Why Recruiters should be Embracing SMS Marketing

SMS marketing is on the up: over 2 billion people are using smartphones every day, across the globe. That’s a lot of messages and it’s almost twice the amount of emails sent.

As a marketer or a recruiter who is trying to improve their lead generation processes, you are increasingly competing with a variety of mediums in which to get your message across – it seems that every man and his dog are using Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for starters, never mind email marketing, PPC or printed adverts.

In recruitment, the competition is even stiffer. Turnaround times for roles are at an all-time high, and recruiters don’t have time for candidates to check their emails, or rely on the hope that a candidate will like your social media page, see a posted role and then get in touch.

There aren’t enough hours in the day to call around to candidates, and even when you do make those calls, there’s no guarantee that they’ll be picked up. Recruiters’ days are spent chasing people, leaving notes on a system, and leaving voicemails that may take a few days to get a response to. In the ever-changing, fast-moving, whirlwind environment that recruiting is, the typical practice does not measure up to the reality.

However, more and more marketers are now realising the powerful impact SMS marketing can have. Fast, direct, discreet, and accessible to a candidate even when they might not be able to talk on the phone, they are still able to check their phone for text messages.

Ultimately, SMS marketing improves the candidate experience. It’s time effective, it’s cost effective, and it’s data driven, meaning you are able to make informed decisions all the time.

If you’re still not quite sure how business text messaging can have a great impact on you as a recruiter, have a read below, and then why not get in touch with us to discuss it further.

Candidates aren’t always able to answer the phone. Whether they are a temp or a permanent member of staff, personal phone usage in most companies is frowned upon, especially if it’s to look for a new job or contract. For recruiters, this often means early mornings and/or late nights to catch the candidate. This can have a huge impact on the turnaround time for a role – especially for temporary roles.

For example; locum doctors or nurse shifts often come up at short notice. There is nothing worse than having to call around your regulars to find that not one of them has answered or is available, and all the while you’re doing that, you know that your competitor is probably doing the same – leaving you with a race to fill the shift.

Emails at this point are too slow, as is social media. Emails also face a variety of obstacles. If you send a lot from one account, you can jam the server, meaning that the emails take an age to send. Then there’s the design and content. Too fancy and there’s a delay in time and getting through the junk mail filters; not fancy enough, there’s the chance it won’t catch their eye in time – and that’s if the candidate is even checking their phone.

Business text messaging cuts through all of that: using an SMS API web analytics package, multiple messages can be sent from one computer, linked to a database of phone numbers, and there’s no risk of jamming the server.

Messages reach the candidate, regardless of their availability. There’s no wasted time with voicemails, no emails being marked as junk without being read, or sitting there, just waiting to be opened. Recruiters aren’t having to dial lots of different people, or waste their time trying to sell a role whilst under a time pressure. It’s as simple as 160 characters with a brief description, location, £, and a link to a full job description on the website or a contact number – all of which can be put in a template, ready to be used again and again.

The fact that an SMS is limited to 160 characters (or 456 if you’re using fastsms) per message means that whatever you send has to be short, sharp, and punchy, with a compelling call to action. This cuts through all the fluff and gets directly to the point, which again is a huge time-saving process.

Now, imagine the amount of time and effort saved by implementing such a system. The more effective and efficient time management and workload management. The time saved from using a better process for contacting candidates can be used to source new roles and to build relationships with new and potential clients and candidates.

The fact is, the majority of people, regardless of job, lifestyle or availability have their phones with them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Not everyone will answer an unknown phone number, but if you send a text, you’re more likely to receive a response because it will be opened.

More and more companies are using SMS as a method to gain feedback about their customer service. Rather than time-consuming forms or calls or emails, SMS marketing can provide fast and on the spot feedback about a role, an account manager or the service they’ve received. By implementing a feedback model using SMS services, a business is able to garner efficient and reliable data that can be used to improve their systems and processes. Using an SMS API analytics package, data can be fed into a variety of graphs to illustrate market opinions ready for those all-important meetings to assist you in making better decisions when it comes to targeting candidates.

• An estimated 94% of UK adults use or have access to a smartphone.
• As a recruiter, you would be daft not to harness that huge audience.
• SMS marketing is helping more and more recruiters grow their business – probably your competitors’ businesses, too.
• SMS business messaging gives your candidate a better user experience that is discreet and instant.
• SMS messaging is far more time efficient than email marketing, especially for recruitment.
• SMS messaging is more cost effective – not just at PoS, but in terms of saved time and hours also. Win win.

So, you’ve got to this point – what now? Contact us and we can help to grow your business so you can grow your profits.