… and 6 rules to make them succeed
Most recruitment company owners and managers I meet explain that generating regular content for their blogs is at best a slog or, more likely, almost impossible. Even more of them complain that their blogging doesn’t deliver results. And it is a chicken and egg situation… People don’t put effort into writing interesting content until they see the blog delivering leads or candidates. However, it is only by consistently articulating insightful thoughts (a time consuming process) that a blog is going to generate meaningful engagement.
So what is the point in blogging? what are the secrets to creating a content strategy that gets delivered? and how can you use that content to drive results?
The purpose of blogging
The primary reason for blogging as a recruitment company is to maintain and generate awareness of your expertise. One blog can be posted on your website, included in your newsletter and used to boost your profile on your social media feeds. It is an excuse to remind clients, candidates and potential employees that you exist.
The secondary reason is to inform and educate your audience. For example, if you write a blog about how to create a good CV then you can share it with every candidates when they register with you. Or if you blog about why some companies are better at converting offers to acceptances than others then that can be used as an introduction to get you through the door with multiple prospective client.
The third reason to blog is SEO… publish keyword rich content onto your site, then drive traffic to it using other channels and it will help your google ranking. However, for most recruiters this is a distant third as recruitment search terms are highly competitive with results typically dominated by jobs boards.
Creating content strategies that get delivered
Rule 1: identify who you want to engage with - focusing on a clear, and ideally narrow, target audience makes a big difference to generating a positive impact from your effort.
Rule 2: commit to adding insight and opinion, not noise - publishing content that consistently adds value to your audience (i.e. things they didn’t know and they will find useful) will help build a following - think benchmarking data, evidence based insights, thought provoking opinion. The more knowledge you share the more insight your audiences will believe you can provide. While people are too busy to read banalities, insights into your company’s performance and culture can serve a purpose building your brand.
Rule 3: create a detailed blog programme - the hardest part of a successful blog programme is getting into the headspace to come up with the title of the next blog. Get it out of the way by creating a list of blog titles together with the key points you would touch on under each title. Then schedule dates for each one to be delivered. When creating the programme think about any seasonal events you want included (e.g. industry meet-ups, salary survey) as well as categorising the blogs by audience.
Rule 4: use willing volunteers or outsource it - even for natural writers blogging takes time (on average, according to Orbit Media, 3hrs 57minutes!)… time that could be spent finding candidates, approaching clients or running the business. Most consultants and many marketeers find a blank screen or sheet of paper a scary proposition and that can result in either a lot of wasted time or 600 words that you don’t want your contacts to see. If you want to produce good content on a regular basis (adhoc doesn’t work) then find people who want to write it.
Rule 5: manage expectations - expect the first draft to be a starting point not the finished article. Ideally I like to write a first version, leave it alone for 24 hours, then rip it to pieces with a red pen before I rewrite it. That second version will then need me to edit it before anyone else sees it. More often than not I will have written over 3,000 words before my client sees the 800 in a first draft.
Rule 6: Have a plan for how you’ll use your content - there is no point investing lots of time, effort and potentially some money in writing a good blog if you don’t proactivaely then share it. The chances of someone stumbling across it in the news section of your website are minimal. Think about how you are going to get your target audience(s) to engage and invest time to make that happen. I’ll write more sb out how to improve the impact of blogging programmes in a future blog.