Do the most talented employees find employers all on their own? Sometimes. Should you bet the future of your company on the possibility of inadvertent talent acquisition? All the signs point to a firm “no”. In fact, you should do the exact opposite – take a proactive approach to talent acquisition and create a comprehensive recruitment marketing strategy that will get your brand noticed and attract the top talent in the field. From digital marketing to brand-building, all the way to media monitoring and demand sensing, your strategy should have it all.

It’s part of being a good manager, and a good business leader, really, because you are reaching out to prospective employees and showcasing your worth in an attempt to become their first choice.

After all, modern employees have the luxury of choosing between numerous brands, so you better reach out to them before your competitors start showering them with benefits and branded stress balls. Here are the five steps to an effective recruitment marketing strategy. 

Invest heavily in digital campaigns

So, first things first, every experienced marketer (and HR specialist, for that matter) understands that the online world is the place where a brand can gain global exposure, expand its reach, and engage the largest number of potential employees.

Just like you would invest in digital campaigns to promote your brand and your products or services, you should do the same to promote your open job positions and your IT recruitment strategy as a whole.

Strive to position your brand and execute your strategy on every relevant platform in the online world, including your site’s landing pages and content, relevant social media networks, forums and community hubs, talent agencies, and more.

What’s more, don’t forget to advertise your open positions on social media and search engines, in order to gain instant exposure and capture the eye of talented job seekers. 

Showcase your brand through content and design

No matter if they’ve followed an ad link to your recruitment page, or if you’ve reached out to potential employees directly, or even if they stumbled upon your brand while browsing the web, you can bet that prospective employees will go through your website with a fine-tooth comb.

This is your golden opportunity to dazzle your future team members with your compelling content, your immaculate design and UX, and your unique brand identity.

Spare no expense to improve the design and user experience on your site, and use this opportunity to showcase everything that you offer to your team members through comprehensive landing pages.

Leave no detail behind, and include everything from job descriptions to compensation and benefits, all the way to the perks and tech you offer, you company’s culture, and more.

While your competitors are making bland, unimaginative recruitment landing pages, you want to stand out with a striking visual design, a clear value proposition, and a whole lot of compelling content.

Monitor the online and offline chatter

Perhaps one of the most important elements of an effective recruitment marketing strategy is media monitoring. Think about it, how are you supposed to optimize your approach, fine-tune your communication tactics and content, or a tailor the hiring experience if you don’t have the relevant insights about your industry, your current demographic, or your brand? You can’t, really.

This is exactly why comprehensive media monitoring tools have become so popular in today’s marketing circles, as they allow business leaders to obtain crucial industry insights and turn them into actionable reports to create better marketing campaigns.

Yes, this goes for recruitment as well. Listen to the online and offline chatter, find out what the public is talking about, assess your brand’s standing, and discover the unique drivers that influence the employees’ decision-making process.

Master the art of email recruitment

Much like SMS or social media direct messaging, email opens up a direct line of communication between your brand and all potential employees.

More importantly, email marketing gives you the opportunity to make your communication personal, meaningful, and effective. The emphasis here should be on personalization. Why? Because personalizing recruitment emails allows you to fine-tune your offer to the individual.

There are no cookie-cutter solutions here, and whatever you do, do not send templated emails to your potential employees.

If you want to attract and inspire the top talent to come down to your office for an interview, you need to show them that you care.

Research them on social media, discover their interests, and craft your emails accordingly – if they have a dog, emphasize that you have a pet-friendly work environment, for example.

Build up your employees’ brands

And lastly, let your existing team members inspire potential employees to reach out by building their own personal brands on social media. This is more of a task for your HR specialists than your marketing team, as HR experts boast the experience needed to humanize and personalize their stories and profiles on social media, and integrate your brand into their online behavior in a seamless and natural way.

Choose a handful of loyal, long-term employees, help them build their brand on social media, and watch as your brand starts to gain organic exposure as well. This will build social proof, reassure potential employees of your worth, and inspire them to get in touch.

Wrapping up

If you are to attract the top talent in your industry and inspire them to join your ranks, you need to take a proactive approach to recruitment. Follow these steps and you will have built a winning recruitment strategy that will bring the best of the best to your doorstep.