How to Begin a Content Marketing Program – Part 2

Nov 28, 2017 | Being the Leader In Your Firm

Last week Mike shared the basics on how to begin a content marketing program. This week we continue with step-by-step instructions on how to implement the program.

QUESTION: I want to start on content marketing.  I am keen to use new ways to establish myself as an expert in my field of recruitment.  I am not sure how to get started.  Can you give me a bit of a roadmap, steps 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. in regards to how to get something like this off the ground.  In terms of content I am thinking fortnightly, [for you Americans that means every couple weeks], client emails relating to recruitment insights, current hiring trends, winning best talent, etc.  Thanks so much Mike.  – Caroline, Australia

ANSWER: 

But if you want to do it yourself, here are the steps.

  1. Put together your contact list.  You cannot collect lists off the internet saying give me every, if you could make it this simple, but if you just had something, scrub the internet for directors of sales in the plastics industry, that is spamming.  You want to collect people that you have had conversations with, both clients and candidates.  A question I get asked all the time is – can you combine clients and candidates in the same article?  Yes, because you will get resumes from candidates and candidates, even if they are not in the role of management, they see themselves aspirationally there, so it is great research and is a great way again to continue to establish yourself as an authority.
  2. Find an author.  Do not do the writing yourself because it is a distraction.  You can put bids out on a site like Upwork.com.  You can seed the author’s mind for topics such as hiring trends, winning best talent, how to get an offer accepted, how to lead multiple generations.  Actually some of these topics you can make into a multi-part article series.  The 7 biggest mistakes people make when hiring in the plastics industry, and that can be one article with like a little sentence each.  Then stay with us as each week we are going to go deeper into a topic.  So step 1 becomes its own article.  Step 2 becomes its own article.  So the 7 biggest article becomes 8 articles.  Each of the 7 mistakes becomes an article and the overall summary article is an article.  If people miss some, which they are, they are going to miss some.  You will actually get some requests – can you send me the second or third mistake?  It means you have an engaged reader.  It also might give you a reason to follow up with them about why.  Is this something showing up in your business and how can we help you in the talent acquisition role of finding it?
  3. Find a mail service provider.  Do not use Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo, whatever as a server for this.  You will be spammed out of the industry.  You want to use something like Constant Contact, Exact Target, MailChimp.  Those are three of the more prominent ones and are recognized by internet service providers as being okay.
  4. Commit to sending your emails out.  This is why if you have an author and they do 3 articles a month, and I would even say do not administrate it yourself, do not be cheap and say, I will make sure it goes out.  Even if you are a small solo operator you can hire a virtual administrator, through Upwork.com or other freelancing sites. You can say, I want you to take the articles, maybe you proofread them, and I want you to set them up in my Constant Contact account and schedule them to go out every week.
  5. One last thing I would do is do not just put the article.  Have an introduction and I even recommend making it often unrelated to business with your headshot.  The headshot can be fun or casual, I would not do a suit and tie, and I would not be incredibly informal either, but a little bit that is going to show your personality and tie something in going on with your personal life.  Maybe it ties into the article a little bit.

Those are the steps.  I would really look at doing it two to three times a month.  We actually have a done for you content marketing service for our clients.  We have clients in Australia, and Europe too, so it does not matter your time zone.  If you just want to say – here, take care of it, do it for me, send me a note to our director of content marketing, Tinamarie at  Tinamarie@TheRecruiterU.com.  We can send you some samples and things like that.  It can be completely done for you.