How Medical Staffing Firms Develop Winning Digital Marketing Strategies
In either case, your in-house team or external experts failed to hit the mark because you were lacking the proper plan.
Why Your Staffing Firm Needs a Strategic Plan
Your digital marketing strategy gives your staffing firm direction. With a plan in place, you’ll have the details you need to help your company effectively find the right candidates using online platforms. Your digital strategy plan should give you a clear idea of the following:
- Your vision for your firm’s growth and short and long-term goals
- Who your ideal candidates are
- Where to find your ideal candidates online
- How to attract your ideal candidates online
- How to report, measure, and track your digital marketing performance
If you’re the owner of a medical staffing firm or a marketer within one looking to start digital marketing or improve your current online marketing, I am going to share with you the exact steps I used to help my clients develop a strategy for their new online initiatives.
Remember, the more time you spend thinking about your goals, getting to know your audience, and planning how you’ll approach your digital marketing, the more likely you are to achieve success.
These frameworks will help you generate more candidates looking for new roles, whether you are just getting started or have been marketing online for years.
Your Firm’s Vision
Digital marketing can be used to achieve several different goals and outcomes. For medical staffing firms, digital marketing can help you find new candidates, target higher-value candidates, fill urgent roles, and automate your recruitment processes. Regardless of the goal, all digital marketing initiatives are implemented to drive more placements and revenue. Therefore, use the following questions as your guiding light in this new project:
- What is the target number of candidates you want to place in the next 12 months?
- Why is it imperative that you meet this target?
- How committed are you and your team towards achieving this new goal?
The answers to these questions will give you a general idea of how many new placements you need and determine if you can hit this goal.
Understanding your short-term and long-term targets will decide the type of strategy you will take. Should you go aggressive and seek out new markets and candidates? Should you play defense and focus on retention? Does your firm need new branding or digital transformation? From here, you can further ensure you’re taking the right approach and refine your figures by doing a deep dive into your past results.
- Is your number of placements increasing, static, or declining in comparison to previous years?
- What is your current application, interview, and hire rate?
- Who are your candidates now?
- How long do they stay with your clients on average?
- How did you attract them to your firm?
- Why did they choose you over your competitor?
The answers to these questions will create an avatar of your average candidate and give you a general idea of where your firm currently stands within the marketplace.
What Does Your Ideal Candidate Look Like?
Most medical staffing firms assume they already know their candidates. They know which areas they come from. They know what they look like. They believe they know what their candidates want and the best way to approach them. While they might be right, today’s candidate preferences and habits change rapidly. Whether you are looking to expand your market share in new areas or continue to reach local candidates, a calculated approach is required in digital marketing.
Create a clear avatar of your ideal candidate by answering these questions:
- Which roles and specialties are they interested in?
- Why do you want to attract this type of candidate?
- Why will they decide to join your firm?
- How much will they value the roles you offer?
- How long will they remain with your clients realistically?
Once you understand the value of placing a new ideal candidate, you can backtrack your numbers to find your exact targets. With these numbers, you can then put a plan together to find and attract these ideal prospects.
Example:
- Target Additional Revenue: $1,000,000
- Average Profit per Placement: $5,000
- Placement Rate: 5%
- Number of Additional Placements Required = Target Revenue / Average Profit per Placement = $1,000,000 / $5,000 = 200 placements
- Number of Additional Applications Required = Placements Required / Placement Rate = 200 / 0.05 = 4,000 applications
- Number of Monthly New Applications Required = 4,000 / 12 = ~333 applications
Where Do These Prospects Congregate Online?
There are tons of digital marketing channels to choose from. This is a blessing and a curse. It is imperative that you identify the marketing channels that align the best with your business. As a note, your prospective candidates are on the internet more than ever. New and current candidates will engage you from their mobile devices, tablets, and desktop computers alike.
The largest online platforms are Google and Facebook. Sites and apps like LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter are also crucial. Many prospective candidates will start their search for new roles online using Google. These candidates are also likely to be active on professional networks like LinkedIn.
People can find you as they scroll through LinkedIn or Facebook, while some candidates will find you on Google as they look for new opportunities. Regardless of whether they are scrolling their feeds or performing searches at the moment, a staffing firm needs a strategy in place to attract people on these platforms beyond simply having a profile.
How to Attract New Medical Candidates Online
In digital marketing, all roads lead to online visibility. Whether your company will be using paid media, earned media, or organic media, there will always be a component of creating attractive content.
Before we begin, place yourself in your candidate’s shoes. What do you do when you have a question about a new job opportunity? What do you do when you want to apply for a new position? Chances are, you started on Google. Google then captures your intent to find this service and places you in front of the companies that Google deems the best fit.
On the other hand, you have LinkedIn and Facebook. These platforms have massive audiences and targeting features that can put your company in front of prospective candidates based on their interests and professional background. The difference is, when your prospects come across your content on these platforms, they aren’t necessarily in the market for a new job.
This does not prevent you from finding success on LinkedIn or Facebook; it just means that your content has to be compelling enough to capture your prospect’s attention and get them to act.
Keep in mind, regardless of the online platform, your marketing will have to be engaging, address your prospect’s biggest problems or challenges, and have a compelling offer to take action. Mundane or run-of-the-mill content won’t cut it in one of the most competitive spaces for online marketing.
How to Track, Measure, and Improve Your Results
If you can’t track it, you can’t measure it. Some firms don’t realize that their data is a goldmine. On the other hand, some firms have too much data or too little time to use their data to solve problems. One of the biggest benefits of digital marketing is the ability to more accurately track, measure, and optimize the performance of your campaigns.
Tracking
- Set benchmarks and monitor your online business analytics.
- Use tools like Google Analytics, LinkedIn Analytics, and Facebook Insights to track the performance of your campaigns.
Measure
- Utilize a sophisticated CRM to assess deal flow, manage revenue targets, and growth planning.
- Measure key performance indicators (KPIs) such as click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and cost per acquisition (CPA).
Improve
- Review your analytics to identify marketing gaps and new opportunities.
- A/B test different ad copies, images, and landing pages to determine what resonates best with your audience.
- Optimize your campaigns based on data-driven insights to continuously improve performance.
Conclusion
All in all, not having a clearly defined digital marketing strategy is the number one thing holding medical staffing firms back from success with digital marketing. Your plan not only has to create a clear picture of your ideal candidate and growth, but also craft an offer that highlights your firm as unique, and finally, give you the opportunity to track and improve your results.
Does your digital strategy need a revamp?
If so, let’s discuss a methodology for you to attract your ideal candidates, increase placement , and kick the job boards by driving applicants direct to you! Book a call with me here.
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