​The competition for talent epitomizes supply-and-demand. We’re not recruiters here at Copel Communications—but we have helped numerous clients of ours to improve the “Careers” page on their websites. That’s our contribution to this challenge. 
 
In this article, we’d like to share some tricks and tips which you can use to make your own site’s “Careers” page more enticing for the people you want to attract. 
 
First things first
 
Did you notice the last six words of the previous sentence? They’re crucial: “The people you want to attract.” Before you go changing layouts, or writing copy, or producing videos, think about who the careers page is for.
 
That might sound like a ridiculously simple question. It’s for the people looking for jobs here, duh!
 
But it’s not that simple. Not at all. 
 
Let’s plant a few seeds in your head: 
 
Who are the job-seekers you want to attract? Naturally, the answer to this question will vary with the open positions you’re posting. And while it’s great to be as focused as possible, the wide range of jobs you may offer generally forces you to, well, generalize. 
 
That said, there are some commonalities, given your vertical. Think of it this way: The U.S. Army is always looking for people. But they’re not just soldiers or privates. There are technical jobs, there are leadership roles, there are logistics jobs, finance jobs, you name it. 
 
But if you visit the Army’s website, there’s a distinct commonality to the look and feel of the messaging. That’s because they’ve identified the common traits of people who would be considering jobs in the military: These are people who, for example, value structure. Discipline. Strength. Professionalism. Patriotism. 
 
Once you know those “target audience” attributes for your business, you can get a much clearer picture of what your “Careers” page will need. 
 
Where else are they looking? A job-seeker isn’t just looking at your site. That’s a given. So where else are they looking? For those potential Army recruits, it’s likely... the Navy. Or the Marines. Similarly, you need to look at the “Careers” pages of your competitors and take some notes. The task here isn’t to copy them, but rather to beat them! Now that you know your target audience well, it will be easy to spot the gaps, to detect the tone-deaf messaging, which invariably hinders the competition. 
 
Who else might look at this page? This is the question you likely never even considered when creating your site’s “Careers” page. Who, besides job-hunters, would ever look at this page? And why would you ever care? 
 
The answer might surprise you. It’s quite possibly prospects for your business itself. Any savvy shopper will want to learn more about you than just the goods and services you offer. This is why your “Team” page and its bios are so important (we have a nice article to help you with that challenge). And it’s why the “outside look” at your “Careers” page is important: 
 
A good prospect will want to know how you treat your people. Because that’s a reflection on your business generally—and how you treat other people, such as clients, specifically. 
 
So while you may want to convey something like “We’re a no-nonsense organization who pride ourselves on getting things done” to job-seekers, that’s 1) not too exciting for them, and 2) hardly exciting for a prospective client who wants to see the passion and humanity behind the hard work and execution. 
 
Sell, sell, sell
 
Now that you’ve answered the three questions above, you can begin to better populate your “Careers” page. 
 
To wit: What you’re doing here is basically the intro. That is, all the stuff that comes above the specific job postings. 
 
So you want to show off here. Talk about what makes the company such an amazing place to work—better than any other place to work. Are the assignments challenging? Have you automated away the tedious busy-work? How’s the workplace atmosphere? The perks? The work/life balance? What cool things to see and do are nearby? 
 
You’re looking for “evergreen” content here—that is, stuff you don’t need to update periodically. 
 
Testimonials, from both management and line-level employees, can be killer here. 
 
Lights, camera, action
 
Sure, you’ll have intro text about the “Careers” at your business. But this is one area where video really shines. We’ve made “Careers at [Company]” videos for numerous clients, and they come across like a cross between a fun movie trailer and an ad for an adventure vacation. 
 
Which leads to a hidden benefit of the “Careers” page video: They reinforce that good feeling among the existing workforce. Your people will watch it and think, “That’s right! I’d forgotten about that perk!” or “Hey, there’s Lexi from Accounting!” and get a renewed appreciation for the great gig they’re lucky to have. 
 
We can’t claim that a “Careers” page video will solve all your talent-retention issues. But it makes a little dent. 
 
Need help with your company’s “Careers” page? Contact us. We’d be happy to help. 

​Okay. We’ll admit that the title of this blog—“ SME-based articles for non-SME audiences”—is a mouthful. But it’s also a good, important topic when it comes to business development for your consultancy or professional-services firm. And it speaks to assignments we work on a lot, to our clients’ benefit. 
 
This story starts with a story. We were tasked with writing a highly technical blog article for a high-tech client. So far, so logical. 
 
But the intended audience was non-technical.
 
Aha. 
 
Who’s pulling the purse-strings?
 
Let’s keep one thing clear here: Our mission, at Copel Communications, is to help our clients make more money. Period. All of the deliverables we produce, whether they’re websites or video scripts or blog articles like the one we’re describing here, are designed to soften the beachhead of prospects, and ease them further down the funnel into buyers. 
 
Taking a customer-back approach to the challenge of this article, we asked our client: “Who is this aimed at?” More specifically, “Who would be buying what we’re selling?”
 
This is where it gets interesting. Our client makes high-tech equipment for use in a variety of scientific applications. And there are lab technicians who use this equipment. For them, a highly technical article would be appropriate, with no need for dumbing down any of the nerdy details. 
 
But these lab technicians, although they are users of the equipment, are not the buyers of the equipment. 
 
Oooh. Let’s repeat that: 
 
These lab technicians, although they are users of the equipment, are not the buyers of the equipment. 
 
And this is where the lessons of this story apply to what is likely a ton of scenarios for your business. 
 
Two different audiences
 
The lab technicians’ bosses certainly have technical know-how, given their career path up the corporate ladder. But they don’t need to read an article on the nuts-and-bolts of this technical equipment. They’d rather know the business case for buying one (which often involves replacing an aging or lesser version of the exact same thing). 
 
More importantly, a big, albeit secondary, chunk of the intended audience was relative newbies in the field: People just starting their careers who, despite their schooling, need to quickly get up to speed in the real world to get ahead. 
 
For those people, they’d be Googling topics of interest to learn more. And thus this article was seeded with the types of keywords they’d be searching on; think of it as a “101”-type intro article on the broad applications of this piece of equipment. 
 
Now, why would you want to educate this latter audience, if they’re not doing the purchasing? 
 
Let’s make this easier by re-phrasing the above question: 
 
Why would you want to educate this latter audience, if they’re not doing the purchasing today?
 
Right. Given their ambition and hunger for information, they’ll likely be purchasers of this equipment tomorrow. Time moves fast in business. And they’ll be the ones who will thank this company (our client) for giving them the free knowledge they’d craved to get up to speed in their new careers. Not only that, but said company also proved to be a reliable source of expertise, which burnishes its brand and reputation. Why wouldn’t you go with that brand of equipment when the time comes? 
 
Un-SME-ing the SME
 
So we knew all of what we described above, about the target-audience landscape, when it came time for us to interview the subject matter expert (SME) assigned to us for the article.
 
Not only that, we explained this situation, upfront, to the SME. So she understood what our intention was, and what we needed to do. She was very generous with her expertise, but also helped us to explain the why’s and what-for’s of each nugget of information, so it would be more than just a litany of facts; it would be a basis for working knowledge in the lab.
 
And thus the article. In fact, we did a couple of these; they’re peppered in among the company’s more-technical offerings, which is a smart approach unto itself: Never assume your target audience is homogenous, especially when it comes to their level of experience or expertise. 
 
So the next time you feel inclined to push out technical promotional material to the world, (re)consider your audience. You certainly don’t want to swamp or intimidate the very people who might make formidable future allies—or customers. 
 
Need assistance with this kind of complex communication challenge? Contact us. We help our clients with assignments like this all the time, and would be delighted to help you, too. 

Have you tallied up your totals for your Schedule C? If not, you might want to consider some of the categories we’ll cover in this quick tax-time edition of our usual article series.
 
Of course we’d be remiss if we didn’t open this one with the obligatory disclaimer: We’re not accountants. We rely on the services of people who are. That said, we can pore through receipts and organizers as well as anyone, so here are some categories to consider before you hand off that big stack of paperwork to your CPA with the time-tested plea: “Find as much as you legally can!”

• Accounting. It’s always fun to use last year’s bill from your accountant to claim it as an expense this year. We’re not saying to rub their noses in it, but, well…

 

• Advertising. We see this one from many angles. As a resource for multiple ad agencies nationwide, we’re their expense and they’re our income. But of course, we need to do our own advertising, too (and so do you), so any outlays you have here are legit.

 

• Bank charges. You can take special delight in going through your year’s bank statements, since they’re arranged by category, and totaling up all the pesky fees they hit you with. Not only can you provide this total to your tax advisor, but you can also get a feel for what you’d paid all year. The bank generally won’t add this up for you.

 

• Books. Happily, this expense is still claim-able, even though hardcopy books are going away. All those downloads come with emailed receipts; take advantage.

 

• Dues and subscriptions. This is where it pays, quite literally, to keep informed. You may subscribe to trade pubs that cover your industry. If you consult, you may need to keep abreast of several industries. Ditto for trade groups, newspapers, and so on: It’s great to get multiple points of view. Added bonus: What you pay for this qualifies as an expense.

 

• Insurance. Uggh.

 

• Janitorial and cleaning. Oooh! A surprisingly good one. That is, if you’re a small shop and have been doing this yourself. Splurge. Get a receipt!

 

• Office supplies. We’re not sure about you, but we can say, firsthand, that our totals for this number have been steadily diminishing over the years. We’re not 100-percent paper-less, but pretty darned close. (Tax time is the one glaring exception.) Nowadays, we’re finding more expense-able items in a categories such as…

 

• Website hosting fees and online storage. These are categories that didn’t even exist back in the day. Today, they’re ubiquitous. And if you’re still riding that free trial version of Dropbox, for goodness’ sake, pay for the real deal.

 

• Printing. Here’s another one which, like postage, is going away fast. Now if you’re doing mailers and attending trade shows, you’ll still pay your fair share of both. But we’d wager they’re not, proportionally, what they used to be, in terms of your ad-spend.

 

• Telephone. This expense used to vary with the amount of “long distance calls” you placed. Today, it varies with the amount of roaming you do, or data you download on the road. Either way, this is a standard business expense.

 

• Other stuff. There are lots of additional categories you should consider, including things like computer supplies and updates, continuing education (classes, seminars), holiday and thank-you cards, and so on.

 
How can you come out ahead?
 
As we’d mentioned at the outset of this article, we’re not accountants. Once you gather up your info, do like we do, hand it off to the pros.
 
That said, there are ways we can help you save. If you’re investing too much time, money, or effort in your marketing, writing, or creative services, let us help. You’ll find that our work is first-rate, our service is cheerful, and our rates are hardly (*groan*) taxing. Contact us today.