A Malkuth of Me,  rants

Targeting Your Audience for Maximum Returns #marketing #recruiting

So it would seem this is an odd post for a writer to write for marketing and recruiting professionals, but I think they need a little help. So consider this post part of your career training. Take it from a writer — Reading and Research are Fundamental!!!

Sit down and have a cup of coffee. Let’s talk.

My husband is a software professional. He is often contacted by job recruiters whenever he’s on the job market. Sadly – none of these recruiters has ever helped him land a job. Why? Because they aren’t reading resumes and are wasting their time calling or having coffee with people who likely aren’t the right candidate for the job(s) the recruiter is trying to fill. A lot of this wasted time could be eliminated, and more commissions secured, if the recruiter had done that one fundamental thing – reading the resume – instead of allowing poorly constructed software algorithms to do the research/reading part of the job for them.

Reading a resume and cover letter yourself will tell you outright if a person is willing to relocate, how long they’re willing to commute, and if they have the desired skills your client actually needs. I can’t begin to tell you how many times recruiters contact my husband about jobs requiring skills not listed on his resume, or seeking someone in another state when his resume clearly states he’s not interested in relocating. Instead, they cast a wide net and see what they can pull up from the water. I get it. The appeal of finding someone fast with less work seems like the holy grail of commission, but the reality is that it is likely wasting time and resulting in lost commissions.

He’s also often asked questions in email that are answered on the resume. He has spent countless hours repeating his resume over the phone and over coffee. None of it resulting in a new job. Usually, the work he finds, he gets from sending resumes directly to the company who posted the job to begin with. And yet in dealing with recruiters, he has sometimes wasted up to forty hours a month talking to clueless recruiters. Without any training, a lot of these recruiters don’t realize that reading resumes is vital to their own success. Hence the high turnover rates at recruiting agencies. The recruiters aren’t making commissions because they can’t place anyone, so they move to better-paying jobs.

The same thing happens in marketing. Anyone who owns a website (raises hand) has gotten these emails from marketing professionals saying: “We’d like to do a paid guest post on your blog/site at site address.”

Now, I’ve actually hosted one (count it!) paid blog post in the twenty years I’ve managed websites. One, because this one guy knew that researching WHO he was sending out email offers to, matters. He was selling sex toys, and my website is a perfect venue for sex toys. A lot of my readers are into kinky stuff and they likely buy sex toys. This website caters to progressive, forward thinking individuals, most of whom are rather liberal minded when it comes to religion and sex. I write about writing certainly, but also BDSM, Daemons, and Magick for fuck’s sake. For many advertisers – those topics are far too damning to their brand. I know this. Marketers know this. And yet they keep sending me offers to pay me for blog posts.

A solid paid blog post can make me $100. I’m game because hosting this site costs me around $600 a year (I used a lot of bandwidth and storage). I can use all the help I can get.

When a marketing email sounds like a good fit, I answer with my site’s subject matter and relative audience size (which is rather impressive IMHO). What I usually get is, “Oh, wow. Yeah, your site is really not what we’re looking for.”

At which point I always send back the following response. “That’s too bad. It’s unfortunate you didn’t bother to research my site before contacting me and wasting my time – not to mention yours. You had the web address and every opportunity to discover it was a bad fit. Perhaps in the future you will read and research the websites you’re soliciting before sending out an email. Good luck to you.”

I know – snotty response, right? But the reality is that by plugging a few keywords into “The Google” – the search engine will pull up websites and blogs dealing with the subject matter that your product deals with. It’s not that hard. An hour of research and reading should generate a pretty substantial list of potential websites willing to host your paid guest blog. And my guess is – you would have better luck getting your advertisements in front of people who would likely be interested in what you’re selling. Whether it be a book, sex toys, or a new video game. Guess what happens when you spend less time “cold emailing” random websites and start targeting them for the product you’re advertising?  You guessed it — more positive responses in less time, and ultimately, better results and more sales for your client/employer. Tada!

Then there are the website developers who send email to everyone with a functioning domain asking: “Would you like me to redesign your business website?” I get 5-10 of these emails a week. Sad, I know. Umm, this is a personal website as opposed to a “business” website in the traditional sense, and no, I use WordPress for a reason. It’s what I NEED. Why would I pay someone to redesign my WordPress site? I can do that for free just by installing a new, FREE theme.  Not to mention writers notoriously make squat. We’re not good targets for pricey web designers. Not a lot of disposable income, or if we do have disposable income, we’re doing other things with it.  Of course, had they actually looked at the website and figured that out- they could have saved all the time they wasted filling out my online contact form (or sending their bot out to do it for them). Bots, btw, are like the servitors of the electronic world. Too bad they’re often used for useless endeavors.

Of course, tangent here, I’m guessing most of these strangers offering to redo my site are actually scammers looking to hold my site or domain hostage, or use it to distribute malware or viruses. LOL No – I’m not very trusting .  Anyhow – back on point…

So again – reading and research are fundamental and will result in better sales and commissions for you! Not to mention – you won’t be wasting as much time dealing with people, sites, or audiences that aren’t a good fit in the first place.

Feel free to discuss….

Steph is an award winning and bestselling author of thrilling steamy and paranormal romances, dark urban fantasy, occult horror-thrillers, cozy mysteries, contemporary romance, sword and sorcery fantasy, and books about the esoteric and Daemonolatry. A Daemonolatress and forever a resident of Smelt Isle, she is happily married and cat-mom to three pampered house cats. Her muse is a demanding sadistic Dom who often keeps her up into the wee hours of the morning. You can contact her at swordarkeereon@gmail.com

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