How to use digital channels for recruitment marketing

Maybe this shouldn’t come as a surprise, but about 92% of recruiters use social media to help narrow down their candidate searches. It’s not all about social websites, though — there are other digital channels your company or organization should be using if you want to engage in successful recruitment marketing.

In a nutshell, recruitment marketing involves using all the modern marketer’s tools — including targeted messaging and omnichannel selling — to create a unique employer value proposition (EVP). Done correctly, it blurs the line between marketing and recruiting to the point where the quality of your products and services and the depth of your culture and team become obvious extensions of one another.

Here’s a look at how brands can use the digital channels at their disposal to build their case as a great place to work.

Foster an emotional connection

Depending on how it’s done, a company’s presence on social media will either humanize it or backfire because it’s inauthentic, tone-deaf or poorly timed. Consider the time Chase Bank asked on Twitter why Americans don’t save more money, and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren replied by asking where bailed-out banks get off dispensing financial advice.

Social media is how the public learns about the people and personalities behind their favorite brands and products. Whenever they’re asked, young job-seekers today indicate that one of their highest priorities is finding a career with a company that cares about being a good citizen of the world. They’re looking to your social pages for a clue about your involvement with the community, your attention to civic issues, and how genuine and approachable your vibe is. Don’t underestimate your social media feed as a powerful recruiting tool — as well as the means to turn off potential applicants.

Show off your building or campus

We spend a substantial amount of time at work and away from home. When job-seekers first step through your door for an interview, it’s the first time they’re laying eyes on your work environment. Given the number of job openings in critical technology fields, qualified job-hunters can afford to be a little choosy. It’s important for them to know how impressive, comfortable, advanced and conducive to productivity your building or campus is.

If you want to take your recruitment marketing up a notch, you need photos and videos of your stylishly futuristic or brilliantly retro office building, your state-of-the-art machine shop or lab, your architecturally ambitious new headquarters, or your lovingly restored mansion that now functions as a hive of entrepreneurial energy. Find every opportunity to brag about what makes your work environment unique:

• Is your business situated on an interesting site? Did you pour money and effort into a retrofit that honoured and improved a historically relevant structure? Make sure you let people know you’re registered on the National Register of Historic Places.
• Does your company take environmental stewardship seriously? Does it have a green roof or a wind or solar installation? Are you chasing zero emissions or implementing a product buyback program to keep your merchandise out of landfills? Tell the world how you’ve made your processes and philosophies greener and more sustainable.

Post videos, including testimonials

Is there anything more appealing or shareable than a well-made video? They are preferred over articles by about 70% of consumers, which means they’re more than indispensable in marketing campaigns. This “worth a thousand words” ROI might be even more valuable in recruitment marketing.

Video can help you connect with job-seekers by portraying what life is like behind the scenes. You could even ask employees for short testimonials to share why they love working at your company. Maybe your next video is a tour of your manufacturing floor to see how things work, a ridealong with one of your account managers as they visit a client or even a live stream of the next time your company participates in a community event.

The point is, video gets traction and is a great way to portray the more human, candid side of your organization and the people who work there.

Use geofencing and other targeting tools

No recruitment marketing campaign will have the intended effect if it’s not finding the right audience. With that in mind, HR professionals from a variety of industries are turning to geofencing and other ad-targeting tools to make sure their call for applicants is being heard where it’s most likely to have an effect.

The Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, is one of the best examples of marketing directly to one’s desired pool of applicants. Certified pediatric nurses are in high demand, so the hospital used data exchanges and geofencing to target its recruitment message squarely at the areas where their ideal candidates work and live. Before the campaign, the rate of applicants had dwindled to virtually nothing. Afterwards, hiring managers were scheduling interviews with three or four candidates per week.

Digital channels have a lot to offer organizations that want to market more effectively to their desired applicants. By using social media to distribute compelling material and build a brand personality, shooting video that portrays what life is really like at your company, and using modern targeting techniques to make sure your message is heard, your company can staff up quickly and confidently and be sure you’re finding the ideal candidates.

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