Recruitment Marketing: Creating a Personalized Candidate Journey

What is recruitment marketing? It is the act of marketing your organization and open opportunities to a potential high-quality targeted candidates.

When it comes to recruitment, hiring managers and recruiters need to act and think like marketers. According to TalentLyft, only 14% of job seekers are actively seeking new opportunities. That means that the other 86% of job seekers are passive or in other words, are not actively applying for open positions that are posted online. To find the top talent that you are searching for, it is imperative to have a deep understanding of key marketing principles and how to reach a highly targeted candidate pool that is open to having a conversation with you.

A common mistake that the majority of employers and recruiters make is posting a lackluster job description online that isn’t enticing and waiting for resumes to be submitted. A lot of the job descriptions that I come across are simply a list of qualifications, experience needed, and the duties and responsibilities of the role. It was likely created in Microsoft Word with little to no unique visual appeal. What are the chances this mundane candidate experience will influence a top performer to join your organization?

In order to attract talented and experienced candidates that are willing to be recruited, but are not actively applying, it is crucial to make every step of the candidate journey exciting and highly personalized. You need to deliver an effective message, at the right time, to the top quality candidates that you are seeking out in a visually compelling manner.

Similar to the process of marketing to potential customers, the first step is to define your target candidate persona for the role. This will be different for each type of position that you have available at your company.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of considerations when building your personas: Location, experience, education, personality traits, interests, preferences, languages, leadership style, relationships with direct reports, and many more.

Keep in mind that there are many more considerations pending on the type of role, industry, seniority, etc. To get started with the full creation of the candidate personas, I would suggest surveying existing employees to learn about why they chose your company and why they continue to stay as an employee.

An example of a candidate profile: Creative Christa

Creative Christa is an experienced creative director with a proven track record of successful projects. She is hard-working, disciplined, prefers to work with a team, and is great at collaborating. She is able to think creatively with strong communication skills to ensure that her team fully understands the creative direction and desired business outcomes for each project. She also expresses an interest in the industry outside of work, participating in creative forums and engaging in conversations on social media. Creative Christa is currently employed in Toronto, ON, and would be open to new opportunities for either a salary increase or the ability to work on new types of creative projects. She enjoys traveling, so, flexible working schedules and/or ample paid time-off are crucial decision factors for her. She works best when she can create ideas and move through her creative process on her own timeline. It is important that her direct report is fairly hands-off the creative process. However, she does appreciate if he/she is available for regular consultation.

Once you’re able to define your target candidate personas, it’s essential that you market to them in a personalized manner. Don’t just send these candidates job profiles that have a list of features. You must showcase the benefits and how those will impact their careers and personal lives. Listing features is uninspiring, but benefit lists are proven to be much more compelling. The benefits that you describe in your position profile should cater to the preferences indicated by the personas.

Attracting the best talent is a challenge. You need a genuine understanding of your candidate persona while you seek the best platforms to use, in order to reach those candidates. Recruitment marketing should position both your role and company as the preferred employment option for potential employees.

According to Jobvite, 76% of workers who are already employed full-time report that they’re either actively looking for new jobs or open to new opportunities. Talented and experienced candidates are willing to be recruited, but they may not be actively applying.

It’s a job seeker’s market, by thinking more like a marketer and using marketing strategies, you can attract ideal talent for your open roles. Determine the goals, preferences, and motivations of individuals who may be interested in your roles. Create enticing position profiles that will resonate with your ideal candidates, and you’ll began to fill more roles with the right talent for your organization.