It goes without saying that employees are an essential component of any company’s growth and success.

When building a team, it is important to recognise that you will be working with people with different personalities, passions and skills. The challenge is to harness these differences and use them to push your business forward. Searching for suitable candidates and enticing them to work for your company requires effort and detailed planning. Recruitment marketing is ideal for this task.

Recruitment marketing and its four stages

With recruitment marketing, you promote your company brand as a product. You use marketing strategies in every stage of the recruitment cycle to attract, engage and nurture relationships with promising candidates. There are four stages in the recruitment marketing process

1. Generate awareness about your company

There will be numerous candidates who are suitable for your vacant position. Unfortunately, most of them will be passive; they may already be employed and not actively seeking work.

So, how can you attract the best talent to your start-up business?

You can market your company as a potential employer by:

  • Advertising on platforms where passive candidates generally hang out
  • Creating content that will persuade talent that your company is a great organisation to work for

2. Keep candidates interested

Getting people’s attention is one thing, but keeping them interested in your employment offer is quite another. You need to make sure that your content plan is consistent with your employer brand campaign.

Schedule your publication using a content calendar with clear timelines and deadlines. You should tell your company story while keeping both active and passive candidates interested.

3. Encourage them to make a decision

Once you have attracted candidates’ attention and interest, it is time to convince them of the benefits of working for your company. This is when you should share more precise details about how your company is offering an ideal employment opportunity. You need to tell them about the compensation, benefits and perks of the job. Remember to include any relevant information that will persuade them to apply.

4. Call-to-action (CTA)

In marketing parlance, CTA is the final stage of the funnel. However, even if a candidate is willing to join your company, obstacles can still arise.

It usually takes time and effort to write cover letters, CVs and portfolios. As an employer, you must ensure that you cut as much red tape as possible. For example, you can streamline your application and hiring process by removing any unnecessary requirements. Also, make sure you include all the benefits, including the salary on offer.

Should a candidate decide not to pursue their application, don’t be discouraged. You can still add them to your candidate pool and approach them when a new role becomes available.

How to create a recruitment marketing plan

It is essential that you make plans, but first you need to define your employer brand. You can use your brand as a guide to create a recruitment marketing plan and promote your reputation as a desirable employer.

Your employer branding should also include:

  • A mission statement
  • Cover values
  • An employee value proposition

Five steps involved in creating a recruitment marketing plan

1.    Establish your recruitment goals

You need goals to determine the success of your plan. If necessary, adjust your tactics. Your aims may include:

  • Hiring more people to a specific division
  • Expanding your candidate pool

Don’t forget to compile a list of your goals and set a timeline for accomplishing them.

2.    Define the role and job description

In order to create an accurate job description, you need to define the role that the candidate will take up within your organisation. Arrange a meeting with all those responsible or involved in the hiring process. Decide on the specific job roles as they will determine the type of experience candidates will bring to your business.

If the roles are clear, the hiring process, and therefore the appointment of the right candidate, will be much quicker and more manageable. The criteria you use can help you determine whether a candidate:

  • Possesses the requisite qualifications
  • Understands the job role

This will reduce the application processing time as you will only be dealing with qualified candidates.

3.    Identify your ideal candidates

After defining the roles, the next task is to create an ideal candidate persona. It is advisable to consult with those in charge of hiring as well as members of staff who will be interacting with the successful candidate. Ask for their opinions so you can accurately define the target candidate and specify what attributes they must possess.

By agreeing on the standard qualifications, the hiring team will be able to accelerate the process and make their decision within a shorter time frame.

4.    Determine where to look

Understanding where to find your ideal candidates may require some research. When assessing your applicants, you need to consider their:

  • Background
  • Experience and skills
  • Demographics
  • Hangouts

You can use social media ads and host live events to find the top talent. According to this article, LinkedIn and Facebook are among the most popular social media platforms for recruitment.

It is essential that you identify which networks attract the top talent and then adjust your efforts accordingly.

5.    Allocate resources and set a timeline

Your resources are probably limited so you need to set a budget for your recruitment marketing campaign. You can also choose:

  • Organic or paid ads
  • In-house or out-house staff and resources

Monitor your expenses and plan how, when and where you will allocate the company resources.

Remember, your recruitment marketing plan will need lots of content. Consider using a content calendar to properly schedule the publication of your articles.

What strategies can you use in recruitment marketing?

  • Local SEO

If you are targeting candidates near your business, it is vital that you speak their language. When posting ads on social media, it is essential that you use the local lingo.

  • Newsletters

A recruitment newsletter will enable you to gather subscribers and talk to them all at the same time. You can create and send a weekly newsletter and share helpful content with any number of passive candidates.

Conclusion

The success of any business will often depend on the people who manage and run it. As a result, you need to hire top talent who can have a positive impact on your organisation. The challenge, however, is to find the most appropriate candidate for your vacancies both quickly and efficiently. This requires a bespoke recruitment marketing strategy. Finally, your hiring team must be united when it comes to what is required of the role and what will make an ideal candidate.

This is a guest blog written by Emma Carter