Why recruitment marketing matters + how to use it

In 2022, you’ve probably heard of the “Great Resignation”, or the particularly high rates of job quitting in the United States. As employers seek to fill jobs, recruiting and retaining top talent is even more important. To attract top talent in 2022, you’ll need to make recruitment marketing part of your strategy. Keep reading to find out what recruitment marketing is, why it matters, and how to add it to your company’s marketing plan.

What is recruitment marketing?

Just like marketing gets the message of your products and services and what makes them superior in front of an interested audience, recruitment marketing builds and communicates what sets a company apart as a workplace.

Recruitment marketing captures the first steps in the recruitment funnel. In the recruitment funnel, you’ll receive as many potential leads as possible at the large mouth of the funnel and narrow the leads down until you have just a few top-quality candidates.

The recruitment funnel includes the following stages.

• Awareness and attraction: The first stage involves getting on the candidate’s radar and attracting them to your company and specific job opportunities.
• Interest and consideration: The interest stage involves nurturing interested candidates with personalization through specific job opportunities, event registrations, and custom calls to action. The consideration stage can include recruiter outreach and an automated list of “candidates to watch”.
• Application: In the application stage, job seekers will apply for the jobs of their choice.
• Evaluation: Consider your qualified applicants and evaluate the best options for the job.

Recruitment marketing effectively captures the awareness and attraction stage of the talent acquisition funnel, and it moves forward to the interest and consideration stages.

Why does recruitment marketing matter?

Unless your company is one of the most popular companies in your industry, you might be missing out on fantastic candidates who simply aren’t aware of your company and its available positions.

Here’s why recruitment marketing matters now more than ever.

• Thanks to the talent shortage, the power is often in job seekers’ hands. Recruitment marketing can feed into a personalized, thoughtful experience that keeps them interested.
• A strong employer brand leads to a 28% reduction in a company’s turnover according to LinkedIn.
• Recruitment marketing can be a cost-effective strategy to bring in qualified applicants without relying on sponsored job listings.

5 strategies for a recruitment marketing strategy

1. Define your recruitment marketing goals. Do you want more job applicants entirely, or are you looking for applicants with more qualifications? Before you begin your recruitment marketing, it’s important to define your specific goals. Instead of treating your marketing plan like guesswork, you’ll be able to hone in on your goals to efficiently use your time and measure the results.
2. Refine your employer brand. Just like your business has a purpose, your company has an employer brand and workplace culture. To attract candidates who fit your workplace’s values, you’ll need to define your company’s culture and what feeds into it. Does your company value volunteer work and offer team volunteer days? Is your workplace one that prioritizes continuous learning and offers learning stipends? Define your company’s unique value proposition so you can make sure the messaging across your social media matches it.
3. Optimize your website with a careers page. Search engine optimization doesn’t just apply to blog posts on your website. You can also optimize your website’s careers page so that when job seekers search for jobs in your area or your industry, your website makes it to the top of the search engines. Along with optimizing your careers page for search engines, it’s also important to make your careers page and job applications mobile-optimized for candidates who might apply on their phones.
4. Showcase your company culture on social media. An updated careers page and a positive employer brand are just pieces of the puzzle. Don’t wait for the chance that someone will look up your company specifically while they’re looking for a job. Use social media to highlight the company culture so prospective candidates know they want to work at your company before they’ve even started their job search.
5. Leverage current employees’ testimonials. When you’re refining your employer brand and your company’s unique value proposition, turn to current employees to find out what makes the company positive in their eyes. While upper management might value the company’s comfortable offices, current employees might see the hybrid model as its strong suit. By finding out what current employees love about their job, you can better market your company as a workplace. Include current employees in your social media photos and videos, and consider adding their testimonials to your careers page.

Start recruitment marketing today

If you want to fill more positions with top-notch candidates and save your time, make recruitment marketing a part of your talent acquisition strategy.