Why Recruiters Should Invest in Marketing Automation

“Automation does not need to be our enemy. I think machines can make life easier for men, if men do not let the machines dominate them.” – John F. Kennedy, Fromer President of the U.S

The average human spends around 6 to 7 hours online according to several studies. In those hours, we are constantly bombarded and flooded by ads, brands, communications, emails, cold calls and memes from 2010 (no judgments here). The point here is that we live in an extremely busy online space these days and it takes a smart approach to ensure that, as a business, you stand out. This brings us to the topic of today’s discussion – marketing automation. More specifically, we are going to talk about why you, as a recruiter, should invest in marketing automation going forward.

Now, remember that we won’t necessarily focus on the obvious, which is that automation is beneficial. We will rather shift our focus to the ‘how’ of it all. But, for argument’s sake let’s briefly look at the obvious.

Automation can be especially useful to recruiters as well as other businesses that operate in the online realm as it allows for more targeted marketing campaigns. It’s not just about that though. It’s also about making life simpler for the marketing team, while simultaneously bringing humanizing, relevant content to customers at a time they prefer, through the channels they most use so that it has the best possible impact. That is the very essence of marketing automation. Here are some additional reasons why it should be considered.

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Reason 1: Digital Communication Can Be Personalized

We are once again starting with the surface and working our way down. On the surface, we encounter the first real benefit of automation in marketing, and that is personalization. With the aid of automation, marketers can analyze millions of pieces of critical data that tell them all about a customer, or in the case of a recruiter, a candidate’s job interests and needs. Based on these insights, the recruiters can then begin to build a more holistic picture so that they can send them more personalized content.

At the end of the day, when an honest recruitment agency is trying to do good work, the last thing they want is to be seen as yet another cold-caller. Avoid the tired old messages that the candidate has heard a million times and ignored a million more. Not only do you waste time and resources with this kind of bland messaging, but you also lend to a negative brand image within the industry.

Deliverability is one of the biggest hurdles faced by marketers; automation can help solve that issue!

Reason 2: Marketing Automation Solves Deliverability Issues

Your marketing team just came up with a stellar new campaign and it has been sent out to all your customers. However, you check it the next day and you find that it has little to no engagement. If you have experienced these issues at some point, then it might be a deliverability issue. What we mean by that is, that while the message is being sent, it isn’t being received, at least not in any meaningful way.

For example, your outdated system might be sending the message to a bunch of dead emails or social media accounts. People move, change and so does their online presence. With the aid of marketing automation, you can more effectively track these changes and patterns to deliver more accurate messaging. This once again connects back to our first point.

The question we should be asking is: How do you connect this data to your marketing strategy? If you have ever worked in marketing you will have heard the term funneling. Funneling is when a strategy, with several stages, guides prospective customers through a product or service journey. It sells them the experience to convince them to do business. Funneling is all about specifics and using those data sets to know what the customer wants so that you can give them exactly that. The best part about it is that even funneling can be automated!

A prime example of this is Amazon (pardon the pun). Amazon has many tactics, but for the sake of the current argument, let’s look at a simple one. When you jump onto an Amazon page as an unknown user (i.e., without logging in), the website has little to no understanding of your interests or preferences. Therefore if you look at their homepage design, it is laid out in such a way that it will encourage you to explore, which will allow the algorithm to understand interests, which it will then promote.

On the other hand, if you sign in using your Amazon account, you will find that the homepage is much more refined to your tastes, based on past purchasing patterns. Given that Amazon is one of the largest organizations on planet Earth, it just goes to show you how effective marketing automation is.

“Automation is cost cutting by tightening the corners and not cutting them.” – Haresh Sippy, Chief Founder of Tema India

Reason 3: Helps Candidates Feel Supported

For the third and last reason, let’s use email marketing as a point of reference. When a candidate gets sent a general cold email, it is more than likely that the email will be ignored. The main reason for that, and this doesn’t have to be limited to emails, is because candidates don’t feel like the recruiter is taking the time to know them. In this day and age, that matters a great deal.

More and more businesses are emphasizing what they can do for the candidates. By following a tried and trusted marketing automation format, you can help candidates feel understood, heard and give them a truly personal experience as they make their next big career move.

In the case of marketing automation and emails, you can follow this simple, yet effective sequence.

Introduce who you are and why you are getting in touch.
Highlight what the candidate will gain by taking up your recruitment services.
Play on the fear of missing out. (What would the candidate miss out on if they did not act?)
Give proof of past candidates who benefited from your services in the form of reviews.
Emphasize the urgency of it all and nudge them to act fast.

By following this template, recruiters should be able to build up a significant bank of candidates and business relationships that they can leverage down the line. Keep in mind that this is just one example of using email marketing for a reference. There are a million different things and ways it can go.

To Sum Up

When all is said and done, it is essential to know that marketing automation, while a good solution, should not be used for all of the work. When it comes to the context of the relationship between a recruiter and a candidate, there is only one way to build it – with hard work.

Having said that, automation technology should help recruiters gain insight into what candidates want at a particular moment in time, while at the same time taking a huge burden off the shoulders of marketers. If used right, marketing automation can be a win-win. If you are interested in learning more about automation and how it can help in the recruitment process, you should check out Credibled, which is an automated reference checking web application that does wonders for recruiters who have to wade through a mountain of applicants.