Week 13 saw a strong end to a successful first quarter for digital recruitment sales which was marked by progressive monthly improvements in all measurable performance indicators and the maintenance of a high average digital order value.

Despite a slight dip in week 13, print-online upsales increased from 81% in January to 85.6% in March, peaking in week 10 at a massive 87.1%. York and South London maintained 100% conversion rate every week in March with all but two teams/regions finishing the month on over 80%. A number of teams made significant improvements over the last 3 months but most notable Bradford and Essex who increased their monthly average from 66.3% and 67.7% respectively in January to 82.2% and 85.6% in March.

Featured jobs sales saw similar improvements with the monthly group average increasing from 64.8% in January to 74.7% in March. York, Oxford, Wiltshire and DESC all converted 100% of their listings to Featured jobs in week 13 with Worcester and North London having done so for the entire month. With the target set at a challenging 75% of upsales it is very encouraging to see 11 teams/regions now achieving this target.

As the newest addition to our digital recruitment portfolio logo sales presented the biggest challenge for 2011 and indeed January started slowly with a group average of 13.0% against a target of 35%. However by February this had increased to 22% and with a monthly conversion rate of 28.4% in March and a peak in week 12 of 29.9% the target is in sight for April and quarter 2. York and DESC sold logos against all of their listings in week 13 with York also having the highest conversion for the month, 89.8% closely followed by Worcester, 78.9%. Importantly everybody is now generating new revenue from logo sales with Lancashire, Cheshire and South London making the most significant month on month improvement.

Finally despite week 13 seeing the lowest average digital revenue per job since week 2 we have maintained a group average in March of £156 per job. Given the increase in logo sales we should have seen an increase however while the average logo revenue per job rose from £10 in February to £14 in March the average Featured Job revenue per job fell from £33 to £29. Nevertheless the overall picture remains very positive with the new rates and sales structure coupled with improved performances helping to protect revenues despite lower volumes.