In a competitive hiring environment, recruitment marketing gives your business the edge when bringing new people into your team.
After a brief look at the importance of recruitment marketing, this article will offer you six6 steps to optimize your strategy.
Recruitment marketing and the hiring environment
Across many sectors and territories, recruiters are saying the same thing: it’s tough out there! It’s a challenge to find the best people to fill positions. In fact, 9 out of 10 employers report struggling to fill positions because of a skills gap. Employment rates are high – which means there is not an abundance of people searching around for roles. And HR departmental budgets are often under pressure which means working ever smarter – doing more for less.
Recruitment marketing allows businesses to respond to this challenging environment. The emphasis is on building a recruitment funnel for your business – similar to the funnel you probably have for promoting and selling your product to customers.
In selling your product, you do not just passively wait for people to come and buy. You’d have a long wait if you did! Instead you market your business and nurture market interest. Your sales and marketing funnel creates leads which eventually (hopefully) convert to sales.
Likewise, in recruitment marketing, you build awareness of your employer brand. In that way, people can become aware of your business as a great place to work, potentially even before they are looking for a new role.
Businesses are getting more adept at this – in particular leveraging the power of digital tools (especially social media). And, as society and the market changes, so recruitment marketing practices are constantly evolving.
So, how can you give your business the edge here?
1. Define your employer brand
Your employer brand is the image you project about what it’s like to be part of your team.
- What is your business’s culture and values?
- What type of people do you want working for you?
- What makes your business a great place to be?
This needs to be authentic. What do your current employees value about working for the business? It’s worth exploring the benefits of self evaluation as an HR tool to find out what your teams really think about their jobs.
Be clear what type of employee you are looking for and what benefits you can offer them. Everything else about your recruitment marketing strategy will flow from this starting point.
A motivated, innovative, and collaborative team culture is a great asset for any business. Look for ways to strengthen yours – for example, through a coherent employee communication strategy and wider workforce engagement when shaping internal workflows and procedures.
Additionally, a strong people development strategy is a key component of an employer brand because it reflects how an organization invests in the growth and well-being of its employees. The goal is to support employee growth, foster a positive workplace culture, and ultimately contribute to the overall employer branding. Implementing a program to reward each employee, through measures like giving employee appreciation awards or creating other meaningful recognition methods. This further exemplifies a company’s commitment to valuing and celebrating the contributions of its workforce.
2. Strategize your recruitment funnel
Funnels aren’t just for securing sales – they can help you recruit the best talent too. With a clear conception of who you are looking for, you can review and optimize your recruitment funnel.
A whole load of questions will arise as you work out how to maximize opportunities at each step of the funnel. For example:
- What are the likely profiles of people you are looking to recruit?
- What communication channels are likely to be most important to them?
- What aspects of your employer brand are likely to be most pertinent to pull out for the various roles?
You are likely to have different roles that you are trying to fill at different times. So you may well require a multifaceted approach. Your employees are not a homogenous group after all. Therefore, it’s a good idea to adopt a dynamic approach to your recruitment marketing. Sometimes, it can be beneficial to extend your reach beyond the usual methods. Just as companies are redefining traditional job recruitment tactics by leveraging social media, home cooks are reconsidering meal prep through the benefits of meal kits. These kits not only save time but also offer personalized and fresh ingredients tailored to your dietary preferences. This approach in both areas reflects an evolving market aiming to meet consumer needs more effectively.
3. Optimize your email outreach
Email remains an incredibly powerful tool to reach potential talent, and one that you will need to leverage if you want to boost your recruitment strategy. Well-crafted and targeted outreach messages allow you to start nurturing relationships with talent.
If you’re doing mostly cold outreach, try to keep those emails as brief and personalized as possible. Start with a subject line that grabs the recipient’s attention, and make sure you include their name.
Then, try to convey as much value as possible right from the first few lines. Explain clearly why you’re reaching out and what the job offer is all about. Finally, include a link to your work calendar, which prompts the candidate to schedule a call with you quickly and easily.
Don’t have an email list to start from when it comes to email outreach for recruitment? Consider checking out email finding tools to help you get those messages to the right people, – wherever they work.
4. Optimize your social media presence
Social media has also become an incredibly potent recruitment marketing tool. For most businesses, it should now be playing a key part in any recruitment strategy.
Projecting your employer brand via social media allows you to reach a vast audience. More importantly though, you can be highly targeted. This can be based on demographic criteria such as age, locality, or education. And there is plenty of scope to use more sophisticated behavior driven targeting, which allows you to be much smarter who you push your messaging to.
The best social media platform to work with may vary depending on the roles you are trying to fill. For example, Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, and LinkedIn can all be invaluable – but are useful for reaching different audiences. Focus where you expect the best return on investment.
5. Be quick
It’s important to get back to people expressing an interest quickly. Within minutes, if possible (especially for social media).
If you don’t, they may move on to another opportunity using an AI job application. Which allows them to streamline the job search process and find opportunities that best match their skills and experience – if they were actively looking for jobs. And, if they reach out more spontaneously, you want to catch them in the moment, before their window of interest closes.
Automation helps here. Systems can be set up so that leads receive an automated SMS message straight after expressing an interest, which could be used to set out the next steps and nurture interest further.
Just as you’ve probably already got great software to support other HR functions (think of the HRIS tools provided by Paylocity, for example), many digital tools can help get potential candidates moving through your funnel. A candidate esignature is one such tool that can speed up the process by allowing candidates to easily sign contracts and documents online, making the hiring experience more efficient.
6. Don’t forget employee referrals
It’s old school, yes, but peer recommendation remains a powerful form of recruitment marketing. For example, as shown in these HR statistics, 46% of workers reported finding out about new openings from their friends.
Ultimately, your employees should be your best asset when it comes to recruitment marketing. They know the realities of working for your businesses – the advantages and the challenges. So, consider leveraging insights from a time tracking software to further enhance their contributions and help you allocate your resources accordingly.
If you have a strong employer brand, employees may even share their positive experiences through social media or recommend your workplace to their network, acting as valuable ambassadors. To facilitate this, you might consider providing them with resources such as resignation letter samples that can help departing employees leave on a positive note and maintain a positive employer brand image.
And finally…
Identify key metrics, develop systems to monitor these, and then refine and adapt as you learn. Which social media channels attract the best interest? Which recruitment marketing messaging secures best engagement? Are employee referrals particularly worthwhile for certain roles?
Refine an evolving strategy that works for the specifics of your business. In a competitive landscape, it’s not enough simply to be a great place to work. You must also convey that to a wider audience – among whom, hopefully, will be your stars of tomorrow.
