You’ve probably heard people say “recruiters should be like marketers” before…
But what does that even mean? And how can we, as non-marketers, achieve it?
Essentially it means you should be selling your company to potential employees. It means you should be working on your employer brand, rather than just assuming people will run to you when you have a vacancy.
Now, obviously that’s easier if you’re Apple or Google; renowned for your success and company culture.
For us, it may take a little bit more work to get recognised and build trust with the outside world.
So here are some of the marketing techniques you could be using to do just that.
1. Blogging
Creating a blog will help your brand in a variety of ways, but essentially, it helps to humanise your business and will attract people to apply for your jobs (and buy your products/services).
You can show off how great your team culture is, how much you care about your clients and candidates (using case studies etc.) and how knowledgeable you are about a variety of different subjects.
It’s also great for making your company a lot more visible on Google.
As you can imagine, a company that offers sound advice and entertaining information is much more likely to impress than one that just sends out advertisements or salesy emails.
It builds engagement and helps people to love your brand – and your company.
2. Go social.
Are your company social media accounts deserted? You’re really missing a trick.
A buzzing Facebook, Twitter and even Instagram page can give you access to millions of people that could become brand advocates. And these people would be perfect employees for your business!
Somebody will need to take the helm and that person will need to be responsible and sensible.
I’m sure you’ve heard some of the social media horror stories when inexperienced people are given the power – but that doesn’t mean you should be put off. Doing nothing is even worse.
Social media gives you a real chance to show off your company’s personality, it’ll impress and attract potential employees and will also improve your client relations too!
Of course, social media can also play a big part in your recruiting strategy in general. Click here to find out the 8 huge benefits to social media recruiting.
3. Ask your current employees.
Anybody with choices will do their homework on your company before they sign up.
The tragedy is that most of the comments online come from a vocal minority with an axe to grind.
If you have a good team spirit then pretty much all of your workers will be happy to get involved and shape the public perception of your company.
But you will have to ask them. Get them to write a review on Glassdoor. Get them into your company’s social media effort and/or simply ask them to share your updates.
A lot of people have massive social media followings and you could boost your digital footprint simply by enlisting the help of the people already on your payroll.
It’s an authentic message as well, when it comes from your own workers, and you can also share the most interesting content through the official channels.
Recruiter Pro Tip Not many employees will do this kind of thing of their own accord. It doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t be willing to… you just need to give them a little nudge. It’s exactly the same as collecting testimonials from clients. This really is a great way to engage with your existing workforce, as well as sending a cohesive message out to potential recruits – and clients.
Also remember that referrals from existing employees tend to provide the best hires overall. So, if they’re primed to send every new job to their friends list, then you might never have to advertise a new position ever again.
4. Keep in touch.
The marketing department know that it can take more than seven touch points to make a sale. That means they have to make the effort to keep in touch and engage those potential customers.
It’s exactly the same for recruiters and their potential new recruits.
You should keep in touch with them, keep yourself top-of-mind and then, when a new job vacancy does go live, you’ve saved yourself a lot of hard work already.
In fact you can now buy packages from the likes of Bullhorn that are specifically targeted at recruitment.
You can use this to track applicants and speed up the recruitment process. But it also allows you to keep in touch with the ones that almost made it (or even didn’t).
Of course, social media will be a BIG part of this too.
Keep talking to your talent pool – offering value, advice, interesting articles (and blogs) etc. and when you come to hiring, you’ll have much more engaged and interested candidates at the ready.
5. Create a great candidate experience.
We recently revealed how Google treat every job interview as a chance to sell the company to job candidates. And even the ones that didn’t get a job said the process was a good experience.
80% would recommend their friends apply – that’s pretty impressive!
And it’s also very powerful marketing from one of the world’s biggest companies.
It’s something that you should adopt if you can. Because even if you don’t hire the person in front of you, there’s a good chance you’ll interview someone they know in the future.
If they come in with a good feeling about you, it can change the whole course of the interview. Over time, this minor tweak could make a major difference to the quality of your workforce.
For some advice on how to improve your candidate experience, check out this blog.
Summary
Recruitment is essentially marketing, because you are both selling the same thing – your company.
So make sure you’re giving off a good impression in all that you do, including:
- All communications with candidates.
- Inbound marketing efforts like blogging and social media.
- Your candidate experience.
Seriously, if you have a ready and engaged candidate pool ready to apply for your jobs when the time comes, it’ll save you loads of money in the long run!
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