As part of our Undercover Recruiter Panel, we asked those in the know for their thoughts on some key questions that every recruitment leader and recruitment marketer needs to know.
One of our panel, Lisa from Barclay Jones, has been writing for us for some time and as a mentor to many recruitment marketers, shared her insight into recruitment marketing, it’s benefits, pitfalls, technologies, and hacks
As a mentor and coach to recruitment marketers, she spends most of her time being inspired by her marketing “crew”, raising the expectations of their recruitment leaders, helping them get buy-in from their recruiters, getting them to engage with marketing technology and recruitment CRM to improve candidate attraction and lead gen, and kicking into touch the perception of the “coloring-in department”.
We asked Lisa 10 questions about Recruitment Marketing.
1. What is Your Definition of Recruitment Marketing?
A crucial function designed to attract, engage, convert and retain your 3Cs – candidates, clients, colleagues. And help your sales team turn them into the 4th C – cash.
2. Recruitment Marketing vs. Employer Branding: What’s the Difference?
This is a whole blog in itself… but a wise man once said to me “your brand is what people say about you when you’ve left the room” – perhaps recruitment marketing is what you want your 3Cs to say about you
3. What is the Number One Benefit of Recruitment Marketing?
Leads are key, but often the expectations of what recruitment marketing can do are too low and KPIs are mistakenly around followers, impressions, blogging… The benefits of recruitment marketing need to be SANE not VANE. (This is a REAL PASSION of mine!)
4. How Should You Measure ROI on Recruitment Marketing?
Stick to “sanity stats”: Leads generated. Subscribers signed up. Don’t be fooled by people telling you that it’s difficult to measure ROI in recruitment marketing.
5. What is the Difference Between Outbound and Inbound Recruiting?
It is often the difference between the more traditional approaches to marketing (email marketing/events) and digital (social / web). It’s all about whether you’re interrupting someone’s day with your messages or whether they initiate the contact. The key to successful marketing, whether it be in or outbound, is that the client feels that they are the initiator – where actually the marketer has stealthily exposed the client’s need.
6. Is Recruitment Marketing Only for Large Companies?
All companies need recruitment marketing. It sells their main product – people!
7. What’s the Number One Pitfall in Recruitment Marketing?
Too much content, not enough marketing! (I’m on a mission to cure “continuations-blog-syndrome”)
8. What is the Recruitment Marketer’s Essential Tech Stack?
“Stack” is my new favorite word!
Trello for planning. I say to my mentees that if Trello were a man, I’d marry it!
Google Analytics for website ROI
An SEO toolkit like SEMRush/AHRefs to turbo boost content – and Keywords Everywhere is flipping awesome! (Thanks Becca!)
Speedy video and image software such as Adobe Spark / Loom / Lumen5 / Canva to stretch content – remember, “less content, more marketing!”
9. How Should You Segment Talent Personas for Recruitment Marketing?
Around their issues. What problems can be solved?
10. How Can You Do Recruitment Marketing on a Shoestring Budget?
Canva and Lumen5: one piece of content stretched across the month in a variety of ways, strong advocates posting your content with and for you (content cuddlers), and engaged recruiters!
Plus, I say to my mentees “imagine if you only had 1 hour a day to make a real difference, what would you do? Then times that by 7 and that’s your job spec”. Often marketers spend too long not having an impact. (Often they spend too long doing things that people have asked them to do that offer no real value to sales.)
