Using social media increased applications from both job seekers and companies

―Why they were able to achieve “lower cost × more response”.

JAIC Inc., which runs people and education businesses serving both job seekers and companies, felt it had problems with cutting cost and with how it approached job seekers, and began working with us in March 2020.
After looking at various consulting firms, JAIC chose “NowVillage”. Meeting a partner company you can trust is one of the important things in getting results from your measures, so what was the deciding factor? We spoke with Mr Kondo, senior managing director, about NowVillage’s appeal and what he had hoped for.

The challenge at the outset: “cost and response”

―First, could you tell us your role, your department and your goals there?

I am responsible for company-wide marketing. In the recruitment business, I am involved in acquisition on both the company side and the job seeker side. We also run a staff training and employee education business, so I am involved in acquisition for that as well. My remit is to generate responses from both B2B and B2C so that they fit properly within our budget.

―I believe you first used NowVillage for marketing support in recruitment. What did you hope for from NowVillage?

“Increasing response while cutting cost”: that is what we hoped for when we asked you.
When we first asked, B2C acquisition for the recruitment business was tough. We were thinking about both sides: costs were mounting, and we simply wanted to reach a larger pool.

Specifically, at the time I felt that in some respects we were getting responses by over-investing in advertising. We had long relied mainly on search advertising, but the ad costs had soared too far and we were struggling. We then moved to affiliate advertising, but even so the cost would not come down fully. CPA at that time was roughly 15,000 to 20,000 yen.

I thought this consumption-type cost structure was not good, and wanted to cut cost by building investment-type acquisition channels with asset value, such as social media. NowVillage had strengths in social media and the like, so that is what we were hoping for.

Support for running social media begins

―Were you already thinking at that time that “we should do other social media”?

Yes. Around then I vaguely felt that “we should be doing Twitter”, and we were doing it little by little. But it didn’t lead to any acquisition at all…
YouTube was the same: in my head I knew we should do it, but we just couldn’t take the first step.

While we were just trying things out without any picture of them working, NowVillage told us, “We can support you.” On top of that, acquisition through SEO had just started to grow around then, which brought costs down, so I wanted to increase SEO acquisition further and cut costs. NowVillage taught us that SEO content is spread mutually through Twitter and YouTube, and that each channel mutually strengthens acquisition, and I came to think we really had to do more on social media.

In fact, at that time, partly because the effect of Twitter wasn’t very visible, some voices in the company said, “Maybe we don’t need to do it?”, but I wanted to build one or two more pillars. However, there was no guarantee that “it will work”, so I did have some worries on that front, but because NowVillage properly explained the purpose of using Twitter and how it would go, we were able to get started smoothly.
For running Twitter and YouTube, they gave us an operating sheet, and we proceeded on the basis of “let’s move forward while filling this in”. They also gave us a list of accounts to use as reference, and we ran our accounts referring to the key points of those accounts.

We achieved 5,000 followers on Twitter in six months and 1,000 subscribers on YouTube in six months, and that is thanks to NowVillage teaching us the know-how properly.

Starting to bring in webinar attendees, and feeling the effect of social media

―Where did the effects of Twitter and YouTube show up?

Well, I’ve been invited to webinars much more often, and requests to speak have increased. My personal Twitter account has increased the number of webinar participants. When we announce a webinar we’re holding on Twitter, around five people join via Twitter every time. We have actually won several corporate training projects via Twitter as well. As for YouTube, it brought in around 100 job seekers in the first six months.
Mr Kondo’s Twitter account
JAIC’s YouTube account

We also receive many comments, which let us understand customer needs and apply them to SEO, and embedding YouTube videos in SEO articles has increased responses too. Because we link articles and videos, we’ve created an environment where people can easily move between them.

―Were there effects beyond direct acquisition?

I feel that Twitter has been building my own personal brand. In sales meetings people say “I saw your Twitter”, which makes it easier to get into the meeting.

Also, business owners have started joining our webinars directly via Twitter. Originally the participation rate of business owners was close to zero, but now around ten join each time. How to get business owners interested had been a challenge for us, so I think this has had a very good effect.

In terms of the atmosphere inside the company, social media itself has become very familiar. I think the culture has changed so that “using it is a given”. Social media has become a standard part of our measures, or rather our countermeasures.
For example, whenever we want to drive attendance we now always call out on Twitter, and it has become normal for people to say, “Mr Kondo, we’re holding this kind of seminar, so please tweet about it!” As for video, we were doing it before, but I feel the hurdle to making videos has dropped dramatically. Video has become a familiar tool, and staff have started passing on learning to other staff through video.

Expecting great work in the field of marketing × education

―Is there anything from working with NowVillage that left an impression on you?

Well, I have a very strong impression that “they make proposals based on a proper understanding of our company”. They really understand our preferences, corporate culture, internal structure and the personalities of the people in charge, and I often feel they work out which measures we’re likely to like before making proposals. Also, I really appreciate that they will tell us plainly, “I don’t think that measure will work.”

―Finally, what do you think characterises NowVillage?

The biggest characteristic, I’d say, is that they present plans while developing our marketing staff. For example, for YouTube video production, they trained two of our employees from complete beginners. I think most ordinary companies would not teach this carefully.
So I have a strong impression that NowVillage, while being a marketing company, also provides “education”.
Also, I think they move very fast. Their replies are quick, of course, and meetings always end with a conclusion, so I find it good that we can act with a clear picture of “how we’ll move before the next meeting”.
Companies that have a marketing department but don’t intend to go out of their way to develop it, yet still need to grow it: I think companies with that kind of challenge are a very good fit.

Thank you very much for today! We look forward to continuing to work with you!