'The Ultimate Guide to starting a recruitment podcast'

Download now

Author: Haydn Morgans

‘Bitesize’ Podcast episodes, should you do them?

Posted on by Haydn Morgans

We’ve been noticing a recent trend going on with some of the biggest business podcasts out there at the moment, and we’re all for them.

We’re not quite sure if they have an official name but we’re gonna go ahead and call them ‘bitesize’ episodes.

These short-form podcast episodes will usually either highlight an upcoming episode with the hosts commentary, bring back some soundbite from an older episode, or offer a shorter episode around perhaps a topic that doesn’t need a full episode.

So usually they’re not a unique episode, but more a snippet of an existing episode.

So why would I bitesize an episode and put it out?

Well think of these little guys as teasers or a taste of an episode, it’s something you can quickly listen to and it may inspire you to then listen to the full thing OR get excited about the upcoming episode.

Really it acts as a neat little promo for your episodes and from what we’ve seen it can actually help in a couple of ways.

  1. It’s helping podcast keep a consistent timetable of content. In turn this is essentially hacking the podcast platform algorithms and getting these channels sitting on top of the rankings.
  2. It’s introducing and bringing attention to episodes in a new way and attracting more listeners to episodes.
  3. It gives you some time to reflect on a poignant part of the podcast and give your honest thoughts.
  4. It potentially builds anticipation for an upcoming podcast that you want to build some hype for.
  5. It gives you the ability to give your sponsor some extra promotion, or discuss an upcoming campaign.
  6. Discuss a smaller topic that won’t go on for 30+ mins with your host.
  7. Bring back some fantastic nugget of info from an evergreen but older podcast episode.

I think TikTok has shown us that smaller accessible pieces of content are the direction the consumer generation is going. And I think these little bitesize snippets perfectly encapsulate that.

Are you able to distill one of your episodes into the best 6 minutes to entice a listener to download your episode?

Who’s doing this then?

Diary of a CEO

Steven calls his ‘Moment’s’ and they run for about 15 minutes.

Business Anchors

Called ‘Knowlton Nuggets’ and they bring back a nugget of info from one of their older clips.

The High-Performance Podcast

They call theirs BITESIZE and they run for about 5 minutes.

Jocko Podcast

Branded as ‘Underground’ snippets, a more conversational but short-form episode that run in tandem with their podcast.

So is it working?

So we had a quick DM convo with to Dan Knowlton cofounder of Knowlton & the Business Anchors podcast about the benefits of doing something like their nuggets. He had this to say:

“They’re doing really well, they get around 60% of a full show’s downloads but have helped us rank more frequently in the downloads charts. December was our biggest month ever for downloads and our ‘nuggets’ were the main thing we changed.”

So it’s potentially got some fantastic benefits such as the growth of your podcast for not very much work involved.

Great, but how do I do these snippets?

Well, it’s super simple, treat it like any other podcast. You’ll probably get your editor to find a very good soundbite from the episode (or multiple) and splice them together.

Bonus points for being authentic with this and telling a story, as this will help with hooking people in.

It may help if you add in a short intro from yourself, perhaps 30 seconds of you speaking about your experience with the guest and what listeners will get out of the episode.

Post it as you would an episode and perhaps post on a bit of a down day (Weekend / Monday).

Maybe brand it as something completely different, allowing the listener to understand which is a bitesize episode and which is a full episode.

If you’re looking to take your Podcast to the next level then get in touch. We’ve helped businesses in the B2B space maximise the potential of their podcast. Partner with us and do it right.

Recruitment Marketing Trends for 2022

Posted on by Haydn Morgans

As we finish up for the first full year of Search Stack I thought it would be fun and interesting to share some of our predictions on what could really work in the Recruitment/B2B marketing landscape in 2022.

I’ve made these predictions purely through assumptions and observations on what looks like is working from individuals and companies already implementing and succeeding with them now.

So there’s no big market survey, no data, it’s all speculative so take it all with a pinch of salt!

Authenticity is the new buzzword.

And rightly so, with an increasingly diverse, complex, and switched-on audience, the old ways of one message for everyone just won’t work.

Smart companies are investing time into researching and understanding their target market and creating specific campaigns that speak directly to them. We need to get personal to break through the noise.

Try doing a bit of in-depth client research at the beginning of the year.

TikTok is becoming more appreciative of informative content.

The video-based social platform is stepping out of its Wild West days, and creators are finding a lot of success creating informative, fun, and value-adding content. With user adoption growing every week, it may be the right time to experiment.

There’s a growing trend of creators giving advice, tips, and guidance; rather than the usual dancing and meme content. If you can piggyback on the fun, trends but also good solid advice on the platform then you may be onto a winner.

Email is big – but not how you remember.

Newsletters are seeing an increase, they’re becoming niche and seriously value-driven. The companies that put a face to their newsletter and consistently turn up with an email packed with great content are catching attention.

Scrap the cold automation and lifeless company updates. It’s 2022 no one cares.

You need to use your platform to aggregate great content from your industry niche, or share value-adding content (not links to your blogs) pack it with easily digestible value-adding content.

Modern marketers need to put trust into creating relationships with their audience. Rather than forcing the action with a CTA. Which leads to my next point…

Stop gating content, trust in dark social brand advocacy.

With privacy being the next big topic of discussion and big tech ruining the trust of their users, what hope do you stand? Emails and contact details are becoming more precious. And, content in exchange for personal information is not a fair trade anymore.

Marketers need to phase out that distrust and step away from those email-driven KPMs, because much of your success will now be down to the intangible dark social.

Companies that back their content so much that they’re confident giving it away without the need for email addresses are going to bank favor, trust and advocacy with their audience. We just need to be smarter about how we earn their time.

Branding is more important than ever.

The noise out there is crazy. You’re competing with millions of companies and individuals for a small slice of attention. And one of the best ways to stand out is to have a strong, solid brand.

Spending time with a branding consultant will help you unlock messaging and visual identity which talks directly to your audience, rather than bore them by saying why you’re so great.

If you need more convincing begin by reading the starting a story brand book in the new year.

NFTS are going to be huge in communities.

Wow what can I say about NFTs, flash in the pan, genius, stupid, overpriced, fad, future of everything; many opinions for the non-fungible-token. But you cannot argue their stratospheric rise in 2021.

What really is interesting though is their ‘token’ aspect, many people don’t realise that these NFTs can have real-world benefits attracted to owning one; like the bored ape yacht club VIP parties, or Gary Vee NFT Vee Con tokens.

And what really excites us about this is DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Organisations) the blockchain and these tokens now allow us to create exclusive communities with perks, value, and most excitingly a democratic say to the future and development of that community.

I think recruiters are in a super interesting position with this and if they can build a DAO community for their niche then they could be trailblazing the future.

Personal brands are the #1 channel for businesses.

The reach personal brands are getting across all social platforms is unbelievable, views, engagements & leads you’d hope to dream of from other sources.

People really do buy from people. And, when you consistently show up day after day to provide value, engage with your target audience, and build a personal brand you will stand head and shoulders above any competitor that is relying on regular social.

If you’ve not taken the time to grow your personal brand then 2022 needs to be the time to do it.

Niche podcasts are killing it.

We’ve been helping multiple recruitment clients build and grow their podcasts in 2021, it’s been super interesting watching them grow and flourish and the niche audience they develop over time.

We always advocate for the power of podcasts, for the business development aspect, the stretching of content, the personal brand benefits. But one of the most powerful things coming out of these niche podcasts is communities that are growing around them.

Stretching content is more relevant than ever.

It’s obvious that time constraints are one of the biggest barriers to creating content and marketing. So it really defies sense when we see so many companies just not stretching their content.

We have so many different mediums and platforms that people engage with, but we pigeonhole that one great idea into something like a blog, post it, then abandon it.

If you’re not already utilising content stretching to share your content across various platforms then you’re wasting your time and not getting the most out of your content.

Marketing success through clarity. Knowing your clients.

Posted on by Haydn Morgans

How well do you know your clients? I’m not talking about interests in golf or karaoke. I’m talking about really knowing your ideal client.

This isn’t just a customer persona you put together with assumptions and a bit of data, this comes from a dedicated research campaign where you spend time on the phone with existing and potential clients and dig deep into some more meaningful questions.

Questions like:

  • What part of your business keeps you up at night?
  • What do you want to be famous for?
  • What are some of your biggest barriers?
  • What part of our service do you appreciate the most?
  • What would a competitor have to do to realistically poach you as a client?

and try & finish each question with ‘why is that important

Because this is the whole objective of this exercise. Find out what’s important to them.

Because once you’ve got that knowledge, well it all just becomes a lot easier, you are going to be able to lean on these findings to make critical decisions about a whole lot of things in your business.

Considerations such as:

  • Does your messaging really speak to your audience?
  • How should I adjust my pricing and service offering?
  • Is too much effort going into a redundant service?
  • Does your branding effectively match your target clients?
  • What content are you creating? Should you change direction and format?
  • Should you be charging more or less?

Just taking the time to have a frank and honest conversations with real people down the phone helps you take off the blinders and face some harsh realities or learn new things about what the client really wants.

This is something we’ve been recently trialing with a new service offering we want to offer, a marketing package for smaller agencies.

The challenge we faced was there’s a ton of avenues to take in marketing for a business, from email to personal branding. But it was Important to us to discuss with those owners and ideal customers to find out what the perfect solution would look for them.

This helped us figure out where to trim the fat on the service and understand what they feel they would reasonably pay for the service (more than we though, go figure).

And, as a by-product it’s been a fantastic solutions for some good business development, we’ve started conversations that I know we would have not had with a hard sell.

Listen at the end of the day this stuff isn’t rocket science, I’m sure it all makes perfect sense. But it’s more about carving a little bit of time out in your diary to book in some calls and conduct some research, something I know we don’t do enough of.

The 6 step process when starting a web project with us

Posted on by Haydn Morgans

A question we get asked a lot when beginning a new project with a client is ‘What’s your process?’ We get it, it’s important to know what going to happen when you trust us to help with one of your most important assets, the website.

So we’ve detailed what a typical process is going to look like when partnering with Search Stack to either redesign or build a new website.

1. Discovery call

Every website project begins with the discovery call. You the client will come to us with the brief, whether they need a completely new site and brand, or just a simple refresh. We book a 30minute call online to discuss your project. We’ll talk about how we work, the process, costings, and rough time frames. We’ll aim to get a proposal over to you within a few days.

2. Branding questionnaire

No matter the project it is vital for us to get a crash course in your business. We need to know what you stand for, what you want to be famous for, your why, services, ideal clients, and most importantly what success looks like to you.

It’s a bit of homework and it may require a bit of critical thinking, you may be tackling some of these questions for the first time, but it’s important for us to get a deeper understanding so we can challenge and create something that goes above and beyond.

We’ll also send our initial invoice to get the project underway at this point.

3. Branding workshop and next steps

We’ll take a couple of days to go through your answers from the questionnaire and book in an online workshop. This will allow us to report back our findings and pitch what we feel the site could look and feel like from our research and interpretations of your business.

We don’t want to just create something that just looks great (although we definitely do this) but has substance, thought, brand strategy, and meaning behind it. Because this is what will help you stand out and inspire action from your visitors.

4. Wireframes and mock-up design

Once we know our direction and strategy we’ll get started on wireframes and mockups. We’ll usually present to you basic wireframes to show the user experience (UX) and flow of the customer journey on your site.

Once we’ve done the wireframes we’ll create and pitch a mock-up design, we like to make sure we really nail and the look and feel before we start the build as it’ll make the build process quicker.

Our Mockups are done on AdobeXD and we send through a full .pdf as well as an interactive link that will allow you to make notes on the design.

We’ll usually wrap this all up with a final call to discuss any thoughts on the design, tweaks, and changes.

5. Website build and catch-ups

This is where the fun happens. We’ll crack on with the build of your site, coding away on a development domain on our server; this means your current site will stay live while we build your new site. And when we’re ready to finally go live it makes the swap super simple. We’ll catch up with you weekly to show our progress and get your ongoing feedback as we build the site.

6. Final run through and go live

We always have a final run-through of the site where we’ll jump on a share screen call to talk through anything.

As standard, we offer 2 free weeks post-launch to make any changes to the site to get it absolutely perfect, anything after the two weeks that may be extra additions to the site will be charged at an hourly rate.

We will also send you through your site logins and record a loom video going through the backend, that’ll be a tutorial on how to make the necessary changes to your website.

5 Reasons your recruitment agency needs a podcast in 2022

Posted on by Haydn Morgans

Did you know there are currently over 2 million podcasts andover 48 million episodes?

With nearly 6 in 10 people consuming podcasts, the demand for this form of content is likely to continue to grow through 2022 and beyond.

So why does your recruitment business need a podcast in 2022?

1. Constant Content

You’re busy, we’re all busy. But we all know that content marketing is vitally important for brand awareness and getting eyes on your business.

Podcasts can help you create consistent content, from one podcast you can easily create 3 videos, 2 sliders and 1 blog! That’s 7 pieces of high value content, created from 1 or 2 hours of your time.

Now if you do this weekly then suddenly your LinkedIn feed goes from a job post every now and then, to a constant feed of digestible engaging content for your audience to consume. Helping you stand out from your competitors.

2. Business Development

Get rid of those cold opens for clients you’d love to land. Approaching someone to join you on your podcast and leaning on their expert knowledge is going to get you on the right foot and open the door to building rapport. 

This may be the first time for many to even do something like this. Why not invite them onto your podcast to find out more about their story?

How did they get to where they are today?

What they see as the future for your niche?

The perfect ice breaker, this not only helps you stand out on your approach but will help build rapport with your potential client.

3. Be seen as experts

Imagine 6 months down the line your website’s podcast page is packed full of interviews with some of the biggest names in your industry, discussing the hottest topics in your market.

You’ve built a web of content that puts your company deep into the industries that you recruit in giving your business the unique position of standing out as a thought leader and go-to resource for the latest news.

With this kind of consistent effort coupled with market-leading guests you will have on your podcast, you set your business up to be on the minds of your ideal clients and candidates as they seek to keep their market knowledge relevant.

I think recruitment agencies are in a unique position as they sit in the middle of their industry, are able to talk to whomever they wish and get a diverse range of guests, and cover a wide range of topics.

4. Build an engaged audience

This point goes back to creating constant content.

Being consistent with your content creation is so important to continue to grow your personal and company brand.

BUT you also have the ability to utilise your guest’s networks, sharing clips, sliders and blogs with your guests is the perfect way to utilise their networks and get them tuning into your podcast.

New eyes, mean new clients or candidates, which can only be good for business!

5. Stay at the forefront of your industry

It’s far too easy to feel like you’re always one step behind, but a the recruiter’s it’s important you stay on the bleeding edge of the market. That’s where Podcast guests can help…

When you’re consistently being challenged by a new guest, learning firsthand the latest market shifts from the very people pushing those boundaries it allows to be part of that growth.

You’ll test and stretch your preconceived notions every week by talking to a diverse range of guests with stimulating topics about your industry, which will help grow you as a leader and continue to improve your business intelligence.

If you’re thinking about starting a project in 2022 then get in touch. We help businesses hit the ground running by advising and supporting their Podcast efforts.

3 Social Posts to take your Podcast to the next level

Posted on by Haydn Morgans

Are you stretching your #Podcast episodes?

You’ve got a podcast OR you’re thinking about doing one? Great!! 🙌

Podcasts are amazing and we’ve seen them transform clients’ marketing strategies and blast their reach into orbit. 🚀

BUT,

They stretch that content like a goddam Stretch Armstrong… 💪

And one of the best ways to get more out of each and every episode is by creating social media content.

Podcasts can be an unbelievable marketing tool for your business. But if you’re only putting out episodes then you’re losing out on the additional benefits that come from stretching that content.

Here are 3 pieces of social content you can create with each podcast episode.

Clips

1-2 minute subtitled clips from your podcast episode. Share some of the biggest soundbites from your episode and drum up interest in the podcast.

Sliders

Share tips, actionable insights and more with our swipeable graphic template. This gives our client a great mix of media to promote each episode.

Guest Graphics

Build anticipation for your podcast by sharing a guest graphic the day of, or before the podcast is released.

Spend your time talking to great guests, not editing. Get in touch with our team to discuss how we can help support you with your podcast venture.

5 ways to supercharge your recruitment website

Posted on by Haydn Morgans

Case studies

  • Give a personal and human lead story, a real account of good work done for familiar sectors/job roles.
    • Leverage this in social media posts
    • Include things like, location, time to hire, timeframe
    • Make sure to get a candidate and client quote

Podcast section

  • Creating a podcast is a fantastic source of content, but also a great addition to add to your website. It adds gravitas as well as SEO benefits
    • Positions you as a thought leader in your marketplace
    • Allows you to show to clients the calibre of guests you’ve talked to
    • Grows the depth of your website improving SEO with your growing content

Get a blog on your site and post regularly

  • Having a stocked blog on your website helps enormously for SEO but also cements your status as a thought-leading business with its finger on the pulse.
    • Repurpose sound bites from your podcast to create relevant snippets
    • Take the time to find out what your client/candidates pain points are and write content about it
    • Improve your website SEO but touching on keywords and building depth to your website

Whitepaper / Brochure download

  • Leverage a consistent source of contacts by adding in call to actions allowing people to download whitepapers or your sales decks/brochures.
    • Think Salary survey, state of the market, future of the sector content (Lean on your clients/candidates to contribute to help create the best possible content)
    • Connect it up to a marketing automation software to create workflows once people download. (Add to CRM + send follow up emails)
    • Make the download process as easy as possible, and don’t ask for too much personal data. Manually qualify later.

Ease of contact

  • Make getting in touch with you idiot proof, there should be 2/3 clear Call to actions on your website on every page.
    • Add a chatbot onto your website (We have seen success with Facebook’s own chatbot widget, people like to talk to you via messenger)
    • Add a quick to submit form on the bottom of each page. Try to get in the habit of getting in touch quickly while they’re relevant.
    • Add a clear-to-see call button on your menu and footer, make sure it’s especially easy to click to call via mobile.

We’ve partnered with Ecologi

Posted on by Haydn Morgans
65 Trees planted so far

We’re proud to announce as part of our efforts to leverage the growth of business by giving back, that we’ve signed up with Ecologi.

We’re thrilled to be doing our part in improving the planet that we all live on by growing our own company forest. We hope to consistently improve the amount we give to Ecologi as we grow and develop.

Ecoligi is on a mission to help restore the planet through monthly subscriptions. Businesses like ours sign up and pledge money each month, which in turn are used to plant trees all around the world.

We’re looking forward to seeing our forest grow and our partnership strengthen with Ecologi as the months go on.

View our forest here:

5 Ways to Stretch your Content

Posted on by Haydn Morgans

It’s mad if you really think about it. Sometimes you can spend hours on a piece of content and then just relegate it to a blog or a video.

Good marketing stretches content, re-uses and rehashes your information to squeeze every drop of juice out of it.

1. Break it down into social posts.

The social algorithms favour posts without links. Why not take snippets from your content and repurpose into clips or posts.

2. Create a video from it.

If you’ve made a particularly good piece of written content then get in front of your phone camera and re-do it as video (Upload onto stories, TikTok, LinkedIn or YouTube?)

3. Create an infographic

Have you used data, or found some clever insights. Why not hire a graphic designer to create an infographic. Allow other companies to embed it as content on their website and get a good backlink.

4. Make it into a slide deck or carousel

Make it into an easy to slide mini-presentation perfect for uploading to LinkedIn!

5. Turn it into audio content, guest a podcast or start your own?

Get a guest spot on a relevant podcast and share what you’ve learnt? Or if you’re thinking of starting your own podcast, discuss the topic on that!