Picture a master carpenter preparing to build a masterpiece. They select their tools carefully, knowing that while a hammer can drive a nail, a fine chisel is needed to craft delicate details. Similarly, staffing firms rely on their marketing tools and strategies to construct their own masterpieces—thriving, successful businesses.
The right tools and tactics can turn a good staffing agency into a great one, driving sales, promoting engagement, and solidifying client relationships. Our recent staffing industry sales survey “What’s Working Now?” brings these instruments into sharp focus, confirming what the inside experts are using to carve out market share.
Top Marketing Tools and Sales Strategies
In an industry teeming with competition, staffing firms need to cut through the noise and connect with their market. Many firms find the following marketing tools and strategies most effective:
- Company website. Your website is more than a digital brochure; it’s the anchor for your marketing efforts and often the first encounter a prospect has with your brand.
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization). SEO isn’t just about keywords; it’s about understanding what your clients are searching for and how they’re searching.
- Trade Conferences/PPC (Pay-Per-Click) Advertising (a tie!). Don’t just attend—stand out. Trade conferences offer the invaluable opportunity to put a face to your brand name and build concrete relationships. Equally effective, PPC remains a powerful tool for targeted traffic. By harnessing the right keywords and crafting compelling ad copy, you can capture quality leads instantly.
Takeaways and Recommendations for 2024
- Make It Personal. Personalized email marketing, marketing automation, and PPC Google search can play a beneficial part in lead generation and filling your sales funnel.
- Implement Website CRO. CRO = conversion rate optimization. It’s the process of getting more of your website visitors to take action via copy, calls to action, and the design of pages, buttons, and forms.
- Get Strategic With SEO. It’s not just about keywords. It’s about having a long-term plan to create relevant content and a game plan to get that content found and provide a great user experience that keeps people on your site.
- Create Consistent Content. But don’t waste time on the hot new site. Instead, double down on content creation, personal branding, and relationship selling using the platforms that perform for your sales team.
- Take a Multi-Channel Approach. When prospecting, there’s no way to know which tool will work best for a given prospect. The most effective marketing strategies integrate channels to maximize reach.
Does Your Firm Track Marketing Expenses and ROI?
While most survey responses suggested a conservative approach to marketing spend (0.1% to 0.5% of sales revenue), an astonishing 30% of survey respondents said they “Don’t know/Don’t track this,” indicating a lack of effective measurement or awareness of marketing expenses and ROI.
Takeaways and Recommendations for 2024
Change is a given in the staffing industry. If you do only one thing to boost profitability in 2024, invest your time and money in marketing. Specifically:
- Budget based on growth goals. What will it take to succeed? What percentage are you willing to invest to achieve your goals? Budget THAT amount. (Looking for how to set your marketing budget? Our Marketing Best Practices Guide can help.)
- Monitor ROI. Invest more in strategies that are working.
- Embrace technology. AI. Automation. Lead gen tools. Technology gives your team more time to sell.
- Be strategic. Match the right message to the right audience.
- Invest for the long term. Companies that invest in marketing see less decline and faster recovery than those that reduce marketing in lean times.
- Experiment. Allocate part of your budget to trying new things. You never know when a new idea will achieve breakthrough results!
Navigate the Uncertainties of the Staffing Market with Confidence
Download our FREE Staffing Industry Survey Whitepaper for a deeper dive into effective marketing tools and strategic sales approaches to outmaneuver the competition – and boost sales in 2024 and beyond.
