About
Beyond Interactive began life in 2006 as the first online recruitment advertising agency to set up outside London. Since then, the world of digital employer marketing has grown and grown - and we’ve been leading the way. We pioneered social recruiting as early as 2007. We even act as specialist advisors for some of the top job boards.
Right from the start, our goal has been to cut out the confusion and overspending that often characterises this complex arena. Our clients don’t want jargon, they want trustworthy service and cost-effective results. They want us to surprise and delight them with prompt, innovative solutions. And they want to see the return on every penny of their investment, with no ‘smoke and mirrors’.
We’re proud of how we retain our clients. We enjoy longstanding relationships with organisations across a breadth of sectors, both in the UK and globally. Meanwhile, our relationships with almost all UK media, and a large proportion of international media, ensure that we receive preferential rates - which we pass on to you. Small wonder a certain leading social media provider uses our media planning and buying services.
Take a look at how we can provide a flexible range of services to meet your precise needs.
Services
Media Planning & Buying
Working on a tightly targeted, national or international scale, we deliver the complete range of strategic and tactical media solutions – from simple postings, display and programmatic to outdoor, including multi-channel campaigns but frequently excluding any channels we consider a waste of your time and money.
Whether based on ad-hoc purchases or long-term contracts, our solutions are driven by qualitative and quantitative data and enabled by the buying power of our director-level relationships with media owners. We also provide ongoing reporting that is not just limited to job boards.
Copywriting
Professional copywriting isn’t just about producing keyword-optimised content. It’s about capturing the interest of the target audience and speaking to them in a way that persuades them to take the action you want. That might be to click on a job, to find out more about a company, or even (for unsuitable candidates) to ‘deselect’ themselves so as not to waste anyone’s time.
Our copywriters have a wealth of experience in recruitment, business-to-business and consumer advertising and marketing, spanning everything from a catchy creative message on a banner to a careers site or supporting print collateral.
Web Design
We provide bespoke website design, with the ‘look’, ‘feel’ and functionality fully tailored to your individual requirements. Whether you need a corporate site, dedicated careers site or entertaining campaign microsite, we’ll always take time to understand exactly what you want to achieve – and ensure that our designs work seamlessly with your brand message and wider attraction strategy.
Our website solutions are built on a simple-to-use custom Content Management System. They employ no templates and are all designed from scratch, which not only makes them refreshingly unique to each client but also avoids the risk of any unused built-in coding lurking in the background to slow the site down.
Employer Branding
How you’re perceived as an employer can be the deciding factor in any recruitment project. More than that, it’s directly linked to retention. With the right employer branding and employee value proposition, you will attract talent, lose fewer good people in the first place – and find your employees acting as unofficial ambassadors in the marketplace.
Of course, this isn’t something that can be faked. But it can be expertly controlled. We will work with you to improve the ways you communicate your values and culture, engage with your existing workforce, and present yourselves as employers to the outside world.
Consultancy & Research
We have amassed a formidable wealth of experience – informed and updated by ongoing research into the latest trends, behaviours and market developments – and we believe in sharing it.
Whether it’s an audit of your website, guidance on your Diversity and Inclusion policy, or advice on choosing an ATS provider or multi-job posting tool, we’re here to help. We’re also happy to conduct bespoke research on your behalf, such as competitor analysis.
Social Media
We were among the first to identify and exploit the potential of social media for digital employer marketing – persuading clients to run Facebook campaigns as early as 2007. By now, we have taken some clients to the point where social is their biggest driver of hires.
In addition to advising the ad hoc use of social media whenever it seems the best option, we can help you create long-term social strategies that dovetail with your other branding activities, and also train your internal teams to become self-sufficient in managing today’s plethora of social channels.
Performance Marketing
Increasingly, performance models are replacing the old ‘post and pray’ job boards. From the introduction of pay per click to the evolution of Google Ads, the norm now is to pay only for results. However, this benefit is soon lost if one fails to keep on top of campaigns. Sometimes, you just need a bit of help.
Whether it’s dealing with the aggregators, which can be a minefield, or setting up a programmatic display campaign, we can guide you through the complexities or take away the pain and manage everything for you. Either way, you save valuable time and are assured of full performance reporting, so you need never let a campaign get away from you.
Display & Out of Home Marketing
Job boards and aggregators give you good access to active job seekers. But what about those who may not be looking this week, or who need a nudge to consider a career move? We can help you unlock these vital passive audiences and build them into your attraction strategy.
Perhaps they’re reading their local news, listening to the radio or visiting a website linked to their professional interests. Perhaps they’re away from their home and desk, waiting for a bus or filling up their car. We’ll make sure you grab their attention with the right combination of creative text and graphics, or even audio and video.
The Team
James Swift
Director
James has worked in digital employer marketing since its infancy in 1998 and has tracked its development from both sides of the fence – as an agency and media professional.
Having been there at the start of the business in 2006, he has helped to guide Beyond Interactive and its clients through some 4,000 successful campaigns and 15 consecutive years of profitability.
As for the future, James doesn’t believe in crystal balls. He sees his job as advising organisations based on current trends and the best available data, and he knows full well that no two clients or their requirements are ever really the same.
What he can confidently predict, however, is that the recruitment landscape is set to become even more complex – and it’s going to be vital to keep ahead of the curve.
If you’re looking to do that, call him personally to discuss your needs.
Nicola Darwen
Operations Director
Nicola brings over 20 years’ experience as an HR professional, with a track record of delivering end to end processes in talent attraction, performance management, succession management and learning & development on both global and local scales. Experienced in both Human Resources Operations and Technical functions, this enables her ability to understand the needs of both functions.
