Salient recruitment marketing techniques
All recruiting techniques add value to your talent acquisition process under two broad umbrellas.
The techniques in the first umbrella add value by driving up awareness. This is done by extending the reach of your business to relevant audiences via organic and paid means. The degree of awareness you generate is directly proportionate to the number of potential candidates you can source for your pipeline.
The second umbrella of techniques adds value by driving up conversions. In other words, they positively impact rates of application for your opening. More applications result in a more robust pipeline, and consequently, higher quality hires down the line.
The techniques listed below all fall under one of these umbrellas and present the greatest ROI for your recruitment marketing efforts. While they can be deployed in isolation, you will experience maximum returns when you deploy multiple techniques in tandem.
Employer Branding
Employer brand refers to the values and principles your business projects in the market. It reflects your reputation, popularity as an employer, and the kind of employee value proposition you provide. According to LinkedIn, 72% of recruiting leaders worldwide agreed that employer brand has a significant impact on hiring. The only way to distinguish yourself in an ocean of employers is to curate an attractive, recognizable brand capable of attracting the best talent. Employer brand is key to any recruitment marketing effort, and the latter is impossible without the former.
Career Website
In the modern recruiting landscape, your website is like your calling card. A well-polished landing page for all visitors goes a long way towards generating a positive first impression. Your website should be well-optimized and provide an intuitive user experience, so that prospective candidates can quickly locate relevant information. A dedicated careers section will help candidates quickly scan for relevant openings and apply in the most frictionless manner possible.
A great career website with relevant, well-curated content is essential for projecting your brand value as an employer. It projects a sense of professionalism to all visitors and serves as a key component for other techniques listed here.
Third-party job boards
Most active job-seekers rely on popular job aggregator websites like Indeed, Glassdoor, etc., to locate potential openings. These websites allow them to filter for the jobs they are looking for based on various criteria such as location, qualification, experience, etc. They are much more efficient than visiting each business website and scanning for openings. As an employer, it is beneficial to maintain a presence on these platforms as part of your recruitment marketing strategy to boost visibility for your openings and directly source candidates through them.
Employee referrals
Employee referrals are a highly effective and underrated recruitment marketing medium. Employees are your best brand ambassadors and can speak first-hand about the experience of working for your organization. They are also uniquely suited to identify a potential candidate who’d make for a great fit. Employers have consistently rated employee referrals as the recruitment source with the best return on investment.
Modern recruitment software provides dedicated referral portals for employees. Utilizing these features to set up accessible employee referral programs can offer strategic benefits for your recruitment marketing efforts, providing you access to high-quality applicants, lower turnover rates, lower cost per hire, and smoother onboarding down the line. Plus, it is a self-sustaining recruiting source, as successful referrals lead to further successful referrals providing generous conversion possibilities for your candidate pool.
Social Media marketing
One of the most potent techniques is harnessing the power of social media. An estimated 94% of recruiters and 89% of companies use social media for recruitment marketing. Moreover, 59% of employees graded their employer’s social media presence as a determining factor. Thus, it is imperative for brands to have a social media presence further strengthened by a well-thought-out content strategy to drive engagement and increase followers, subscribers, etc.
There are many unique benefits to marketing on social media. It is one of the best places to attract and engage passive candidates, as they can follow your brand pages and interact with you seamlessly. It provides a platform to curate meaningful relationships through talent networks and keeps potential candidates engaged even if they cannot be converted immediately.
Email marketing
Email might feel like an aging technology with so many new alternatives popping up, but it is still very much relevant in today’s world. Most online adults still prefer email as the primary method of business communication. Email capturing is still one of the best recruitment marketing methods to spread awareness and attract leads over a long-term period. It lets you engage with candidates even when they are not in the market, preserving future recruitment opportunities. Listing relevant job posts or proactively announcing new openings to your mailing list is a great way to acquire organic reach.
Even when it isn’t about vacancies, associated content like blogs, salary surveys, quarterly reports, etc., might keep your brand alive in the candidates’ radar for when they are planning their next career move. Just don’t spam your mailing list.
Content, SEO, and PPC
Your recruitment marketing effort should always be paired with a content strategy to generate more online visibility for potential candidates. A great library of well-written content such as a recruitment blog speaks to candidates and helps nurture their interest in your organization. It is also useful for generating engagement on other platforms like email and social media. Pairing content with good search engine optimization (SEO) techniques allows your pages to rank better on search engine results, netting you more visitors and providing more quality leads.
Another way to maximize visibility for your recruitment marketing efforts - especially on a shorter timeline - is to advertise via instruments such as pay-per-click (PPC) bids offered by leading search engines. Based on certain keywords, the search engine can surface your company page above organic search results and dramatically cut down on the time and effort required to procure leads for time-sensitive openings.
Recruitment events
Hosting recruitment events, especially for high-volume hiring needs, is one of the most surefire ways to market your openings to potential candidates. Events like job fairs, hackathons, etc., can provide you with a recruiting platform to scout great talent for your pipeline. Candidates can interact with recruiters and employees in person and form connections that are more likely to convince them to apply, or at the very least maintain an enduring relationship with your business.
Recruitment events have the highest impact in tandem with other strategies. Promoting these events on social media, via email blasts, through employees, etc., generates maximum traction and allows you to augment your marketing and recruitment efforts drastically.
