Here are two articles from May of 97 - or you can read all five.

Specialty Recruiting

The online marketplace functions differently for various segments in the recruiting "food chain". Broad employment classified advertisers, (like Monster Board, Career Mosaic, ESpan, and OCC) driven by the potential of reaching mass audiences, offer recruiters access to the part of the market already moving towards a job change. In their own ways, each is hitting a saturation point. The market is driving them to more precise niching as a strategy. We don't know where, but we expect to see a much heavier emphasis on geography in one or all of these services.

Temporary and contract placement services (served best by Net-Temps and DICE) absolutely depend on a high volume of resume throughput. Because they fill immediate needs, the net provides an interesting dilemma. The investment required to generate the right volume of resumes is often out of reach. Depending on shared services (subscription and free) puts these firms at risk of becoming commodity businesses with commodity pricing.

Executive recruiters have been slow to embrace the net. The overlap between their natural candidates and the Internet Demographic makes this one of the oddest stories in the recruiting sphere. There's a major innovation waiting to happen for the first Executive Recruiter who really leverages the net.

Specialty recruiters are another story. We had a quick look at a website offered by Survival Systems who serve the Power Electronics and Analog Industry. The site (which is pretty standard fare on most levels) includes a fledgling industry news section. It's a reminder that these very focused recruiters stand the most to gain in the small niches of the net. By knowing precisely who they're searching for off line, finding them becomes easy online. Small and precise operations have a much better chance of effectively navigating the little talent pools online.

Email

Do: Deliver a personal message
Don't: Send out a slick pitch letter

In the world of direct postal mail, consumers expect to receive slick pitches produced by New York ad agencies. On the Internet, people want personal notes handcrafted for an audience of one. A chatty "Hi! Thought this might interest you ..." goes a lot farther than "Dear Friend, You have been selected to receive ..."

Do: Keep it short
Don't: Go on and on for several pages

On the Internet, people want information and they want it now. That's why short, snappy pitches pull better than long-winded appeals that tell a story, paint a picture, tug at heart strings, or describe your product's amazing bells and whistles in exhaustive detail. Besides, have you ever tried to read 3,000 words on a 15-inch screen?

Do: Get to the point
Don't: Make people figure it out for themselves

Internet users are busy people who receive dozens or even hundreds of email messages a day. They barely have time to double-click on your message to open it, much less waste valuable time figuring out what you're trying to sell. If you can't come up with a three-word subject line that sums up your pitch, hit the Delete key and start over.

Do: Give people an incentive to read more
Don't: Restate your everyday pitch or talk about "great jobs"

Internet users tend to be surfers with short attention spans. If you want to inspire them to action, you need to give them a compelling reason to work with you.

Do: Drive people to your Web site

On the Internet, you don't need to say it all in one letter. One of the most effective online marketing strategies is to use your direct email piece as a teaser to lure people to your Web site where you can wow them.

- John Sumser © TwoColorHat. All Rights Reserved.

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