Subscriptions build job board profits

Subscriptions build job board profitsPop quiz: which of the fol­low­ing will increase job board prof­itabil­i­ty the most?

  • A) Indi­vid­ual job post­ings
  • B) Reg­u­lar ‘spe­cial deals’ events
  • C) Annu­al or semi-annu­al job /resume access sub­scrip­tions

I’m bet­ting that most of you answered ©. Because it’s true: sub­scrip­tions build job board prof­its

So why do the vast major­i­ty of job sites I vis­it pro­mote indi­vid­ual job post­ings so heav­i­ly? I ask the ques­tion, these are the typ­i­cal :

  • ‘Employ­ers want to try before they buy’
  • ‘Sell­ing a sub­scrip­tion is too hard (via ecom­merce)’
  • ‘Employ­er needs are inter­mit­tent’
  • ‘I don’t know’

This sells your employ­er short – they’re not get­ting the best val­ue from your job board with just a sin­gle post­ing; and it sells your site short – you’re cut­ting prof­itabil­i­ty and increas­ing your effort. In fact, I’ll go one step fur­ther – you owe it to your employ­ers to offer a sub­scrip­tion pack­age first. Here’s why:

  1. Sub­scrip­tions offer a low­er over­all cost per can­di­date than indi­vid­ual sin­gle pur­chas­es – in oth­er words, ‘bang for the buck’
  2. They increase the like­li­hood for employ­er suc­cess by allow­ing post­ings and access when they are need­ed – with­out the delays that come with pur­chase , etc.
  3. They fit bet­ter with most employ­ers’ HR bud­get plan­ning, allow­ing for annu­al or semi-annu­al pur­chas­es
  4. They allow employ­ers to annu­al­ize inter­mit­tent and unpre­dictable hir­ing costs over a 6- or 12- peri­od

Sub­scrip­tions are not just an altru­is­tic move for job boards, though – they you in sev­er­al ways:

  1. Sub­scrip­tions reduce your sell­ing efforts to an annu­al or semi-annu­al basis for your employ­ers
  2. Sub­scrip­tions dri­ve up your aver­age rev­enue per employ­er
  3. Per #1 and 2, sub­scrip­tions dri­ve up your over­all prof­itabil­i­ty
  4. Rev­enue is more pre­dictable

Most impor­tant­ly, though: sub­scrip­tions move your employ­ers away from view­ing your job board as a ‘trans­ac­tion­al’ site (i.e., post a job), and instead toward think­ing about your job board as a can­di­date sourc­ing and hir­ing ser­vice. You’ve tak­en that first step away from ‘just a job board’, and toward being your employ­ers’ core hir­ing tool.  Isn’t that a bet­ter place to be? Remem­ber – sub­scrip­tions build job board prof­its!

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