Assume you are a new apple seller in a fruit market and want to sell all your apples as fast as possible in a day. Would it be possible for you to sell all your apples in a day being new in the market?
The answer is no.
When you’re new to any business, it can be hard to get people to come to you for your offerings. Instead of just expecting them to know about you and come running, it’s important to research the market, develop the product as per their needs, and create awareness of your product so they want to buy it.
You have to tell people how good the apples are that you are offering. You also need to let them know how much less expensive and juicier your apples are than other vendors’ apples. Only by creating awareness of the specialty of your product and delivering what you promised can you make people come to you.
This same principle applies when it comes to recruitment marketing: You can’t just expect great candidates to walk through your door just because there are open positions available in your company. You have to create awareness about what benefits and career growth opportunities exist within your company so that potential employees will consider applying for those jobs instead of others’.
A Glassdoor survey finds candidates are 40% more likely to apply for a job at a company in which they recognize the brand compared to a company they have not heard of.
Recruitment marketing is a strategic approach to attracting, engaging, and nurturing talent for filling open job positions within an organization. It involves creating and promoting a positive employer brand and using various marketing tactics and channels to reach and communicate with potential candidates.
Check out the infographic!
What is the difference between Recruitment and Recruitment Marketing?
The difference between recruitment and recruitment marketing is similar to the difference between teaching in a classroom of 20-30 students and teaching through a webinar to thousands of people. In the former, your reach would be restricted to a small classroom. But, when you organize a webinar, it takes you through the stages of announcing yourself (creating awareness), attracting the right set of minds for your webinar (sourcing), and most importantly you are not restricted to a classroom, rather you can reach from 500 to 50,000+ people at once.
Likewise, in recruitment, you aim to fill the vacancies that you have in your company. For that, you post about the job description across various job boards. Candidates attracted to such jobs are mostly limited to freshers or those with limited experience/expertise who are in dire need of a job no matter where. The employer will not be able to attract the best candidates here.
While in the case of recruitment marketing, an employer focuses on creating awareness about the company’s values, work culture, benefits, and career growth in order to attract the best candidates for the job. It involves not just job posting, but advertising about the company’s EVP (employer value proposition) through social media, blogs, news articles, etc. This way the company is able to attract candidates who are either experienced in their fields or have qualified from elite universities, or both. It is also a great way to attract passive candidates that constitute 70% of the global workforce as per LinkedIn hiring statistics.
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What is the difference between Recruitment and Talent Acquisition?
How to do Recruitment Marketing?
- Define Your Candidate Persona
To attract the best talent, you need to know who you’re looking for. That’s why the first step of recruitment marketing is defining your candidate persona.
Developing a target profile for candidates is a great way to create a consistent message about what kind of person you’re looking for, and it helps keep your recruiting strategy focused on the right type of person.
- Optimize Your Career Site
Once you have an idea of what kind of skills and experience you want in a candidate, it’s time to optimize your career site to make sure it’s ready to attract those people. You’ll want to make sure that it has an easy-to-use interface, upload your JD to the website, define perks and privileges at the job and also upload pictures representing fun times and celebrations with employees.
- Understand Your Unique Selling Points
The next step in recruitment marketing is understanding what makes your company stand out from the competition. This could be anything from the location of your office space or the benefits you offer employees (health insurance, flexible scheduling, work from home), to the work culture of your business (casual dress code) or even who works there (the CEO). Once you know what makes your company so special, start sharing it with everyone!
- Utilize Social Media and Employment Review Websites
The Internet has made it easier than ever before for businesses like yours to connect with people across town or around the world through social media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
The next step is creating a compelling company profile on employment review websites like Glassdoor where candidates can judge the employment experience at your company.
- Personalize Candidate Nurturing
Finally, nurture the candidates in a highly personalized manner by sending them emails with relevant information about opportunities at your company that match their interests and qualifications as ‘the top prospect candidates are off the market in 10 days.’ – Builtin
Word Of Mouth Promotion
Above every marketing strategy, what works the best is word-of-mouth promotion. But, who would do such promotions and become a brand advocate for you?
The answer is ‘your employees‘
As per LinkedIn Employer Brand Statistics ‘Candidates trust the company’s employees 3x more than the company to provide credible information on what it’s like to work there.’
Your employees are the best brand advocates for your company. As they work with you, their words are more likely to believe by others. A happy employee is the best testimonial of your company’s culture and brand and they are more likely to refer the best candidates to your company through their word-of-mouth promotion.
This is the reason why ‘88% of employers rate employee referral programs as the best source of applicants and referred candidates are 6.6% more likely to accept a job than others as per employee referral statistics released by Zippia.
As a part of the recruitment marketing strategy, your employees should be encouraged to refer good candidates and earn rewards, post their positive experiences with the company, and review their employment on sites like Glassdoor.
Prioritize Recruitment Marketing
Recruitment marketing is a valuable tool for any company looking to attract top talent. By increasing brand awareness, targeting the most suitable candidates, and widening the talent pool, companies can ensure that they are hiring the best possible candidates. Not only does this prevent the negative consequences of a bad hire, but it also results in a good return on investment. Therefore, it is essential for companies to prioritize recruitment marketing in their hiring process.
Zappyhire helps with recruitment marketing by providing a platform for companies to effectively target and engage with top talent, ultimately saving time and resources in the hiring process. Learn more about how Zappyhire can assist with your recruitment efforts by clicking here!
