Establish your online presence: digital marketing lessons for staffing agencies

The personal approach: are you also committed to it in your contact with your candidates and clients? Then you're not alone in the staffing industry, and that's good news! Because in this era of modern technology, it's essential to be clearly present digitally while maintaining a personal connection with your clients.

Online and offline simply cannot do without each other. Finding a mix between the two and maintaining the balance is key. Let's focus entirely on the digital realm: how do you maintain contact with your clients and candidates in a somewhat personal way online? Here are 4 steps to establish your online presence strongly as a staffing agency.

Step 1: What does your client want?

How do you make sure you're clearly present on the digital channel? We start with the first step: what does your client actually want? So, ask yourself how your candidates and clients prefer to contact their intermediary?

How do you find out if your clients prefer online or offline contact? For example: you're often on the go with your phone on hands-free, and you're not so good with your mailbox. But you receive many emails from your clients and candidates, while they only call when something is truly urgent. That could be a sign that your clients prefer to keep in touch digitally.

Or vice versa: you prefer purely online contact, but the few clients and/or temporary workers who have your phone number only call. In that case, you may consider whether your website and online support could be better (more on improving that website later). Or perhaps hiring an additional employee to maintain contact with your clients is a good investment.

Step 2: How do you currently contact your client?

Once you know how your candidates and clients prefer to contact you, it's time to map out your current touchpoints: in what ways and through which channels are you currently reachable for client contact? Because if you have those channels clearly defined, and also know how your client prefers to reach you, you'll know exactly where improvements can be made, whether you're already doing well, or if you need to be somewhere else.

Step 3: Online marketing for staffing agencies

Have you compared the results of steps 1 and 2, and found that you could be a bit more present online for your client? Great, because there's much to be gained for intermediaries on the internet. So, let's delve a bit deeper into the digital world: here's a selection of 4 online marketing components that are relevant for you as a staffing agency.

Know your client: who is your buyer persona?

Yes, for setting up successful online campaigns and a website that attracts the right candidates and clients, you need to know who you're targeting. Who is your client? In trendy digital marketing terms, your customer to whom you're selling is your 'buyer persona.' And that customer persona may consist of multiple types or customer segments.

So, make sure you know where your clients and candidates are, what they like to do in their free time, and what they're looking for in a (temporary) job.

See the benefit of online marketing? Try employer branding too.

Digital marketing for staffing agencies naturally has much in common with employer branding: the art of positioning yourself as an employer (or staffing agency) in the market. 

Attracting clients and candidates with online ads

Once you've clearly defined the type of temporary worker and/or client you're targeting, you can consider if online advertising is right for your staffing agency. Advertising via online search engines is an option. In digital marketing, this is called SEA: Search Engine Advertising. Google is the most used search engine, so it's also the obvious choice if you want to start advertising online. The first step is creating an account on Google AdWords. And if you want to delve further into it, start here.

Option number two is advertising on social media: Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn are among the options. But keep in mind who your client is and where you can find them. The same applies to the content of your online ads: the text and images should resonate with the world of your potential client and temporary worker. So, package your message nicely; otherwise, it won't land.

Email marketing: keeping clients warm and warmer

If you already have a nice list of prospects, you can further convince those potential clients and candidates of the benefits of your services. It might not sound very exciting, but a newsletter is a good tool for that. You can easily automate email sending. And actually, an email is the perfect mix of online and offline communication: you're sending something via the digital medium that is still personal, even if it's an automated email!

Most important in email marketing: consistency and frequency. Send emails regularly to show that you're thinking of your prospect, or send an update to make sure your potential client thinks of you again. But don't let it become spam: don't email too often.

Keep attention with your website

Of course, you can attract potential candidates and clients to your website via various forms of online marketing, but if your website isn't good, those prospects will leave just as quickly. The message is simple: ensure a clear website that navigates easily and contains all the information needed for someone looking for a temporary worker or a temp job. So, the first step is to build two menus or pages: one for the client and one for temporary workers.

Another quick insider tip: it's also important that your website is easily found on Google. Being highly ranked in the search results of online search engines is called SEO: Search Engine Optimization. The essence? Have keywords and terms that your potential client searches for on Google appear multiple times on your website. But there's more to it than that.

Step 4: Stay in conversation with your client

Alright, we've shown you a bit about how to approach your client online, reach them, and engage them personally. But we can't stress it enough: it's all about the golden mean between online and offline. So, don't forget to also maintain personal contact with your clients and temporary workers.

For example, send short feedback questions to your temporary workers via email, through a pop-up on your website, or ask directly if the client is satisfied with your services. Maintaining client relationships is an active verb: you can start a relationship with as many potential clients as you want, but if you don't actively nurture it, you'll lose your temporary workers and clients just as quickly.

In relation to your client relationship

Time for a question from us to you: how do you, as a staffing agency, maintain contact with your candidates and clients, through which channels do you reach them? Do you already engage in online marketing? If so, which forms specifically? How do you reach your clients? And do you also maintain personal contact, or do you focus entirely on online?

‍