We did it! The long-awaited new year is finally here. It’s time to put the weight of 2020 behind you and start fresh with new ideas, new initiatives, and new strategies to hit the ground running 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 get started in 2021? One way is to put together effective marketing campaigns. The more personalized marketing campaigns are to your audience, the more successful they will be. In this article, we’ll look at the lead and client email campaigns you can run to start the year off strong and lay a solid 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 highest performing customers in 2020 and the second will target potential customers in high performing industries.
Reach high-performing customers in 2020
If you missed our article from last month, “Naughty or Nice? Staff Reports That Should Be on Your Good List in 2021,” I encourage you to check it out, as the article discusses the key reports you should be doing benchmark 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 the 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, 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 regular company marketing email.
In the email, you can simply wish them a happy new year and let them know you’re 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, just 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 email follow up with a phone call to sign up. A campaign as simple as this will keep you top of mind with your top performing customers and hopefully even generate a few new work orders to kick off the year!
Target high-performance 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-performing industries, such as food/alcohol/grocery, medical/device staff, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, delivery services, trucking /railways etc. Based on the industries you are looking to target; you can build a pipeline of contacts 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 it is 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 you hire your nurses in 2021?” or “Find drivers faster in 2021 with YOUR COMPANY NAME.”
In the body of the email, include selling points to work with your company. This can be done through testimonials, a case study with a client, through an infographic that includes statistics that promote why they should partner with you, etc. You can also create a downloadable white paper on 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 means to customize everything by industry, customize it as much as you can so the recipient can still relate to it. Also, if there are common pain points that are often found here about staffing in the industry, try to address them in the content you are providing and consider how working with your staffing company will address those pain points.
Both customer campaigns are aimed at companies that are doing well. By starting the year by working closely with your top-performing clients and targeting potential clients 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 target candidates you have been in contact with in the last 6 months and the second campaign will target 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 that 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 might be something like “How’s your job search going?”
Since you’ve recently been in contact with these candidates, you can 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 their 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. Include your name in the video as well as the industry or position you 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 that you would like to create a video for. 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 customization.
Another creative way to engage with these candidates is to include a message at the bottom of your email that asks, “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 may 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 business on social media is also good to help them stay engaged with your business. For those candidates who click “Yes,” you can take them to a different landing page that shows them a list of jobs they would 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 have 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 communicate with or focus on other candidates for now.
Reach candidates you haven’t been in contact with
Another type of campaign candidate you can run is a campaign targeting candidates you haven’t been in contact with in 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 of candidates 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’ll probably need to include a fresh 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 they might be a good fit. Again, you’ll want to target this email by industry if possible and include testimonials from suitable 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 for a job from their email, or if they’re not interested in a job on the list, you’ll know they’re still interested in a new job when you submit your resume.
Another unique way to capture 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’d be a good fit for in 2021 and a list of current jobs you have available that fit their result. Whether it’s in a magazine or online, everyone loves taking 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 candidate base you haven’t been in contact with recently. Coming out of these two campaigns, you’ll hopefully be able to determine which candidates you should stay in close contact with heading into 2021 and which you shouldn’t spend time contacting.
Ready, Set, Launch!
Personalized marketing campaigns will be big in 2021. Using this approach to run client and lead 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, adapt it to your audience and launch 2021!