Did you know that before a potential candidate becomes aware of your company, they get information about your brand from social media, Google searches, and job boards? This is why company culture is important and representing your brand in the brightest light is essential. But what is the most effective way of doing so?
If you’re trying to build brand awareness and attract people to work for your company, you should consider incorporating recruitment marketing into your strategy. Why recruitment marketing? Because having a thorough content marketing plan will help you trigger people’s interest in your company, make them consider you as their future employer, and put an end to your struggles of filling out open positions.
And what elements make recruitment marketing a successful part of your talent acquisition strategy? I’ve found the following elements to be the most essential:
- Social media marketing
- Employer brand marketing
- A great career website
- Content marketing
1. Social Media Marketing
Many recruiters make the basic mistake of using social media solely for promoting open positions. The key to a successful recruitment marketing strategy is to use social media for:
- Sharing job opportunities
- Offering a glimpse into your company culture
- Sharing industry-related content
- Promoting important events and job fairs
Keep in mind that although social media marketing might have been easier in the past, today there’s a great deal of competitiveness. Getting the word out requires time, effort, and yes, money. If you don’t know how your social media marketing strategy should look like, here are some suggestions:
- Start building your brand early. Become a resource of information and connect with others in your industry and make long-lasting connections.
- Build relationships with relevant people in your field. This can include bloggers, journalists, marketers, and founders. Read their posts, leave comments, and share. These connections might help you down the road.
- Try to figure out which social media channel is best for your business. Where do your potential employees hang out? Once you figure out which social media channel is right for you, take your targeted advertising to those platforms.
2. Employer Brand Management
Looking to boost your recruitment efforts and the engagement rates of your potential employees? Try employer branding! An employer branding strategy is a brilliant way to communicate what’s different about your company, and why it’s a great place to work. LinkedIn Employer Brand Statistics show that:
- 72% of recruiting leaders worldwide agreed that employer branding has a significant impact on hiring.
- 55% of recruiting leaders worldwide have a proactive employer brand strategy.
- 59% of recruiting leaders worldwide are investing more in employer branding.
The statistics show that incorporating employer branding tactics into your recruitment marketing strategy is vital. But what’s the best way to have employees lining up to work for your company? Let’s take a look:
- Build your company culture. Give your best to create a positive environment in which employees would love to be part of and arrive with a smile on their face. Give constructive feedback as much as you can, reward employees for a job well done, encourage open communication, and offer growth opportunities.
- Use technology to showcase your company culture. Post videos and images of your engaged employees, team building activities, and success stories. Potential employees need to see how you treat your current employees and what opportunities lie ahead for them.
- Make your best employees brand ambassadors. Why? Because they’re the best marketing solution. They can convey, in an enthusiastic manner, the positive experience of working at your company.
- Attract employees with desirable work benefits. This might include flexibility at work, more vacation time, student loans, or free daycare services.
3. A Great Business Website
If you haven’t heard it before, here it goes: your website is the core of your recruitment marketing strategy. This is where potential employees go to research your company and see whether it has what they’re looking for.
One survey by Talent Board showed that 64% of candidates think business websites are the most valuable resource when researching new opportunities. What’s more, according to Bersin by Deloitte’s 2015 Talent Acquisition Factbook, company websites drive more hires than any other source.
But what makes a good business website? These are the things you need to pay attention to:
- Sell your company. Hire a good content writer who can deliver your company’s vision and mission in the most engaging manner.
- Include original photos of your office and take photos of your employees at work. The photos should capture your happy and engaged employees, your office spaces, as well as team outings and lunches.
- Your website should also include original videos. These videos can show your employees working together, team building activities, or employees speaking why they love working at your company.
- Highlight your company’s perks. Whether it’s free food, foosball tables, or flexible work arrangements, make sure your future candidates get the full picture.
- Make sure you include an FAQ section. Use it to address frequently asked questions about your business.
- Your website should also be easy to navigate. People should easily find what they’re looking for.
- Pay close attention to your career web page. Instead of writing dull job descriptions, make sure you tell potential candidates why it’s a great job.
4. Content Marketing
Yes, you’ve heard it well. Content is king. And that’s why you need to include content marketing into your recruitment marketing strategy. Content marketing involves the creation of articles and blogs, press releases, videos infographics, photos, research, etc.
Why should you include it in your recruitment marketing plan? Because content marketing can engage your audience to read and share your content, gain interest in your company, and inspire them to apply to your open position.
How to create a successful content marketing strategy? Here’s how:
- Know your goals before you start planning. What are you trying to achieve?
- Define your buyer personas so that you can produce more relevant and valuable content.
- Run a content audit. See which type of content has the highest engagement rates and has led to most hires. Is it blog posts or ebooks? Infographics or videos? Venture out and experiment.
- Choose a content management system to streamline the process. You can use a system like Hootsuite or HubSpot.
Don’t Forget to Measure Your Data
Lastly, don’t forget one of the most important aspects of your recruitment marketing strategy. Understand how to measure, analyze, and optimize the different tactics to maximize results. After all, measurement is the secret ingredient to unlocking maximum impact in your recruitment marketing strategy.
You’ll need to measure:
- Your web traffic. Keep in mind that good marketing content should attract more visitors to your company career page.
- Engagement. Your engagement data will give you insight into all the likes, shares, and comments you’re getting. This will also tell you on which channels, communities, and forums your target audience is spending their time.
- Baseline measures. These measures will tell you how your recruitment marketing strategy is performing. You’ll also get an insight into your overall talent acquisition strategy.
And that’s it! That’s everything you should know about your recruitment marketing strategy. Ideally, this should help you guide your visitors through a funnel, from being potential candidates to applicants, and ultimately, high-quality hires.
