6 recruitment marketing tactics to attract top talent

Recruitment marketing is a broad-based strategy that combines employer branding and time-tested marketing strategies with social media and technology to attract top talent to organizations. Often this type of marketing falls under the umbrella of the talent acquisition team—not simply to advertise a single job, but to also think bigger and attract talented candidates by increasing awareness of available jobs and improving how candidates view a company and its brand. Successful recruitment marketing can lead to better quality candidates and, in turn, better success for an organization overall. Chances are your organization already engages in some aspects of recruitment marketing, like posting on career sites or via social recruiting. Your company’s website likely even communicates its brand to prospective candidates for hire and clients. But recruitment marketing, as a forward-looking strategy, attempts to lay the groundwork for future hires by attracting talented candidates to the company before a particular job opens up. According to a survey conducted by Pandologic, “The State of Recruitment Marketing 2018,” top recruitment marketing performers take it one step further in two key areas: candidate engagement and use of a technology platform for recruitment marketing. So how can you turn your recruitment marketing from good to great?

Cultivate a talent network

First and foremost, cultivate a talent network: a pool of talented candidates that may not actively be seeking jobs but will be potential leads for the next job you need to fill. Doing so will benefit your company and talent acquisition team by reducing time to hire.

Hire internally whenever possible

Look at home whenever possible to cultivate talent from within. Nurturing talent within an organization has a dual benefit. Not only do you hire a known quantity and tested talent, but the practice also benefits the employer brand. A company that offers mobility within the organization and has a good retention rate of employees who fulfill their careers sends a good message to future job candidates and can be integral to both the brand and the workplace environment.

Engage candidates at each step of the hiring process

The key to better candidate engagement is personalization. That can entail tactics like “email lead nurturing,” which involves marketing the company to potential job candidates through targeted emails, or it can involve “career site personalization,” which targets specific groups of talent by understanding where and how a certain segment of job seekers actually search for jobs. More sophisticated than blanket posting on job sites, personalization requires a better understanding of specific groups of talent. For example, where and how do engineers look for jobs vs. where and how do truckers look for jobs? The answers for every group will be slightly different, and engaging a particular group will require some marketing analytics and even artificial intelligence. There are even sophisticated forms of technology like chatbots that can help engage candidates by answering questions or scheduling interviews as they advance through the hiring process. Use social media strategically Social recruiting is vital to recruitment marketing, as most candidates engage daily with social media. This is especially true as Millennials enter the workforce and become a prime demographic of jobseekers. Social media profiles and blogs can help you find the right talent for specific jobs, and can also provide an excellent source for targeted advertising for the right candidates. Turn to tech to streamline your job Many aspects listed above require the use of tech and analytics in order to be truly effective. Technology platforms that incorporate a variety of these aspects into one comprehensive strategy can automate processes and create more effective targeted ads and contacts through job board distribution and social recruiting all while developing and responding to marketing analytics. Find the right tech that will most benefit your organization.

Pay attention to your data

While it’s best to take a comprehensive approach and employ multiple recruitment marketing tactics, it’s also important to test out your weak spots, examine where your recruitment strategies could do better, and continue examining the effectiveness of your recruitment marketing. Looking at the data as a whole with a careful eye will help lead you to more effective hires in the future.