In business, having competitors goes with the territory. There’s almost always someone selling the same product or service you are selling, or at least trying to solve the same customer problem you solve.
Not only can competitors out-market you and steal your valuable prospects and customers; they can put you out of business if you’re not careful. Trying to fight back by out-marketing your competitors can not only get expensive, it can be frustrating.
But there is another solution.
Make the decision to keep increasing the amount of information stored about your competitors each time you review your business plans so that you build an extensive collection of facts and figures regarding their organisation. This way you can design effective strategies that take into account the true market place you are operating in.
Competitors' websites, if analyzed properly, can give you all sorts of information that you can use to increase the traffic and the popularity of your site.
Eliminating your competitors is the easiest way to increase your chances of business success. It isn’t that hard when you know what you’re doing. Become a expert in the industry you are servicing, build trust and loyalty and the clients will follow. Exploit weaknesses and act on their failure.
Here is a list of questions to ask yourself in your own recruitment business.
Make a list of their product/service benefits?
What are the benefits your product/service offers?
Identify the features they have that you don't have?
Identify the features that you have? Compare.
What features are better in their product.
What features are better in yours?
Why are they better (from a buyers perspective)?
What is their price?
What is your price?
Why is your price different?
What emotional needs/desires does your product meet?
What physical needs/desires does your product meet?
What is the size of your competitor’s business?
Where is this competitor marketing? Find their ads, always keep them in your file.
What type of customer care do they offer? Research and find out.
What type of customer care are you going to offer?
What’s different about your customer care or how can it be?
Do you offer a special type of advice that they don't? If so, what?
If you offer confidentiality, in what ways do you offer this?
What are their "availability" hours?
Do they offer product discounts? What are their break points?
Do they offer value-added incentives? This could be in the form of complimentary documentation or time, newsletters, or other items. What can you offer that is better?
What makes you excited about selling this product?
How long have they been in business?
If you haven't been in business as long, can you explain your quick success?
What do customers say about them? What do yours say? Similar is good but unique statements help more.
What statistics do you have on your product that you can use to show your uniqueness?
Do they have any endorsements?
How frequently does your competitor introduce something new in order to stay on the cutting edge? And you?
How fast can they get their product to their customers? Can you do better?
Were they the first in developing this product? How long ago was that? Do you have newness as an advantage?
Feel free to join in on the conversation. All comments are moderated before publishing. Comments posted by subscribers don't necessarily reflect the views of Recruitment Directory.
Email Marketing provides powerful solutions to businesses which save time, reduce expenses, increase efficiencies, and boost profits. Recruiters need to constantly adjust their campaigns in these market conditions and technology enhancements to stay ahead of the competition.
Coinciding with SEEK's updated website design; they have recently updated the daily "Job Mail" sent to subscribers. The email design has been updated and provides a fresh and clean display. The emails have now been optimized for mobile devices such as the iphone.
When composing your own campaigns, you need to keep in mind some points to make your emails look more professional. Here are some tips on how you can maximize the results from your emails.
Email is a low cost marketing tool - Try something new or different in 2009. If you did email marketing in 2008, challenge yourself to do something different in 2009, like embedding video, podcasts or some new and exciting promotional offers. Always challenge yourself to be even more creative with your emails.
Graphics are excellent tools to use in email marketing. They say that a picture is worth a 1000 words and this is one hundred percent true. A picture could create an instant attraction point whereby you could get the information you are providing easily absorbed by your clients or candidates; could inspire the client or client to work with you, and so on.
Be formal, but personal with your e-mail material. Refrain from using chat lingo. Chat lingo may be cool to people who do chat all the time, but try to remember that the email marketing you are sending out is trying to project not only your product but the image of your company as well.
Make sure you are brand compliant. If you changed anything about your company logo or brand, make sure all of your marketing designs, including emails, now include your updated corporate look. Consistency is important
Measure results - Tools are available that accurately measure click-through rate, conversion rate, how a person one arrived at your website, and more, to enable you to assess the success of different email campaigns.
Make sure your email list is up-to-date. Add any emails you need to include on the list and remove any that have unsubscribed from your previous emails. It is important to monitor and manage any bounced or failed email messages. Set time aside to look at the error reports of each message and unsubscribe if the email address is no longer active.
It is important when you send an email as a marketing tool to allow the reader the choice to unsubscribe. If your emails are informative and to the point, no reader would take the trouble to unsubscribe. However, besides the fact that this is standard legal requirement, this is also a very valid tip on how to effectively use email marketing.
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I agree, I am surprised at the number of recruitment agencies that still insist you go to their office and fill out a lot of forms.
These forms frequently contain questions that require you to go away and gather the appropriate information THEN bring back hard copies. Some supposedly top name agencies won't even let you fax or e-mail personal particulars because they still hand transcribe all the information on the form you just filled out, to their computer. One agency won't even let you have a copy of their registration form to take away and fill out properly [??].
Their interviewers are frequently young girls [under 25 ]. Tell you they destroy all your info after 6 months THEN quote this info when you show up 3 years later. An agency I will cross off my list for all time - KELLY'S INDUSTRIAL
I was first introduced to Tim de Jardine and Hirewall through the "NZ Recruitment 2.0" online networking group and since then have built a good rapport with him. Hirewall http://www.hirewall.com is a new web-based hiring system for SME's. See previous blog article here http://www.recruitmentdirectory.com.au/Blog/hirewall-beta-release-a38.html I spoke with Tim de Jardine about his new venture.
What is Hirewall?
Hirewall is a web-based hiring system that focuses on action to accelerate the hiring of new employees. It does this by using a workflow system to prompt and weight hiring decisions as they happen and drive the process forward. Hirewall encourages group collaboration, feedback and the establishment of common criteria when hiring.
Tell me about yourself, and your previous experience in the marketplace?
I have experience in recruitment, working on 100% commission basis only. This led me to see gaps in the marketplace. These gaps were companies that had no HR system or were disorganised while hiring. I have a background in Computer Science and have held various technical and sales positions.
How did the idea come about?
We identified trends in 2007 in the hiring industry that tended to plague companies who have a hard time finding candidates and companies, who did not want to use an agency; or pay for an expensive hiring system. Hirewall is a summation of these ideas.
What makes Hirewall different from other ATS's?
Hirewall is focused on action. Our methodology is not about collecting candidate and procrastinating or about over analyzing things. It's about action! We believe that the ability to get that great candidate in front of a decision maker at rapid speed will trump other systems. It's all about acting and continuously moving forward.
What technology/web2.0 tools have you used in building Hirewall?
We use Microsoft ASP.net 3.5, developed in C# using MSSQL Server 2005 using LINC.
What have been the biggest challenges in creating Hirewall so far?
Making a system that does not sacrifice simplicity for software features and bloat. We cut out all the stuff that people do not want to see or that doesn’t help them make decisions and act with speed.
Is the "global financial crisis" affecting your business?
It is too soon to see any sort of impact on Hirewall. We generally don't pay attention to events like this. What is the most important lesson in business you have learnt so far?
When using outsourcers, be very careful who you choose and how you use them. We had a bad experience with outsourcers for a very small part of Hirewall that ultimately delayed the release of Hirewall beta by a month. What are your plans for the next 12 months?
Build a web presence and have several iterations and refinement of Hirewall. We want to establish ourselves as a leading player for SME hiring systems. Companies that may not necessarily have had a hiring system before and want a reliable, easy to use, value for money solution will be our target market.
If you were offered $100,000 by an investor, how would the money be spent?
Sales and marketing - the most important determining factor for our success will be the establishment of partner sales channels. What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs?
Follow your dreams, do not doubt yourself and never give up. Most of the time; if you have a gut feeling about something, you are right.
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I was talking to an owner of a national Recruitment Agency last night and he mentioned that applications have increased. Anyone know why? I am not going to regurgitate all the news articles and media reports on job losses around the world. But let’s look at some graphs and statistics on job site traffic.
Note: All the graphs below were created at http://alexa.com although the data may not be exact, we can see trends apearing. The images were made 13th Jan 2008. I personally do not trust Alexa 100% but here it goes..
The marking (1) shows us that traffic increased as people went back to work after holidays. Clearly Seek are still the market leaders, and will strengthen its lead on the other job boards with candidates turning to a proven performer. MyCareer and CareerOne are still jostling for the 2nd position. Number 4... well it’s anyone’s race now.
Other generalist sites and leading niche sites are on a small rollercoaster. Up...down...up....down. I can't really make any predictions or conclusions from this data. If I was working at a job board right now, my advice would be increase your marketing spends.
I originally was not going to include this graph, but thought it would be interesting to see traffic following to 3rd party ATS sites. Marking (2) shows the increased traffic from the holiday break flowing through to ATS application forms. I don't fully believe these statistics from PageUp because client sites are hosted on sub domains which may or may not be included in the Alexa rankings.
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I was notified by a client of Just Be http://www.justbe.com.au that the job board was offline in early Dec 2008. On inspection the whole sever; including email, was not working. We did tried sending a number of emails, as well as calling the office to find out what was wrong...but no responses. My first thoughts were that the site was undergoing a makeover or have left the building. But it soon appeared online again (early Jan 2009).
Just Be http://www.justbe.com.au launched in Dec 2006 as the "first and only job search and career resource in Australia specifically designed for women". It received exemptions from the Victorian Equal Opportunity Act, allowing it to run an online job board specifically for women.
There are a number of errors in the search form and results pages (the right hand filter function is also broken), while the newest advert online is dated 28th Sep 2008.
But my main issue is that there are still no apologies or explanations to candidates or paying clients! Anyone know what's going on?
"Just Be is so much more than a job search website. It is a community, offering support, career information and advice to inspire and empower women in the workforce. By joining the Just Be community, you will be instantly connected with employers who take diversity seriously.
One of the reasons employers advertise with us is that they want to encourage more women to apply for roles, particularly in industries which, until now, have been largely dominated by men.
By switching to Just Be, you can connect with employers who really want to help you succeed, whether you are a new graduate or a career mother.
On our forums, you can seek expert career advice from female industry leaders, and chat with job seekers. You will also have access to the major women’s networks in Australia, and be informed of the latest news for women in the workforce.
So, whether you’re seeking employment, wanting to network, or just get in touch with other like-minded females, Just Be can help you strategically manage your career. Join other savvy, professional women and switch now to Just Be to take your career to where you want it to be!"
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According to HCI research, there is a heightened awareness among HR and talent management professionals regarding the benefits of these collaboration and knowledge-sharing technologies for acquiring, onboarding, managing, developing and motivating employees. This includes allowing for better informal training by using communities of practice (29 percent) and threaded discussion boards (29 percent), improved communications via communities of practice (42 percent), and faster knowledge transfer via wikis and blogs (26 percent). Respondents also believe that implementing these tools will allow them to access and retain corporate memory and tacit information that could provide significant organizational benefits.
Despite the increased experimentation and perceived benefits of leveraging Web 2.0 applications in the enterprise, organizations included in the research felt that user adoption (37 percent) was among their greatest barriers in using these tools for business purposes, with lack of integration with corporate networks or other business applications identified by some as an inhibitor to employee usage. Creating a compelling business case for the tools (34 percent) also was seen as one of the greatest barriers to corporate usage.
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A video interview is a job interview held between a recruiter/employer and a candidate using video enabled technology. Specific video interview tools include webcams, traditional videotapes, or video conferencing equipment. Video interviews can be viewed in real-time (recruiter/employer and candidate interacting simultaneously) or pre-recorded (candidate first completes the video interview, then an recruiter/employer views the recorded video) formats. The majority of video job interviews are completed by participants in different geographic locations; however, some in-person interviews are captured with video equipment in order to share the content with other decision makers or to store the interview. These videos would not be shared with other 3rd parties, and would not be published with out permission from all parties. Have a look at http://www.candidatesalive.com/
Pros
Questions are standardised for all candidates
Easily compare candidates
Useful for pre-screening applicants
Save money on travel expenses
Multiple viewings - Interviews are archived to allow later recall
Position specific interview questions
Cons
Little interaction between candidate and interviewer
Candidates can experience nerves, leading to a poor interview
Subjective
Can be $$ costly for initial set up
Not all video providers offer 24/7 support
Video Resume
Video resumes are initiated by the candidate. A video resume typically shows a candidate describing his or her qualifications, experience, and skills. Occasionally, a video resume may contain career goals, hobbies, or unique talents that the candidate would like an employer to see. A video resume is typically recorded using a webcam or video camera, following which it is uploaded to the Internet (videotapes or DVDs may be used in some cases). Video resumes are generally not customized to a specific company or position; rather, they are more often generic. Examples of where you can find video resumes include http://www.youtube.com or http://www.resumetube.com
Pros
Free for the employer
Find applicants from social networking and video directory sites
Lets candidates express their unique character
Simplifies portfolio sharing for creative hires
Cons
Lack of standardisation makes comparison difficult
Feel free to join in on the conversation. All comments are moderated before publishing. Comments posted by subscribers don't necessarily reflect the views of Recruitment Directory.
1. Video Resumes are job-seeker-driven, sent to companies unsolicited. Video Interviews are employer-driven, ordered after finding an interesting written resume.
2. Video resumes take hours to wade through. Video interviews take exactly as long as the employer desires.
3. Video resumes are like a box of chocolates–you never know what you’re going to get. Video interviews are standardized, each one set up exactly the same for the position to be filled.
4. Video resumes can vary greatly in production skill and equipment. Video interviews require everyone to use a webcam.
5. Video resumes can bias the employer negatively before they’ve even seen a resume of accomplishments. Video interviews are ordered after the employer has seen and is interested in the employee’s accomplishments.
6. Video Resumes have the potential for legal problems. Video interviews are not discriminatory–they are a “pre” face-to-face interview.
7. Video resumes have been around for a long time, but have not captured the interest of employers. Video interviews have been received well by employers, and are gaining ground every day.
A fellow twitter friend of mine Ryan Chartrand http://twitter.com/glassesgeek from the US has produced a short video & podcast on social networking and recruitment. Ryan's rants and ideas echo my own advice and consulting I am provide to clients. Create a strategy, integrate, target and socialise.
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Have you ever used bluetooth for marketing purposes? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth Nearly all mobile phones and laptops have bluetooth installed by default, and we use it to transfer images, ringtones, documents, connect to one another or to other hardware. Feb/March is always around the time Universities and organisations hold Career Expos or Job Fairs. But did you know you can use it as a marketing medium to attract candidates?
Around this time last year, I initially approached a number of employers to see if they were interested in trying out an idea...
The expo was held at a major university in Melbourne during April 2008. Which, 5 employers collectively engaged me to help them attract graduates to their respective brands.
2 x Engineering 1 x Bank 1 x Professional Service 1 x Government Agency
If you have been to a careers expo or job fair before, all employers are pushing freebies, flyers and so forth. As you would be aware - these expos can attract hundreds/thousands of Graduates wanting to work for these organisations. There are usually 2 or 3 staff for each stand, and they just cant talk to each potential candidate at once. There is so many information sheets being handed out to each person most of which just ends up in the bin!
The process was quite simple, I set up a recruitment message (campaign) for each employer and then put it into some "bluetooth push marketing software" I have and left it on a computer in the expo hall. I made the assertion that every university student had a mobile phone.
We had some posters on each employer stand which read "Want to find out about the application process? Turn your mobile phone bluetooth on to receive the information" Every campaign had the online careers page URL for users to either find out more information or apply for the Graduate program.
The software sends out the campaigns automatically pinging any mobile device in the area - it also has a reporting system that records how many/who it was sent to. It locates mobile phone devices within 20 meters from a dedicated hotspot.
The results from the trial were varied. I can’t split the results for each employer's campaign but here are the totals for the expo
1400 phones found
980 accepted the message
420 rejected the message
78 failed (but then tried again)
Overall I think it went very well. The demographics was 90% Gen Y and the employers were more than happy with the integrated marketing approach.
Total cost of the project was quite low, and certainly it attracted candidates to their respective brands. The challenge is how to use this innovative tool wisely, and certainly add value to the users. This marketing medium has a lot of impact on end users, so it should be used with wisdom.
Unfortunately I can't give any details to who the employers were, but certainly contact me if you want to find out how you can do this for your recruitment campaign in 2009!
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Geoff (5:26pm Friday 09 January 2009)
Very innovative Thomas. In that environment the message would be well received. How long did the phone take to detect and receive the message?
Hi Geoff. It amazes me at the amount of money employers are willing to spend on career expos and job fairs - but again, they are searching for the best and brightest talent.
I would assume that you have been involved in these expos before with your previous experience. Each advertiser is trying to outdo the next one. Free gifts, lollies, stickers, magnets, showbags, music and so forth. But do people actually remember the main reason they attend these expos???
Bluetooth is not a new technology, but everyone has forgotten about it with the emergence of wifi and other hardware.
I will send you an email with a link to the software I used. I believe it dose cycles for any new phones every few mins (you can change the settings) and the message is received within a few seconds.
It's not just text messages you could send - but videos, images, business card?
I can think of other scenarios where you can use this technology. Conferences, Shopping Centers, Schools/Universities, Cafes etc.
annareckers (10:59pm Monday 20 July 2009)
Hey Thomas, I've heard about this idea lately and found your article now. We're thinking of trying it out on our next exposition. Do I need anything else than a computer and the "some bluetooth push marketing software"? Thanks for any information! Anna
We tried that last year in Australia and found that there had to be far too much education in how to use it and turn it on. Few students utilised it and those who did try, found it frustrating as bluetooth doesn't work with all phones and they have to turn it on in most cases. We still have the units and feel it would be a great excercise in numbers for both students and employers to receive wanted content without having to fight their way through crowds at rush pace, but bluetooth is a bit too old school for our users here.
Any advice on how to increase the benefit without the need for such significant marketing around how to use it - would be greatly appreciated.
SMS is an important marketing medium, but has limited application in Recruitment/Job Search. Most of the messages you could send are transactional. The key to a successful SMS marketing campaign relies on the 3 pillars - planning, content and execution. In this blog post I have just summarised my thoughts and ideas into various groups - Uses in Recruitment, Advantages, Disadvantages, Measuring SMS, Questions to ask yourself before sending SMS, Tips and Common mistakes I hear from recruiters.
We use SMS in our own business mostly as a notification service for myself and other admins. When a sale, or new directory listing is submitted we are notified - as I belive it is important to process a sale as soon as possible. I have also integrated it into our various job boards - When a new job, client order, or client wants to sms a user. But how can you use it? Uses in Recruitment
Notify job seekers when a new role matches there profile "Thomas, 2 new roles with CLIENT, PAY, LOCATION. For more info URL"
Remind candidates about attending interview. "Thomas, just a reminder you have a interview with CLIENT, TIME/DATE, LOCATION. Problems call me"
Administration "Thomas, 5 new resumes from JOB BOARD" or "Thomas, JOB AD TITLE is about to close"
Timesheets "Thomas, timesheet due DATE/TIME, questions CONTACT"
Payroll "Thomas, $PAY deposited to bank account DATE. Check email for pay slip. URL"
Referrals "Do you know a JOBTITLE? LOCATION, PAY RATE, REFERAL REWARD more info URL"
Most ATS or Recruitment Databases have an SMS function or module available to use
Advantages
The personal nature of mobile phones makes SMS marketing a very powerful tool.
Most mobile users keep it on them all the time - meaning they can be effective for time sensitive messages.
Users are inclined to read virtually every SMS they get - unlike email and other means of advertising.
Bulk SMS marketing is very economical and one can send thousands of text messages to consumers at low prices.
Bulk SMS saves time - instead of writing a message and then sending it to each mobile subscriber, one message is created and then sent to a whole group of subscribers.
Tracking of SMS delivery and responses is very easy.
Automated
Delivery of the text messages is almost instant.
Sending SMS can be done from a software application or through a internet website
Disadvantages
Opt-in. Need to get permission from users before sending SMS
SMS message is 140 - 160 characters long. You may need to refer the user to a website or email for further information
Impersonal
Can dilute a message
No emotion, mechanical
Measuring SMS
Open rates
Traffic to URL/Website links
Offer acceptance
Replies or response numbers/rate
Redemption rate
Brand awareness
Questions to ask yourself before sending SMS
Why are you communicating via SMS? Should you call? Email?
What do you want to achieve?
What is your message? You only have a limited number of characters. Use them wisely
When should the message be sent?
Can we personalise the message?
Who are we targeting?
Is viral marketing a possibility?
Do you need to cap the responses?
Do we have you systems to send out messages, handle the volume and responses?
Who is identified as the sender?
Common mistakes I hear from recruiters
We did not target the right market, the message was not relevant
We did not identify ourselves as the sender, we received many responses "who is this" and so forth
Poor ad copy
Targeting wrong audience with wrong offer/message
Messages sent out at wrong time
Not allowing recipient to unsubscribe
Spelling mistakes and typos
No personalisation
SMS system fails
Tips
Personalise - "Hi FIRST_NAME, just a reminder about your interview with CLIENT_NAME at TIME/DATE, LOCATION"
Always include details to unsubscribe
Talk in the same language as your customers. Lrn txt spk-especially for youth markets
Test different networks (ie. Telstra, Optus, 3, Vodaphone)
Check to see if the appropriate replies are sent etc
If it is a competition, plan for unusual/wrong answers and have suitable replies in place.
Test language, typos and technical (not all symbols will come out as you expect).
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Coinciding with SEEK's updated website design; they have recently updated the daily "Job Mail" sent to subscribers. The email design has been updated and provides a fresh and clean display. The emails have now been optimized for mobile devices such as the iphone. 
What is Hirewall?
Around this time last year, I initially approached a number of employers to see if they were interested in trying out an idea...
Clayton W
http://www.netpreneur.com.au