Marketing Consultant

How Do Lobsters Grow? Getting Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable In Marketing

June 22, 2023 By yourvirtualcmo Leave a Comment

🦞 How do lobsters grow?

Ok, so this has nothing to do with marketing…

…or, maybe, it has everything to do with #marketing. You decide.

Strange question, but I bet you are curious. I was when I stumbled across a video that explains it well. Either way, this short video struck a chord with me.

“The stimulus to be able to grow is to feel uncomfortable!”

For anyone feeling stressed in any capacity, this perspective could be just what you need to hear today.

If you work in marketing or run a small business, you’ll already know that you need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable to #grow and succeed.

It may have everything to do with marketing, after all!

How Do Lobsters Grow? And why does this have everything to do with marketing!

What Is A Virtual CMO & Why Should I Hire One?

June 15, 2023 By Jeannette Borg Leave a Comment

Unleashing Growth Potential for Aspirational Executive Search & Recruitment Agencies

In the competitive executive search and recruitment world, having a strategic marketing partner can help to drive business growth significantly. However, hiring a full-time Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) may not always be feasible for small to mid-sized executive search and recruitment agencies. Hiring a junior marketer may present more of a short-term cost saving, but often the long-term cost to the business is impacted by ineffective strategies and a greater requirement for supervision and training.

Increasingly, small business owners are engaging the services of Virtual CMOs or Fractional CMOs to help drive growth while keeping overheads down. Business leaders are seeking a marketing partner with a strategic mindset who can not only build your marketing plan but also execute the marketing plan. The kind of marketer who has sufficient life experience as a marketer to be able to deliver an effective and efficient marketing solution.

What is a Virtual CMO?

A Virtual CMO is an experienced marketing professional who works remotely, part-time, with businesses on a contract basis. Providing strategic marketing expertise and acting as an extension of the leadership team, Virtual CMOs help with driving growth and enhancing brand visibility. For executive search and recruitment agencies, a Virtual CMO with industry specialisation, such as Your Virtual CMO, can provide highly tailored guidance and advice to navigate the unique challenges faced by recruitment and talent acquisition.

What’s the difference between a Virtual CMO and a Fractional CMO?

A Virtual CMO primarily operates remotely, leveraging technology to collaborate with clients regardless of location. This remote aspect allows for flexibility and eliminates geographical constraints, enabling businesses to access top-tier marketing expertise without needing a physical presence.

In contrast, a Fractional CMO is more likely to work on-site with the client’s team, providing direct in-person support and engagement.

Some Virtual CMOs, such as Your Virtual CMO, can provide a hybrid service by delivering services remotely and in person as required. Many of our clients at Your Virtual CMO are geographically located in different states and are supported in person when warranted. Examples include event management, staff marketing training and strategic planning days.

The Benefits of Hiring a Virtual CMO

Niche Recruitment Industry Expertise
A Virtual CMO specialising in executive search and recruitment brings in-depth industry knowledge. They understand recruitment agencies’ nuances, trends, and challenges in this competitive landscape. Their industry-specific expertise allows for targeted marketing strategies and ensures maximum impact.
Targeted Marketing Approach
With a deep understanding of executive search and recruitment, a Virtual CMO can develop tailored marketing strategies that resonate with the target audience. They possess the expertise to optimise candidate acquisition, employer branding, and client engagement initiatives, resulting in more effective and efficient marketing campaigns.
Flexibility and Scalability
The nature of executive search and recruitment often involves fluctuating marketing needs. A Virtual CMO offers the flexibility to scale marketing efforts based on demand. Whether launching recruitment campaigns for specific industries, expanding into new talent markets, or adapting to evolving trends, a specialised CMO can quickly adjust strategies to meet changing requirements.

Brand Amplification
A Virtual CMO understands the importance of building a solid brand presence for executive search and recruitment agencies. They can devise comprehensive brand management strategies highlighting unique value propositions, establishing credibility, and differentiating agencies from competitors, ultimately attracting top-tier candidates and clients.

Your Virtual CMO is a Marketing Service exclusively for Executive Search and Recruitment Agencies

Your Virtual CMO is a trusted, reputable, on-demand marketing consultancy that works exclusively with executive search and recruitment agencies in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Having worked as recruiters ourselves, we get recruitment!

With a focus on collaborating with recruiters, leaders, and founders of recruitment businesses, Your Virtual CMO provides strategic marketing services such as market analysis, brand development, digital marketing, content and social media strategy and execution, recruitment marketing, event marketing, and more. Offering deep industry knowledge allows us to craft targeted marketing campaigns that enhance brand visibility, attract high-quality candidates, and strengthen client relationships.

Unsurprisingly, an increasing number of ambitious recruitment businesses are embracing the power of a Virtual CMO to unleash their full potential in a competitive market. For executive search and recruitment agencies, the expertise of a Virtual CMO specialising in the industry can be a game-changer. By partnering with Your Virtual CMO, agencies can access specialised marketing strategies, tailored brand management, and industry insights that drive growth and success.

If you are a recruitment business owner and would like to explore how a Virtual CMO service can help you to achieve your business goals, reach out to Jeannette Borg: jeannette@yourvirtualcmo.com.au

Don’t be left behind: 4 ways to up your marketing game in your downtime

May 4, 2020 By Jeannette Borg

Yes, we didn’t see this coming. “Unprecedented” is this year’s overused word of the year.

A pandemic that would stop the world in its tracks and leave businesses and communities scrambling to survive. For those who can or will survive, tough decisions around reducing expenses have had to be made.

Business leaders worldwide have been ruthlessly slashing resources deemed non-essential, at least for the short term: the office plants, the well-stocked bar fridge, the admin support staff, the marketing team, the….

Wait, what? Marketing?!

During tough times, there has always been a tendency for businesses to question the value of marketing.

“What ROI do we get from marketing? Does it really work? Why don’t we have more engagement, followers, leads, etc? Why has competitor X got more Y than us? Our website needs to be more this, our brand needs to be more that. Why? Why not?“

It’s only natural, and reasonable, for questions to be asked when businesses are concerned about the future.

Getting ‘left behind’ is a fear of most businesses, no matter their size.

Right now, it’s not business as usual when it comes to marketing. Several of my clients are recruitment agencies and well, less jobs in the market, means less jobs listed with agencies. It’s a tough time for most recruiters.

Several are using this quieter period to audit elements of their marketing ecosystem. If you ask me, now is actually the perfect time assess and audit your marketing systems to ensure you don’t get left behind when the current situation changes.

Here’s 4 things you should consider:

1: Review your marketing tech stack

Start by taking a look at what you know isn’t working.

What’s causing roadblocks? What are you doing that could be automated, if you just took the time to stop and analyse it? Are you spending on tech systems that aren’t delivering optimal returns? Are you even using your systems to their full capacity, and if not, why? Do your systems integrate?

How proactive are your current tech suppliers in supporting you to ensure you are fully trained and maximising use of their software? Are your tech suppliers innovating in line with industry needs? Is it time for a change – or, is it time to have some frank discussions with your suppliers?

Are you achieving what you need to, and if not, do you have the right systems in place to enable this?

A quieter period of time is the perfect opportunity to reflect on these questions and undertake a full tech stack review.

You can do this with a skilled internal marketer or by engaging an external consultant (let’s face it, sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know, right?!)

Expect to gain insights and recommendations that deliver outcomes that saves you money, time and resources. Not only this, but recommendations stemming from a review will be geared to optimise leads, marketing and sales effectiveness, provide greater business transparency for internal and external stakeholders and ensure data fluidity and accuracy.

2: Conduct a website audit

Your website is a point of validation for customer prospects. When was the last time you conducted a full analysis of your website?

First and foremost, is the content a true reflection of where your business is at today? Is it SEO optimised? What even are your SEO keywords? What CTA buttons are you using and where are they positioned? Broken links? Backlinks? The list goes on.

Websites are too often something businesses set and forget. The website is up. Great! Crossed off the list and on to the next thing. Right?

Wrong!

Your website should always be on someone’s to do list. Your website is something you should constantly be updating with fresh, valuable and optimised content if you want to show up organically in online search.

Use data analytics platforms and tools to help you assess what content and pages are getting the most traction on your website, and to help guide you with clues on how to improve your site.

3: Audit your social media channels and groups

Again, this is something that businesses and their staff often set and forget. Sure, you may be posting new content regularly, but when was the last time you analysed your social media channels?

Are you using the appropriate channels and groups to reach your target audience? What level of engagement are you getting from these channels, and why? Is this engagement feeding your sales pipeline?

How do your company and staff bios read? Are contact details up to date? You’ll be surprised by how many company employees still have their past employer website and contact details listed!

Do profiles reflect your brand personality – or are they full of corporate speak? Do they reflect your brand pillars, your EVP, your brand values? Assuming you have developed those?

Your business’ and your team’s social media profiles provide social proof for current and potential customers. So make sure you invest the time into getting this right as social channels are often the gateway for new business.

4. Training your staff on marketing

When your team are aware of your marketing strategy, what outcomes you are striving to achieve, the role they play in achieving those outcomes, and are provided with adequate training, you’ll have the whole choir singing from the same hymn book, so to speak.

The most successful brands I have worked with invest in building brand ambassadors; training or coaching staff on how to market themselves as an extension of the corporate brand, whether that’s having an internal marketing professional deliver training or having an external marketing consultant facilitate.

Empowering your team to share their voice as a representative of the brand will deliver powerful results. Think about the service brands you engage with. When you engage with those brands online, is it mostly through a human contact at that business, or directly with the business brand. I’m guessing, for the most part, it’s a contact at that business.

Fact: People buy from those they KNOW, TRUST and LIKE.

Your customers have a relationship first and foremost with someone who works in your business. Allow them be the trusted voice. But first, make sure you support them with guidance how to execute the brand message, and empower them do deliver this uniquely and authentically.

Reviewing your tech stack, auditing your website and social channels, and providing marketing training to staff all requires an investment of time and resources. Time and resources that businesses don’t always have, or simply don’t always prioritise. But should your business have some extra time on hand, why not use this ‘downtime’ to up your marketing game.

You’ll thank yourself later.

If you are a small business or startup needing assistance with any of the above, we can help! Please reach out to Jeannette Borg at Your Virtual CMO via email: hello@yourvirtualcmo.com.au.