Do you need to create a recruitment marketing strategy that gets results? Follow the steps below to develop a plan that really works and entices candidates to apply for your available positions.

We all know that it's not hard to find candidates for most positions. The more common issue for recruiters is finding qualified, quality candidates for your job roles. That's where a recruitment marketing strategy is advantageous.

What is Recruitment Marketing?

Recruitment marketing is somewhat of a blend of marketing and recruitment. It's more about getting noticed as an employer of choice than specifically getting candidates for one particular role, and that’s how it differs from the concept of traditional recruitment.

Many human resources departments are just now discovering the power of recruitment marketing, as it has long been overlooked. They are now harnessing this tool to get higher quality job candidates, more applicants, and a wider talent pool.

There are three main stages in the recruitment marketing process. The first is awareness, where people start to realize that you exist and notice your brand. The second is consideration, where potential candidates start to think of you as their next potential employer. Finally, there is the interest phase, where applicants are actively seeking out a role in your company.

Our Step-By-Step Guide to a Recruitment Marketing Strategy

Step 1 – Write Down Your Goals

What are your recruitment goals? What do you want to achieve with your recruitment marketing strategy? This step is essential as you can't start developing a plan until you know what the purpose of it is.

Many recruiters want to get more job applicants, more qualified candidates, more career page hits, or increase the acceptance rate of job offers. Think about what is lacking in your recruitment process currently and what you'd like to change.

Step 2 – Define Who is Your Ideal Candidate

Creating a candidate persona is a great way to figure out which types of candidates you would like to attract. A candidate persona may include details such as your preferred candidates' ideal experience, qualifications, and skills. Consider what they are motivated by, what might put them off applying, what type of personality they would have.

Step 3 – Figure Out What You Can Offer

Now that you know what type of applicants you want; you need to figure out why they should want to work for you. Your employer value proposition refers to what you offer your staff as an employer. Maybe you provide comprehensive health insurance, a fun working environment, safety and job security, or something else. Consider the best parts about working for your organization and write those down – they make up your employer value proposition.

Step 4 – Create Recruitment Ads

Creating compelling recruitment ads is an uncommon skill that some recruiters possess. Job ads should be engaging, describe why the person should want to work for you, and most importantly, end with a call to action. Perfect your skills at writing recruitment ads, and that will help you for the rest of your career.

Step 5 – Design Other Recruitment Content

To draw in job candidates, you need a lot of content in addition to your job ads. What do people find when they look up your careers page? Writing blogs, employee profiles, and an excellent company description are all critical for your careers site.

There are many other types of recruitment marketing content that you will need, depending on where you will advertise your roles. Maybe you will need content for social media, job boards, webinars, and more.

Step 6 – Employee Referrals

Don't underestimate the power of your current staff members to find job applicants. Using an employee referral program can be a great way of finding passive candidates for your open roles. No one knows more about what it takes to work at your organization than current employees. This makes them great company advocates, and they can easily recognize those who would be exceptional potential employees.

Many companies offer an incentive to staff members who refer a candidate that ends up getting hired. This motivates people to find great quality applicants to refer.

Step 7 – Start Advertising

Advertising is the part where you really get into putting your plan into action. Post your job ads on the job boards of your choice. Start using social media to get your content seen. One of the most important things you can do with your social media content is pay to promote it. Not a lot of it will get seen organically, due to the algorithms of social media sites. Instead, you can get an excellent return on investment by paying per click or boosting specific content posts on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites.

Step 8 – Analyze the Metrics

The great thing about using a solid marketing strategy is that you will have some results to base your future strategy off. You should be able to track how many people saw your job ad on Facebook, for example, and how many people followed through to the application phase.

This gives you the opportunity to analyze what happened this time and make a plan to improve your strategy for the future. You can seek out the gaps in the data to figure out what worked and what didn't. That way, you can make an informed plan on what to continue and what to change.

Step 9 – Continuous Improvements

Based on step 8, you will now have some insights as to what didn't work as you thought it would in your recruitment marketing strategy. Now, it's time to get creative and figure out other ways of doing things, or how you can improve upon your initial actions. These continuous improvements happen long into the future, so that every time you advertise a role, it does better than the last time. Step 8 and step 9 are the most critical steps in this plan, as they should help you to create a long-term recruitment marketing strategy that truly gets results.