Okay. Let’s say you’ve been chugging along with your employer branding and now you’re wondering how to scale your recruitment marketing strategy. You’ve got the basics down, feel pretty comfortable with your cadence, and have a solid repository of content to share with your ideal candidates.
So, how can you take your recruitment marketing strategy to the next level?
Check out these 5 ways to optimize your strategy and attract more candidates.
Ads
If you’ve been growing your social media marketing skills, you know a lot of these platforms are all about engagement. There are plenty of tricks you can use to increase engagement organically, such as creating posts that people can interact with.
However, if you’ve heard about the algorithm changes, then you know you might need to pay to play. Social media ads can be especially helpful if you’re trying to build your following and brand awareness, or are promoting something timely, such as a hot job, recruiting event, or important news.
If you’re looking for more targeted advertising, programmatic job postings are the way to go. Whether you’re posting on popular job boards like LinkedIn, Indeed, or Glassdoor, or something more niche, many offer sponsored jobs postings so you can get in front of candidates a lot sooner. If you aren’t super savvy in bidding or don’t want to manage a million platforms, investing in a tool like Appcast can act as a one-stop shop to manage all your sponsored jobs.
Other advertising options include sponsored employer profiles and content on third-party career sites, sponsored content on niche industry sites, commercials (radio/TV), ad distribution across the web, and more.
Integrated Recruitment Marketing Campaigns
Want your content to pack a punch and make a lasting impression? Consider integrated marketing campaigns (I totally stole this from my marketing team while working as an employer brand program manager at a cybersecurity company).
Rather than creating content and posting one-off, integrated marketing campaigns are a more strategic way of marketing. It leverages multiple channels over a set period of time to promote a specific message to your audience.
So, when you’re planning your content calendar, consider an overarching theme. For example, if you need to hire a ton of entry-level salespeople in a specific location over the next few months, think of doing a three-month campaign that tells a story about your sales roles, the team culture, the exciting opportunities, your career advancement programs, and more.
Integrated marketing campaigns let you tell a more robust story. And since candidate behavior is now mimicking buyer behavior, providing more information to persuade them is as important than ever.
Need help planning your integrated marketing campaign? Download this cheat sheet to get you started.
Content Overhaul
Sometimes, you don’t need to spend a ton of time creating new content. In fact, repurposing content or planning your content so it can be reused will save you a lot of time in the long run. Your audience won’t likely see your content the first time you promote it, so finding ways to share, rework, or continuously promote it will help you fill your content calendar and give back time to focus on more strategic aspects of your recruitment marketing strategy.
A few things you can do here:
Look at your top performing content and see which topics/content are most popular. From here, find ways to either create new content from it or slide it into your content calendar as is to promote again.
Test out different copy, images, and headlines for interesting and popular content. For example, Jenna Kutcher suggests creating anywhere from 10 to 15 different Pinterest pins for each piece of content to spread out over the year.
Before creating your macro content (i.e., blogs, photo shoots, videos, etc.), consider how you can break it down into micro content (i.e., social media posts, email marketing, ads). In considering this up front, it can help you think about the key points you want to make in your meatier content so you can break them down into more bite-sized options.
There are tons of ways to give your content extra mileage. These are some of my favorite suggestions, and ones you can put into practice pretty easily.
Vendors, Freelancers, and Agencies
There ain’t no shame in admitting you can’t do it all. Most people running employer branding are generalists, managing all the many moving parts to keep it going. It’s great to have a hand in everything so you know how it all works together, but doing it all means you don’t have time to think strategically for the future or you don’t have the ability to really master each area you’re handling.
Sometimes, it’s worth the investment to outsource your work. The money you put into your recruitment marketing strategy could save you enough recruiting costs to justify it. If the partners you work with are experts at crafting engaging copy to entice candidates or creating videos that make people want to hit “APPLY NOW” right away, then you’re saving the time, money, and effort that would have been required if the recruiting process dragged on and on.
Here are some ways you can outsource your work:
Social media management
Copywriting and content creation
Videography and photography
Brand development
Marketing strategy development
Advertising
Design
Technology (i.e., CRMs, email marketing, etc.)
Really, there are so many choices available to help take things off your plate. You’re not alone in this!
Employee Ambassadors
You can toot your horn all you want, saying you’re a great place to work, but your candidates want you to back up these claims. By tapping your employees and making them ambassadors, they’ll provide social proof to make candidates trust you more.
First, give your employees the information they need. Tell them how to showcase the employer brand, highlight biggest hiring pushes, share exciting news, and provide updates about events. Your internal communication strategy is just as important as your external one. By regularly keeping them in the loop, they’ll know how to pitch your company.
However, don’t just stop at the information sharing stage. You actually need to ask them to take action and you have to make it effortless to do it. Be sure to encourage them to do things like share with their networks, provide employee referrals, or leave an honest review on sites like Glassdoor.
When sharing information, create easy ways for them to promote it to their networks. This could mean crafting social media posts, providing a useful PDF, or even investing in advocacy tools that make sharing as quick as clicking a button.
These free or paid options are a great way to take your recruitment marketing strategy to the next level. If you’re ready to test the limits and build new initiatives, definitely consider them!
Ready to build a solid recruitment marketing strategy? Reach out to us here to learn more about how we can take it to the next level.
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