to let them know that you are here to help them find their next job. Please include their name in the video and also the industry or position they are looking to work in. Again, the more personalized the video, the more likely you are to hear a response from the candidate. While creating a custom video per candidate can be time consuming, you can create a script that you can use for each video. You can also select the best candidates for whom you would like to create a video. For candidates you don’t create a custom video for, you can create separate videos by industry or field. That way, the video won’t include your name, but there’s still some personalization.

Another creative way to engage with these candidates is to include a message at the bottom of your email that asks, “Are you still looking for a job?” You can then include a “Yes” button and a “No” button. Both can lead to different landing pages. The “No” button might lead to a page that says something like “Thanks for letting us know! If we can help you find your dream job in the future, please feel free to contact us. In the meantime, follow us on social media “. Even if they are no longer looking for a job, this helps determine it so you don’t spend time contacting them. Providing a plug to follow your company on social media is also good to help them stay engaged with your company. For those candidates who click “Yes,” you can take them to a different landing page that shows them a list of jobs they’d be a good fit for. You can also include a note, “Not interested in these positions? Contact us and we’ll help you find your dream job.”

Reaching out to candidates you’ve been in contact with in the last 6 months is a good way to help re-engage candidates and see where they are in their job search. This will also help you decide if these are candidates you should continue to contact or focus on other candidates for now.

Reach candidates you haven’t been in contact with

Another type of campaign lead you can run is a campaign targeting candidates you haven’t been in contact with for a while. You can use your ATS to search for candidates you haven’t been in contact with since the time you want to go and build a pipeline from this search. A catchy subject line for these candidates might be something like “Ready for a new job in 2021?”

To open the email, you probably need to include a new introduction of who you are and how you can help them find their next dream job. Additionally, you can include candidate testimonials and a list of currently available jobs for which you might be a good fit. Again, you’ll want to target this email by industry if possible and include testimonials from appropriate candidates and job listings. At the end of the email, you can even include a call-to-action button to send them your latest resume. That way, they can apply to a job right from your email, or if they’re not interested in a job on the list, you’ll know they’re still interested in a new job by submitting your resume.

Another unique way to grab a candidate’s attention is to include a BuzzFeed® Type quiz in your email, such as “What job would be right for you in 2021?” They can answer a series of fun questions and then receive a summary of the type of job they would be a good fit for in 2021 and a list of current jobs you have available that fit your score. Whether it’s in a magazine or online, everyone likes to take these types of quizzes and it would be a fun way to engage the candidate with your company.

Both candidate campaigns help re-engage candidates you’ve been in contact with recently and also help you reach a new base of candidates you haven’t been in contact with recently. Coming out of these two campaigns, hopefully you’ll be able to determine which candidates you should keep in close contact with to start 2021, and which ones you shouldn’t spend time contacting.

Ready, Set, Launch!

Personalized marketing campaigns will be important in 2021. Using this approach to run client and candidate campaigns will help make your campaigns more effective. We’ve just reviewed 4 campaign ideas to help you get going in 2021, but the possibilities are endless! Take your creative idea, tailor it to your audience, and launch 2021!