Get quality candidates by implementing tried-and-true marketing tactics into your recruitment strategy. These 9 tips are set to give you a continuous supply of quality applicants that know and LOVE your brand.
1. Treat candidates like your “customers”
This mindset shift is crucial in implementing marketing strategies into your recruitment. Think of your candidates as customers, and job listings as your products.
At the initial stages of hiring, you want to get as many eyeballs on your job ads as possible. That means creating job listings that attract attention and create desire.
Write job descriptions as if you were selling the role and company to a customer. Just how you’d highlight unique selling points to your customer base, highlight strengths that make you an attractive employer to job seekers in whatever job ad your post.
And if you want to take it up a notch…
Try A/B testing your job listings to see what gets the most attention. Marketers swear by A/B testing. It’s a game changing way to experiment with different versions of your posts to see what works best!
2. Create trust with an up-to-date website
Remember – quality candidates do their research. So you best believe they’ll be on your website to learn more about your company!
You should be using your website to not only sell your products or services but also market yourself as an employer.
A well-maintained website gives candidates the confidence to apply to your company. A rundown website, on the other hand, can lead candidates to assume you aren’t active or worse – out of business.
So keep your website updated with your latest activities, happenings and projects.
When interviewing candidates, you’ll be able to weed out the ones that didn’t do their research from the quality ones that do.
3. Dip your toes into social media marketing
Don’t let your job ads and website do the heavy lifting. Maintain a social media presence so you stay in the minds of future candidates.
Stay active by posting social media content consistently. It doesn’t have to be high effort either.
Something candid will give viewers an authentic peek into your company’s culture. Use this space to showcase your work environment and the personalities in your team!
Some wildly popular content ideas for employer branding include Office Tours, FAQs or highlights of your recent activities.
You can then repurpose this content on other platforms like LinkedIn, your website and job portals (like ours!)
Check out Hiredly’s Instagram and Company Profile for more post ideas.
4. Make your employees your “influencers”
Influencer marketing does wonders for brands so who’s to say it won’t work for recruitment?
The strength of influencer marketing is having a friendly face attached to a brand’s product or service. It humanizes the brand.
The idea here is to get your employees involved in the employer brand by making them advocates of the company. Encourage your employees to share their work experiences on social media like LinkedIn or Instagram.
These posts will give viewers a true-to-life look inside your company and generate interest from potential hires!
5. Employee Referral Programs
Take a cue from Affiliate Marketing by introducing employee referral programs.
Motivate your employees into finding quality talents by offering benefits or compensation with every successful hire.
Your next star employee could be a connection away from your current top performer!
6. Nurture your candidates
A positive job seeker experience will lead to a positive employer brand, whether or not they get hired by you. Likewise, a bad experience can hurt your reputation.
Virgin Media had to learn it the hard way. When they looked into their candidate experience, what they discovered led them to do a massive hiring overhaul.
They discovered that rejected candidates who had a bad recruitment experience with them led to a loss of 5 million dollars in revenue within the year!
Sure, candidates will work hard to impress you. But once you’ve narrowed down your choices to the most desired candidate, you’ll be the one to have to win them over.
Keep in mind that the top talent you’re eyeing is likely in high demand. Nurturing the candidate is even more crucial at this point.
Dave Carvajal, author of Hire Smart from the Start, suggests closing the deal by asking the candidate these 3 questions:
- Do you know what the role is and what it takes to be successful?
- Do you think you can have high success in the role?
- Do you want the role?
Answering these questions will remind the candidate why the job you’re offering is the best fit for them.
Carvajal also recommends emphasizing the values both you and the candidate share. People are willing to leave high paying jobs for a workplace whose culture and purpose align with theirs.
7. Use your own photos
The difference between a generic stock photo from a genuine photo of your team members is HUGE.
So show off your team by including them on your website, social media and job postings!
Invest some time into taking photos of your team members at different spots in your office. You can also work smart by taking photos at every important company event, celebration or activity.
You may not know how or when you’ll use these photos, but they WILL come in handy for future recruitment campaigns. It’s better to have a big selection of pictures to choose from than scramble to take new photos when everyone’s too busy!
Need help with photos? Our team at Hiredly Studios specializes in capturing professional photos and videos that show off your company’s personalities.
8. Host a virtual recruitment event
There are huge perks to hosting a virtual recruitment event. It costs less than a physical event, you get to host from the comfort of your office and reach a wider pool of audience.
A recruitment event like this helps create awareness that you are hiring while promoting your employer brand.
Showcase your amazing team dynamics by getting some of your star employees involved. They will also be able to interact and answer questions from curious job seekers directly.
You can host your live sessions for free on Facebook, LinkedIn or Youtube. Of course, this also helps if you already have a healthy following on your platforms.
If you’re new to this but want to give it a go, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We’ll hook you up with an engaging live session with our job seeker base!
9. Join Career Sites
This may be a shameless plug but we won’t be in this line of business if we didn’t believe in it!
Career sites (like ours) are mobile-friendly for job seekers, making your jobs easy to find and apply to.
Joining a career site also gives you access to a selection of candidates who are already looking for an opportunity.
Hiredly also lets you host your photos and videos on company profiles to give job seekers a 360º view of your employer branding.