Stop the presses – marketing helps with acquisition! Groundbreaking. The idea that marketing helps with talent acquisition is not new. Talent acquisition has always involved at least a degree of sales and marketing, but more in a nebulous, vague way. Now, like so many other industries, the world of recruitment is undergoing a revolution of sorts. The combination of recruitment and marketing (aptly named recruitment marketing) is changing how talent acquisition functions as an industry.
Recruiters are increasingly utilising marketing tactics to get the job done. We recently explained how recruiters are utilising employer brands to attract talent, but that’s just one way in which recruiters are using recruitment marketings to secure the very best candidates possible.
Recruitment marketing encompasses every strategy that a company could use to attract talent during every stage of its recruitment process. Several aspects will affect how a business’ recruitment marketing strategy is implemented. An accountancy firm wouldn’t advertise for its CFO role in the same way a sustainability organisation would advertise for a creative director role. How and where you advertise your jobs matters.
It’s more than just ordinary marketing strategies, though. Recruitment marketing utilises automation, data and AI to guide decision making. It’s high-tech stuff! It all works together to ensure recruiters are targeting the right candidates with the most convincing tactics possible. Recruitment marketing frees up busy recruiters time so they can spend less time with menial research and more time acquiring talent.
Recruitment marketing is a pretty large topic so we’re reduced it down to three key points:
- Discovering top talent
- Bolstering the company’s employer brand
- Scoping out and nurturing the best potential candidates
In the olde days of yore, recruitment was pretty simplistic. A company would put up an ad on a job board, applicants would apply, the company would screen them and hey presto! New employee! There’s an issue with this process, though. Generally, the top talent is already employed and working away at another organisation. They’re not actively looking for a new job, but that shouldn’t stop any good recruiter. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Recruitment marketing is all about aiming for the best quality candidates and not settling for the lower quality candidates that apply organically.
If all that isn’t enough to convince you, we’ve compiled a list of the 5 main benefits of recruitment marketing.
1. A speedy pipeline full of top talent
Maybe you’re used to candidates trickling through in dribs and drabs. That all changes with recruitment marketing. Once you establish an effective recruitment pipeline, you’ll have a range of talented candidates to pick from.
2. An improved candidate journey
Every potential hire is an opportunity to build on your candidate journey. It can be made highly personalised to suit the individual to ensure you really hook each and every candidate. Just as a candidate is trying to pitch themselves to the company, the company should be trying to pitch themselves to the candidate!
3. Your employer brand
An employer brand is really what separates your company from the rest. It’s all about your organisational values, policies, ethics and employee experience. Basically, your employer brand is how your business is viewed by your workforce along with your reputation as an employer. A strong employer brand creates credibility for your company and helps you retain that talent you’ve worked so hard to recruit.
4. Saving time, resources and money
With the most effective recruitment marketing in place, you’ll be able to save time scouting for employees because you’ll be retaining the best talent. Your time will be better spent elsewhere when the menial work is left to automated processes.
5. High quality hires
The best point of all – once you implement recruitment marketing into your talent acquisition strategy, you can be rest assured that your candidates will be the cream of the crop.
Here’s a statistic for you: 86% of human resources professionals agree that recruitment is becoming increasingly similar to marketing. Could a digital marketing agency be the key to mastering your employer brand? Contact us to find out more.
