David Searns is a marketing expert with Haley Marketing who claims that 2024/2025 will be extremely challenging as a marketer. Why? He offers his advice.
Stop Saying This and the Art of Getting Noticed
Marketing Pet Peeves: The speakers discuss their annoyance with generic email greetings like "Happy Friday" and phrases like "moving this to the top of your inbox."
Email Marketing: They talk about the challenges and strategies of cold emailing, including bringing strategy in-house for more personalized approaches.
Business Background: David shares his history in the staffing industry, mentioning that his parents owned a temporary staffing agency, influenced his career choice. His company was founded in 1996, during which time marketing in staffing was virtually non-existent.
Evolution of Staffing Marketing: The conversation covers how marketing in the staffing industry has evolved, especially with the integration of AI and the need for personalization amidst high competition.
Target Audience: They discuss targeting in staffing marketing, identifying key decision-makers beyond HR, like CFOs or department heads, depending on the staffing specialty.
Engagement and Attention: Strategies for capturing attention include using physical mail, event marketing, and leveraging other people's stages (OPS) where the audience is already engaged.
Sales Differentiation: They emphasize the importance of differentiating not just the service but the sales process itself. An example given is a staffing CEO using Six Sigma expertise to offer plant efficiency solutions before pitching staffing services.
Industry Knowledge: The need for recruiters to speak the language of the industry they serve is highlighted, with an example of a staffing company transitioning to manufacturing outsourcing.
Content Strategy: The effectiveness of webinars for engagement over traditional newsletters is discussed. They suggest focusing on tactical, problem-solving content for higher engagement.
Webinar Best Practices: Tips include having diverse speakers, curating content from clients or AI, and managing live questions to keep the audience involved.
Advertising Platforms: LinkedIn is favored for business-to-business staffing sales due to its professional audience, though there's an acknowledgment of LinkedIn's evolving nature. X (formerly Twitter) is noted for its targeting capabilities based on followers.
Retargeting: Challenges and strategies for retargeting in staffing, particularly the need for sufficient website traffic to make retargeting viable.
Expertise Areas: David's company is most experienced in commercial staffing (light industrial and clerical) and healthcare.
Content Resources: They mention resources like webinars and eBooks available on Haley Marketing's website, which require a name and email to access, leading to a newsletter subscription.
Future Experiments: There's a mention of experimenting with AI for lead tracking to engage with silent website visitors.
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