Podcast: Play in new window | Download
I hope you had an amazing Christmas and a happy New Year. We decided to take a week off from the podcast and had an amazing time in Scotland.
Some people like to know what we get up to, so we had a Christmas alone. The family was ticked off, not in that context, but ticked off before Christmas, and then we went up to Scotland.
Ironic that we’re talking about cold outreach and campaigns; I saw an ad on Facebook a few months ago. We’d discussed going away for a break between Christmas and New Year.
For various reasons, it hasn’t happened over the last few years, and then in August, this ad shot past me on Facebook, and I thought; this is exactly what I want- the power of targeting.”
Do you know that Facebook has fifty thousand pieces of data on you and me and what we like? They’d obviously found that Denise liked expensive hotels with at least a four-star rating in rural settings!
My behaviour highlighted what I wanted, and a company got their ‘cold’ offer in front of me, which is part of our topic today.
Cold or Inbound Marketing: Why You Need Both
Let’s talk about client and candidate leads for your recruitment and search business this year.
The truth is you need both inbound and outbound strategies as a recruitment or search company; Any company that wants to grow must have multiple marketing strategies.
The world is a competitive and uncertain place for many business owners and you will have to do more than you have in the past to keep pace, especially if you want to grow as we move into a brand-new year.
How Inbound Marketing Works
Let’s clarify inbound versus outbound recruitment marketing. You’ll hear people talk about demand generation marketing inbound leads, and you’ll hear about cold outreach.
If you have not accessed our lead generation triad webinar, there is a link below. It’s an on-demand masterclass, and it explains why inbound and cold are two areas you need to consider.
[Important: Here is the link to our Lead Generation Masterclass. Access it Here.]
At the end of last year, we answered key questions that people ask us all the time about marketing their company.
Cold outreach comes up all the time. Everyone wants an easy way because most people don’t want to do it.
Why do they have to do it? Is there a magic pill or strategy they can use?
Unfortunately, there isn’t. However, getting your different recruitment marketing strategies working together will make a big difference for you.
Step one when it comes to lead generation is, what are you doing with the people that you have? Now, I think the last recording that I did, the previous podcast, talked about email marketing and re-engaging the people you already have on your database.
Now, you may be sitting on a database of leads that need a bit more nurture, so if you haven’t listened to that podcast, go and listen to it here.
Re-engaging contacts already on your database because, to be quite frank, it is a gold mine that many of you don’t tap into.
Now, when it comes to inbound leads, these people will have heard about you from a referral or seen your content online or in person.
[Key Fact: This is why content works.]
They will have had an experience with you before they start to work with you. They will often have an experience because you might have answered one of their questions, maybe online on social media. They’ll have seen some of the content that you are posting online. They might have seen a video, blog post, image, or case study.
The general theme here is they have had an experience with you, so their understanding and knowledge about who you are and what you can do for them has created an interest.
That interest means they will come to you, so they are inbound, not outbound.
This is one of the marketing premises that most people forget and don’t utilise as they can.
Particularly, recruiters who have a lot of experience don’t demonstrate or tell people about how good they are, and because they don’t tell people about how good they are, they don’t get a lot of inbound leads, or they don’t get people coming to them, and that is one of the many benefits of using content marketing as a lead gen strategy.
How Cold Outreach Works
Now, the other recruitment marketing strategy to use this year is cold outreach.
Fact: Cold outreach works.
At some point in your business life, in your business growth, you have to reach out to people who don’t know you.
They will be your next clients and candidates because you cannot keep fishing in the same pond. With the best will in the world, we cannot keep our clients forever. You know, there are seasons. There are seasons in our life; there are seasons in our business.
Clients will come and go. Sometimes, a client might leave you; they might come back; however, you have to factor that in. That’s why you have to go out and get more business.
The great thing about cold outreach that is available to us now, that wasn’t always available for smaller organisations like us, e.g., micro-businesses and small SMEs, is that we can access data.
We can get access to lists of people that we can contact, and we can reach out to them in multiple ways.
Go to your LinkedIn account. Depending on your country and sector, you will have thousands of potential connections you can make.
If you don’t use Sales Navigator, a brilliant BD tool, or if you’re not using Boolean search from the amazing team at Tooled-Up Raccoons, then consider that next year because then you can be targeted, and of course, you can use paid advertising, too.
I shared the story about our hotel booking earlier, putting cold outreach into perspective.
The hotel in question got my attention as a cold prospect from an advert.
I then clicked through to their website. I read their content and offer and then read their reviews before picking up the phone.
I’m sharing this story for you to think about the company out there that is a real target client for you. You know that you can help them, so it’s your duty to get through all that uncomfortableness and reach out to them because you could be that person who can make a huge difference to their hiring process this year.
This year, add cold outreach that happens consistently to your marketing plan.
Come at it from the premise that I am here and am good at what I do. I need to be out there helping and serving people, so it’s down to me to make that connection request or that uncomfortable phone call.
Cold outreach, let it be your focus for 2024. You will be the boy or girl that nails cold this year, and what a difference that will make for you.
Thanks
Denise
How We Can Help You Stand Out In Your Sector This Year
There are multiple cold strategies and messages you could send; there are multiple pieces of software.
We share everything you need to know in our membership program, Superfast Circle. In fact, in November, we did an event about lead generation.
When you join us, we will give you access to all the recordings and the resources we provided.
To find out what you need to do next, book a quick call with us here.
