We made it! The much-anticipated new year is finally here. It’s time to leave the weight of 2020 behind us and start fresh with new ideas, new initiatives, and new strategies to hit the ground running in 2021. This year more than ever people are anxious to start on a clean sheet of paper. While there may still be challenges in 2021, the best way to set yourself up for the new year is to start on a high note.

So how can you hit the ground running in 2021? One way is by putting together effective marketing campaigns. The more tailored the marketing campaigns are for your audience, the more successful they will be. In this article we will take a look at both client and candidate e-mail campaigns you can run to start off the year strong and lay a solid foundation for the remainder of the year!

Client Campaigns for Recruiters

There are two types of client campaign initiatives we will take a look at. The first initiative will be reaching out to your highest performing clients in 2020 and the second will target prospective clients in high-performing industries.

Reaching Out to High Performing Clients in 2020

If you missed our article last month, Naughty or Nice? Staffing Reports That Should Be on Your Nice List in 2021, I invite you to check it out as the article discusses key reports you should reference to determine your highest performing clients in 2020. These are clients you want to stay close to in the new year as they are bringing in the most revenue and job orders.

Once you have the list of your highest performing clients, build a client contact pipeline in your CRM and put together an email template. Since these are contacts you have been in close contact with, send a plain text email from the recruiter or the contact at your staffing company that has been in the most contact with them. A plain text email will feel more personal than a regular marketing email from the company.

In the email you can simply wish them a happy new year and let them know you are ready to help fill job orders if they have any current needs or see any needs in the near future. The email message doesn’t have to be long, but something short that includes a new year greeting and shows you are ready and eager to help fill job orders in 2021. If you don’t hear back in a few days, follow-up with a phone call to check in. A campaign as simple as this will keep you at the top of mind of your highest performing clients and hopefully even bring in a few new job orders to start the year!

Targeting High-Performing Industries

The next type of campaign targets prospective clients in industries performing well. This is where you can use the search capabilities in your CRM to search for clients you aren’t already doing business with in high-performing industries, such as food/alcohol/grocery, medical staff/device, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, delivery services, trucking/railroad, etc. Based on the industries you are looking to target; you can build a contact pipeline by industry and create your campaigns. Each campaign should be tailored towards the industry for it to be most effective.

You will want to think of a catchy subject line that will draw the recipient into your email. The more tailored it is to the industry, the more likely they will open it if they feel it’s relevant to them. Some examples include, “How Can We Help Staff Your Nurses in 2021?” or “Find Drivers Quicker in 2021 with YOUR COMPANY NAME.”

In the body of the email, include selling points to work with your company. This can be done through testimonials, a case study with a client, through an infographic that includes stats promoting why they should partner with you, etc. You can also create a downloadable whitepaper of why they should partner with you for their staffing needs versus another staffing company. The more tailored this content is by industry, the better. If you don’t have the means to customize everything by industry, customize it as much as you can so the recipient could still relate to it. Additionally, if there are common pain points you often here about staffing in the industry, try to address them in the content you are providing and note how working with your staffing company will resolve those pain points.

Both of these client campaigns target companies that are doing well. By starting the year off working closely with your highest performing clients and targeting prospective clients in high performing industries, you can help set yourself up for a successful 2021.

Candidate Campaigns for Recruiters

We will next take a look at two candidate campaigns. The first campaign will target candidates you’ve been in touch with in the last 6 months and the second campaign will target candidates you haven’t been in touch with for 6 months or more.

Contacting Candidates You Were Recently in Touch With

The first candidate campaign allows you to touch base with candidates you were in touch with in the last 6 months, but were never placed for one reason or another. You can use your ATS to search for these candidates and add them to a candidate pipeline. A relevant subject line could be something like, “How Is Your Job Search Going?”

Since you were recently in touch with these candidates you can put together a plain text email from the recruiter. A plain text email will once again make it more personal. The body of the email can be a simple touch base to see how they are doing with their job search and if you can still help them find their next job.

Adding personalized videos to emails are becoming more and more popular as well. If you want to take the email to the next level, you can create a quick 30-60 second video per candidate. The video should be casual letting them know you are here to help them find their next job. Include their name in the video and also the industry or position they are looking to work in. Again, the more personalized the video is, the more likely you will hear a response back from the candidate. While creating a custom video per candidate can be time consuming, you can create a script that you can use for each video. You can also select top candidates you would like to create a video for. For the candidates you don’t create a custom video for, you can create separate videos by industry or field. That way the video won’t include their name, but there is still some personalization.

Another creative way to interact with these candidates is by including a prompt at the end of your email that asks, “Are You Still Looking for a Job?” You can then include a “Yes” button and a “No” button. Both can lead to different landing pages. The “No” button can lead to a page that says something along the lines of, “Thanks for letting us know! If we can help you find your dream job in the future, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. In the meantime, follow us on social media!” Even if they are no longer looking for a job, this helps determine that so you don’t spend time reaching out to them. Providing a plug to follow your company on social media is also good to help them stay engaged with your company. For those candidates that click “Yes”, you can lead them to a different landing page that shows them a list of jobs they would be a good fit for. You can also include a note, “Not interested in these positions? Reach out to us and we will help you find your dream job.”

Contacting candidates, you have been in touch with in the last 6 months is a good way to help reengage candidates and see where they are at in their job search. This will also help you decide if these are candidates you should continue to communicate with or focus on other candidates for the time being.

Reaching Out to Candidates You Haven’t Been in Touch With

Another type of candidate campaign you can run is a campaign targeting candidates you haven’t been in touch with in a while. You can use your ATS to search for candidates you haven’t been in touch with as far back as you want to go and build a candidate pipeline off of this search. A catchy subject line for these candidates could be something like, “Ready for a New Job in 2021?”

To open the email, you will probably need to include a re-introduction of who you are and how you can help them find their next dream job. Additionally, you can include candidate testimonials and a list of jobs that are currently available they could be a good fit for. Again, you will want to target this email by industry if possible and include appropriate candidate testimonials and job listings. At the end of the email, you can even include a call-to-action button to submit their latest resume to you. That way they can either apply to a job from your email or if they aren’t interested in a job listed, you know they are still interested in a new job by submitting their resume.

Another unique way to catch a candidate’s attention is by including a BuzzFeed® Type quiz in your email, such as, “What Job Would Be a Good Fit for You in 2021?” They can answer a series of fun questions and then receive a summary of the kind of job they would be a good fit for in 2021 and a list of current jobs you have available that fit their result. Whether it is in a magazine or online, everyone enjoys taking these types of quizzes and it would be a fun way to engage the candidate with your company.

Both of these candidate campaigns help reengage candidates you were recently in contact with and also helps you reach a new candidate base that you haven’t been in recent contact with. Coming out from both of these campaigns, you will hopefully be able to determine which candidates you should stay in close contact with to start 2021 and which ones you shouldn’t spend time contacting.

Ready, Set, Launch!

Personalized marketing campaigns are going to be important in 2021. Using this approach to run client and candidate campaigns will help your campaigns be more effective. We just reviewed 4 campaign ideas to help you hit the ground running in 2021, but the possibilities are endless! Take your creative idea, tailor it to your audience, and launch 2021!

Written by Jennifer Roeslmeier Mikels

Jennifer Roeslmeier Mikels is a Sr. Digital Marketing and Brands Manager at Automated Business Designs, developers of Ultra-Staff EDGE Staffing Software. Jennifer regularly publishes articles about key topics surrounding the staffing industry with both local and national staffing associations.

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