How to Run Help-Wanted Ads That Work
March 6 -- Here are some classified job ads, found in major newspapers and intended to attract top prospects:
Secty: 2-3 yrs exp. Lite typing, phones & assisting gen'l mgr. Call …
Executive Asst for Int'l co. Fax res to: …
Maint. Power washing exp. Req'd. night hrs. good driving rec. call …
Cocktail servers. Exp'd. wknd even only. Call Giggles …
Excited yet? Can you picture the rewards and fulfillment that lie ahead? Are you ready to spend time polishing your résumé, going through the hassle of an interview, and leaving your current job for these thrilling opportunities? We bet that even the prospect of a boss named Giggles isn't enough to get you moving.
There was a time when newspaper classifieds were the be-all to fill jobs. Today, they're still black and white but no longer read all over. Classifieds draw fewer responses than ever, and there are many reasons why: Newspaper circulation is down; illiteracy is rising. And then there's something called the Internet.
But it's too early to write an obituary for the classifieds. They're still a great option to fill many jobs, particularly those that don't require highly specialized skills. For classified ads to work, however, they need to be advertising — that is, creative, punchy and enticing.
Take Action
Know your audience.
Newspapers are a mass-market medium. Consider this example: In Anytown USA, there are two nuclear physicists and 10,000 secretaries. Both physicists read the paper daily, as do half the secretaries. That means that secretaries are 2,500 times more likely to answer a classified ad than the physicist. Yet many labs would run the ad for a physicist anyway.
And that's wrong! It would be infinitely more efficient to simply call both physicists.
Classifieds work best when filling the sorts of jobs that are sought by many people: food servers, salespeople, and so forth. If you really must run a classified for a specialized job, run it in a targeted trade magazine or scientific journal, not the newspaper.
