Indeed, clients can be tentative and diligent, preferring to peruse the web selectively in their own time - searching for the correct agency for their vacancy with minimal commitment in the interim - than take a cold call from an eager consultant in the middle of their working day. It is here that they will find peoplecompare.co.uk.
Targeting New Clients
Newly launched this month and already sporting over 1,000 recruitment business sign-ups, peoplecompare.co.uk is not the directory site you may think. In fact, it is an interactive partnership creation service which aims to introduce you to that Holy Grail of our sector - clients who may have no recruitment partner. And the beauty of the system is that they will come to you.
The central function of peoplecompare.co.uk is as a tool with which clients who are actively seeking a recruitment partner can find you. From their perspective, the site allows them to comfortably research their options without the pressure of a live telephone call. From yours, the comprehensive search methodology means that only genuinely interested, highly relevant clients will contact you.
How it Works
The first step in forging that solid client relationship is of course to make your company known. Every recruitment agency on peoplecompare.co.uk is represented by an individual business profile, which contains price details only for temp placements, not perms - so market price will not be affected - as well as your company’s unique selling points, history and logo as standard. This means that every client who accesses your profile sees a detailed, branded description of your agency. Peoplecompare.co.uk even offers the opportunity to update your profile in real time, so that you can control exactly what potential clients see, and maintain a consistent, up-to-the minute presence.
To ensure that your profile is seen by every relevant client, rather than lost between pages of options, peoplecompare.co.uk only accepts 20 recruitment agencies per sector per region for its profile listings. Clients then simply search the catalogue by sector, region and role, and your company appears in the results of those searches most appropriate not only to the client, but to you.
Once your company has been found and your winning profile copy encouraged a client to contact you, peoplecompare.co.uk sends an email notification with a job description for the client’s vacancy. It is then your decision whether to accept the opportunity to fill the position by clicking on a link to the client’s contact details.
The service doesn’t end there, though: to help you to clearly monitor the progress of your campaign with the site, and better target clients and candidates generally, throughout your subscription peoplecompare.co.uk will also supply you with a monthly report on the employment activity in your region.
Popularity and Marketing
The popularity of comparison sites (or ‘aggregators’) like peoplecompare.co.uk as an online research tool has skyrocketed in just a couple of years: previously published research by Nielsen Online showed that BeatThatQuote.com was the fastest-growing website in 2007; aggregator giant moneysupermarket.com announced Q1 2008 revenue growth of 30% and visitor growth of more than 15% year-on-year; and a Datamonitor study found that comparison sites created more than a fifth of new business sales in the motor industry alone in 2007.
With such a vast and mounting audience actively choosing and trusting this kind of site to help them make crucial choices, and peoplecompare.co.uk the only site of its kind in the recruitment sector, its pool of potential clients for recruiters is immense and untapped.
In this hesitant fiscal period, as potential clients take greater care in how they place new candidates to ensure minimum expenses, and your budget for seeming non-essentials such as marketing is more fastidiously measure, peoplecompare.co.uk can drive audiences to your brand through its huge, strategic and varied marketing campaign for the site. Peoplecompare.co.uk has surveyed potential clients on their preferred trade titles to ensure that print advertising is targeted and effective, and has even launched a nationwide television ad campaign.
“Business-to-business marketing does not traditionally use TV,” says Kevyn, “but peoplecompare.co.uk wants to raise its presence and profile, and we know that, whether they are in the office or on their sofas, the people who make the decisions in business are the same, and they’re consumers as much as businesspeople.”
Peoplecompare.co.uk’s surveys (in conjunction with an independent survey provider) have also revealed the enthusiasm of the target market for their service, with 70% of HR Managers and Directors surveyed saying that recruitment agencies cold call too often, and 86% that they would use a comparison site to help them to choose between recruitment agencies.
The response from recruiters who have already registered with peoplecompare.co.uk is similarly positive: “I was originally sceptical,” says Jim Slaymaker, Managing Director of the Staffwise and Oasis Recruitment Groups, “but after speaking to the guys at People Compare and understanding the concept, I realised this was not just another directory or feedback site – this could be very exciting.”
Subscription: a Level Playing Field
One placement is all it would take to cover your subscription fee for an entire year. At just £176.25 including VAT, the tiny 12-month fee is less than the average quarter-page print advert - plus, peoplecompare.co.uk are offering an extra three months free as part of their introductory offer.
With this flat fee consistent across all recruitment agencies, and no luxurious add-ons to differentiate the moneyed bigger players, peoplecompare.co.uk hopes to level the playing field for all recruitment companies, irrespective of size and marketing budget.
Apart from the annual subscription, the only fee that is charged is a nominal £2 per position that you choose to accept. Not until you have read the job description, decided that you would like to fill the vacancy and clicked to confirm this will you be charged. That means you need only pay for positions you know you can fill!
In this uncertain economic climate, when marketing pursestrings are tightening and recruitment budgets shrinking, peoplecompare.co.uk offers a cost-effective, efficient and simple way to bring relevant vacancies and interested clients direct to your inbox.
For further details or to subscribe, please: visit www.peoplecompare.co.uk; call 0115 852 4748; or email info@peoplecompare.co.uk.