Work in recruitment? Then you might want to read this
Whether you’re trying to reach multiple candidates, or update them on their job application, there simply isn’t enough time in a day to contact everyone via telephone. That’s where business SMS comes in.
Research conducted for our upcoming white paper, The State of SMS, revealed that there are 79.14 million active mobile devices. And with recent unemployment figures reaching 1.6 million in the UK, there’s no denying that SMS provides a unique opportunity for recruitment agencies to tap into.
Which begs the question: why is the recruitment industry only using business SMS to 33.88% of its capacity? This means that the 8,063,877 people who have opted in to receive text messages from recruiters, are willing and happy to receive more. That’s a lot of scope for your company to explore.
In light of this, I’ve put together 6 simple ways to help inspire your next campaign and ensure that you’re utilising business SMS to its full potential.
Fill vacancies quicker
When you’re alerting potential candidates of a new job, email communication doesn’t always cut it. Especially when the average peak open rate stands at around 22%. Encourage jobseekers to opt-in for SMS alerts via your website or over the phone.
On average, text messages will be read by 90% of people within the first three minutes and 32% of them will generate a response. And if you’re worried about an influx of the same questions, you could eliminate a majority of them by attaching the job spec to the initial bulk SMS. This will provide the candidates with all of the information they need to know.
Business SMS is also very useful when you’re looking to fill a time-sensitive contract or temp role.
Inform and segment jobseekers
The beauty of business SMS is not only the speed in which you can contact candidates, but also the way you can segment your alerts.
With the Textlocal online platform, you can include custom fields. This enables you to include job sector industries of interest and skills acquired next to every contact. So, you won’t end up sending a marketing professional a job spec about a new exciting career opportunity in the catering industry!
Give your candidate timely reminders
Once you’ve found your select candidates, your next job is to make sure that they are prepared and on time for their interviews. But with so many distractions in today’s world, a simple automated SMS reminding them about the date and time of their interview can go a long way. It’s worked for many service-led industries in reducing the number of appointment and booking ‘no-shows’.
You could even reduce the likelihood of a candidate getting lost by including a map to the business and give them instant interview tips.
Improve the candidate experience
Improving the experience for a candidate can lead to ongoing relationships and future contracts with businesses.
Instead of sending an ineffective email or making an intrusive and inconvenient phone call while they are at work, you can send the candidate job application updates via text message. This will help to reduce the number of inbound phone calls and enable employees to focus on other areas of the business.
SMS is cost-effective and improves productivity
As alluded to before, business SMS is highly practical. With Textlocal’s award-winning online platform, you can sign up for a free account and send SMS for pennies.
Texting a candidate will also allow your recruitment agency to significantly reduce the number of unwanted outbound and inbound calls, while diminishing the over reliance on email communications. You can then use the extra resource elsewhere.
So, whether you’re using business SMS or not, our online platform will enable you to utilise the UK’s fastest growing marketing channel to its full capacity today.
