Recruit smart

Recruit Smarter, Not Harder

So you've recruited everywhere you can think of. Using both active and passive recruitment methods. And damn are you pooped! And you're also thinking, that's a lot of work to do every month or every time you lose a player. Which leads to the the million dollar question: There has to be an easier way, right?

Well there is.

There are a few ways that can help you recruit smarter. Sure you'll want to do a mass recruitment campaign every so often (especially if you fall under your required 6 players) but for those in between times here's some suggestions...

Web stats are your friends. Website Statistics can show you all sorts of information about how many people are visiting your sim's site, how often and where they came from. They also provide heaps of other information that could be helpful when you next update your website like what web browser visitors are using, what country they are in and how long they visited for, what page they last looked at before leaving, etc.

What you're looking for specifically though is where they came from. If it says direct traffic then that's probably your existing players logging in. Anything else though is what you want to look at. It shows how they got to your sim's site, what referred them to you. These referral sites are where you want to focus most of your recruitment efforts on. If your web stats say you're getting a few hits from pbem2 then post more often there (within their rules on frequency of advertising), or if it's from the startrek.com forum then keep advertising and posting to discussions there. Don't worry too much about referrals from passive advertising, but if you're finding these to be quite high then maybe investigate other places to add to your list of passive recruitment. If you aren't getting any clicks on banner exchanges then it might be time to change the banner images for something new and fresh.

If you don't have your own hosting or have cpanel access (web stats usually included as part of the package) then look into Google Analytics. You'll need to put some javascript onto your site so Google can track the data of visitors to your site.

Another quick and easy idea is to add an extra field to your site's application form. Ask where the applicant heard about your sim. If you're able to provide a few options on your site (drop down menu) then include some options (yahoogroup, your fleet, friend, google, etc). This way you can track where successful applicants are coming from. Not to mention where you're getting unsuccessful applicants from.

Be honest in your ads. Some COs make the unintentional mistake of advertising their sim as what they would like it to be instead of what it actually is. An ad talks up the action and adventure on a sim but when investigating it's found to instead be a soap opera focused on character relationships. Know what your sim is actually about and sell it honestly. And if you want to change your sim to be something else, then do something about it before you start a new recruitment campaign (yes, you'll need to start again with a new mass recruitment strategy). Don't forget to get your existing players onside before doing so or you might find yourself needing to fill even more positions.

Keep your site up to date, especially open positions. If you're advertising for a new XO make sure that spot is actually open before you do so. Also study your web stats data, find out what pages people are coming in and leaving on and alter the content to keep people moving around your site and not off it! Keeping content (especially on the front page) fresh, up to date and not contradicting your ads is an awesome idea and shows that you as a CO are active both IC and OOC.

So to recap: Web stats are a very helpful tool in your recruitment strategy. Just knowing where people are coming from to get to you will ensure you advertise in the right places. Being honest and keeping your sim's site up to date will show prospective players that the sim and CO are active and it is a sim worth joining.

Good luck.