What is Recruitment Marketing?

Historically, HR and Recruitment Teams have had more in common with their Legal Departments than with Marketing and Sales, but the time for change is now, especially if you want to make sure your employer brand gets its well-deserved time in the sun.  

Brands are competing for talent in the toughest market they've ever seen so you need a strong recruitment strategy to ensure you stand out as a choice employer. 
 

What is Recruitment Marketing? 

Recruitment marketing is how you go about attracting and retaining potential employees to specific roles that you want to fill. Employer brand building as a strategy takes time, but there are many other tactical marketing options available to quickly implement.  

Recruitment strategies are constantly evolving, but even more so in the past few years as marketers are still learning and adjusting to post-pandemic hiring. Adapted recruitment marketing approaches can help in the short term, but as discussed in part one of this blog series, it's critical to build and strengthen your employer brand for better long-term ROI.  

Once you've built out your complete employer brand, it's time to share it with the world! Here are some tactics to help you do just that. 
 

Always On Employer Visibility 

More brands, regardless of size, are moving towards an “always on” recruiting mentality. This is done by consistent promotion of what's going on within your organization, such as company events or big projects in development. Being “on” helps build brand awareness as an employer and reveal your organization’s story to the top talent that you are looking to target. This can be done through a variety of methods from advertising, community engagement, social media and other tactics.  
 

Content Marketing for Recruiting 

Help the candidate visualize what it is like to work at your organization. Are you posting photos, videos, showing off your facilities and amenities? Investing in video interviews goes a long way, especially if you develop them to last. Some content areas to consider: 

1. Promote your company’s thought leaders to signal to prospective employees that they will be joining other talented professionals in their field that they can learn from 
2. Share day-in-the-life videos for various roles 
3. Create sizzle reels for the brand focusing on your people, facilities and offerings 
4. Share what your culture celebrates by posting milestones, awards and anniversaries to social media and your website 
5. Dedicate a portion of your website to educating prospective employees instead of focusing on just the job listing 
6. Choose the quality and depth of career event materials to represent your company 
7. Use testimonials from current employees about why they like working at your organization 
8. Have content (video, text and infographics) about career paths at your organization 
9. Make sure your content has search engine optimization (SEO) techniques baked into it 

 

Promote What Works 

With the help of internal surveys, you can understand what you are already doing right to satisfy your current employees. Ask employees why they like working for the organization, why they stay and what benefits they most enjoy. These aspects should be promoted to prospects using statistics and testimonials.  
 

Online Advertising 

With social media and programmatic online advertising options, you can target your ideal candidates. Job posting sites and aggregators are table stakes now. Separate your brand by using the various targeting tools available (demographic, psychographic, geo-targeted and others) through programmatic ad buying platforms and social media.  

Remember, online advertising can be used to build your employer brand awareness as well as promote open opportunities and budget for both activities.  
 

Audience Building

Audience building can be executed through several channels from gaining social media followers to building email lists. Another area is using CRM (Candidate Relationship Management) with recruitment. This long-term approach helps you keep track and stay in communication with a larger pool of candidates.
 

Write like a human 

As mentioned above, the legalities of employment are important, but a marketing mindset is needed to stand out. Your brand can make quick advances by addressing the copy you use throughout your recruitment marketing efforts. Think about the following areas: 

• Use job headlines that pull the viewer in to learn more 
• Tell the prospect immediately why this job matters to them 
  • Know what matters to the applicant 
  • Differentiate from your competition 
  • Be memorable 
  • Share the big picture of how this role delivers on your brand purpose 
• Explain your culture and brand purpose in a way that is believable without using vague notions 
• Balance your writing with imagery. Assume your prospect will scan your content, but photos, graphics and other images can also be educational 
• Choose phrases that keep you from underselling, but stay vigilant to not overpromise 
  • Stay consistent with this brand vocabulary 

With the ongoing talent shortage, it's important for brands to remember the tactics to help counteract its effects. By building a strong employer brand and having a thoughtful strategy to promote it, you'll be able to increase your employer visibility and drive in top talent. 
 
Stand out with your HR marketing the same way that you want to stand out to your customers, and you will find yourself flooded with applications from top potential candidates. Don't know where to start? We've got your back!

If you need help developing your employer brand or are struggling to fill open positions, reach out to us and we’d be happy to help!