Struggling to Hire? Recruitment Marketing Is the Answer…

Are you struggling to recruit the right candidates? Or even worse, failing to recruit at all? This could be down to several variables, including your strategies to attract, engage with and convert interested candidates into applicants.

Now there’s not a single answer to fix all your problems, however, recruitment marketing is something you can focus on to boost your overall desirability, and ultimately the way you are perceived both internally and externally.

The process of searching for, recruiting and bringing someone into your company through a simple application process is long gone, as marketing tools and resources are now paired with talent attraction and acquisition strategies. Additionally, candidates are heavily subjective and will do their research on you prior to investing their time and effort into completing an application. Research suggests how it takes multiple exposure levels of engaging content to attract customers/candidates, therefore, without marketing, you’re already starting off without any form of traction.

If this sounds like you, or maybe you’re looking to reignite your recruitment marketing strategy, read on to find out the best steps to take, with the goal to boost the visibility of your employer brand in mind.

Are you even focusing on your employer brand?

Firstly, ask yourself…. Are you investing time into your employer branding? Or better yet, do you know what your employer brand is? – I won’t go into too much detail here; however, the key is attracting candidates through promoting your USP and culture, with the aim to engage with, hire and retain them long-term. This will help you differentiate yourself from your competitors while also increasing the credibility of your brand. Click here to gain a greater understanding of this.

Most companies focus on their recruitment marketing tactics while seeking new employees, however, wouldn’t it make sense to build up your credibility first, with everything in place so that you’re armed with a strong brand to organically attract applicants through a variety of different routes? This will make your recruitment process much more effective while also boosting your employee engagement levels.

It’s now so much more than posting jobs online…

If you’re a long-standing company who’s continuously adding to your team, you will have knowledge of how the industry has changed… Posting jobs on job-boards as your way of attracting candidates will no longer cut it sadly. With competition at its highest and technology taking over, you need to come up with creative ways to get your message across while also standing out to attract the best talent. Your job ads may be bringing in a few applicants, but are they of high quality and the type of people who would fit in with your culture?

If not, here are the steps you should take to kickstart your recruitment marketing strategy today…

Identify your employer brand

Firstly, before you can move forward with your plan you need to understand who you are as a company and what you can offer your employees. This is the first step to take as you’ll then have greater knowledge of how to position yourself through your marketing message.

Look internally

Once you’ve grasped who you are, you need to take an honest look of your internal structure and whether you would join your company as an onlooker. For this activity to be effective, you need to be honest with yourself. If you feel like this isn’t be possible with a biased view, there are plenty of companies out there who can complete an audit of your internal workings and recommend changes to boost your culture.

Know who you’re trying to attract

When your culture is up to a standard you’re happy with it’s time to kickstart your marketing plan. In any form of marketing, you’ll always start off with building personas. Personas are your target market. They are the people you’re looking to form relationships with. In your case, your personas will be the type of people you’re on the lookout for. Without this element, you’ll have little direction on the type of content you need to get out there, including the best way to reach them.

For example, if you’re looking to recruit senior professionals, you’ll go to LinkedIn… Likewise if you’re looking for newly graduated candidates, your best bet is through Facebook and Instagram campaigns.

Boost awareness through content creation

After identifying who you’re looking to work with and what type of message you need to target them, it’s time to create content and campaigns that will boost your visibility. Click here to read why boosting visibility is important.

The type of content you should be circulating needs to provide your audience with information and evidence of what it is like to be a part of your team. This could be anything from employee Q&A’s and media of your work gatherings to a day in the life of blog which follows each department and employee advocacy pieces. You can be as creative as you like, as long as you’re presenting your authentic reality.

This element will help you get noticed, increase your brand awareness and boost your engagement levels with jobseekers. When you do come to hiring, you can then drip feed jobs through your content and get them noticed significantly more than if you didn’t take on a marketing strategy at all!

Provide a high standard candidate experience

By completing the above, you will create a high standard experience for your potential hires. Prior to attending an interview, candidates will have a full understanding of your complete offer, with the likelihood of a positive interview to follow. At this time, you need to strategically plan your communication and processes to ensure they are receiving the level of service your customers would.

From this, you’ll start to organically attract candidates, even when you’re not hiring. This will not only provide you with the reassurance that you’re on the right track, it will also connect you with keen applicants ready for when you do take someone on.

By flipping the traditional way of recruitment on its head by merging both recruitment and marketing efforts together, you’ll have a greater chance of boosting your employer brand reputation and build a strong team of loyal employees.

If you’re looking for support on internal audits or how to incorporate recruitment marketing into your plan, contact us today on [email protected] / 01244 567 967 and we can help you create your own message to attract candidates long-term.