How to Build a Recruiter Marketing Strategy in 4 Easy Steps

Are you struggling to find the right candidates for your company?

Finding the right person for the job isn’t as easy as most people think. Potential candidates have more resources than ever before that enable them to learn more about you and your company before even putting in an application.

They can look up employer reviews on sites like Glassdoor. They can review your social pages, website, and press information to learn more about your company. They can even research you personally and learn about your background.

Future candidates know what they want — so how do you show them that your company is the perfect fit for them?

Thankfully, if you have a marketing department, team, or agency, then you already have most of the tools you need to start turning your recruitment slump around. Those same skills and tools that you use to find customers can be easily leveraged to find candidates if you know how to use them.

Let us show you 4 easy steps that you can take to start finding the right people for you.

4 Steps to a Strong Recruiter Marketing Strategy

In today’s candidate-driven market, potential employees are in charge. They get to pick what company they want to work for, and you need to stand out amongst their top choices. 

“72.8% of employers are having a difficult time finding skilled candidates, and 45% of employers are concerned about finding employees with the necessary talents.”

You have to market yourself to candidates just as much as you would to customers. Your brand, digital reputation, and company culture matter to a potential hire and need to be included in your message.

1. Build a Strong Company Brand

Building a strong brand for your business will show potential recruits that you are the ideal company they want to work for. There are three main strategies you can take to help boost your brand.

Strategy #1: Optimize Your Recruitment Website

A malfunctioning website or one that doesn’t represent your company correctly can be discouraging for job seekers. They want to learn more about you and the types of customers you serve. 

So, follow these simple tips and optimize your website to tempt potential employees to apply.

• Click through every single page and link on your career pages to ensure that it’s all working correctly and nothing is broken. 
• Categorize the open positions your company needs to fill in a way that makes sense, and give them options to filter open positions for more relevant searches. 
• Include a landing page that will serve as the homepage for the career portal and optimize it to highlight the best parts of working for your company. 
  • Feature employee testimonials and photos of happy employees.
  • Highlight the benefits you offer to every employee.
  • Show ratings and reviews from job sites — if you have them.
• Review your overall website for information about your company and the types of clients you work for. Update any inaccurate or out-of-date information.

For a perfect example of what a killer recruitment website looks like, check out Hubspot’s career page. 

Strategy #2: Register Your Company on Popular Job Sites

A few of the top three websites your company should be on are Indeed, Glassdoor, and LinkedIn — according to thebalancecareers.com. 

• Indeed: best overvall
• Glassdoor: best for employer insights
• LinkedIn: best for connecting directly with recruiters

Create an employer profile on each of these sites and optimize it to attract your ideal employees.

Strategy #3: Recruit Brand Ambassadors

Brand ambassadors are existing employees that will happily refer other people to your company and post positive reviews for you on employer listing sites like Glassdoor.

Your ambassadors can be a great resource for new candidates. There is nothing more persuasive to potential candidates than hearing positive feedback about an employer from someone who already works there.

Encourage your employees to be brand ambassadors by asking them to:

• Leave reviews on the most popular job sites — like the three mentioned above.
• Provide testimonials and photos for your career landing page.
• Share photos of staff events on their social media profiles.
• Create a referral program and give your employees the incentive to promote your job listings to their family and friends.

2. Build a Target Employee Profile

Once you have your recruitment website ready for interested applicants to apply, you can focus on fine-tuning your content to better suit the ideal candidate you need to find. 

Think about who that perfect person is to fill the open positions you have. 

• What are their likes, dislikes, goals, and career aspirations? 
• What kinds of things do they look for in an employer that makes them want to work for them? 
• Are there any benefits like free education that would be really enticing to this individual?

Create a buyer persona with this information. Give that person a name and backstory, and pretend like you are writing directly to that person with every piece of content you create. 

Your persona-targeted messaging should be included on your landing pages, application pages, blog posts, emails, social media posts, and even text messages. 

3. Use Your MarTech

MarTech is short for marketing technology. Marketing technology is the software and tech tools that help you create effective marketing campaigns and measure their success. 

It’s likely you already have a suite of tools at your disposal — but are they the right ones?

Social media, email marketing, advertising & website tools, and even text message marketing can all help you take your recruitment efforts to new heights and achieve the results you are hoping for. 

The top tools that you should be using to ramp up your recruitment efforts are:

• SMS Marketing Tool: EZ Texting
• Social Media Sites: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest.
• Graphic Design Tool: Canva
• Marketing Tools: HubSpot Marketing
• Email Marketing Tools: MailChimp or Constant Contact

Recommended Reading: 5 Easy, Effective Online Marketing Tools for Small Business

4. Invest in Innovative Technologies

Marketing technology is always improving, and if you want to maximize your recruitment efforts, you need to stay informed on the latest advancements. AI-powered chatbots and text message marketing are the latest trends that top recruiters are implementing to land new hires.

AI-Powered Chatbots

Chatbots that are powered by AI (artificial intelligence) are helping recruiters communicate with potential employees without having to use their staff to man phone lines and respond to incoming chats. 

They are smart enough to answer basic questions users have, and can even help them fill out an application and submit their resume straight from the chat window. 

You can find out more about how to implement chatbots from this article on ideal.com.

Text Message Marketing

Text message campaigns like “text to apply” and list building techniques are an excellent way to boost engagement with potential candidates and get them to apply. 

“80% of people currently use texting for business purposes, and 41% of US employers plan to use text messages to schedule job interviews.”

You can encourage candidates to subscribe to be alerted about new positions, text to apply, and send them alerts on the status of their application just like one of our customers did.

The Recruiting Manager for Fidelis Freight, Haley Lanigan, was having a difficult time finding drivers to fulfill carrier loads for their company. She had been using LinkedIn, email marketing campaigns, and offline initiatives to try and reach potential recruits — but she wasn’t having much success. By integrating EZ Texting into her recruitment processes, Haley was able to hire more drivers faster than ever before.

“Even I was surprised at the high engagement rate text messaging delivered! Almost no opt-outs, lots of follow-ups, and very positive impact on recruitment.”

— Haley Lanigan, Recruitment Manager for Fidelis Freight (Case Study)

Experience similar success in your recruiting by starting your free trial with EZ Texting. You’ll have full access to all the features, and you can send your first 100 messages for free. Click Here to start your free trial now.

Photo: Unsplash/bruce mars