Use these 8 marketing-oriented recruiting tips to find the best talent

Recruitment is about one thing: hiring the right candidate.

The emphasis is there for good reason: by hiring the right person the first time around, your company will start moving in the right direction from day one. More importantly, you will be able to focus on critical aspects of the job instead of getting caught up in the weeds.

When you fail to hire quality employees, you waste tons of resources: your time, your candidates’ time, your company culture, training opportunities and more.

We all know this in theory. But it’s hard to put it into practice. Think about these numbers from Mettl:

• 74 percent of organizations say that talent acquisition is still a challenge in 2019.
• 95 percent of SMBs say talent acquisition is a current challenge.
• 78 percent say attracting quality talent is the biggest challenge.

It’s all in where you look. Just like marketing teams go for long term growth over a quick win, you can’t just throw up a job description and expect to automatically attract the best talent. So how can you get a jumpstart in finding the best talent?

We researched ways to turn this theory into real-world practice by seeing what the industry experts have to say.

Check out their tips and tricks below.

Use Surprising Social Channels

“One of the most efficient candidate sourcing tips is using Snapchat to engage and drive applications. Once they send the applications, candidates are then invited to follow up via Snapchat.”

Brian is the Director of Talent & Culture at Likeable Media, where his focus is on bringing in great talent – and retaining this talent for their team. He does this through a work culture and environment that employees enjoy.

His tip on Snapchat makes the most sense in this context: remember that recruitment, just like successful employment, isn’t about smart casual dress and weekly All Hands meetings. Thinking outside the box can go a long way, both in the office and in recruitment.

Using Snapchat can draw in a unique candidate pool for recruiters – and it’s fun for candidates!

Show Off Your Company Culture

“Use social media to put your in-office experience on display. Prospective employees often take to their favorite social sites to research the companies they are considering in their careers, to get a clearer view of each organization’s workplace values and vision, as well as to gain a deeper sense of its less-publicized qualities – like what it’s really like to work there day to day.”

Jodi Harris is the director of editorial content at Content Marketing Institute with a focus on helping businesses “create compelling stories to be delivered across platforms.”

Those stories should be just as compelling to prospective employees as they are to customers, Harris argues.

She reminds recruiters and business leaders that recruitment isn’t just about finding talent; it’s about selling the best talent on your company, your vision, your product, and the workplace that you have in store for them. And, as Harris writes, informal social media is a great place to do that.

The Best Candidates Will Want the Best Benefits

“In today’s job market, finding the best talent is proving harder than ever. Innovative companies are now looking beyond the basic salary package, introducing soft benefits that enhance their employees’ working lives.”

David Morel founded Tiger Recruitment. He has written and been quoted extensively in the press, commentating on the secretarial and administrational market as well as advising candidates on best recruitment practice.

He knows better than anyone that recruitment is about more than numbers. The best candidates know that they are in demand; they have room to be picky about who they work for. By adding these ‘bonus’ benefits to your job descriptions, you’re more likely to draw in better candidates.

Some of the benefits Morel suggests implementing (and mentioning throughout the recruitment process) include stock incentives, provided meals, flexible vacation and work-from-home policies and professional development stipends.

Check Your Keywords — They Matter Quite a Bit

“You want to make sure your postings match what job seekers are looking for. So why not check exactly what those are? With Indeed’s Job Title Generator you can check out job seeker interest over time and compare it directly with the number of job postings over time. You might be surprised: often, the best job title isn’t the one with the most postings, but the one most job seekers are looking for.”

David currently runs operations for Marc Waring Ventures. This involves recruiting, training, finance and accounting, website development, and implementing the processes and procedures necessary to run and grow an early stage startup.

SEO and content are critical to any marketing and sales campaign in 2019; the same can be said of recruitment at the highest levels.

Get specific with your job postings, down to the keywords you use in the job title. If you’re looking for a qualified software engineer but you put ‘full stack software developer’, your responses likely won’t fit your expectations.

Build a Community, not just a Pipeline

“Creating a strong talent pool is all about communication. Scores of candidates are turned away after each job recruitment process is complete, but that doesn’t mean you should delete their CVs just yet. Since they’ve all been assessed before, chances are that any one of them may just have the right skill set for that particular open role in your organization.”

After 10 years recruiting primarily in the technology space, Adam co-founded Betterteam. The company builds tools for small and medium businesses to dramatically increase the quality and quantity of candidates they receive. All the hard-won strategies that he honed recruiting for companies such as Google, Dell, and Symantec have been baked into Betterteam, so any business can start hiring amazing candidates.

Adam recommends focusing on building out a talent pool. It’s a time consuming and difficult process, but one that will almost certainly payoff in the long run. Outside of an informal community and reengagement, he recommends making use of referrals, utilizing a recruitment marketing mindset (as reflected in the tips above) and finding good HR software.

Check Those Text Messages

“The convenience factor of checking a text message is a huge advantage compared to logging on to email or taking a phone call during work hours. Many candidates, like retail workers or healthcare professionals, work on-the-go jobs and don’t have time for email or phone calls – but can shoot off a quick text.”

ICIMS provides a host of HR software solutions, and after acquiring Jive has been dealing with a good amount of data. The company reports that more than a third of candidates respond to text messages within 12 minutes and sees an open rate five times higher than email. Given that Americans habitually check their phones up to 80 times a day, the response rate is not surprising.

If you’re experiencing a low response rate (particularly from your most promising candidates), it may be time to add text to the mix.

Build out information on candidates first

“In many cases HR misses out on their best candidate because they’ve not built the candidate pool in advance. The majority of these names in the pool belong to passive candidates, or candidates who are currently working for someone else and are most likely not actively looking for a new job.”

Mason Stevenson is the editor at HR Exchange Network. He is, in other words, well-versed in both successful recruitment and HR best practices in general.

In a phrase, he’s saying that successful recruitment is not only about building out a candidate pool before you begin the search process, but also ensuring that this pool is full of the HR equivalent of sales-qualified leads. Qualified candidates are those with both a robust work history and who may be in the market for a new job.

The key to a pre vetted pool of candidates is a pool enriched with LinkedIn data. With the right sales enrichment tools in place, you can take a sales prospecting approach to recruitment.

Don’t forget about current employees

“Providing promotional and lateral opportunities for current employees positively boosts morale and makes your current staff members feel their talents, capabilities, and accomplishments are appreciated. Always post positions internally first. Give potential candidates an interview. It’s a chance for you to know them better. They learn more about the goals and needs of the organization. Sometimes, a good fit is found between your needs and theirs.”

Susan M. Heathfield is an HR consultant and contributor at The Balance. She has worked as an HR director, training manager, company owner, board member. In all of these roles, she has seen the value that committed and equipped employees bring to the table.

Her idea makes sense given modern sales and marketing techniques. A big part of successful marketing these days is upselling and cross selling. If you can increase the lifetime value of a customer, your custom acquisition cost naturally falls. Why not take a similar approach with recruitment?

You already have trained and largely qualified candidates within your organization. As Heathenfield suggests, take the time to truly consider them and it may translate into a great ROI right off the bat.