Cheezhead Recruiting News and Opinion

One major conclusion can be drawn from the outpouring of research on mobile marketing that has surfaced over the past few years: if you aren’t utilizing mobile marketing campaigns to target new business, you’re ignoring a vast pool of untapped potential. Odds are, someone in your industry is spending a lot of time figuring out how to exploit this incredibly powerful medium.

There are approximately 3 billion worldwide cell phone subscribers, many of whom spend a significant portion of their days on the their phone. With the tremendous success of smart phones like the iPhone and the Blackberry Storm, many experts are predicting that the mobile phone will become THE hand-held computer that allows users immediate access to information.

Many recruiters I spoke with have been utilizing mobile campaigns for quite some time now with varying degrees of success, while others are still hesitant to embrace what might constitute a particularly bold breach of privacy.

Mobile and email marketing companies like New York-based Ekobuzz are acclimatizing both consumers and companies to the idea of mobile marketing by rolling out permission-based campaigns in a phased manner. Founder Kriti Jaising said that EkoBuzz has realized a lot of success working with recruiting firms for some specific reasons.

“The recruiter must be in constant touch and form a personal relationship with all the players in the recruitment process, including the hiring manager, HR, and the candidate,” Jaising said. “Traditionally, during the recruitment process, the recruiter uses the phone or email to keep the candidate informed and drive him/her to the next step. Unfortunately the phone is considered invasive and access to personal email is limited during hours. Additionally, during work hours it is becoming increasingly hard to reach the hiring manager and HR due to their hectic schedules. In both cases the use of SMS and the mobile web enables the recruiter to reach their target audience at anytime, anywhere, in a non-invasive manner.”

Recruiters can utilize SMS and the mobile web in a number of ways. They can send candidates interview schedules, write up job descriptions, maintain employer contact information, and get or give out directions. They can also give the candidate the ability to respond to messages, confirm interviews, or send a message about delays.

Since mobile customers are increasingly moving towards monthly unlimited plans with their carriers for services like web and SMS, Jaising said that recruiting firms are becoming more open to the idea of SMS campaigns. But reluctance still lingers.

“We are finding that recruiting companies are very interested but are cautious due to factors such as privacy concerns, cost of sending and receiving SMS, and fear or losing clients by reaching out to them via a new channel,” she said.

As Ekobuzz continues to implement these campaigns with recruiting firms, Jaising said that hard ROI numbers will be measured. “We currently have able to collect soft ROI from consumers who report that their recruiting process has been streamlined and shortened, as well as providing a much more personalized customer service.”

So what are some mobile marketing tactics that staffing firms can begin to develop?

Izzy Leizerowitz, a staffing manager for RandCol who recently wrote an insightful article for the Mobile Marketing Association’s newsletter about the true power of recruiting in a mobile world, talked about how recruiting firms can uncover benefits from local targeting and proximity marketing.

“Proximity marketing is the localized wireless distribution of advertising or marketing content associated with a particular place,” Leizerowitz said. “Today, a candidate can initiate specialized keyword-related job board searches by zip code to reach him/her on their computer. These searches are delivered to an email address as search results dictate. As job board software will evolve, these searches can be modified to also search and deliver to users by telephone number of WAP address. Such searches will be integrated through employer internal job boards as well.”

Leizerowitz said that it’s only a matter of time before large corporations take the hint and develop their own unique mobile applications and for third-party developers to follow suit. As for job boards, a very limited number have created mobile-friendly sites. Expect that to change soon as well.

“I believe there are two distinct philosophies on what is the best method to deploy current Internet-based services and applications to mobile users, including job boards,” Leizerowitz said. “One method is to focus on improving communications speed and access for a mobile device to interact with the Internet regardless of the application. The second method is to develop a completely unique version of the application or service that is strictly developed for smart phones and/or cell phones. The major job boards and internal corporate job sites are currently working through which method is best or a combination of both that will work.”

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