There are many different marketing channels available – if you’re struggling to figure out which one is best for recruiting, you aren’t alone. Nowadays, recruiters have to go through trial-and-error to determine which marketing channels are best used for recruitment. But if you want to save yourself time and energy, just read our guide. We’ve tested out a huge number of marketing channels and gathered the ones that are the best to use for social recruiting in 2020.
Our Criteria for Determining Top Recruitment Channels
When you’re running a business, you have many responsibilities – too many, in fact, to spend hours on recruitment every day. This is why it’s imperative to choose a channel that optimizes your job posting efforts. In our opinion, it’s much better to use one great channel as opposed to several different channels of recruitment that are mediocre. So how can you tell whether recruitment marketing channels are worth their salt? When analyzing marketing channels, consider the following factors:
- Time to hire: The number of days between the time you approach a candidate and they accept the job. If your job posting remains vacant for a long time, this could indicate that the recruitment channel is not working for your organization.
- Cost per hire: Be sure to measure the recruitment channel’s cost-effectiveness. You can do so by dividing the total recruitment costs by the number of people you’ve hired.
- Number of applications: If a recruitment channel fails to deliver a sufficient number of applications, you should consider pursuing a different channel. Furthermore, you should analyze whether the applications you receive are from qualified prospects.
- Success of new recruits: You can divide this up further by measuring performance, manager satisfaction, and the first-year attrition rate.
Our Top Recruitment Channel Picks
While the success of a recruitment channel largely depends on your company and its needs, we’ve found the following channels to be successful for a wide variety of recruiters.
Your Company Website
Depending on your company’s popularity, job seekers may actually visit your website and look for open job positions. If you have a dedicated career section on your website, be sure to keep it updated with job vacancies. However, this may not be the best option if your site receives very little traffic from job seekers. Analyze the search terms that lead visitors to your site. If you see the word “job” or “application” show up in significant numbers in the search terms, then your career section is a valuable asset that you should take advantage of.
When used correctly, a corporate career site is a low-cost, passive means of recruitment. What’s more, it gives your organization additional credibility. Make sure your career site is optimized correctly for mobile use – after all, 52% of job seekers use their mobile devices to apply for a job.
Influencer Marketing
Using influencer marketing for recruitment might seem laughable at first – however, they aren’t actually creating a sponsored post for your job vacancies. Rather, they are building your company’s reputation among their fanbase. It’s all about getting the word out there, thus establishing your brand’s expertise and authority.
Social Media
Every social media platform reaches its own distinct audience. LinkedIn is more business-oriented than other social media channels, and Instagram emphasizes high-quality photos and witty captions. Recruiting through social media is a fast, simple, and affordable way to boost your brand and target top talent – especially the younger generations.
When posting on social media, you don’t want to find yourself at the receiving end of #cancelculture. Be thoughtful with your content, and be sure not to post anything offensive. Humor is okay, but not when it is at anybody’s expense.
We recommend building a social media recruitment strategy early on. Encourage your staff to share job vacancies on their own social media accounts. Use your company’s own social platforms to emphasize what makes your company unique from others. Some ideas include giving your followers a “behind-the-scenes” video tour of your company. Furthermore, make sure your posts highlight your company values. Millennials and Generation Z job seekers want to see concrete rewards from companies, such as flexible hours, financial benefits, and opportunities for career development.
Some great social media platforms to use include:
- Facebook: This social platform has a gigantic user base, and you can use it to run affordable targeted ad campaigns.
- Snapchat: Many companies use Snapchat to foster a positive image of their brand. However, you can also use it to broadcast new job vacancies and to invite candidates to send you video resumes.
- Instagram Stories: These are similar to Snapchat’s Snaps; however, you can save Stories and display them at the top of your Instagram profile. These saved Stories can be sorted into different categories, so you could have one for vacant positions, one for employee-generated content, one for contest, and so on.
Internet Job Boards
Many job hunters turn to the top job boards to seek open positions – a few of the most popular ones include Indeed, Glassdoor, and Monster. There are also niche job boards which are specific to your industry. Rather than putting all your eggs in one basket, you can post your job listings to multiple boards. For instance, if the position is in the IT industry, you can post to GitHub and Indeed. Niche job boards may have less traffic, but you are more likely to have the right candidates see your post.
When posting on any job board, you need to make your advertisement as appealing as possible. Our top tips are:
- Give the ad an interesting title: You’ll want it to stand out from all the other postings – so an eye-catching title will make the site users more likely to click on your listing.
- Use keywords: The site will automatically scan your listing and rank the post for relevancy. Be sure to include keywords in your title and the description, so that your ideal candidates will come across it. Don’t forget to add geotargeted keywords!
- Make them want it. Don’t just list the job responsibilities. Make the offer attractive. List the benefits that candidates will have if they are offered the job (gym memberships, casual Fridays, remote opportunities, healthcare, etc.)
Candidate Rediscovery
By integrating AI into your current recruitment systems, you can search for and rank potential candidates who have shown prior interest in working for your organization. Even if these candidates don’t have the exact skills you were looking for, consider them. Somebody who has transferable soft skills and a motivated personality might just be the best fit.
Employee Referrals
Employee referrals are considered to be one of the most efficient channels of recruitment. This is mainly because employees will only refer job seekers that would be a good fit to the team. Nobody is going to want to refer a hire that doesn’t work out. Your company can benefit greatly from employee referrals, as you can save time and money. So, what strategies can you implement to encourage employee referrals? Creating a great referral program is the key to this. Employees are more likely to search for qualified candidates if there is an incentive. Set aside part of your recruiting budget as a monetary reward for employee referrals. It may also be useful to reward all employees who refer candidates, even if the candidate does not end up being hired. Include new employees in your referral program from the get-go, and make the program a gentle competition – thus, fostering awareness and enthusiasm.
Encourage job candidates to sign up for your job alert newsletter. This way, even if your current job positions aren’t relevant to their qualifications, you can keep the candidates engaged until a relevant position is available. Analyze your current email subscription strategy – are you getting plenty of new signups? Is the newsletter form in a visible spot in your site? Do you make it clear how signing up can benefit the candidate? Make adjustments as needed.
Text Recruiting
Encourage candidates to sign up for text alerts when a new job position is available. You can also set up a short code that they can text your recruiting number at any time. By doing so, they can automatically receive information on available careers. If you want to take it even further, an AI recruiter can be set up to send responses to a range of common questions that candidates may have.
All-in-One Recruitment Suite
There are comprehensive, data-driven software solutions you can utilize to attract top talent, screen candidates and sort out those of the highest quality, and retain hires. Such platforms may have features such as on-demand video screening, social recruiting capabilities, onboarding tools, and job posting text analysis.
Our Recruitment Marketing Tips
No matter which channel of recruitment you go for, it is essential for you to have a recruitment marketing plan in place. Define your employer brand – this is important for improving your reputation as a coveted employer. Your branding should shine through in all facets of your recruiting plan. You should have a clear mission statement, an employee value proposition, and fleshed-out core values.
When you are writing your job postings, be sure to analyze the text for any accidental bias. Use inclusive language – and if you are having a hard time balancing your tone, you can use an AI tool that scours your text for language that may alienate diverse applicants. Some tips for eliminating bias include using gender-neutral language and countering stereotypes. Make it clear that all applicants are welcome – no matter what their race, gender, sexuality, age, or disability may be.
Use employee-generated content (EGC). One way to do this is to create a company-wide hashtag and start a contest among employees. They can share content relevant to your company, thus increasing your branding – and EGC is typically more trusted than corporate social media posts.
If your recruitment budget is staying the same but your hiring goals are increasing, consider using programmatic job ads. These will automate the process of bidding, purchasing, and placing your ads. For instance, if one of your job ads is doing well and has received lots of responses, it can be automatically removed – and then one of your poorly performing ads can be boosted and get in front of more eyes. Programmatic job ads are an excellent way to use data to manage your budget.
Is There a Single Best Recruitment Marketing Channel?
If you’ve read this far, you might be wondering if we can tell you the #1 recruitment marketing channel. There is no objective answer to this question. The best recruitment marketing channel is totally dependent on your organization’s needs: who you are trying to reach, the job type, your company’s reputation, and several other factors. If you want a better glimpse into which recruitment channels are working for you, include an optional field in the application that asks the candidate how they heard about the position.
Some recruiters find that social media channels best meet their needs. But then, there are sub-choices within that category: do you make an account on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, LinkedIn, or something else? Or do you make accounts on multiple social media channels? Are you going to make text-based posts or image-based posts? Which demographic do you want to reach? It will be nearly impossible to reach all of your goals by posting on one social media platform.
However, there is a simple solution: cross-channel posting. When you use a cross-channel recruitment service, you can post job listings across multiple marketing channels effortlessly. If you’d like to know more about how to optimize your recruitment marketing today, reach out to us for a consultation. Remember, at the end of the day, whichever web-based recruitment marketing channel you choose will be more effective than local advertising.
