Marketing is all about promoting your staffing firm and letting potential clients and candidates know what sets you apart from your competitors. Social Media for your BusinessMarketing efforts take many different forms and of course require marketing budgets of various sizes. Whether your staffing firm has an unlimited marketing budget (unlikely) or whether you are working within the confines of a limited marketing budget, you must identify your target audience to ensure you are not wasting your budget. Check out the following tips to help identify your staffing firm’s target audience.

Design a Marketing Plan
In the work of marketing, it is never advisable to engage in stand-alone marketing efforts. “One-shot wonders” are destined to eat up your marketing budget and produce no discernible ROI. All marketing efforts must be incorporated into a well thought out, multi-step marketing plan. Marketing firms with expertise in the staffing industry are capable of helping staffing firms identify realistic goals and design targeted campaigns. In order to design an effective marketing plan, you must first identify the ideal target audience for your staffing firm.

Size Matters
If you oversimplify your target audience, you may as well throw your marketing budget out the window. Don’t focus in on only those who currently hold a specific job title. In doing so, you may be excluding a wider group of experienced professionals who are looking to shift gears and enter the world of contract consulting. Likewise, targeting too broad of an audience is not a wise strategy. Sending postcards to 3000 people may sound great on paper; however, if only 10 people follow-up and reach out to your team, you have just expended a sizeable portion of your budget and have very little return to show for it.

Be Industry-Specific
The staffing industry presents specific challenges and your marketing campaign must address those issues. Differentiating your staffing firm from your competition is essential if you hope to attract the attention of new clients and qualified candidates. Do you represent clients who are searching for clinical contract consultants, or does your staffing firm specialize in the technology industry? Gearing your marketing efforts toward a specific industry allows you to individualize your approach and directly appeal to the ideal target audience for your staffing firm.

Be Selective
Sometimes it’s easy to skip over the most basic demographics that ultimately define your target audience. Even though it is obvious to your leadership team, you must still go through the process of specifying exact demographics for each campaign. Start out by looking at your current clients and candidates. Conduct market research and use analytics tools to hone in on a specific target audience for your staffing firm. Identifying an ideal geographic location, income level and educational background are essential when trying to attract qualified candidates. When looking to secure new clients you must consider the physical location and size of the business, as staffing budgets usually correlate with the size of the organization.

Consider the Point of Sale
The decision to contract with your staffing firm needs to be approved by someone with the authority to enter into such an agreement; however, you must do your homework to really identify your exact target audience. Don’t rely on stereotypes about people who hold certain positions or assume that you need to appeal to the person with the most seniority. Take the time to research who is responsible for reviewing inbound marketing proposals and identify who has the authority to make staffing decisions for the client.

Five Key Target Audience Takeaways:S.J.Hemley Marketing

  1. Design a comprehensive marketing plan to help identify your target audience
  2. Don’t oversimplify your audience or try to reach too many
  3. Consider your specific industry and appeal directly to those people
  4. Identify key factors for your target audience and stick with them
  5. Identify the point of sale and direct your marketing efforts to that person

About S.J.Hemley Marketing
S.J.Hemley Marketing is a marketing and sales consulting firm focused on driving tangible results for professional services firms. Brand matters, but not without ROI. With over 20 years of sales and marketing experience within staffing and recruiting, we have helped to drive successful branding, sales training, lead generation activities as well as defining marketing strategy for top organizations.