It’s No Longer Good Enough to “Do” Digital Marketing

June 30, 2020

As a member of several leadership best practice groups, it has been overwhelmingly apparent over the last couple of years that business leaders are trying to understand and prepare for “digital transformation.” It’s a buzz word, yes, but if it didn’t pique your interest in 2019, with COVID-19 and the resulting systemic change in how we do business in 2020, you will be left behind if you don’t get on board.

If you aren’t marketing digitally, good luck. If you dabble in it, it won’t be enough. The “one-off” approach is dead; sophistication is here to stay. To succeed in the staffing and recruiting industry into the future, you need a holistic digital strategy, and here is why.

1. Strategy

Everything is getting more competitive online. 5 years ago, the percentage of people doing paid advertising and the percentage of people leveraging LinkedIn was a fraction of what it is today. With the increase in competition, how are you going to stand out? How is your brand unique? How are you going to leverage the data you capture? How are you going to refine your campaigns to maximize ad spend? How are you going to automate processes? All of these individually will provide minimal results but together, working in harmony, it is rocket fuel. Rather than using random tools in parallel, create an omni-channel strategy where resources are supported, designed and orchestrated together to achieve results.

2. Branding

Our CEO, Tony Sorensen, has always said, “Your website should be your best salesperson.” I am going to one-up him and say that today, “Your digital presence should be your best salesperson.” A standalone website can’t do the job of telling your story anymore. You have to nail your messaging and then you have to promote it consistently everywhere—your website, your social media channels, your email marketing, and on down to every blog you write. If the message is fragmented, stale or inconsistent, buyers will recognize it and your credibility will take a hit. You would never go to a client meeting in sweatpants, would you? The same principle applies to your digital marketing efforts. Anytime someone schedules a time to talk to me, the first thing I do is evaluate their digital brand across every platform I can think of, from website to social to blogs and videos to individual employees’ pages within the company. Create a brand of value that solves your clients’ pain points and meets them where they are.

3. Technology

This topic is my personal favorite. Marketing is no longer a billboard or a magazine ad. Marketing is highly sophisticated and weaves throughout your entire organization. There are so many tools out there today that make your processes more efficient, more consistent, more dynamic, more scalable, and provide a much better user experience. Things like chatbots, automation, AI, mobile apps and BI all play a part in marketing better, but most companies do not use the tools they have at a fraction of their capacity and usually don’t set them up in a way that they are working together in unison to drive true business growth. Companies big and small, simple and complex need to understand their tech stack and how to leverage it to grow their business. Now is a great time to be considering all of those things.

4. Sales Enablement

There is literally zero segmentation between sales and marketing anymore. The days of old where the marketing team gets an inbound lead and passes it over to sales to close simply doesn’t exist anymore. My friend texted me the other day and said, ‘Always Be Closing’ is dead; the next 5 years is going to be, ‘Always Be Connecting.’ The last few years have seen the rise of the Chief Revenue Officer because sales and marketing have the same objective – to drive revenue. A buyer’s journey never ends. Companies of the future are using technology to systematically market and sell, from before you know a potential client exists, to adding value to a trusted partner, to making sure you get the next job order. How are you working with your sales teams to market past the traditional “marketing qualified lead”? If you have question about your digital marketing efforts, our team is here to help. I would personally love to talk strategy with you (I thrive off of it!) and help you determine how to successfully grow and fuel the future of your business. Contact me here.

4 benefits of outsourcing - Parqa Marketing

4 Real Benefits of Outsourcing Your Digital Marketing

June 18, 2020

We’ve seen it a hundred times. Organizations make intentional efforts to drive successful marketing efforts on their own, only to be quickly overwhelmed and impeded by the ever-increasing amount of technology, strategies, and data involved. Discouraged, they abandon their efforts, question the process, and regret the investment.

When they think of outsourcing their efforts to a specialized marketing agency, they fear the same results await.

We’re here to clear the air to demystify this misconception. Yes, marketing is tricky, and, yes, bad marketing isn’t worth your time or investment. But outsourcing to an experienced, skilled team of marketing whizzes solves these issues.

Here are four of the real benefits of outsourcing your digital marketing to a dedicated digital marketing agency:

1. Your marketing stays constant even if your internal staff doesn’t

We’re starting with one of the benefits most people overlook far too often.

One of the staples of all good marketing initiatives is consistency. Unfortunately, one of the staples of running a business, at times, is inconsistent marketing. There is a long list of circumstances that can arise which can throw your internal marketing momentum off its tracks.

Whether it’s unexpected turnover, organizational restructuring, a PTO-heavy month, a huge internal event—as you know, the list goes on and on—many organizations repeatedly find their marketing efforts floundering.

Opting to enlist an agency eliminates this issue entirely. The (good) agencies stick to a constant cadence so you never have lapses in delivery regardless of whatever internal disruptions you’re dealing with.

2. A shortcut to expertise

Marketing requires a variety of experienced professionals working in concert with one another to produce a symphony of beneficial results (sorry, we’ll tone down the musical metaphors now).

But, depending on your organizational structure and history, you may not yet have the roster of experienced marketers available to get the most out of your marketing investments.

When you partner with a dedicated marketing agency, you take a shortcut through a path that may take you years to properly build and gain instant access to a fully staffed team of experienced marketers.

3. Reduced overhead expenses

Paying the salary of the aforementioned team of marketing wizards gets very expensive, very quickly. For many organizations, it just doesn’t make good business sense to maintain those skillsets in-house year-round, so they don’t. But this means they aren’t taking advantage of the full power of marketing and their efforts fall by the wayside. And that doesn’t make good business sense, either.

But there is a marketing option they can afford and actually achieve. Outsourcing gives you the full range of marketing skills and services without breaking the bank or dedicating the time to build and train the team yourself.

4. Gain access to the marketing channels you need

Even if you have some marketing talent on your staff already, odds are there some channels you’re not currently taking full advantage of. Whether it’s paid search advertising, social media, SEO, or content marketing, the number of marketing channels seems to be always evolving and expanding.

Partnering with an agency can help you expand your marketing presence in ways you’re currently unable to do on your own, and ultimately increase your chances of effectively reaching your desired audiences.

Parqa Marketing Solutions for Staffing & Recruiting

If you’ve been struggling to get the results you’ve always wanted out of your marketing efforts, you’re not alone.

At Parqa Marketing, we exclusively serve the staffing and recruiting industry and we exist to help you grow your brand, get noticed, and get more leads. By working with our team to share your story, you’ll gain an expert digital marketing partner who has a deep understanding of your industry.

Get in touch with our team today to learn more about our approach to digital marketing.

Turning Chaos into Opportunity - Time to Refresh Your Website Parqa

Turning Chaos into Opportunity: Why Now is the Perfect Time to Refresh Your Website

May 29, 2020

There is no way to know when this economic nightmare is going to end. It doesn’t matter how many well-informed economic forecasts we read or podcasts we listen to; there is simply no way to know precisely when the world will bounce back and regain a semblance of normalcy.

However, we do know for certain that it will, eventually, bounce back. Instead of wasting your time shouting at the heavens, it’s time to take action and prepare your staffing and recruiting firm for success on the other side of this challenge. Instead of asking when this will all end, you should be asking yourself, what is my firm going to do when it does end?

This slow period of business is the perfect opportunity for you to dedicate the time and resources to set your firm up for post-Coronavirus success. And that starts with having a website that represents your firm’s brand, values, and services.

Your Website is a Reflection of Your Company

When HR leaders and candidates are doing their research by examining your website, you can bet that they’re doing the same for your competition. Your firm should strive to always be a step ahead of the competition, and by having a more modern, updated website, you’ll possess the digital edge.

Regardless of the business climate you find yourself in, it’s important to keep an eye on the marketing strategies of your competitors. Especially their websites. Don’t stand idly by and let them lap you with a fresh new website.

Stay Ahead of the Competition

Updating Your Brand Messaging

If done well, your current website reflects the challenges and pain points that your clients were experiencing pre-Coronavirus. Is that messaging still relevant to your clients today?

Another benefit of tackling a website refresh or redesign during this transitional period is updating your website’s messaging. While a few industries and sectors have been able to avoid being impacted, a strong majority of employers face new challenges and will require different forms of support from staffing and recruiting firms.

By updating your messaging to reflect these new issues, your firm will present itself as a trusted partner who understands the modern business landscape.

Parqa Marketing Website Solutions

Take advantage of the current slowdown in business by investing in a new website for your firm. At Parqa Marketing, we exclusively serve the staffing and recruiting industry. By working with our team to share your story, you’ll gain an expert digital marketing partner who has a deep understanding of your industry.

Get in touch with our team today to learn more about our approach to website development.

Is Your Company’s Story Powerful, Clear and Cohesive?

May 20, 2020

At our digital marketing agency, we used to struggle to get our message right. We had a great brand, a well-known, well-respected company both nationally and locally in the Minneapolis market, but our message wasn’t doing all of that justice. We would go to tradeshows and get asked all of the time, “What does Parqa do?” and for some reason, we never had a clear, unified, concise answer. We would lose business (and sleep at night) because we knew we had so much to offer staffing & recruiting companies, but had the challenge of nailing down our messaging to tell our story powerfully and consistently.

Last year, I read the book “Building a StoryBrand” by Donald Miller, and it completely changed the way that I think about marketing, and it was a complete game-changer for our company. The book stresses the importance of getting your message right and delivering it with clarity across your entire organization. With so much information on the internet right now, when you don’t deliver your message clearly, you will get lost in the crowd. After all, people don’t always buy the best products; they buy the products that are the best communicated about.

The Customer is the Hero & You Are the Guide

The StoryBrand methodology is based on 7 core principles that every great story has (a Hero, a Problem, a Guide, and a Plan to name a few). If I could it sum up in the simplest way possible, I would tell you to think of your customer as the “hero” of the story, and think of your company as the “guide.” The hero is the hero for a reason; you are the advisor and the trusted coach to overcome their challenges.

I am not a Star Wars fan, but think about that story for a second. The Hero, Luke Skywalker (your customer), wants to save Princess Leia and defeat the evil Empire. Upon meeting young Skywalker, his guide, Obi-Wan Kenobi (your company), doesn’t tell him to step aside and run off to take care of the issue personally (even though he has the power to do so). No, instead he guides Luke through his early Jedi training and instills within him the confidence and ability to destroy the Death Star himself.

To put this practically, we used to market Parqa as the #1 digital marketing firm for staffing & recruiting industry. Do I believe we are? Of course. Do I believe that’s what my customer wants to hear right out of the gate? No. My customer wants to have confidence that I understand and resonate with their challenges and pain points, and that I have the answers and solutions to alleviate them. Now don’t get me wrong, demonstrating your company’s credibility, expertise and differentiation is important, but StoryBrand’s methodology states that you have to first start with the customer and portray them as the hero, and prove your credibility later in the process.

After reading the book, I was so fired up about bringing this knowledge and training to my entire team that I actually hired a StoryBrand Coach to fly to our headquarters and do a full 2-day training workshop on the framework and methodology, so my entire team would be able to learn it, understand it, and speak the same language.

Part of the workshop involved crafting our company’s unified “one-liner” and elevator pitch. In doing so, everyone on the team maps out the various parts of the StoryBrand framework together (the Hero, the Problem, the Guide, the Plan, etc.), identifies the right way to communicate each part, and delivers the same cohesive message as a result. Want to see ours?

One-liner: “We help Staffing & Recruiting firms get more clients and candidates through effective digital marketing.”
Full Elevator Pitch: “At Parqa, when it comes to your firm, we know that you want to be successful. In order to be so you need to get more candidates and more clients. The problem is your current marketing strategies aren’t yielding the results you’re looking for, which is likely causing you to feel frustrated and stuck. Especially with how quickly things change in our industry, getting your marketing right isn’t something you should have to figure out on your own. We understand the challenges you’re facing because we were created within a staffing and recruiting firm. And we’re currently the only digital marketing agency in the United States that’s housed within a staffing and recruiting firm. This means, we’re able to provide you with the most up-to-date strategies to ensure you’re staying ahead of the competition and getting the results that will grow your company. And with our proven process, we’ve helped staffing and recruiting firms all over the country do just that. Here’s how we do it. 1. We’ll assess your needs and goals, 2. We’ll create a customized plan to fit your unique situation, 3. We’ll execute on the plan together, and 4. You’ll get to watch your company grow. So Contact Us Now!

Notice that it starts by acknowledging what the hero wants to accomplish, and the challenges they face along the way and how frustrating it can be. It then moves into explaining and demonstrating why Parqa is the unique solution to help overcome those challenges given our history, expertise and differentiation in the marketplace. From there, we talk about “the plan” we offer the hero to accomplish their quest, and a picture of what it could look like on the other end of the journey. Finally, it ends with a call-to-action to contact us to begin their quest.

Your staffing or recruiting company can do the exact same exercise to identify these pivotal parts of your brand’s “script” so that your entire company is telling one common, cohesive story. In doing so, your customers will share in the success you help them achieve, which will empower them to accomplish far more than if you simply tackle their issue yourself. And let me tell you, it is worth it!

Diagnose Your Company’s Message

Before you close out of this post, I want you to do me a favor and load up your company website. Read over the content for a few minutes, evaluate what it says, and then return to this blog.

What did you find? Is your website showing your customers that you are the hero? Or is it communicating that they are the hero, and you have the answers and solutions to get them where they aspire to be? If it’s the former, you’re going to need to work on your messaging.

The good news is if you don’t have a clear message, you don’t have to worry. I’ve been there, and there is a way to fix it. Reach out to me or get in touch with our team today to learn how we can help you improve your message so your customers can see themselves as the hero, and see you as the instrumental guide they need to succeed!

4 Ways for Staffing & Recruiting Firms to Come Out of COVID-19 Stronger

April 10, 2020

At Parqa, we sit in an extremely unique position in our industry. Not only have we had the opportunity to speak with our current clients, past clients and prospective clients over the past couple weeks about what’s happening in their businesses, but we’ve also been at the heart of many leadership calls of our sister company, Versique, a Minneapolis-based Staffing & Recruiting firm. Versique has been spending many long hours on calls with top 50 search firm owners across the country, as well as many other forward-thinking staffing groups. Parqa also belongs to several marketing best practice groups and has been able to gain deep insight into what other marketing companies are seeing, hearing, and learning from their clients in all different industries and verticals. As the shock of everything is starting to calm, I feel it is my responsibility to share some of the commonalities we are hearing across all industries, spaces and platforms in an effort to lend helping hand and a few basic principles. It is our goal that we all come out of the COVID-19 pandemic stronger than we were going into it. Here are the 4 greatest insights I feel are worth sharing.

1. Prioritize your health & wellbeing to lead well

On a webinar I attended this week, the moderator talked about this process unfolding in 3 waves:

Survival – doing what we need to do as business leaders to help our business survive and protect the greatest amount of employees as possible. (i.e., The last 3-4 weeks)
Regroup – Experts see the next 2-3 weeks as a time when businesses can’t make many more moves, so owners and leaders should take this time to get a little sleep, connect with employees, take an afternoon to clean the house or get out and go for a jog. This is by no means rocket science, but I think we can all agree it is all too often overlooked.
Rebound – We are already getting reports out of China saying that as restrictions are eased, people are going stir crazy. Tourist sites, restaurants and other attractions are being flooded with people. How do we, as business leaders in America, intentionally take the coming weeks and months to plan to capitalize on the resurgence? It is imperative to start planning now

As we enter the regroup phase, what are you doing to protect your health & wellbeing so that you have the energy to not only survive, but to thrive as the world bounces back? What you do in the coming months will be more important to the future of your company than ever before.

My advice:

Embrace and cherish time with your kids.
Eat healthy!
Start a workout routine or continue a workout routine.
Get adequate sleep.
Stay intentionally and authentically connected to your employees.
Call old friends and family that you maybe let fall off the radar.

2. Prepare for the rebound NOW by building a brand that shines

Our very own Sr. Social Media Manager, Chanel Schmidt, and LinkedIn’s Jake Ruby just did a webinar on the importance of maintaining your brand on social media during these times. The numbers don’t lie; with the record unemployment numbers and the lull in daily work for a lot of remaining employees, social media engagement and activity has skyrocketed. While most people aren’t in a buying stage at this very moment, they are researching and learning like never before. Don’t misunderstand—the point isn’t to hard sell. The point is to remain visible and top-of-mind with your network and community. Are you being seen?

Just yesterday, I spoke with a firm that had a new business line develop “unintentionally” prior to COVID-19 that they want to take advantage of on the other side to grow substantially in the future. My recommendation to them was to take this time to update their website, “launch” this division on social media and use it in their talk track when they are reaching out to existing clients so that it is top of mind when hiring starts again.

My advice:

Take a look at all of your branding platforms—digital, social, print, you name it—and make sure the messaging is CONSISTENT and clearly communicates who you are, what you do, and how you solve your clients’ pain points and alleviate their challenges.
Start or continue to post regularly on LinkedIn and other social media platforms.
Make the website content updates you have been meaning to make for the last year that clarify your message and communicate your true capabilities and competitive advantages.
Update fact sheets, capabilities documents and 1-sheeters that you leave behind with clients.
Look at your sales scripts you have used for 10 years and critically think about how to improve them.

3. Create and post content regularly to stay top-of-mind and build your community

Value, value, value. In a world of noise, it is more important than ever to bring value to your community. As business owners and leaders, everyone is looking to us – clients, candidates, other business owners and people that don’t even know us yet. We are all in this together, and as business leaders, people want to hear what we have to say. Let your voice be heard. Lead through this time of adversity well.

Like all of us, I get hundreds of emails every week with updates on COVID-19. I am not saying we as leaders have to be health experts or pandemic experts, but the reality is that these people are filling my inbox everyday and are staying top-of-mind. What happens if instead of COVID-19 updates we take the time as thought leaders to assist our community and let people know what we are doing, what our industries are doing, what our best practice groups are saying?

My advice:

Build your community and offer value through thought leadership content creation.
Take this time to educate, train and teach rather than hard sell.
Post great content and engage with your audience on social media.
Take time to read, comment and share your network’s content to support them.

4. Be Forward-Thinking with Technology

It is being plastered all over the news: “The world is never going to be the same.” While some people take that from the standpoint of fear, others are taking it from the standpoint of great opportunity. There is no doubt that the buzzword of 2019 and 2020 was already “digital transformation,” but I believe the events we are living through right now are only going to expedite this process. Companies that transform are going to come out stronger, while companies that resist change are going to be left behind.

At Parqa, we were already using Microsoft Teams, so when we all had to pack up and work from home we didn’t even miss a beat. Our sister company Versique was slightly behind in the transition, but in just four short weeks, they have almost completely migrated to the cloud. We have had Town Hall meetings via Teams, documents are being migrated from our antiquated server, and remote VPN logins and file accessing is dying literally in days, not months.

This is just one example, but I have spoken to numerous technology companies that sell into the staffing and recruiting industry, and there are so many technologies out there that make work faster, more efficient, produce a better ROI, allow for reduced internal headcount, and provide a better client and candidate experience.

My advice:

Audit your tech stack and take time to research and implement new technologies.
Focus on how you can make your team more efficient.
Focus on how you could improve the experience you offer to clients and candidates.
Look for ways to automate and standardize processes to scale.
Take this time to clean your CRM/ATS database – technology relies on clean data!

7 Quarantine Tips from the Parqa Marketing Team to Help You Work Remotely

April 6, 2020

While it’s felt more like 67 years, here at Parqa Marketing we’ve reached the end of our third week of working remotely and practicing social distancing. While we’re proud that we were out in front of the initiative to flatten the curve, in a marketing agency full of wacky extroverts who crave social interaction and happy hours like oxygen, working remotely has been quite the adjustment.

As an agency that specializes in providing marketing solutions for staffing and recruiting firms, we understand that the charming, chatty, and hyper-social personalities that make outstanding recruiters do not translate to the droning isolation of working from home.

So, we figured we’d throw together some habits that our team has developed over the past few weeks that are helping us to get through it.

Paul Thelen – Random Video Chats

Look, a mere six weeks ago, I was that curmudgeon guy in your friend group that ignores your FaceTime call, only to call you back seconds after sans video. Maybe I’m just awful at finding my best angle in selfie mode, but I couldn’t stand video calls. Then COVID-19 came, and I embraced the lonely existence of remote work. After a few days, I was sauntering around the house like a loon having one-sided conversations with my cats. Suddenly, video chat apps like FaceTime, Zoom, Hangouts, and Teams became the best thing ever.

My tip for adjusting to remote work is to utilize video chat as much as you can. Better yet, randomly video chat with one of your coworkers.

To my surprise, the elements of my in-office workday that I miss the most are the random personal touchpoints. I miss talking about the last night’s game (don’t get me started on how much I miss sports) with someone as I grab a cup of coffee, hearing what people have on their social calendars this weekend, complaining about the weather—I even miss the meaningless elevator small talk I would have with people in our building.

Random, brief video chats have helped me fill the social void tremendously. In these unprecedented, scary, and confusing times, it’s amazing how impactful a couple of minutes of a virtual small chat can be. Best yet, when I video chat my coworkers, they actually respond, unlike my cats.

Ashley Addison – Set Up Your Work Space, Just Like the Office

Working from home in 2020 is a prevalent thing – especially in the staffing & recruiting world. Usually, having your laptop, your cell phone & a comfy spot to hang out will cover it for the day. However, you might find yourself not feeling the most productive at home with very few tools at your disposal. I was sitting in that spot about three weeks ago & I knew I had to adjust my setup. I had an old monitor, folding table, office chair & wireless mouse in storage, so it was time to pull those things out!

Once I set up my space, I found myself feeling like it was really no different than the office, and I was far more productive. I’ve actually found myself enjoying the work from home life, and I’m significantly more efficient!

Duncan McLaughlin – Maintain a Healthy Headspace

We’re a couple of weeks into quarantine, and by now, most of us are charging our phones all night just to scroll through the same three apps all day (me included). As much fun as that is, and as nice as it is to think I can just scroll my way through this whole ordeal and emerge whole on the other side, I’ve found that being a bit more intentional with my time has helped a lot.

Whether it’s dedicating an hour a day to running/walking outside, downloading meditation apps (Headspace/WakingUp are great ones), or pouring time into hobbies, little steps like these can pay huge dividends towards our mental well-being. No one is immune to the side effects of isolation, and I think as much of a protective boost that we can give our minds during this time, the better, especially when it’s this easy.

Jared Hummel – Find a Routine

I am someone that loves routine. I probably didn’t appreciate it enough until the COVID-19 challenge began. I would wake up at 5:00. Be to the gym by 6:00, workout until 7:15. Work from 8-6. Go home, make dinner and hang with my wife until 11:00, and then hit the hay.

Many can say that nothing has changed… why don’t I workout outside, I am lucky to still have a job, I should be grateful to have a home to work from and that my family enjoys. I am extremely grateful, probably now more than ever, for the luxuries that I have, but keeping the routine has been a bear!!

The emotional stress of everything, the not leaving the house, the fact that my local LifeTime Fitness is shut down and my coach @JenMobley isn’t working, the idea I cant high five a teammate or shoot a nerf gun or grab a conference room has changed everything for me.

I would encourage you to let it be, challenge yourself to find a new norm, be ok with the change, embrace it, and make changes to your daily routine. Work HARD to set a new normal… in the end I always try to go back to my guiding principles:

Personal mental health
Personal physical health
Faith
Family and friends.
Work/career/mission.

Keep regimented with these priorities, and even though the activities may change your life priorities don’t need too! You got this!

Jeremy Delgado – Working From Home With a Toddler

The new normal nowadays feels completely different from just a short 21 days ago. COVID-19 hit MN hard, and many have felt the wrath of becoming a work from home all-star and a daycare center all at once. What we have done here at my house is split up the parenting duties by half days. We look at each other’s calendars for the week, and we determine what are non-negotiable times that we cannot have the little one screaming in our ear or banging on the keyboard while on a conference call with a client.

We still work for the part of the day we have the little rascal, but it is the part of the day you get done what you can with the time you have available to you. When you do not have the little rascal for the other half of the day, this is when you really crush through your tasks and to-dos.

We found that there is no more 9-5 when working from home. We know we don’t put all 4-5 hours of hardcore work time when you have a 2-year old running around, so if we have to put in the extra few hours after normal work hours, we know that is what has to be done. We are both thankful we have a job, and having the kid around more really is a blessing in disguise. You do not and will not ever get these magical moments back where you can build a fort from a table, couch, and blanket and see the look of amazement and joy on your little ones face from such a simple thing.

Times are tough; we will get through this.

Appreciate your loved ones more, give leniency where needed, and always be kind!

Brittney Hurley – Change Out of Your Pajamas!

It might seem obvious, but let’s be honest…we all struggle with this one. While it’s been tempting to stay in my pajamas all day, doing so seems to create a slower mood overall, and I don’t feel as productive as I do when I get dressed for the day. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying you shouldn’t keep it casual and still wear a hoodie or your comfy pants, I am just encouraging you to change out of whatever you wore to bed.

The simple act of changing your clothes triggers you to start your day and be productive. It may even be worth throwing on a nice shirt here and there to help boost your confidence for the day. So try not to get too comfy, this will all be over eventually, and when it is, you will have to go back into the office, and you don’t want those nice shirts collecting to much dust.

Chanel Schmidt – Start Your Day with a (Virtual) Team Huddle

There’s no doubt that working remotely comes with its fair share of both challenges and blessings. One of the hardest parts is not being able to sit side-by-side with your team every day—from the time you’d usually spend brainstorming and problem-solving, to laughing and nerf-gun shooting, it can get pretty lonely.

It’s critical to maintain community and togetherness during times like these, and one way the Parqa team has done that is by hosting virtual huddles at least three times per week. This has been a long-standing tradition for our team, but it’s been so cool to see how the distance doesn’t stop us. I’d highly recommend starting your day with this kind of 15-minute check-in. After all the only way to get through the times we’re in is to do it together.

Why President’s Club Still Matters Today

March 4, 2020

I just got back from Playa Del Carmen for my company’s President’s Club Trip, it was an incredible week. During the trip, I realized how blessed and grateful I am to work with such a great team. The resort was amazing, the food was great, and the nightlife entertainment was awesome to experience with this year’s winners.

It is a trip that I will always remember, especially because last year my business partner and I tried a new incentive program. Instead of doing an annual trip somewhere warm, like we did 6 out of the last 7 years, we tried a quarterly incentive where we scheduled 4 fun events. We didn’t do the trip last year because my partner and I wondered if President’s Club trips were still worth it today. Like youth sports these days, it seems like everyone gets a medal. With that, society has taken away the competitiveness and drive for those elite performers that want to work really hard and earn something of significance, whether it’s a trophy or an all-expenses paid company trip for a year of top performance.

At Versique and Parqa, all producers are eligible to qualify for President’s Club. Additionally, we have 2 wild cards for those that best exemplify our core values throughout the year. After reflecting on this year’s trip, I am more convinced than ever that businesses should have a President’s Club.

Here are 3 reasons why businesses should have a President’s Club.

1. Rewarding Your Best Employees for an Awesome Year

Many companies like ours have an “Employee of the Month” award, but for someone to sustain a level of excellence for an entire year requires passion, hard work, drive, and determination. These are the same things I tell my daughters and the girls that I coach. While these don’t necessarily take specific skill, it gives everyone an opportunity to achieve something great. This week, my 6th grade daughter plays in the state basketball tournament and she said to me yesterday that she really wants to win state. She has won 7 of the 10 tournaments they have played in, and every practice has led up to this week and she wants to win. If she doesn’t, it will still be a great season.

Similar to those that had a good year but didn’t qualify for the trip, we had some great success stories, but this is the elite that get to go on a trip for driving that performance month in and month out and should be rewarded for an awesome year.

2. Spouses/+1’s Love it

One of my best friends and I were talking a month ago after he got back from his company’s President’s Club. He was just coming off his best year ever and told me he and his wife really needed it and it was awesome in so many ways. Our conversation got me thinking, to make President’s Club isn’t easy. At times, it takes away from kids, family, sports, etc.

This trip is a great way to say thank you to those that support you for supporting our organization. The other shocking thing I heard on our trip from a lot of the +1’s, is how much throughout the year it gets talked about.

3. Culture Builder

Your employees become closer with each other and their managers. During these trips I have developed deeper relationships with everyone and that is sometimes hard to get throughout the year in our busy world.

As a headhunter for the last 23 years, rarely do people ever leave jobs just for more money, they want to work for a company that cares and is vested in their success. For me, it is hard to put the spotlight on our company or myself, so when we started this company in 2013, my vision was to build the culture from the inside out. These trips are a time when where I reflect and can look back with excitement on what we achieved in 2019. As owners, our roles are not to just aspire to make a great living, but to inspire to make a difference.

President’s Club Trips Still Matter.

How Digital Marketing is Changing the Staffing and Recruiting Landscape

February 27, 2020

Digital tools in any industry aren’t necessarily a new thing. In staffing and recruiting, you’ve already taken advantage of many tools like CRM and ATS to simplify your life. Digital marketing is an area where many firms aren’t sure how to start.

Even firms with experience in digital marketing may not realize its full potential and how it is changing the landscape in our industry. Recently, Parqa published an eBook about how you can use digital marketing to get more candidates and clients, but here are a few reasons why it’s essential that you adopt the latest tactics in digital marketing:

Clients and Candidates are Doing More Research

When I started Versique, not many recruiting firms had embraced digital marketing. I began investing in SEO and making sure we were easily found on Google. When we got to the top of the search engine results, we had clients calling in simply because we were the first option. As time went on, and more firms got into digital marketing, our tactics had to change. While I don’t sit up at night obsessing over search rankings anymore, they are still relevant. What’s more important now is convincing leads why you are the best firm for them.

Ranking high in search engine results isn’t enough anymore. Buyers are more informed than ever before, and staffing and recruiting firms need to follow suit and provide the info buyers are searching for. Your website and your social media profiles need to contain educational content that provides value to visitors, whether they are working with you or not. Positioning yourself as a helpful resource is the first step to getting a call-in from a potential client. If you can address their challenges with the content you produce, they will be more likely to trust you with their budget for their next talent search.

Reaching Multiple Generations

In terms of age, today’s workforce is more diverse than ever. That can present many challenges to hiring managers and search professionals, but digital marketing enables us incredible accuracy when reaching different audiences. Whether you’re trying to reach potential clients or candidates, you need to have an ideal buyer in mind for your marketing programs. The location, messaging, and frequency all change for different people, so knowing your ideal audience’s goals and motivations goes a long way in digital marketing.

Marketing needs to appeal to the multiple generations that make up the workforce currently. Each of them spends their time in different places online, is interested in different things about positions, and also responds to different messaging. For instance, the newest addition to the workforce, Generation Z, has many different habits than Baby Boomers or even Millennials. They spend less time on places like Facebook and LinkedIn, and are searching for different things in a career. While Millennials may be interested in flexible work and perks, Gen Z is searching for more meaning in their work. All of these things should factor into your marketing to ensure your budget is being used effectively to reach the right audience.

Saving Time with Automation

In a world full of jam-packed calendars and multi-tasking, saving time is paramount. For staffing and recruiting firms, digital marketing automation aims to take time-consuming processes like nurturing out of the hands of recruiters, freeing up time to focus on making placements, and business development. In addition to saving time, automation is allowing staffing and recruiting firms to capture more candidate and client leads as well as identify past contacts that you could re-engage for future searches.

At its core, marketing automation may seem very straightforward. If done well, it becomes more than just automated emails to people who submit their information. Based on information your site visitors provide, a well-built automation program can serve them with resources and information that is relevant to their current situation to nurture them toward the decision-making phase. As these qualified leads move through a program, a mixture of calls from your team and automated contact keep them engaged and actively involved in your sales process.

The tools for successful marketing automation are becoming more robust and readily available every day, giving even small teams the ability to automate menial tasks and give them more time to engage with clients and candidates in a more personal way. Tools like Herefish, who was recently acquired by Bullhorn, integrate with the tools you’re already using, streamlining your processes and increasing efficiency.

Staying on Top of the Trends

Tools for digital marketing and digital recruiting are more available than ever. With these tools, hiring managers can better promote their postings before they ever engage a recruiter. Does this mean they won’t require a recruiting or staffing partner? Not necessarily, especially if they don’t have the time to integrate cutting-edge tools. Your firm can be an expert who is ready to help them use the tools they have to the best of their ability. By being well-versed in the latest digital tools, your team is positioned to act as a resource and expert to help hiring managers to fill positions with the right hires the first time.

If you’re looking for an expert partner to help build your digital marketing, you’re in the right place. Parqa specializes in building and implementing digital marketing strategies to get staffing and recruiting firms more clients and more candidates. Contact us today to learn how we can help your firm.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Building Thought Leadership at Your Firm

February 18, 2020

Are you properly leveraging your expertise and the experience of your team? Building a thought leadership program is key to establishing your team as the go-to experts in your sector and ensuring that clients and candidates know that they can trust you in their career or talent search. Here is a step-by-step guide to getting started with thought leadership.

1. Identify Your Thought Leaders

One of the first major challenges to building thought leadership is identifying the leaders you should be promoting. While it would be nice to establish everyone on your team as thought leaders, there are some hurdles you need to overcome. First, thought leaders need to have some history to build their credibility. Yes, you’re going to be promoting them and building credibility but it’s easier to start with one of your team who is already established in your industry.

Second, narrowing down the number of leaders that you’re promoting helps cut down on noise. Even if your team is talking about separate topics, your audience has a limited attention span. Any distractions from the leader you want to put forward are competition, don’t be your own competition.

Choosing the right leaders at your firm can also help set up other employees to build their reputation. When they have the chance to engage with established thought leaders and have a dialogue, others will start to recognize them as a reputable voice in their field.

2. Create Valuable Content

The two important things to remember when creating thought leadership content is to focus on the value your content provides and to know what kind of leader your firm is. When making educational content, it can be a bit counter-intuitive but thought leadership content should never try to make a sale. You are providing your expertise to help your clients and candidates solve their challenges. By avoiding sales-focused language, you create a more personal connection and establish your firm as the place to turn for expert advice.

Choosing the type of thought leadership you should focus on is also critical. The three main focuses are industry, product, and organizational thought leadership. Not only should you consider where your firm’s expertise lies, but also where there are gaps in your industry. If you have unmatched experience in your field, industry thought leadership allows you to showcase that and share experiences that others don’t have. If you’ve built an innovative product or process, then you focus on product thought leadership. Finally, if your organizational culture stands head and shoulders above the rest, showcasing how you built that culture gives your audience useful information for their own companies.

There is no rule saying you can’t focus on multiple topics, but when you are starting a new thought leadership program and you have limited resources and time, focusing on the topic that you can add the most value to should be your goal. The more you specialize, the easier it is to set your team and your firm apart as leaders and experts on topics relevant to your audience.

3. Know Where to Promote

When you invest time and money into thought leadership, it’s important to make sure you are reaching your audience where they spend their time. If your ideal clients and candidates spend their time on LinkedIn, articles and videos will reach them best there. If you’re trying to reach the people who come to your website, blogs, ebooks, and other videos posted on your site should do the job.

The nice part of promoting thought leadership in multiple places is you can repurpose content and save yourself some work. If you put together a great eBook, you can break that down into smaller pieces for blogs or LinkedIn articles. From there you can create simple videos with more bite-sized pieces of information. Once you know where your audience spends their time, adapting your thought leadership content to catch their eyes is critical, but as we’ve outlined here, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel for each piece of content.

4. Measure the Impact and Return

Just like any part of your business, successful thought leadership must be measured to properly see the returns and any adjustments that need to be made. The difference is connecting the insights you measure from your thought leadership program with the normal KPIs. Measuring things like post views and engagements on LinkedIn or pageviews on your website and connecting them with the leads that come in can show the returns of your thought leadership.

You can also see the results of thought leadership development by tracking other types of interactions related to your expertise. The number of invitations to join advisory boards, speaking engagements, and even mentorship are also trademarks of increased thought leadership awareness.

Although the communications you publish aren’t directly geared towards sales, developing your team as thought leaders will go a long way to helping you secure more business. By positioning yourself and your team as thought leaders you don’t have to sell; clients and candidates will seek you out instead.

If you’re not sure where to start or how to build thought leadership into your existing marketing, my team would love to chat. Contact us today and learn how we help staffing and recruiting companies get more clients and candidates with effective digital marketing.

Why Staffing and Recruiting Firm Owners Refuse to Invest in Their Brands

February 5, 2020

Everyone wants their company to be the first name that comes to mind when their ideal customers look for a partner. But many staffing and recruiting firm owners are still hesitant to invest in their brand to get themselves there. There are a range of reasons, and even though my team and I spend a lot of time explaining the benefits, I still run into a few common barriers.

I think it’s time I put these issues to rest and illustrate just why investing in your firm’s brand is critical to long-term growth.

“It’s Too Expensive”

While it’s true properly building your brand isn’t free, when I compare it to other expenses and consider the long-term gains, I’m shocked that this is still a sticking point for firm owners. The fact is that to properly benefit from any investment in your brand, you need to commit to it like you would any other investment. If you throw a small budget at a project for a few weeks and expect a huge burst of leads or boost in stats, you’re going to be disappointed.

When you need to add another recruiter to your team, you do that immediately even though that is an expensive investment that isn’t guaranteed to work. You need the increased capacity on your team and you’re willing to give them the proper chance to prove their impact. If this is an easy choice, why don’t firm owners do the same with their brands?

The key to mitigating the expense of brand building is avoiding costly mistakes. If you’re looking for ROI, make sure the data you’re capturing is accurate and useful. Without accurate data, adjusting your marketing efforts to best reach your ideal clients is difficult, resulting in wasted money and low returns. Committing to brand building and thoughtful planning goes a long way toward positive ROI from branding.

“I’ve Tried It Before, I Didn’t See Results.”

The word that most firm owners leave out of this statement is “immediately.” While I don’t doubt that a lot of firms have tried to expand their brand, it isn’t an overnight lead magnet. In some cases, there will be an initial boost of leads in the beginning, but as time goes on, the focus on short-term lead generation wears down and the leads stop coming in.

There are two things wrong with this approach, even if you are an experienced marketer. First, the goal of brand building is not simply to generate leads, instead, you are establishing your credibility for potential leads doing research. When your ideal customer decides it’s time to speak with a recruiter, they’ll do their research, and your firm needs to be well represented.

The second problem is the timeline. Building a strong and trustworthy brand takes time and if you don’t see it through to the end, the time you put in at the front end will be wasted. Think about the trial period you give a new employee or new vendor; with only a month or two to proves themselves, what kind of results can you expect. Successful investment in your brand requires support and confidence that while there might not be immediate returns, the work you put into your brand will pave the way for future growth and continued success.

“I’m Already Well Known in my Market”

First off, congratulations. Seriously, being the top of mind firm in your market is no easy task and goes a long way to growing your business. But it doesn’t stop there. Even if people know your name across your market, investing in your brand is still important to answer one question from the people who’ve heard of you: “Why should I work with you?”

If your potential clients don’t have the information necessary to trust your experience, they may not pick up the phone to call. What’s more, if they are searching for you or your firm by name, but they need to work with other members of your team, you need to establish their credentials as well. Bios and consistently published content work to not only promote your firm and your team, but they give online leads a body of information that they can learn from.

If you’re well known in your market, the next step is to answer the question, “Well known for what?” Investing in your branding and that of your team establishes your firm as a thought leader in your industry and the best option in your market. Make it easy on your sales team and convince your clients that you’re the best partner before they ever pick up the phone.

“I Don’t Know Where to Start”

This is one of the most common answers I hear from owners. The good news is, it’s also the easiest to answer. If you’re tackling your branding and marketing in-house my answer would be to start small, updating your website and social media profiles and creating new web content. While you can start with simple actions, the key is to be consistent and dedicate time and resources to the success of your efforts.

Honestly, digital marketing is a complex animal, and if your team isn’t equipped with the skillsets or the time to tackle it, you’re better off working with a partner. I’m not just saying that because I want to be that partner either. If you start with the best intentions but lose steam when other parts of the business get busy, it will be hard to see any concrete results. Just as your clients come to you as the expert in filling open positions, digital marketing and branding firms specialize in improving your online presence.

By committing resources to branding and engaging a specialized firm to reach your goals, you have the greatest chance for success. Your team is free to focus on what they do best and make use of your improved brand, while our team handles the constant upkeep and content creation of a successful branding initiative. So in short, my answer to this question is not so much where you should start, rather that it isn’t too late to start building your brand, provided you’re willing to commit and invest in the long-term success of your brand.

If you’re ready to discuss building your brand, or you still have some unanswered questions, I’d love to chat and identify some areas for improvement in your marketing efforts. Get in touch today

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1. Strategy

2. Branding

3. Technology

4. Sales Enablement

1. Your marketing stays constant even if your internal staff doesn’t

2. A shortcut to expertise

3. Reduced overhead expenses

4. Gain access to the marketing channels you need

Parqa Marketing Solutions for Staffing & Recruiting

Your Website is a Reflection of Your Company

Stay Ahead of the Competition

Updating Your Brand Messaging

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The Customer is the Hero & You Are the Guide

Diagnose Your Company’s Message

1. Prioritize your health & wellbeing to lead well

2. Prepare for the rebound NOW by building a brand that shines

3. Create and post content regularly to stay top-of-mind and build your community

4. Be Forward-Thinking with Technology

1. Rewarding Your Best Employees for an Awesome Year

2. Spouses/+1’s Love it

3. Culture Builder

Clients and Candidates are Doing More Research

Reaching Multiple Generations

Saving Time with Automation

Staying on Top of the Trends

1. Identify Your Thought Leaders

2. Create Valuable Content

3. Know Where to Promote

4. Measure the Impact and Return

“It’s Too Expensive”

“I’ve Tried It Before, I Didn’t See Results.”

“I’m Already Well Known in my Market”

“I Don’t Know Where to Start”

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