David Searns | Co-CEO
Did you see this question on ASA Central?
“Hello ASA Community,
We have been actively working on generating leads through content marketing, specifically targeting companies looking to staff their open positions.
Despite our efforts with organic posts and ads, we haven't seen the desired lead generation results…We would love to hear your insights and experiences:
- Is lead generation through content targeted at companies a realistic goal?
- Do companies engage with this type of content, or is there a better approach?
Looking forward to your valuable advice and suggestions. Great question! Can staffing companies generate sales leads with content marketing?
As you might guess, this is a favorite topic of mine.
Here’s how I responded:
Is lead generation through content marketing targeted at companies a realistic goal?
In a word, yes!
Our company has been doing it successfully for 28 years (I’ll explain how in a minute).
BUT (you knew there would be a but)…
In the staffing industry, content marketing needs to be integrated with sales to be effective. The industry is simply too competitive for content alone to do the job.
However, content integrated with sales is an IDEAL way to create differentiation and drive sales opportunities.
Please allow me to explain…
Content marketing is about creating high-value information that will capture the attention and interest of your ideal prospects. Who are your ideal prospects?
If you are trying to reach small employers, content marketing can be highly effective.
It’s a great way to show people the value of staffing, demonstrate your expertise, prove your capabilities, and generate interest in your services.
In your note, you mentioned organic posts and ads, so I am assuming you are referring to organic social, PPC ads (maybe on social, search, or display) and blog posts for SEO purposes. These tactics, when used in isolation, will mainly attract small clients.
If you are targeting midsize or enterprise clients, content marketing alone is insufficient.
Why? Because these companies, if they use staffing, already have preferred vendors. And they have dozens (and sometimes hundreds) of other staffing companies soliciting their business.
Plus, these larger organizations are surrounded by content from other vendors outside of the staffing industry—HR tech vendors, benefits vendors, outsourcing vendors, etc.
For your content marketing to work, you need to integrate it into your sales process. Use content to capture attention, create interest and open the door for outbound sales calls. Then, use content as part of a coordinated ongoing nurturing process to build trust and demonstrate credibility over time.
In terms of the content itself, you need to be disruptive—either in the topics you choose and/or the format of your content.
By disruptive, I mean addressing BIG problems your ideal clients are facing and then providing the content in formats that have high perceived value, like an eBook, whitepaper, webinar (or even better live presentation) and podcast.
How do we use content to generate sales leads?
At Haley Marketing, our success comes from producing big content and LOTS of content. Our playbook consists of:
- eBook writing (a mix of evergreen topics and topics related to the current business climate)
- Webinars (we’ve been doing them monthly for 15 years)
- Podcasting (2x a month for 5 years and we added a new show this year)
- Regular blog writing
- Social posts that promote all the other content
- Paid ads (we use Google search, Facebook, LinkedIn and retargeting ads)
- Speaking at industry events
For your company, my suggestion would be to look at your sales process.
Who are your ideal prospects? What are their biggest pain points? Not just staffing pain points but also their biggest business challenges.
What really keeps these people up at night?
Use this information to create an integrated direct marketing campaign:
- Create a piece of “signature content” around one or more of those pain points. This will be a big piece you can leverage for the next 6 to 12 months. Think an eBook or a recorded webinar.
- Develop a landing page where people can download (or view) your signature content.
- Integrate that content (and the landing page) into an outbound direct marketing campaign that mixes physical mail (yes, snail mail works), email, LinkedIn outreach, and calls by your sales team.
- Plan for at least weekly touches over 10-12 weeks and integrate offers for your signature content into the campaign along with supplemental content that shows people your company’s capabilities.
- Ensure there are multiple points in the process where your team makes outbound calls (you absolutely need to pick up the phone!).
- Track your results with every prospect to ensure the follow-up calls get made (lack of follow-up is the biggest failure in these campaigns).
- In addition to this direct marketing campaign, you may want to promote your signature content landing page via PPC and social media. You should also look to promote it within your website with calls to action integrated into blog posts and other pages on your site.
In addition to this direct marketing campaign, you may want to promote your signature content landing page via PPC and social media.
You should also look to promote it within your website with calls to action integrated into blog posts and other pages on your site.
Don’t expect instant results.
When marketing to your ideal prospects, assume less than 10% of them will be willing to speak with your salespeople during this initial outreach.
That’s okay! Content marketing is how you win the long game.
Once the initial direct marketing campaign ends, you’ll want to plan for an ongoing nurturing process where you continue to share useful information at least once a month (via email, LinkedIn and occasional physical mail).
You can also use proven direct response tactics like skill marketing as part of this ongoing nurturing effort.
At some point, all the companies you are targeting will shop for new staffing partners. Your objective is to ensure your company is top-of-mind when that time comes.
If you consistently use content marketing to nurture relationships (in a way that adds value and is not pushy), it will help your company to stand out, position your organization the way you want to be seen, and keep you top-of-mind.
Want more content marketing ideas?
You can find LOTS of free content at
https://www.haleymarketing.com/haley-resources/ (you will like our Marketing Best Practices Guide), and we have all 15 years of webinars available on demand at
https://www.lunchwithhaley.com.
If you have specific questions, please feel free to reach out.
Hope this is helpful, David |
