A Quick Guide to Digital Recruitment

By Firefish Software

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Image containing icons of digital recruitment tools; Twitter, tablet and smartphones screens, and the cloud.

As more and more candidates seek out jobs online, recruitment agencies have to adapt their strategies in order to find the best people for the job. This means that job ads have to be optimised for web based audiences, branding has to be clear, and candidates have to be wined and dined on social channels.

Using digital marketing to source candidates for your clients can seem intimidating, but it’s really not that different to more traditional industry networking. It’s important to make real connections with other people, and to use a human voice.

Here’s our guide to digital recruiting; from audience segmenting, through multimedia, to content marketing.

Clean Web UX

For recruitment agencies and their clients, good website design is important. It’s useful to segment your website by candidate types. For example, you could split your candidate section into three easily relatable categories:

  • Marketing
  • Sales
  • IT

This obviously depends on your sector, and your niche. If you only recruit in marketing, then you could segment your website into categories such as:

  • Content Writing
  • SEO
  • Web Design
  • Graphic Design

From a candidate perspective, the journey is clear and immediate – they simply click through to the area that relates to their requirements. Breaking down a website into easy to navigate silos means that candidates don’t get lost in the process. It reduces bounce rate, and it increases retention. Plus, it makes it easier for the agency to monitor traffic, better defining who their candidates are, alongside where they come from.

Draw in the Right Candidates

If your website has clear copy, then it’s easy for candidates to understand how you can help them. There are far too many recruitment websites that fail to even specify what type of agency they are. It’s as simple as stating it on your homepage.

Active candidates will be immediately sold on your website if it promises them clearly what they’re looking for. Passive candidates are more likely to be converted by the content on the website, turning them into active job seekers. Writing clear copy can lead to better engaged candidates, and it’s likely that it will increase conversion rates too as candidates know immediately what they’re opting in for.

Think of Job Ads as Product Advertisements

Lego advert capturing the power of the imagination. Think of your jobs ads in a similar light and promote the aspirational aspects of a client’s workplace with creative content.

When we buy products we research them and we read reviews and opinions on how relevant they are to what we need them for. Recruiters should think of job ads in a similar light. Consider a job, and your client’s workplace, as the product, and the job ad as a high quality and informative advert, not just for the vacancy, but for the business and its brand identity too. Candidates will read up on the company, they’ll follow a brand on social channels, and they’ll get to know what a business stands for before applying for a vacancy.

Create value, hype, and desire by using a variety of content types. Video footage of your client’s workplace will reveal aspects of its culture that simply don’t translate on paper. Featured images, photos of happy employees, and well-rounded and aspirational language will draw relevant candidates in, and increase the likelihood of them clicking apply.

Content to Promote Interaction

When it comes to increasing placements and engagement, recruiters should write content that resonates with ideal candidates. This will attract a better quality of applicants, increasing the relevancy of the CVs that you receive.

Use social to advertise a job, but also to share curated content that adds value to that audience type. Advertising for a hairdresser? Share YouTube videos, funny gifs, and blogs and articles on the same subject. It will increase your value as a recruiter, and candidates will see you as knowledgeable and interested in their sector.

Use social to advertise job ads and client brands. Be sure to use and create relevant hashtags to reach the right people, and then organise and segment your audience. On most social networks it’s possible to create lists and group similar users together. This will make your social efforts far more targeted and effective as you’re sharing content that you know will resonate with potential candidates.

Analyse the Results

It’s important to stay on top of your inbound efforts. From content marketing, to social sharing, you have to know what’s working, and what’s not. Data driven decisions are always going to be more effective than scatter shot tactics, and the information you compile is useful when it comes to writing content, and job ads too.

If you understand where candidates come from, you can attract them more readily. The important thing is to tweak your efforts with the data you collate in mind. Your strategy can never be static. It must always be adaptable to the new information that you encounter.

Think like your ideal candidate, and move away from stuffy job descriptions. Create adverts that promote workplace culture, alongside the exciting potential for collaboration that the job opportunity fosters. Think carefully on the branding of the company that you’re advertising. And create job ads brimming with exciting language, enticing design, and aspirational content.

Do you think digital recruiting is important? How do you stay up to date and relevant with increasingly savvy candidates? Leave a comment below.

About the Author: Working as their Content Guru, Andy Mckendry plans, writes, and edits articles and blog posts for Firefish Software. He holds an MA in Professional Writing, and in the early mornings is known to gravitate towards the nearest coffee pot.

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