We all know that multi-touch marketing is more effective than any single email you can send out. When we say multi-touch marketing, we’re talking about omnichannel marketing, or more specifically, multistep email campaign journeys. The multistep email journey approach ensures that you’re not just marketing to the masses, but also to the individual by catering to their specific needs. This is the next generation of staffing firm email marketing, and it’s time to add it to your next marketing campaign.
What is an email marketing journey for staffing firms?
In email marketing, a multistep email campaign is considered a journey. It’s the path that a person (client or candidate) takes based on the actions they take in previous emails. For example, a client of ours recently released a Salary and Hiring Guide for clients and candidates to download. The initial email was sent to several people asking to download the guide. Once downloaded, we want that individual to stop receiving those emails to download, but we want to continue the conversation. The email they receive next is based on the content they clicked on and what you want to serve them next. As mentioned earlier, the email marketing journey for staffing firms not only markets to a mass audience, but also caters to an individual. This gives more chances of lead generation and potential new clients.
Make sense? Let’s continue…
How do you create a journey?
In a journey, you want your leads to be continuously nurtured with targeted emails that are sent when they set off a specific trigger such as a click or download. Creating an email marketing journey for staffing firms requires automation. Automations must be put into place so that they are triggered based on the recipients response. This is done through email automation platforms such as HubSpot, Herefish, etc. Remember, email marketing still continues to deliver strong ROI!
When automating your email marketing journey, you need to create an email funnel. An email funnel is an automated campaign or series of emails that guides your audience from one stage of the journey to the next, leading them all the way to the final action that you want them to take. According to HubSpot, there are four (4) stages in your email funnel:
1. Awareness – This may be the first time they are interacting with your brand. Here, your email should inform the reader what’s in it for them, why they should stay on your email list, and how you are able to help them. This is where you want to develop trust in your brand and not necessarily try to sell them anything. Consider offering free educational content such as eBooks, white papers, and other publications.
2. Consideration – Email automation flow is able to identify potential leads due to their interest in your initial offer (listed above). This stage nudges subscribers toward your offer, creating buzz for your brand and delivering more valuable content. Once the individual is matched to one of your offers, they are to be sent down a journey that caters to their interests.
3. Decision – If an individual seems keen on working with you, take the opportunity to provide your solutions to their specific issues. Your approach on this is determined on your offer and that particular individual’s journey.
4. Advocacy – Once you close a deal with an individual, you need to ensure you retain them. Continue their journey with updates and offerings such as educational content, webinars, referral programs, events, and other opportunities you have to offer.
What kind of information does your audience want?
This is something that is found through data analytics. Data analytics is used to track your audience’s journey and allows you to learn more about their behaviors in your email campaign. Knowing the exact statistics of what your leads are clicking on allows you to develop the automated email that should come next. When doing this, you are able to determine what stage your prospects are in, whether that be brand awareness, consideration, or conversion. Discover the behaviors of your target audience through analytics and you are able to determine what they should see next in order to keep them engaged and interested in working with you.
Journeys are the next generation of staffing firm email marketing. It’s important to keep up with the trends in order to stay relevant and keep your brand alive and thriving. For more questions on email marketing journeys for staffing firms, please contact us.
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. www.sjhemleymarketing.com