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Recruitment
using Newsletters
As online recruiters
increasingly tire of waiting for the right candidate to sift through
thousands of pages of job postings on mega job boards, many are
turning to large-scale email newsletters. Top performers rarely,
if at all, wander into a job database. But, by embedding available
positions into email newsletters, savvy cyber-recruiters can reach
candidates at work while they are busy researching and solving technical
problems for their current employers.
Open any Web
marketing magazine and you can't miss the buzz about email. According
to Forrester Research, email list rentals are expected to rake in
$5 billion by 2000. To date though, only five percent of online
advertising is currently spent on email. A recent study by IMT Research,
quoted in the February issue of The Industry Standard, estimates
that 55 percent of online users with two or more years of experience
have a positive opinion about the email they have requested. Approximately
132 billion emails were sent in 1999 alone; and over 60 percent
of email users are US based.
Additionally,
some advertising-effectiveness studies indicate email newsletter
advertising outperforms banner advertising three to one. Adherents
continue to rave about "response in 24 hours" and the
enviable ability to combine niche targeting with virtually guaranteed
delivery. It's no surprise that online recruiters at large employers
have followed the lead of online recruitment specialists in turning
a more aggressive eye to email.
Websites sell
advertisers access to their lists of online subscribers via three
methods: direct mail, list rental, and email newsletters. Email
recruiters will mail opportunities confidentially to qualified members
on the employers' behalf. Both organizations assure customers that
they will receive responses from candidates who are both interested
and qualified for the position.
Secondly, websites
may rent lists of email addresses by skill sets, geographic regions,
or zip codes. Such lists are easily obtained and cover a wide range
of specialties from general job seekers to professionals like nurses,
e-business consultants or optical engineers. However, many sites
will not rent their list for recruitment purposes due to raiding
concerns.
Of the three
methods, email newsletters are the most prevalent. Distributed to
subscribers on a regular basis, email newsletters tend to be cheaper
and are packed with non-recruitment information the user has requested.
Search hard enough on the Web and you can find an email newsletter
covering nearly any topic. By offering a digest of articles linked
to individual Web pages, online publishers have long used email
newsletters to draw an audience back to their websites - now they
are beginning to cater to the interests of advertisers by embedding
paid advertising spots in newsletters.
Like conventional
direct mail, both forms of mass email present recruiters with the
opportunity to deliver the message directly to readers. But unlike
direct mail, email avoids the cost of postage and printing, and
delivery is usually assured within 24 hours.
If you're thinking
about using this cutting-edge technique here are a few tips for
making the most of email newsletters:
1. Take the
time to do it right. There are marketers who get five percent
of customers to respond the same day and others who get far less.
Good email marketers learn by watching what works—and what
doesn't.
2. Recognize
the different email products available. Steer clear of any list
that hasn't first secured a subscriber's permission to receive email.
Valid lists are most often described either as "opt in,"
which means recipients have either chosen to receive emails from
this source, or "opt out," which indicates an individual
has signed up for another service and has had an opportunity to
remove his/her name from mailings. Both alternatives can effectively
gain permission if they are clearly presented on the sign-up page
for a newsletter. Reputable sites also clearly post their privacy
policy and adhere to the standards of a third party such as Truste
(www.Truste.org). Using lists drawn from Internet users who have
not given permission poses potential liability risks and runs counter
to the recently adopted agreement between the Federal Trade Commission
and the online advertising community. Lastly, look for lists that
make it easier for recipients to "unsubscribe" and voluntarily
remove names from lists. Most importantly, people dislike receiving
online junk mail, or "spam," and spam is a poor substitute
for effectively managed email delivery to people who have requested
it.
3. Know the
difference between email lists and email newsletters. Lists
are just like direct mail, the address is rented one time and a
premium is paid to the site to transmit the message. With email
newsletters, you can benefit from hitching a ride with content that
the recipient is keen to read.
4. Target.
Target. Target. Don't send vegetarians offers for steak; don't
send Java programmers Windows NT jobs. Pick your target carefully.
5. Although
online text is free, keep it short and sweet. I advise limiting
messages to 70 to 75 characters per line (exceeding this limit increases
the risk of poor formatting once the email reaches the recipient's
inbox), and no more than 200 words for a message sent to a rented
email list. Ads in email newsletters are typically best kept to
five to six lines and a linking URL.
6. Stay fresh.
Remember they will see your message in their inbox, so take advantage
of the exposure and deliver the message over time. The return from
many email newsletters tends to taper after three or more transmissions
of the same message. Refresh the promotion regularly.
7. Watch
and learn. Email tracking is pretty straightforward. Ask the
site to issue regular traffic reports. Typically these take the
form of click-through rates (CTRs), the number of people who clicked
on the message. Expect click-throughs to vary from 0.1 percent to
two percent.
8. Play the
numbers. Boost your return on investment. As delivery is virtually
guaranteed and click-through rates are largely predictable, it is
possible to calculate the return ahead of time.
9. Compel
action. Savvy marketers embed a URL in the message and link
recipients directly to relevant opportunities - don't ruin the program
by linking candidates to a general homepage and expect them to figure
out where to click next!
10. Rev up
the marketing cycle. Email is sent and received in the same
day. Don't wait 10 days to assess the impact—effective email
marketers expect returns in a 24-to-48-hour period.
Keep these rules
in mind and email newsletter marketing will be a snap.
Mark Williams--http://www.erxchange.com/articles/default.asp?CID={D5A1693F-9393-11D4-82ED-00105A12D660}
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