A Bond Operational Excellence White Paper. 7 Ways to Grow Your Staffing Agency with Blogging

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1 A Bond Operational Excellence White Paper 7 Ways to Grow Your Staffing Agency with Blogging

2 7 Ways to Grow Your Staffing Agency with Blogging Blogging can provide a foundation for your social media campaign Please enjoy the article below, provided to you courtesy of Bond International Software, a leading provider of social media enabled recruiting and staffing software. To learn how our software can help you harness the power of social media to achieve your staffing objectives, request a free demo. About this paper In this white paper learn the best way to develop a blogging strategy that can help you grow your staffing agency. T here s one constant in the world of business: people buy from people. So for a staffing agency, just as for any other business, building relationships is vital. And this is where the power of blogging reveals itself. Blogging is only part of the marketing equation, but it is, perhaps, the bridge or foundational piece. There is a gap between social media and your website that blogging can bridge. Or, to cast it in slightly different terms, blogging can provide a foundation for your social media campaign, from which you can then move people toward your website, where you provide solutions, that is, products and services. Simply put, blogging is a way to let people see who you are and to dis play your expertise. Below are 7 blogging strategies to grow your staffing agency. 1. Establish a strategy and voice early on. You first need a strategy for your blog that works in conjunction with your staffing agency's overall marketing plan. That means determining early on a targeted audience of prospects and potential customers because when you blog from a plan and target the right people, your chances of growing your agency through blogging can increase significantly. Also, you need to decide on the primary goal for your blog. Is the primary objective brand building or increasing leads or simply communicating with prospects? Similarly, you'll need to determine the voice you want your blog to have for example, how much personality, how formal or informal, how much jargon. Page 2

3 2. Create quality content to keep them coming back. Interesting, relevant, and informative content custom-tailored for your target audience is paramount. Not only can quality content help search rankings, but it can also keep people coming back for more for more great posts and for sharing and interaction. That way you have more opportunity to build relationships, convince readers that your solutions are the best, and grow your staffing agency. But this all takes a consistent and frequent flow of quality content. Two great tools to help you generate ideas for great content and regular posts are; Google Alerts and Google Reader. Use Google Alerts to follow news items, technology changes, and other relevant industry info. When you conduct a search on Google you have the option of setting up a Google alert for that search term. Once you do this, you can choose to receive updates daily or weekly by so you always have a steady stream of current, relevant ideas for your next post. Staffing professionals can also use Google Reader to curate ideas for future blog posts. Whenever you come across great industry related blog, news site, or other resource, you can click on the RSS button for that site and have the information automatically fed into your Google Reader. When you are preparing to write your next post, simply open your Reader to see all the latest news and information and inspire your next post. Using these two tools will help eliminate writers block and insure your posting content to your blog that your audience cares about. 3. Use keywords...judiciously. If you want your blog content to be read and to establish a relationship with readers, then that content has to be found. The post title must contain well-researched keywords, and then those keywords need to appear in the body of the post. Just make sure you don't overuse the keywords and force them into places where they wouldn't naturally fall. You must, however, use high-volume keywords that clients and prospects are searching for. With the Google Adwords keyword tool, for instance, you can discover exactly which relevant keywords are the most searched for and so plan content around those to get more readers and thus possibly more business. Page 3

4 4. Extend and differentiate your brand. Your blog should be another branding tool by means of which you extend the reach of your company's brand and differentiate your brand from your competitors'. Such a blogging branding strategy keeps readers/potential clients aware that the blog is tied to your agency and helps to promote your agency. The tone, look and feel of your blog should be consonant with your brand, and the design of your blog should match your company website. You can also use your blog to extend brand reach into social channels by sharing your posts on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and thus create even greater brand awareness. 5. Use your blog to create buzz. Blogging affords you the opportunity to create buzz excitement about and anticipation for promotions, new ideas, and new services or products. You can do this by including in-depth articles, pre-release announcements, or press releases on your blog. Or you can use short posts with timely and arresting information to get readers engaged. When readers are excited about what you write and offer, they are more likely to share it with their social networks. This increases your reach and the chance that one of their followers will share it again. 6. Include multimedia where appropriate. Online readers, as we've been reminded countless times, are scanners more than readers. And with so many distractions tugging their attention in so many directions, a page of unbroken text will likely cause them to click away. Including multimedia in your blog posts photos, images, and embedded YouTube videos, for example is a good way to get them to stick around and see what you have to offer and to showcase your technical Page 4

5 expertise and versatility. It is also a good idea to include pictures of your staff and clients when writing a post that mentions them. Be sure to get approval before posting someone s photo. Incorporating multimedia in your blogging, then, can help you attract prospects, keep them around longer, and, as a result, possibly grow your staffing agency. 7. Take advantage of the list-building opportunities. An old and wise online-marketing rule has it that the money is in the list and blogging can help you build that valuable list. First, blogging helps to establish you as an authority in the staffing arena. And because people trust knowledgeable authorities, blogging can also aid in attracting clients, opportunities, and partners. Placing an incentivized opt-in form on your blog gives you the opportunity to nurture these new relationships. Once you have received readers' permission to contact them directly and regularly, relationship-building opportunities multiply opportunities that can lead to staffingbusiness growth. Consistent blogging is a great way to grow your staffing business. And as your business grows, you'll likely need the best software solution to free up more time for marketing efforts such as blogging and social media. Find out how Bond AdaptSuite staffing software can help you streamline your recruiting efforts in order to place more talent and ultimately keep growing your agency. Page 5

6 Presented by: Bond International Software, Inc. Copyright Bond International Software, Inc All rights reserved.