When brands start work on a content marketing strategy, they often forget that content is a multifaceted tool. In addition to sales, customer retention, and customer service, your online content serves as a beacon for talent. If you want your brand to attract the best and the brightest, your existing content should reflect that goal.
Many of the articles I find about job searches focus on job seekers and why online job searches fail. As a tool for getting hired, online activities fall flat. As a tool for finding the right fit, however, online resources are goldmines. Unfortunately, businesses rarely take advantage of their digital recruiting potential.
Today, the internet serves as a focal point for job seekers from all walks of life. Unemployed, dissatisfied, and strategic career movers scan online content to:
- Discover local, regional, and international opportunities
- Gauge brand and company culture
- Learn more about company history and future potential
- Look for personal connections on social media
- Find out more about the application process
If you can clearly identify how your company’s online content currently serves those goals, then you’re on the right track. If you can’t, however, it may be time to consider strengthening your recruiting game with the right content.
Why Recruiting-Focused Content Is Worth the Investment
Recent research from LinkedIn suggests that consumer branding and employer branding activities aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, the study indicated that an integrated approach to marketing produced better sales growth than consumer branding alone.
In addition to improving bottom line sales efforts, recruiting-focused content has the ability to reduce cost-per-hire and expenses associated with employee turnover. If your recruiting metrics are currently suffering, a different approach to recruiting content may hold the answer.
How to Integrate Consumer-Driven and Recruitment-Driven Content
Some recruiters focus their online efforts on managing job postings, the career section of a website, and maybe some social media activities. This traditional approach to recruiting creates a narrow field for potential candidates. They must actively look for job or career information to find any relevant content associated with the brand. Integrating recruiting content with marketing content is simple and may break interdepartmental barriers—especially when they work together.
Instead of leaving the marketing team to create and manage your organization’s content strategy, encourage recruiters and marketers to work together to create content that appeals to consumers and potential hires. For instance, highlighting culture stories on your blog (such as your office’s monthly ice cream social or catered lunch) helps consumers envision a company that cares and builds an employer brand in job seekers’ minds. Think outside the box to develop double-duty content.
7 Ideas for Excellent Recruiting Content
Developing double-duty content may seem easier said than done, so here are some ideas to help you get started:
- Focus on innate qualities. Recruiters don’t necessarily need to focus on skills when generating content. A job seeker can look at any job description and discover that information. Instead, target content that highlights your need for the right cultural fit and qualities such as adaptability and perseverance. Create material that highlights the experience of working with your company as an employee or consumer.
- Go interactive. Passive written content, white papers, and recruiting articles don’t always spark interest. Mix up the type of content you produce to inspire engagement instead of a quick scan. Consider adding infographics about your organization, fun culture-fit quizzes, and surveys to get people involved with your brand from any angle.
- Use your company story. Consumers and potential employees want to know what lies at the core of a brand. Do you have a 100-year legacy as a family owned business? Did you start the brand out of a spare room at home? Your brand story will strike a chord with people who are just as passionate about your core values as you. These are the people you want as your customers and employees because they may develop an emotional attachment to your brand.
- Link to your career pages. Satisfied customers often make some of the best employees. Consider adding recruiting links on marketing content pages as buttons or interactive forms. Create CTAs that encourage readers to purchase and check out new job openings. Recruiters can piggyback on existing content to gain valuable insights and expand their online presences.
- Review website content from the lens of a recruiter. Does your website management group ask for insights from the recruiting department? In my opinion, businesses should ask for input from many different viewpoints to create balance. Recruiters may notice phrasing choices that could put off a potential hire or have an idea for optimizing a page. Some simple changes could transform your employment brand.
- Give existing recruiting content a facelift. Take a page from consumer marketers and consider optimizing existing recruiting content to focus on SEO-driven keywords. Rewrite job descriptions that sell your company while highlighting the details of the job. Consider adding information about the potential for advancement to really pique a candidate’s interest.
- Turn recruiting into a game. Recruiting can be as exciting and novel as any other marketing campaign. Etsy ran a recruiting campaign called “Code as Craft” back in 2014 to find qualified software engineers. They used engineering language to highlight products in a seamless blend of recruiting and brand marketing.
Get creative. Content can inspire talented individuals to learn more about your brand or it can turn them away. Partnering with marketers and trying some unconventional tactics will lead you to a pool of talented individuals who will serve your company well.
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