This week’s blog post is brought to you by Jonathan Page, Careerleaf’s Director of Sales & Marketing.
Taking Inspiration from Retail and Applying it to your Job Board Business
Sometimes you find inspiration in strange places. In 2015, Careerleaf took inspiration from Apple and their famous once-a-year only Black Friday sale. We thought that it would likely go unnoticed among the business of the season, however it was our most successful outbound campaign of the year. I am certain that Apple’s marketing team has already begun their countdown to Black Friday, but have you?
Whether you go with Black Friday or something else there are two key ideas I hope you’ll take note of:
- 90 days from now you need to have a campaign in market to encourage your customers to complete purchases before the close of the calendar year
- Have fun and take some risks – you’ll never know unless you try.
Careerleaf’s Black Friday Adventure
Knowing that the end of the calendar year can sometimes be a slower period for businesses of all types, what with holidays and year-end reporting and accounting to do, we decided November was a good time for an outbound campaign.
While we Canadians celebrate a Thanksgiving holiday in October, the influence of our American neighbours’ traditions is still strong. Retailers here have even started having “Black Friday” sales. (For our non-North American clients, Black Friday falls between the American Thanksgiving holiday on a Thursday and the weekend. Retailers have big sale events that attract a lot of attention and can get pretty crazy.)
So we thought, “why not have a Black Friday sale ourselves?” We set up a limited time offer that we knew we could manage, had a bit of fun with our messaging, and sent it off to a mix of new and existing contacts.
The results were rewarding, and our timing made sense for customers who were planning to address their job board needs in the early new year.
For those of you running job boards and working in recruitment – what successful marketing inspires you? How can you adapt it to your own marketing in the next 90 days?
The 90-Day Campaign Cycle
I learned about the 90-day campaign cycle from my friends in network marketing1, and found success using this planning approach marketing niche job boards for Workopolis. At the core of the approach is the idea that 90 days is a sweet spot of sorts for planning, executing and achieving measurable results. In my experience, the minimum annual frequency for campaigns to employers was 4 times per year – aligning well with a 90 campaign cycle.
So what are you going set your sights on for 90 days from now?
If you already have a great idea – excellent! If you’re not sure, why not plan for a Black Friday promotion? Your job board may be the place they least expect one, but most want or need one.
Best wishes for a profitable Black Friday!
1. Not sure if you’ve ever attended a large regional network marketing event for one of the large players, but it is an amazing learning experience for any marketer/business owner – I highly recommend it!