Recruitment marketing can dramatically improve your chances of acquiring top talent if done correctly. But it's not easy—it requires you to wear two hats: recruiter and marketer.
In this blog, we cover everything you need to know to run a successful recruitment marketing campaign—from understanding its definition and key components to implementing strategies and creating campaigns that attract qualified talent.
Recruitment marketing promotes a company's mission, culture, and job opportunities to attract, engage, and nurture potential candidates throughout the hiring process. It combines marketing techniques with recruitment practices to build a strong talent pipeline and create awareness of the company as an employer of choice.
Recruitment marketing aims to make a company stand out to top talent by showcasing its values, work environment, benefits, and unique offerings.
Recruitment marketing campaigns share similarities with a company's digital marketing strategy. Here are the key components and what they involve:
Employer branding plays a crucial role in recruitment marketing by shaping the perception of a company as an employer of choice. It focuses on how an organization presents itself to candidates and attracts talent aligned with its culture, values, and mission. Employer branding goes beyond posting job ads; it proactively communicates the company's identity as a desirable workplace.
In today's competitive job market, a company's presentation to potential candidates can significantly influence its ability to attract top talent. Content creation in recruitment marketing involves developing various formats—such as blogs, videos, or employee testimonials—that inspire candidates to learn about the organization, its culture, and its job opportunities. This builds trust and interest, driving candidates to apply.
Targeted advertising allows organizations to reach the right candidates at the right time. Unlike traditional advertising methods that cast a wide net, targeted advertising involves using data-driven techniques to deliver personalized, relevant job ads to a specific audience. This ensures companies connect with high-quality candidates suited to their open positions.
As an element of recruitment marketing, candidate engagement focuses on creating meaningful interactions between companies and potential candidates throughout the recruitment process. It involves cultivating relationships, maintaining consistent communication, and offering valuable experiences to candidates. The ultimate goal of this engagement is to attract top talent and ensure a positive candidate experience. Effective engagement strategies can improve the quality of hires, shorten time-to-hire, and strengthen employer branding.
Data and analytics are the foundation of any successful marketing strategy. How do you know if your efforts are effective? What method of communication connects best with the target audience? By analyzing data such as email engagement, social media post engagement, and click-through rates, a recruitment marketer can quickly identify failures and successes and adjust their strategies accordingly.
Once you understand the various aspects of recruitment marketing, it's time to draft a strategy for success. Follow these steps to create an effective approach:
Start by clearly defining what you want to achieve with your recruitment marketing strategy. Your goals will shape the entire approach—from the types of content you create to the platforms you use. Common objectives include:
Most brands want to achieve all five of these goals simultaneously, but it's essential to prioritize and set realistic expectations based on your available resources.
To effectively reach candidates, you need to understand the talent pool you're trying to engage. For example, attracting a software developer may require different tactics than engaging a nurse practitioner. Beyond job roles, consider demographics (age, location, education, etc.), motivations, and whether you're targeting active or passive candidates. By segmenting your audience, you can tailor messaging and strategies to resonate with the right people.3. Build or strengthen your employer brand
No matter your main recruitment marketing goal, you need to have a well-defined employer brand. To build or enhance your employer brand:
Not all talent will apply immediately, and many top candidates may not be actively looking for a job. Engaging through content is the best way to build relationships with passive candidates. Share valuable insights, company updates, or career tips via email or social media to stay on their radar.
Recruitment marketing doesn't have to be flashy. However, just like any good marketing strategy, a bold recruitment marketing strategy can stick in people's minds. The result could be that when it's time for those people to look for a job, they'll think of your organization. Here are 4 examples of brilliant recruitment marketing campaigns that can help fuel your ideas:
Google doesn't need to build brand recognition, but it has high standards when it comes to software engineers. Google's medium was somewhat old school: a billboard. The placement of the ad was very strategic: outside a subway stop in Cambridge, MA (the home of Harvard University). The billboard was simplistic but certainly not simple. It read, "{first 10-digit prime found in consecutive digits of e}.com." Those who solved the cryptic billboard landed on a career page, which then asked them for their resume.
Click this link to view Google's attempt to recruit brainy engineers.
Snapchat was in a similar position to Google: not hurting for brand recognition but needing quality engineers. However, their approach to attracting engineers was a lot more targeted. They created special Snapchat filters that were geotargeted to be used only where Uber and Pinterest had their headquarters. The Uber filter read, "This place driving you mad?" whereas the Pinterest one read, "Feeling pinned down?" Although the attempts didn't drive candidates to Snapchat's career page as directly as Google's ad, they still generated a lot of buzz.
Click this link to view the punny filters in effect.
Volkswagen was in search of a large number of skilled mechanics—1,000 mechanics, to be exact. Car mechanics are generally recruited by being approached at work, but this method wasn't exactly scalable. Their solution was to manufacture cars with intentional faults and send them to mechanics. Properly diagnosing the cars' problems required skill, and if a skilled mechanic found the fault, they would also find Volkswagen's job ad engraved inside the car.
Click this link to view a breakdown of the ad campaign and an associated video case study.
Like Snapchat and Volkswagen, IKEA used their own product for their recruitment marketing efforts. Of course, IKEA's strategy probably cost almost nothing to implement. Their challenge: to recruit 100 workers for their new store in Australia. Their solution: to include a second document alongside their build instructions when shipping out furniture to customers. It was a strategy that suggested those who enjoyed shopping at IKEA might also enjoy working for them. Additionally, it was successful, netting 280 job applications from IKEA furniture lovers.
Click this link for a video case study about this ad.
Now that you have the knowledge to initiate a successful recruitment marketing campaign, make sure that you have the right software on hand: hireEZ. Our career sites and analytics support recruitment and recruitment marketing; in addition, we also provide automated resume screening, AI sourcing, automated outreach, and more. Book a demo today to learn more.
By filling out this form you agree to hireEZ's Privacy Policy and consent to receive communications from hireEZ.
