Recruiting as monetization
Let’s talk about a less common way for B2B publications to monetize.
I have multiple clients at Megahit who use this revenue stream to make money beyond ads. Audience data helps them do it.
What they have in common: They are B2B newsletters covering specific industries.
Pain point: recruiting
As those publications grew, they noticed that companies in their industries struggled with recruiting.
Companies are only as good as their employees. Finding the best talent will always be important.
Thus, these publications spun up recruiting arms and leveraged their audiences to find candidates for their clients.
They continued to sell ads, but now they also made job placements.
They covered the whole recruitment process for their clients: sourcing candidates, screening them, scheduling interviews, negotiating offers, etc.
How they did it
1. They hired recruiters
All of these companies hired recruiters.
Recruiting is more complicated and time-consuming than it might seem.
It helps to have a professional on board.
2. They mentioned job posts in their newsletters
In their newsletters, they linked to relevant job posts.
They used their audiences to get open roles in front of thousands of people immediately.
This gave them interested candidates quickly.
3. They reached out to potential candidates from their audiences
Just like you can find advertisers among your readers, you can find candidates for recruiting.
You should have data on what your subscribers do for work. (Ad: If you don’t, check out Megahit.)
Filter your subscribers by job function. Find people in similar roles who might be good fits.
Then reach out to them and tell them about the role. Ask if they’re interested.
Your advantage: Your readers know your brand. They trust you. They will be more willing to talk to you.
Even if this job is not a good fit, you can build relationships with your readers. Then reach out again about future roles.
4. They used their audiences to find clients
Again, your readers trust you. They are fans of your brand. Reaching out to them is doing sales on easy mode.
Go through your subscriber data. Find decision makers. See if they’re hiring.
Then reach out to them and offer to help.
You can find tips on how to do tactful outreach to readers in the piece on finding advertisers.
5. They also sourced candidates through other channels
Existing audiences make recruiting easier.
However, all companies I talked to used other ways to find candidates, too.
They’d do LinkedIn outreach, go to in-person events, and more.
Revenue potential
I recently talked to a recruiter who ran a small niche publication.
He said he could sell ads for $500 apiece. Or he could get $30k–$80k for each successful job placement. (That’s 20–30% of the candidate’s first-year salary.)
That’s a lot of money. Keep in mind: It’s also far more work than selling ads.
Ultimately, many publishers combine both.
Ad: Obtain audience data and use it for profit
Over the last two years, I’ve built Megahit, a data tool for B2B media companies.
Megahit finds your subscribers’ job information: names, titles, LinkedIn profiles, employers, and more. All from their email addresses (even from Gmails).
Then it helps you find advertisers and clients among your subscribers, pull audience statistics for sponsors, segment your list, and more.
Check out Megahit! I’d love to give you a demo.
(This content is meant for the US market. If you process EU data, comply with the GDPR.)
