Online recruitment company SalesRecruits.com has increased its sales from $1 million a year to $1.5 million as a direct result of a new e-mail newsletter program.

Software & IT Sales Employment Review made such an impression on two large software companies, Sterling Commerce and Kronos, that the hiring managers there contacted SalesRecruits.com and both ended up shaking hands on a $20,000 contract.

“The revenue that's come out of our e-newsletter program to date would fund the costs of the newsletter for the next 24 months,” says Steven Morgan, CEO of the three-year-old Northport, NY company.

SalesRecruits.com maintains the resumes and professional qualifications of salespeople seeking jobs in the software and technology sector. Those who satisfy SalesRecruits' membership qualifications are entered in the database. Companies looking to fill positions such as account executive, business manager and channel manager pay SalesRecruits $20,000 a year, or $7,900 for 90 days, to access the database. Then they conduct their own hiring process, recruiting whichever sales executives they wish.

Before the newsletter program started in June, the company did no direct marketing. It generated leads primarily by attending up to 75 trade shows a year and plugging the recruiting firm on related Web sites, such as those run by human resources training groups.

Morgan, who had been a vice president for anti-virus software maker McAfee before founding SalesRecruits.com, liked the look and feel of a couple of e-newsletters forwarded to him by colleagues. So he contacted iMakeNews, the e-mail newsletter provider that produced them to help develop a newsletter that would brand SalesRecruits.com.

“We wanted to be known as the market leader in online recruiting for software sales professionals,” Morgan says.

The first issue went to a 20,000-name file of SalesRecruits.com's job-hunting members and firms that were either paying clients or agreed to receive information from the recruiter. Other names came from partner sites' databases of those who opted in for third-party offers.

By the October issue, the subscriber file had grown to 60,000 names. The opt-out rate is less than 1%, Morgan points out.

The monthly e-mail publication went beyond branding, of course, to boosting revenue. “Almost all of the business we're engaged in now is the result of the newsletter,” Morgan says.

In June, SalesRecruits.com had one salesperson on its 10-member staff. Morgan has added another and is seeking three more.

One reason for the program's success is there is little competition in the technology sales niche — sales magazines cut across all industries. Another reason is the e-newsletter's content.

At first Morgan wanted to write about the great developments at SalesRecruits.com, recalls Kathleen Goodwin, CEO of Newton, MA-based iMakeNews. “We told him, ‘You can't just beat your own chest. It's better if you get someone else to say how great you are.’”

Goodwin guided Morgan to tap industry experts.

Each issue now features some material for the job candidate and some for the hiring company. The graphically engaging HTML newsletter contains headlines and blurbs; readers click through to a microsite containing the entire articles.

Two exclusive interviews with hiring managers at major software corporations are in each e-newsletter. SalesRecruits.com's editorial staff asks questions such as “Are you hiring?” and “What are you looking for in a candidate?”

Also in each issue is an advice column, such as tips for writing an effective resume, and a piece with SalesRecruits.com news of particular interest to readers. For example, an item in the September publication announced that the recruitment firm was expanding to Europe and Canada — regions where many hiring managers are searching for technology pros.

Finally, a link to SalesRecruits.com leads to the job listings.

“You don't want to have too many articles each month,” Goodwin advises.

“Do what is core to your company.”