Curious about how to attract top talent without breaking the bank?
Let's hear from Head of Digital Marketing Ruben Rocas, and Social Media Strategist Erin Cullinan, to explore the power of organic recruitment marketing.
[Prefer to watch? Check out the webinar version of this post.]
What is organic recruitment marketing?
Organic recruitment marketing focuses on attracting potential job candidates using non-paid methods like social media and SEO.
It's a holistic approach to the organic digital touchpoint made during a typical candidate journey, leveraging existing company channels to build connections.
What problems does it solve?
Candidates consume content on multiple channels before applying to roles. So, you need content for every part of the funnel to effectively move candidates through the process.
If you’re struggling with low visibility, talent haven’t heard of you, or you’re not ranking well for key search terms, a combination of SEO and social media strategy will fix it.
Great organic recruitment marketing will…
• Build and develop your brand
• Create an active and vibrant “shop window” for talent to browse
• Keep you relevant and top of mind for your target audience
How to elevate your EVP with organic recruitment marketing
Step 1: Define your goals
Your goals can influence the shape your content takes. Whether you want a blog to increase organic traffic, or there’s a specific content theme you need to amplify on your social channels, your goals will help define your content formats.
To define your goals, consult with your team and internal stakeholders to identify the consistent challenges you face. Document your objectives and refer to them to measure performance and that all-important ROI.
Step 2: Understand your audience
Without knowing your target audience, you can't speak to them in a way that meets their information needs.
First, identify the most pressing hiring needs and prioritize those roles for your company. Then you need to research and gather persona information about your target audience. (If you've delved into your employer brand previously, you may have already done this.)
A key element of the strategy will involve conducting organic channel audits. For social media, this will involve conducting your social media research. And for SEO, this means understanding the keywords potential candidates search for to land on your website, their search volumes, and the implications of this data.
Step 3: Define your team
Before you kick off with any activation, assemble the Avengers.
• SEO and Social Media Specialists: Drive your strategy and execute the work.
• Copywriters: Write the all-important captions for social media, blogs, and landing pages for your careers site.
• Designers and developers: These roles will depend on the type of content you put out. Blog articles, for instance, don’t usually need a designer, but social media assets or interactive content often do. If you need a new page on your website, you might need a developer as well.
Gather your team and ensure everyone understands how their role contributes to the overall strategy.
Step 4: Activating with social media
1. Research your competitors. What are they up to? What's trending right now? Where is your audience hanging out online? What are they engaging with?
2. Create content themes based on key objectives and KPIs. Perhaps you want to attract more women into plant roles, for example, or build up your C-suite audience, so you can create themes around that.
3. Create your content calendar and plan across 12-months, capitalize on relevant national dates (Pride Month, national Hug your Cat Day, etc.) and draw on your content themes.
4. Generate proactive and reactive content, aligning with key strategic aims. Reactive content could be inspired by trends, current events, or internal developments. As a guideline, aim for an 80% proactive and 20% reactive content split.
5. Constantly review and refine your content based on its performance. But repeat what’s working well and stop what’s not.
Step 5: Activating with SEO
1. Do your keyword research.
2. Build out your career site pages based on the jobs you offer
3. Cluster content to satisfy varying search behaviour intents
4. Educate potential candidates and indirectly showcase your EVP to drive more applications
When you follow this format, and make pages that people are actually looking for, you're hitting the mark on what users want. Plus, you're subtly establishing your company as a top player in that field. It's like saying, "Hey, we know what we’re talking about, and that's why you'd want to be part of our team."
Organic recruitment marketing top tips
• Remain flexible in your strategy – if you’re too rigid you will miss out on the opportunity to creatively innovate and achieve your goals.
• Push your creative boundaries and take risks in your content.
• Research trends and allow space for reactive content.
• Repeat what’s working well and stop what’s not.
• Don't overcomplicate things – focus on mastering the basics first and evolve as you progress.
• Constantly review and refine your content to increase your impact.
