What is Recruitment Marketing?

Many companies are in desperate need of great candidates for their open positions. An estimated 78% of businesses are currently understaffed. Unfortunately, recruiting eager candidates can be challenging, especially if they don't know what you offer. Recruitment marketing helps address many of those challenges and puts you in a better position to attract the best candidates.  

Traditional marketing focuses on reaching out to customers interested in what your business offers. On the other hand, recruitment marketing focuses on reaching out to potential candidates and letting them know that you're hiring and why those candidates should want to work for your business.  

Recruitment marketing helps draw in candidates at the top of their fields who are genuinely interested in working for a business like yours. Recruitment marketing tells the story of who you are, what you stand for, your commitment to providing training, your company culture, and more.  

Creating Your Recruitment Marketing Campaign  

There are several steps to creating an effective recruitment marketing campaign. 

At Mid-West Family South Bend, we call this a "candidate avatar." The candidate avatar embodies everything you want from your ideal candidate: work history and experience, education and certifications, and even information about their personality and how they will likely fit into your company culture.  

Know what you're looking for in your candidates. Take the time to identify different certifications or educational backgrounds that may fit your needs. When necessary, talk to someone in the department you're hiring to better understand what attributes those candidates need to have. 

Your employer brand is different from the brand you show your customers. Your customer brand is focused on why customers should want to buy from you. Your employer brand, on the other hand, is focused on why employees should want to work for you. While they may contain similar elements, including your company's mission or vision, your employer brand may focus more on how you give back to your employees or embody those attributes.  

The entire purpose of your recruitment marketing campaign is to attract candidates, so you must go directly to where those potential candidates are. Pay attention to where you'll likely find people genuinely engaged with your company and interested in your open roles. Consider job boards, social media, and recruiters. Sometimes, you may even want to turn to traditional advertising methods, like radio or television ads, to reach your local candidate audience.  

Make sure your job descriptions include the information that candidates want to know.  

Offer an honest assessment of: 

• What you're looking for in a candidate 
• Salary range 
• What the candidate can expect if they take the open position 

Try not to sugarcoat what it will be like to work for your company, and ensure your posting contains accurate information! 

As part of your recruitment marketing campaign, ensure you're prepared to close the deal! You want your candidates to have a great experience when they connect with your company, regardless of whether they ultimately decide to join you.  

• Communicate promptly. Don't leave candidates waiting for a long time for an answer. 
• Build relationships. Get to know your candidates and what they're looking for. Candidate engagement can also help you shape better campaigns in the future. 
• Aim to act quickly when possible. Remember that the best candidates often won't remain available for long.  

Then, you'll be in the ideal position to close the deal and secure top talent! 

Take a look at how your recruitment marketing campaign performed. Consider what changes you might want to make in the future. What did you learn about your candidates during the recruitment marketing process? How can you better shape your efforts in the future to reach them more effectively? 

Construct a Multi-Channel Recruitment Marketing Campaign Today 

At Mid-West Family South Bend, we can help you construct and execute a recruitment marketing campaign that will help draw top talent to your organization. Contact us today to learn more.