In this age of blast emails and blast postings on LinkedIn/Facebook/Twitter, is this email/posting multitask work style helping or hurting your recruiting efforts and your reputation?

It’s critical to understand both good and bad ways to use technology to grow your business.

Technology has transformed our profession in revolutionary ways. However, an overreliance on technology to replace the phone calls we used to make can be damaging. Are our prospects not valuable enough that they don’t deserve a phone call, an introduction to who we are, and how we work? If you haven’t heard of the term “permission-based marketing,” let me introduce it to you.

Permission marketing is the opposite of traditional interruption marketing. Permission marketing is about building an ongoing relationship of increasing depth with customers. It is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal, and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them.

In the words of Seth Godin (who coined and popularized the term), “Turning strangers into friends, and friends into customers.”

Marketers hail permission marketing as a way to succeed in a world increasingly cluttered with marketing messages that are ignored by some of the best customers. It realizes that treating people with respect is the best way to earn their attention. How this translates into the recruiting world is simple.

We shouldn’t just use technology as a “billboard” and hope the right candidate drives by. It also shouldn’t be used as a semi-targeted “junk mail” and hope the best candidate doesn’t throw out our message. Today’s technology offers us an opportunity to find a handful of the best prospects and establish a relationship with them. Sourcing tools, search string writing, business and social networking sites paired with the “old fashioned” phone allow you to use technology to quickly find and contact prospective candidates.

Once you have introduced yourself and gained “permission” to establish a relationship, then technology such as a CRM and/or ATS can be used as a way to reach out to those prospects and continue to build relationships.

Below are some products that help you reach out and build relationships with potential candidates.

To me, responsible e-recruiting means making effective use of technology to establish relationships and build trust with a pool of top-notch potential candidates. Our industry and professional reputation is damaged with each successive blast of unsolicited emails that ends up in someone’s trash.

Bullhorn

Bullhorn’s ATS/CRM is a great option to consider for permission-based marketing. Bullhorn’s offering aligns nicely with the permission-based marketing concept. Bullhorn’s web-based, integrated front office combines all of the applications you need into one, providing users with full ATS and CRM functionality.

Bullhorn has an integrated front office that integrates email. Therefore, a candidate and client record will not only include the usual information, resume, address, phone number, etc., it will also capture all of the communication, activities, tasks, emails, and notes that occur with that candidate or client record. With Bullhorn, candidates/clients have the ability to “opt in” or out of campaigns. They allow the email recipient to unsubscribe if they choose to do so.

Let’s say you want to send an email to all of your candidates (who are passively or actively interested in opportunities) with the title VP of Sales in the medical device industry who have been in your database for 2 years. Simply generate a query, define your parameters, save the results into a distribution list, bring the list into your email system, and select send mass mailing. Then you are able to personalize the email prior to sending it. The campaigns you can create are endless and a very effective way to stay on top of your prospects.

I would like to thank Joe Cordo VP of Marketing at Bullhorn for taking the time to talk with me about Bullhorn’s powerful permission based marketing platform. For more information on Bullhorn, email joe@bullhorn.com or visit http://www.bullhorn.com.

E-Mail Campaign Tools
If you are looking for a stand-alone email campaign tool, there are several on the market: Campaign Monitor, Constant Contact, and iContact.

The cost of a campaign starts around $5.00 and goes up from there depending on the number of email recipients.

Ok, here is what we’ll use to start the fire du jour:

“If I have to scroll to read your sigfile it is TOO DAMNED BIG, PERIOD!”

You need to FIX IT!