Your recruitment website is essentially your agency’s shop window – is it doing its job of pulling in new business?
While most agency websites do a great job of attracting and registering candidates, few sites cater to clients. And in this job-short market, you need to be constantly thinking of new ways to pull in business with your marketing strategy.
Here are a few ways you can use your recruitment website to attract and convert new clients.
1. Use niche SEO keywords
When you’re thinking about your SEO strategy for your recruitment website, it’s important to think about using keywords that will attract potential clients to your website, not just candidates.
The most effective way to rank high in search engines is to target what’s called ‘longtail keywords’ that are closely associated with your agency’s specialist recruitment niche.
So, rather than focusing on general keywords like ‘recruitment’, go for specific longtail keywords like ‘Accountancy recruitment in Nottingham’ that your prospects are likely to use when researching agencies to work with.
That way, you won’t have to compete with as many other agencies to reach the first page of a prospect’s Google search result.
Read: How to Outrank Big Recruitment Agencies Without an SEO Budget
2. Create clear web journeys for clients
Often, an agency will have brilliant web journeys for candidates on their recruitment website, but there’s no clear journey that caters to potential clients.
Prospects shouldn’t have to dig for what they’re looking for – your site should have clear web journeys that carry potential clients around all the pages you want them to see.
Go to your website homepage – is it obvious where a client should go next from there? Do you have a button in your navigation menu for prospective clients as well as for candidates? This small change can make a massive difference to an agency’s BD strategy.
3. Create ‘open doors’ to capture client data
And if you do have a somewhere for clients to go once they reach your homepage, are there any opportunities like forms or landing pages to encourage data capture (e.g. a call request form or downloading an industry insight report)?
Once you have the prospect’s email address, your recruitment software should be able to track their behaviours and give your recruiters data on how warm the prospect is before they reach out and which pages of your website they’ve been interested in so they can focus the call around that.
4. Have an awesome ‘About us’ section
Have you ever taken a look at Google Analytics to see how many views your ‘About us’ page gets? You might be surprised by how popular it is among your website visitors.
Your ‘About us’ page is one of the most important pages on your website, so give it the thought, time and attention it deserves.
A lot of clients will jump straight to this page when landing on your website to get a feel for who you are as an agency, an employer and a team.
It’s not a good idea to skimp on these pages – spend time creating a page that includes your company story, shows off your values and shouts about your USP.
5. Allow space for self-service
Sometimes, prospects want to do their own research about your agency before they decide whether they want to have a call with you, never mind offer you any business!
With this in mind, it’s important to give prospects a bit of autonomy to look around and scope out your agency and services before a recruiter speaks to them.
The way to do this is to provide lots of information about your services on your website so they can get a good feel for who you are. You could also include a form where someone can request a service brochure to read through or request a call back when they’re ready.
This is how lots of businesses use inbound marketing strategies to pull in interest – it’s really effective but to make it work, you need work really closely with the recruiters on your team.
6. Publish testimonials and case studies
85% of customers say they trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation, and there’s no difference when it comes to earning trust with new clients.
There’s no better proof than social proof, and a positive client testimonial or case study that clearly demonstrates the good recruitment services you offer will massively improve your website conversions.
If you have some clients who you’ve gone the extra mile for, ask them for a testimonial or ask if you could put together a short case study on a hiring challenge the agency helped them overcome.
If you’re looking for some inspiration, Carmichael UK and Revocco are two agencies who do this brilliantly.
The end of the year is the perfect time to assess and update your website so you're ready for a successful year ahead in recruitment. Download the eBook below to learn how to turn your website into a talent magnet.
