Is Recruitment Business Advertising Worth It?

Even if you have a great network of contacts that are giving you referrals, your recruitment business cannot flourish without some sort of advertising.

The internet has increased the online advertising and internet marketing opportunities immensely, so you do not have to pay a fortune on one advert anymore. The best way to utilise the advertising opportunities that are available is to not limit yourself to one media, instead, think about what you are trying to achieve with each advertising or marketing campaign and choose your media accordingly.

To help you choose the most suitable approach for your purposes, here are some details about the various options for your small business advertising budget.

Internet Advertising

In its simplest form, internet advertising involves putting a special offer or feature on your own website. The key to gaining business from internet advertising is to get traffic to your site, so think of this alongside the actual adverts you write and design.

Many small business owners use ‘Google Adwords’ successfully – this ‘pay per click’ advertising is surprisingly easy to set up and understand. There are online help sections that explain the process and you can totally set your own budget – many people find that one pound per day is plenty to get pre-qualified traffic to your site.

You can also get great internet advertising by having links to your site from other relevant sites – sometimes this can be done for free if you have a reciprocal link to their sites. Make sure they are suitable and appropriate to your business, though.

If you have a blog or news section on your site, this is a great way to make sure your website is at the top of the search engine listings, as fresh information is the key.

Trade Press Advertising

Paying for an advert in the trade press for your recruitment sector, or for a magazine targeted to the recruitment industry itself, can be rather hit and miss. If you have a decent advertising budget then it is certainly worth throwing into the mix as an advertising option, but if you are using your hard earned pennies and desperately need to see a return, it is perhaps not as effective as other media.

You may find it more successful to try to gain PR in such magazine stocks, rather than paying for an advert. If you do decide to go ahead with a paid advert, really haggle on the price. Phone the advertising teams at your chosen publication on the last working day of the month when they will be desperate to fill their space.

Media Advertising

This includes radio, TV and other press advertising. You can easily get through your money in these areas, but it is still worth investing in. Make friends with local media contacts so you can get to know when their deadlines are, when you may be able to get PR instead of paid advertising and what adverts your competitors are running.

Once you have decided to run a media advert and are sure you have got your slot for the best price, make sure the advert itself is excellent. There is no point going this far and then letting your opportunity pass with a low quality presentation.