Plug Into Podcasts for Recruitment Marketing

David Drummond

You don’t need us to tell you podcasts are popular. The rise of quality, in-depth content and the technology to support convenient listening has over the past 18 months driven their popularity sky-high.

And with this popularity comes an excellent opportunity for brands to communicate to a large audience in a new way.

Not just your usual communications, either. It is a flexible beast. You can use podcasts to get across any message you want to communicate.

That message will depend on your goals, but if you’re running a recruitment marketing campaign, you’re missing a trick if you’re not using – or thinking of using – podcasts.

There is a proven demand

“Monthly audio podcast consumption grew from approximately 39 million monthly users in 2014 to approximately 46 million this year,” says the Infinite Dial 2015 report.

In short, as a format, it’s growing incredibly quickly. For users there are a few obvious benefits: they can multitask and listen to podcasts while doing other things like take transport, cook, or bathe. Secondly, they’re perfect for the modern, mobile urban population, constantly plugged into a set of headphones.

According to the Infinite Dial report, 55% of people listened to podcasts on a smartphone or tablet in 2015.

More than that, listening to them on the move is only set to increase. Apple and Google are developing ‘smart dashboards’ that will see podcasts being downloaded directly to cars.

On top of reaching a wide audience, podcasts are reaching an audience that companies looking for top talent should be targeting.

The right audience

In a strong recruitment marketing strategy, it’s not just the content you want to be excellent. You have to be communicating the right messages in the right spaces, to the people you want to attract.

With a glut of spaces that need to be filled in the modern job market and a shortage of fresh new talent filling them, the impetus for many brands today is making sure your message is reaching the next generation of industry professionals.

According to a Midroll report, 67% of podcast listeners were aged between 18 and 34. On top of that, 58% had a Bachelor’s degree or higher.

If you want to attract tomorrow’s leading lights, reaching them through podcasts is a great way to start.

What do you put in it?

So you’ve decided you want to produce a recruitment podcast. Great – but what do you put in it?

The range of messages you can get across is incredible, but for recruitment there’s an obvious synergy between the rise of the medium and the growing popularity of another recruitment marketing trend: employee advocacy.

You can use your employees as the voices of your brand. And this doesn’t mean writing entire scripts for them. You can and should have a hand in this, but they’ll be most comfortable when telling true, honest stories. Interview them about what makes working at your company great – the things they’ve achieved, the things they’re proud of and where they see themselves going in the future.

The best podcasts are personal, they’re often told through the eyes of a host or interviewer that believes in what they’re saying. In the case of using podcasts for recruitment marketing, allowing your employees the room to tell the story of your brand and your culture will always make it more genuine and appealing to your audience. Allow your employees the room to be themselves and to speak naturally.

With a piece of content you might be able to hide between four rounds of editors to get your message clear, but coming from the mouth of an employee, if it’s not genuine and personal, it won’t resonate with your audience.

Once you’ve got the content, make sure you edit it together into a short and coherent episode. Stitcher, an online radio and podcast site, says the average user listens to 22 minutes per session. If you’re looking for maximum engagement, it’s best you don’t exceed that.

Then take time to get it right – to master your editing software, to get the right music and to create an energetic listen that keeps your audience engaged and interested.

You can be the escape

There’s plenty of life in the podcast, yet. With the format set to grow and become even easier to access and listen to in the future, if you’re not using it for your recruitment marketing strategy, you’re really missing out.

Thousands of people drag themselves to work in the morning. They board trains and buses, they put in their headphones and they try to forget about the world for a few minutes before they arrive at the office.

Why not be the voice in their ear that lets them know the grass actually is greener.

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