Transcript how do candidates search on your chosen - Top

Quick hit suggestions to dramatically improve the
effectiveness of your advertising campaigns
Tony Restell – Director, Top-Consultant.com
London, 10th January 2003
Presentation Overview
1. Advertising rules – writing good adverts
Finding the right place to advertise is one half of the challenge of devising a successful
recruitment campaign. But anyone can pay to advertise in the right places. The killer
success factor for your company is writing adverts that generate five times the returns of
your competitors’ ads.
2. Avoiding the pitfalls of internet recruiting
• Some basics about online applicants
• Do your homework – how do candidates search on your chosen website?
The advertising checklist – have you written a killer ad?
Finding the right place to advertise is one half of the challenge of devising a successful
recruitment campaign. But anyone can pay to advertise in the right places. The killer
success factor for your company is writing adverts that generate five times the returns of
your competitors’ ads
Rule 1 – Your “headline” is the single biggest influencer on the performance of your ad.
>>> Have you written a killer headline?
Rule 2 – Your first goal is to sell the candidate on wanting the job
>>> Does the first paragraph of your ad make good candidates want to apply?
Rule 3 – Be specific but selective about “must-haves”
>>> Have you restricted “must-haves” to half-a-dozen objective requirements?
Rule 4 – Test, Learn, Test
>>> Are you using tried and tested formulae from previous campaigns, and monitoring
the results of each campaign?
Rule 1 – Your “headline” is the single biggest influencer on the performance of your ad.
>>> Have you written a killer headline?
Live case study: You are looking for a new job in HR –
which of these jobs would you click to read first ?
1.
2.
3.
HR Manager
Fast-Track your career
HR Manager
£ excellent remuneration
West London
Fast-growing and highly profitable
consultancy needs an experienced
HR Manager
Our atmosphere is fun, friendly and
rewarding. If you are looking for a
change from the big firms, read on…
4.
5.
6.
Experienced HR Professional
HR Manager
HR Manager
Are you looking for a new challenge?
Can you help us realise our ambition of
recruiting 30 consultants this year?
Must have prior experience of working
within consulting and at least 3 years’
professional experience
We offer flexible working hours and
encourage team members to strike the
right work-life balance…
“The purpose of a headline is to pick out people you can
interest – and who are of interest to you”
“Nobody should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this
book at least 7 times” David Ogilvy
Scientific Advertising, by Claude Hopkins – download from www.claudehopkins.com
Some observations on headlines
“Headlines on ads are like headlines on news items. Nobody reads a whole newspaper. We
pick out what we wish to read by headlines.
The purpose of a headline is to pick out people you can interest – and who are of interest to
you.
Spend far more time on headlines than on writing (the full ad copy). For the entire
return from an ad depends on attracting the right sort of readers. It is not uncommon for a
change in headlines to multiply returns five or ten times over.”
Rule 2 – Your first goal is to sell the candidate on wanting the job
>>> Does the first paragraph of your ad make good candidates want to apply?
Your first goal is to sell the candidate on wanting the job
FACT:
The majority of candidates skim-read adverts and will only read in full the couple of adverts
that have most excited them
DO:
• Write your first paragraph specifically with the aim of exciting the ideal candidate and
making them want to read on
>>> Think “If my ideal candidate were on the phone to me now, what would be some of
the first things I would want to say to make them want to apply?”
• Use emotive language that appeals to what your ideal candidates aspire to be / have
(unsurpassed reputation, fast-track opportunity, enviable record, challenging assignments,
equity participation)
• Emphasise how genuine the opportunity is or how urgently the position needs to be filled
plus how many people you are hiring if it is more than one
Your first goal is to sell the candidate on wanting the job
FACT:
The majority of candidates skim-read adverts and will only read in full the couple of adverts
that have most excited them
DO NOT:
• Allow your advert to be hijacked by the marketing department – and especially not the
opening paragraph
>>> If you are a large firm, candidates will already have a strong opinion of your
organisation that can only be changed by a face-to-face meeting; if you are a small firm
you need only establish that you are successful – meeting your consultants and visiting
your office will convince them about the strength of your firm. Paragraphs of claims and
statistics will not.
In summary: appeal to what the candidate wants to hear; don’t simply convey
your corporate mantra to the market
Rule 3 – Be specific but selective about “must-haves”
>>> Have you restricted “must-haves” to half-a-dozen objective requirements?
Be specific but selective about “must-haves”
Your objective in stating requirements / “must-haves” is twofold:
• To solidify in the minds of your ideal candidate that the role is perfect for them so that
they want to apply
• To dissuade inappropriate candidates from applying
Suggestions:
Do not state a mission impossible list of dozens of requirements unless you really will not
consider candidates without these facets
>> Strong candidates may be put off if they feel they do not meet all your requirements
>> Weak candidates will assume this is just a wish-list and that you will never find this
person. If they can meet some of the requirements they will still apply.
Do state 5-6 critical & objective requirements
Rule 4 – Test, Learn, Test
>>> Are you using tried and tested formulae from previous campaigns, and monitoring
the results of each campaign?
Test, Learn, Test
Choosing your advertising medium
Q: When you saw the earlier survey results showing the effectiveness of different
newspapers, how many of you already knew from your own experiences that the Times was
the best performing newspaper?
You ALREADY employ “test, learn, test” to some degree
What you have just indicated is that most people in the room track and measure the
effectiveness of the media they are using. When you next run a recruitment campaign, you
are inclined to spend your budget with media that have worked for you in the past or for
which you have received strong recommendations. You already spend your advertising
budget in a somewhat scientific way…
Test, Learn, Test
Writing your advertising copy
As writing a powerful advert is as important as choosing the best place to advertise, you
should keep on file past examples of successful and unsuccessful ads, as templates for
future adverts.
But now there is a new weapon…
…you should use electronic media – your own website and any jobsites you use – to
experiment with variants of your adverts and track which messages are most powerful.
*****************************************************************
“Almost any question can be answered cheaply, quickly and finally by a test
campaign. And that’s the way to answer them – not by arguments around a table”
Claude Hopkins
There are 2 key success factors in producing a successful recruitment
advertising campaign…
Choosing the right advertising media…
…and writing a powerful recruitment advert that maximises the return on this spend
*************************************************************************
Take the Top-Consultant Challenge
Would you like to maximise the returns from your next recruitment advertising spend?
>>> We believe passionately that our team can suggest tweaks to your adverts that will
dramatically increase the number of shortlist candidates you generate from your next
recruitment campaign.
Wherever you plan to advertise your next consultancy requirement, send your advert to our
team for a FREE evaluation.
Simply email your advertisement to [email protected] or to me personally:
[email protected]
Avoiding the pitfalls of internet recruiting
>>> Some basics about online applicants
Some basics about online applicants
Candidates tend to research online jobs during the working week….
…. and will only spend a few minutes in total reviewing opportunities on a jobsite
-> One of your biggest challenges is therefore to grab a good candidate’s attention within
seconds of them seeing your advert, hence the importance of headlines & selling the role
Avoiding the pitfalls of internet recruiting
>>> Do your homework – how do candidates search on your chosen website?
Do your homework – how do candidates search on your chosen website?
In terms of how search results are displayed, there are 3 main types of jobsite, and
depending which you are using your advert needs to be optimised in a different way:
Premium-listing sites
• full-listings site (eg. Top-Consultant, Goldjobs)
Mass-market sites
• category-listing sites (Monster, Totaljobs)
• keyword-search sites (Jobserve, GoJobsite)
*************************************************************************
The 2 key things to understand about mass-market sites:
1. How do you get a top listing in the search results?
2. How long can you expect to maintain a top listing?
Mass-market sites: Category listing sites
Sites such as Monster and Totaljobs encourage candidates primarily to search for jobs in a
particular category (eg. “consulting services” on Monster)
1. How do you get a top listing in the search results?
>>> Unless candidates add keyword searches to the category search the results tend to be
displayed in date order (so submit an ad optimised for its appeal to candidates)
2. How long can you expect to maintain a top listing?
>>> Take a look at the site. The more jobs they are able to win, the more quickly your ad
will get pushed down the search results.
Implications
The number of responses generated by this
type of site will tail-off dramatically. You can
certainly get good results but there is no time
to experiment with rewording your ad text
CVs
per
day
Time
Mass-market sites: Category listing sites
An example: Search of “consulting services” jobs on Monster
Search of consulting jobs on Monster
Search for CRM Consultant - Jobserve
Mass-market sites: keyword-search sites
Sites such as Jobserve and GoJobsite encourage keyword searching – so a candidate
searches much as they might do on a search engine like Google (eg. CRM + Consultant)
1. How do you get a top listing in the search results?
>>> To be displayed in search results, your ad must contain the keywords that a candidate
is searching for (eg. CRM + Consultant), and very often contain them more than once (each
site has its own search results formula). Results are often displayed in order of relevancy,
though candidates can sometimes specify to see them in date order
2. How long can you expect to maintain a top listing?
>>> If the site results are ordered by relevancy, your job will not drop down the listings so
quickly. If results can be displayed in date order you will get less response over time
Implications
1. You MUST understand how the site’s search formula works and modify your ad text so
that it appears high in the search results. Otherwise you have a great ad that no-one sees.
2. You should create a list of search terms to target and then check with the jobsite how
many searches are conducted for each of the search terms – otherwise you may end up
optimising your job for a search term that is very rarely entered
Mass-market sites: Keyword-search sites
An example: Search for CRM Consultant - Jobserve