Blogs for every stage of your recruitment marketing funnel
For content to be effective it needs to have a job. A defined role within your recruitment marketing strategy. Because if you’re creating content for the sake of creating content then you’re wasting your time.
Any long form content you create - blogs, articles, white papers, needs to target your audience at a specific stage of their buying journey. That means defining your audience and thinking about what stage they’re at, what they need to know and how they want to find out about it.
That’s why when identifying content topics you need to match it to your recruitment marketing funnels and your customer journey.
See, it’s not as simple as just writing some words.
Your recruitment marketing funnel
You don’t need me to tell you what a marketing funnel is. But just in case you need a reminder it’s a fancy way of explaining how you move clients from not knowing you to buying from you.
The premise being that you need a certain number of people to enter your funnel and through nurturing a smaller number of them will become clients. Where content comes into it is helping to nurture them, giving them what they need to know to be reassured, confident and to push them over the line to buy.
For recruitment marketers it’s a bigger headache than that. You’ve got two very clearly defined audiences - your clients and your candidates. Both equally important, but both interested in very different things. That means you’ve got twice as much work in creating content that meets them where they’re at and helps move them on their journey.
Content isn’t the only thing that can be used to nurture your clients, but to me, it’s the most important and long form content can be a great investment to help you achieve this. So let’s take a look at how content can be used to move your prospective candidates and clients through your agency’s marketing funnel.
Top of the funnel
This stage is all about building awareness. Helping your prospective candidates and clients realise you exist and what you do. If you’re looking at this in terms of the customer journey (which is the flip view to the marketing funnel) then you’re looking to create pain or problem awareness.
It’s all about connecting the dots for your audience and helping them to realise that they have a problem. For candidates that might be that there are more exciting opportunities that are within their reach. For clients it might be that their current skills will put limitations on their goals and they need to look at their skill set as a whole. The problem needs to have impact, it needs to be a pain point, something they’re feeling the effects of right now.
You need to empathise without patronising. You need to explain without condescension and you need to build a relationship without smothering.
Content at this stage is light, it’s airy, it’s top level. Think social media posts, infographics, podcasts, explainer videos, some blogs posts. We all know there are tons of different types of blogs, but the ones that need to appeal at the top of the funnel are the educational rather than product focused.
At this stage we aren’t selling, we’re befriending.
Blog ideas for top of your recruitment marketing funnel:
What is XXX
Why does X matter
How to XXX
X things to know about X
X myths about X
Middle of the funnel
Right so people know they’ve got a problem, they know we exist and we know about their problem. What now? Now we want people to start to think about what they can do about it. It’s solution awareness time.
But, and it’s a big but, we still aren’t selling. We’re positioning ourselves as an expert in both their problem and the solution. We want our audience to know that there is something they can do, and we might be the people to help them.
The tone of our content needs to shift slightly. That’s not to say that we’re abandoning our brand voice but we’re adopting a slightly more serious angle. Our content needs to show that we care about their problem, we care about them and we take it seriously. Please don’t confuse taking something seriously with being serious. They’re 2 different things.
When I think about middle of the funnel content we’re thinking about things with slightly more meat. Reports, guides, case studies, templates, webinars and articles. The eagle eyed amongst you might have noticed that I’ve omitted blogs. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be used here.
I’m always going to advocate blogs but if you’re using them for this stage of awareness then they need to be longer and need to have more depth. You can use statistics, external sources and references to add authority.
Article, and blog ideas for middle of your recruitment marketing funnel:
How X overcame X
X ways to tackle X
How to X
X solutions to X
Why knowing X is the key to solving X
Bottom of the funnel
Now we’re at the good bit, the juicy bit. This is where we start converting people from friends to clients and candidates. Right now, these people know they’ve got a problem, they know there are solutions out there and they want to buy. We can finally start selling.
But we don’t want to ruin our relationship with our audience. We’ve carefully built relationships that are based on us being helpful, approachable, an authority in our area but not pushy. Don’t ruin that now….unless hard selling is your thing in which case go for it.
Our content to date has focused on showing our understanding of both their problem and the solutions available. So now we need to start talking about ourselves. I know, finally.
That means our content should be about our services, our experience, our testimonials, our proven results, and how to work with us. This can still be done through blogs, articles, webinars but the thing that changes is the call to action. Up until now we might have signposted to other useful resources but we haven’t sold a specific thing.
That needs to change.
When we’re crafting bottom of the funnel content we want to make sure that whatever we’re writing about ties directly to a service or programme that we offer. So when they finish reading, there’s a relevant next step that our solution hungry audience want to engage with.
Article, and blog ideas for bottom of the funnel
What’s better; this or that?
Review of X
Best X for X
A deep dive into X
The ultimate guide to X
There’s a place for content at every stage of your recruitment marketing funnel. The trick to successful content is matching the right type and tone of content to the right stage. There’s no good hard selling when someone doesn’t even really realise they’ve got a problem. Similarly if someone is looking to buy serving them generic content isn’t going to cut it. But there’s simply no denying the power of blogs when used properly.
When you’re developing your content strategy, plot which audience you’re targeting - clients or candidates, then figure out where it sits in the funnel and in their buying journey so you can ensure your content is hitting the sweet spot and you’re targeting both audiences.
Finally, if you’re struggling to map out your recruitment content or write content at the right level, then you know what to do. Drop me a message and I can help craft compelling content for your recruitment agency.
