Wikipedia describes Recruitment Marketing as:

Recruitment marketing is the strategies and tactics an organization uses to find, attract, engage and nurture talent before they apply for a job, called the pre-applicant phase of talent acquisition.

What this means to employers is that simply posting your job advertisement, then sitting back and waiting for qualified candidates to come knocking on your door, is out-of-date thinking. Today, employers of all sizes compete against each other for the best talent. Recruitment Marketing can help in several ways: Brand Building, Candidate Engagement, creating a Talent Network and pro-actively drip marketing your company and your job openings.

Key elements of Recruitment Marketing:

Brand Building:
Employers with talented marketing departments take care of your day to day marketing. Company image and “brand” is already established. With smaller organizations, startups, nonprofits you have to work regularly to build your brand. Doing so means being consistent with your marketing materials, your images, logos, even fonts and colors used in your messaging are important. The message itself is also critical. What sort of image do you want to convey? Classic, relaxed, flexible… Will your messaging use humor like many start ups do to appeal to millennials? In recruiting, keeping your messaging consistent across all channels is vital. It starts with your career center, with the images and verbiage you use to tell the candidate about your organization. The message continues with your job descriptions. Keeping the same format throughout all your advertised positions.

Building a Talent Network
A talent network starts with an expression of interest from a candidate or potential candidate. This could be with an application or “keep me on file for future notification.” You build a talent network by using social media channels like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, even Instagram or Snapchat. In addition to broadcasting content to these channels, you should add an employment newsletter to engage these passive candidates. (My Tips for Building a Talent Network).

Candidate Engagement
Candidate engagement begins with an automatic “Thank You” message to the applicant when they apply. Your message should enforce your company culture, brand and include your social media links. This same messaging continues though your hiring process, from setting up an interview, communicating during and after the interview. And making sure rejected applicants receive a Thank You email. Nobody likes to spend their time completing an application, especially a long one, and never hearing back.

Marketing Job Openings
Job openings can  be marketed though traditional channels like job boards, niche boards, social media and your employment newsletter. In addition, hosting your own Virtual Career Fair or attending a job fair is a great way to market your openings. Setting up an employee referral program can also drive quality candidates to apply.

Onboarding:
What does onboarding have to do with recruitment marketing? A good onboarding program reinforces your brand, and instills confidence in your company. Onboarding should not end with the signature on the I-9 form. That’s just the beginning. Onboarding starts with an offer letter, of course your new hire documents are included with this package, your handbook etc. You may have an orientation day. We also recommend creating a 30, 60 and 90 day plan for the new employee so they know what to expect, what their target milestones should be and how to achieve them. A good onboarding program gives the new hire their company contact information, so they know who to reach if there is a problem. Ideally, you can also give the new hires a “work buddy” or mentor while they get started. A good onboarding program can be the difference from high turnover and a stable workforce that promotes growth and stability.

About Me

Since 2005 I have been helping small and medium sized business in all industries improve their recruitment processes, increase their candidate reach, build employment brand, and make attractive, magnetic career centers.

I began as a marketing assistant in a small business, specializing in email marketing, content marketing, SEO, Google Adwords and website management. I soon incorporated sales and am an expert in the field of applicant tracking software. In the ATS industry I have set up hundreds of customers, guiding them through their workflow, training on how to use the ATS and Onboarding software, and helping them increase their applicant pools using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) techniques.

Let me help you find your best candidates using proven recruitment marketing techniques.

Call (860) 478-2760or click today. Happy to chat if you have a question.