What is Recruitment Marketing?

Employers have seen an astonishing amount of turnover in the past few years. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics calculated 2021's average turnover rate at 47.2%. Employees also consider switching to a new job—or even a new career—more readily. They're often looking for pay that can keep up with inflation, good benefits, and remote flexibility; some are even looking for the right company culture above all else.  

This means there's a lot of competition in the market, and employers (just like any organization in a competitive niche) need to devote resources to building up their brand strength, identifying their target market (of job candidates), and advertising the unique benefits of their product (the jobs). This is where a recruitment marketing strategy comes in. Let’s look at recruitment marketing, why it matters, and some tips to jumpstart your first recruitment marketing campaign.  

Recruitment marketing is a series of inbound and outbound strategies for reaching prospective employees, educating them about your organization as an employer, and nurturing them in the pre-application phase to generate more interest in your open positions.  

This process incorporates the stages at the top half of the talent acquisition funnel: awareness, consideration, and interest; direct recruitment focuses on the conventional aspects of recruiting (application, selection, and hiring) that round out the talent acquisition process.  

Through these proactive pre-application efforts, organizations can reach prospective employees earlier in the job search or even before audiences decide to start looking for another position. Ultimately, recruitment marketing aims to develop a strong employer brand reputation and hire top talent as effectively as possible. 

What Are the Benefits of Recruitment Marketing? 

Some of the key benefits of taking this approach include the following: 

• Stronger candidates: You can zero in on the prospects you believe align closest with your organization's values and needs. This results in longer retention and less turnover. 
• A more intentionally developed employer brand: Consciously determining your corporate values and employer branding leads to a stronger and more purposeful image. 
• Faster hiring: Properly implemented recruitment marketing campaigns help shorten the natural recruitment cycle. 

7 Tips for Developing a Recruitment Marketing Campaign 

The implementation of your recruitment marketing strategy relies on strong campaigns. You might have any of the following campaigns as part of your broader strategy: 

• A campaign solely focused on brand awareness—that is, your reputation as a good, innovative, reliable, and/or progressive employer 
• A campaign for hiring sales representatives 
• A campaign for hiring product developers or accountants 

While your overall recruitment marketing strategy should be the cohesive arm of your recruitment efforts, breaking down smaller goals into distinct campaigns and initiatives is helpful. After all, prospective sales candidates want different things than experienced accountants. Creating separate campaigns allows you to target specific audiences, focus your messaging on specific details, and (just as importantly) analyze the results with greater precision down the line. 

With that in mind, let's jump into helpful tips for creating your subsequent campaigns. 

These ideal employee profiles are hypothetical representations of the candidates you want to nurture through your talent acquisition funnel. What are their qualifications? Skills? Interests? The more complete a profile you can build, the better you can personalize your messages or develop recruitment marketing content. 

Don't just consider what employees you want to add to your organization; consider what type of organizations your ideal candidates would like to work for. You might develop your employer brand to emphasize benefits, company culture, career growth, sustainability, or other factors that resonate with your current and future employees. 

The unique focus of recruitment marketing on employer brand and education makes all the difference. Create campaigns designed to educate professionals about your brand and mission on a general level, not just during concerted hiring efforts. 

Develop lots of candidate-facing content for all of your campaigns. 

This Includes Appealing Content... 

Make sure professionals at any stage of talent acquisition can research your brand, learn about you, and get answers to all of their questions. 

...And Direct Messages 

You can also directly market to prospects through LinkedIn messages. A mix of inbound and (personalized!) outbound marketing is ideal. 

Fast, honest communication can win over prospective candidates. Be transparent about each applicant's status within the process, and tell applicants promptly if you're no longer considering them or have hired someone else. This goes a long way to ensure every candidate has a pleasant experience. 

Build relationships with all of your applicants. Top talent who went with a different offer or weren't your final candidate can still be sources of referrals, future employees, and advocates for your brand. 

Recruitment marketing gives you a lot of data about what recruitment efforts do and don't work. You can see which channels prospects responded best to, what messages got the most productive engagement, and what approaches didn't work. If you assess your analytics during and after each campaign, you can make your efforts even more targeted. 

Ready to Get Started? Mid-West Family Is Here to Help You Reach Prospective Candidates 

Make recruitment marketing easier by partnering with a multi-media and marketing agency that can help guide you. At Mid-West Marketing, we help local and growing organizations develop a recruitment marketing strategy for finding and hiring top talent.