Just the way customers want to relate to a brand of product or service, so do job applicants when it comes to researching potential employers. Job seekers are constantly on the lookout for companies that align with their culture. Today, they are no longer looking for designations with specific remuneration; they are looking for a workplace that enables them to grow and an employer that understands their needs and goals.
Today’s job market is tough, and employers are finding it challenging to attract and retain the best talent. They are also looking for ways to engage with candidates and access new networks and pools of talent that were inaccessible before. To do this, many organizations have developed a recruitment marketing plan to leverage the power of marketing while attracting top talent.
Introduction: Why Some Recruitment Marketing Ideas Work Wonders?
Although recruitment marketing strategies have been around for a while, they used to be passive at best. Active recruitment marketing has seen a surge ever since companies began to realize that joining hands with the marketing team could boost their hiring process in the right direction. However, there are some recruitment marketing strategies that blur the lines between
marketing and HR such as SEO, guerrilla marketing, candidate experience, and employer branding.
The recruitment marketing strategy is an important part of any business’s online presence. It is a way for them to promote their company, attract talent, and build relationships with their audience.
“Bring value to customers in every step of their journey and solve one of the biggest leadership dilemmas today: employee engagement.”
- Zsuzsanna Ferenczi, Chief Marketing Officer at Tradler
Some recruitment marketing ideas work wonders because they can attract the attention of their intended audience. In addition, it gives a clear and concise message. They should be able to reach out to their target market and provide them with a solution.
In this article, we will look at some of the most effective recruitment marketing ideas and why they worked like gangbusters for the organizations that used them.
Ogilvy’s Brilliant Advertising Strategy for Recruitment-Contests
When it comes to marketing, no one does it better than the world-renowned advertising agency, Ogilvy. They are in the business of sales, so it goes without saying that nothing but the best will do. The organization hires some of the finest talent to maintain its creative excellence. So, when it was time for them to recruit talent, they used a creative hiring campaign in the form of a contest aptly named “The World’s Greatest Salesperson.”
Ogilvy leveraged its social media presence as well as its unique position in the advertising industry. The contest invited applicants to film a video of themselves selling a brick. The winner got a three-month paid internship at Ogilvy and the chance to speak at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.
The campaign reached millions of people and garnered much attention from potential candidates, demonstrating that recruitment marketing ideas don’t have to be plain and boring. They can be humorous, creative, and highly engaging when done right.
Google’s Recruitment Marketing Plan-Hiring With Puzzles
You don’t always have to be renowned to generate engagement from your target talent pool. Google proved this with its outdoor recruitment marketing plan without even displaying their name. The campaign involved billboard advertising across Silicon Valley, which displayed a mathematical puzzle and challenged passersby to solve it. When solved, the puzzle revealed a website that had one final puzzle to be solved.
Recruitment is competitive by nature, which is what makes it so engaging. Google used this to its advantage and crafted a message that appealed to the problem-solving spirit of the people it wanted to attract. This is how it worked: Google used an anonymous recruitment marketing strategy to get the right people to apply. It also made people curious about the person who came up with it, which made the tech company more well-known.
IKEA Teaches How to Turn Customers into Employees
Your future employee could be an existing customer, and vice versa. IKEA, the well-known Swedish furniture brand, used this idea to leverage its customers. When it needed to staff 100 employees for its newest store in Australia, only an outside-the-box approach could work.
The company focused on the people it already had access to - customers. IKEA’s recruitment marketing plan involved putting a “career instructions” pamphlet inside the box of customers’ orders. This pamphlet resembled IKEA’s iconic instruction pamphlet that customers know and love. The campaign exceeded expectations and received thousands of job applications, 280 of which turned into job offers. The success can be attributed to the seemingly personalized approach of communicating with potential candidates in their homes.
The most important lesson to learn here is to leverage your existing network of people who are already familiar with your brand. After all, who wouldn’t want to work for a company they adore?
Volkswagen’s Genius Lesson on Going Where Your Target Audience Is
When it comes to reaching your target audience, you must go where they are. This is one of the most prominent marketing principles, and the German automotive manufacturer, Volkswagen, took this to a whole new level.
When Volkswagen wanted to hire skilled mechanics, it didn’t just scout job boards or advertise on top portals. It reached its target talents’ workplace. Volkswagen’s recruitment marketing strategy involved placing its recruitment message in a seemingly unusual but ideal place: the undercarriage of cars that needed repair. The campaign not only helped Volkswagen hire the right people but also positioned it as a brand to reckon with.
Conclusion: Recruitment Marketing Strategies Can be Creative
An advertising strategy for recruitment needs to be highly engaging above all. The above examples illustrate that when
marketing is incorporated into HR, it not only helps achieve the original goal of hiring people but also attracts the right talent and boosts the employer brand.
According to a study by Workable, 90% of the candidates surveyed said they would apply for a job in a company with an active employer brand. An Allegis study also found that an ongoing recruitment marketing campaign saves 40% of a company’s total talent costs.
So, it isn’t farfetched to say that when the above companies advertise their vacancies in the future, they will naturally create interest among job seekers. It will also attract people who identify with the company’s culture and will most probably stay longer.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can a recruitment marketing plan be improved?
A recruitment marketing plan can be improved with the use of new technologies like social media, video, and mobile apps. It can also be improved by leveraging existing network of people.
What should be included in a recruitment marketing plan?
A recruitment marketing plan includes:
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Defining your goals and objectives
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Identifying the best channels for reaching your target audience
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Developing a content strategy that matches your goals and objectives
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Creating a lead nurturing campaign that helps you capture more leads and convert them into customers
What are some creative ways to promote a job opening?
Some of the most creative ways to promote a job opening are through marketing channels like billboards, radio ads, and social media. Partnering with a social media influencer with the same target audience as yours is another way to reach potential candidates.