If you work in talent acquisition or HR, you’ve probably heard of recruitment marketing.
While a lot of companies are betting big on this approach, I’ve also seen a lot of companies completely sleeping on it.
Here’s a few reasons why recruitment marketing is a must for successful talent acquisition!
It Greatly Improves Your Odds of Hiring Top Talent
When it comes to hiring in-demand, skilled professionals like software developers and nurses, your success in recruiting largely comes down to your ability to connect with passive candidates.
Passive candidates are the people who are already gainfully employed and not actively seeking job opportunities. They’re often the strongest candidates, but to get your foot in the door and discuss your opening, you need to make a compelling case.
Recruitment marketing and employer branding are crucial to make a strong impression on these candidates. They’re important tools for convincing passive candidates that your company is worth their consideration.
If someone already has a good job and you send them to a boring job description on a lifeless careers page, you’ve already lost them.
It Makes it Way Easier for Recruiters to Sell the Company
Recruiters must address a variety of concerns and hesitations from candidates. It’s a hard job. But if recruitment marketing is done right, you’ve already addressed those concerns before even talking to the candidate.
Through well-crafted careers pages, job descriptions, social ads and more, you put your best foot forward to showcase what you have to offer candidates. The obvious approach is highlighting attractive perks, benefits, or competitive compensation. However, there’s a lot of value in addressing common concerns such as location or reputational issues.
Great recruitment marketing takes a strategic approach to highlighting what makes your business a great place to work. That way, you can reinforce why your company provides great opportunities rather than starting from square one with candidates when you start the conversation.
You Can Draw in the Right Type of Candidates and Turn Away the Rest
With high unemployment, many recruiters are quickly finding out that volume is not their friend. In reality, it makes recruiting harder because you waste your time sifting through piles of unqualified applicants.
What many people miss is that the solution to this challenge actually lies with recruitment marketing! It may sound counterintuitive at first. Many people think, “isn’t recruitment marketing supposed to get us MORE candidates and applicants?”
Let’s take a step back and look at the big picture though. The best marketers look at the issue a little differently.
If a sales team is getting low quality leads all the time, a smart marketing team will step back and ask, “What messages are we sending that are attracting unqualified prospects? How can we adjust our approach to turn away unqualified leads and draw in the people sales actually WANTS to talk to?”
A sales team doesn’t need a gazillion leads, they need just enough qualified leads to keep them busy. Almost any good salesperson would choose quality over quantity…and the same applies to recruiting.
If you’re struggling with a high volume of applicants or low candidate quality, it’s time to reevaluate your recruiting collateral, web presence and so forth.
Are your job descriptions too vague or broad? Are you selling your organization as a great fit for anyone and everyone, or can you narrow it down to a specific candidate profile?
An effective recruitment marketing strategy can help you boost candidate quality and ensure your recruiters are talking to people worth their time.
Recruitment Marketing Will Only Get More Important
More and more companies are recognizing the value of recruitment marketing. As companies begin to invest more in this side of the business, the businesses that neglect it will find themselves playing catch-up recruiting top talent.
If you want to hire the best talent available, build teams that last for the long-term, and have a competitive edge hiring in-demand professionals, it’s time to start marketing your open roles!