What Is Candidate Marketing?

Candidate marketing focuses on continuous engagement with your candidate base, ensuring your company is top of mind when they are ready to seek new opportunities. Through candidate marketing strategies, you can successfully engage in candidate relationship management, enhance candidate loyalty, and ultimately, achieve successful placements.

10 Candidate Marketing Strategies

1. Optimise Your Website for Candidates

Your website is often the first point of contact for potential candidates. Ensure it is optimised with a clear and user-friendly careers page that highlights your company culture, mission, and available positions. A robust search engine optimization (SEO) strategy will also help your website appear in relevant search results, making it easier for candidates to find you.

2. Showcase Your Employer Brand on Social Media

Utilise social media platforms to showcase your employer brand organically and engage in social recruiting and Instagram recruiting. Share content that reflects your company culture, such as employee testimonials, office events, and community involvement. This helps build a positive image and attracts candidates who align with your values.

3. Leverage Email Marketing

Email campaigns can be a highly effective recruiting technique for keeping your brand top of mind for potential candidates. Curate engaging content that is segmented according to candidates' interests, professional experience, and location. Invest in strong subject lines and eye-catching designs to increase open rates.

4. Use Video Marketing

Video content is highly engaging and can provide a deeper connection with prospective employees. Use videos to showcase your company culture, employee testimonials, and day-in-the-life stories. This format helps candidates remember your company more vividly.

5. Implement Text Message Campaigns

Text message campaigns can be particularly effective for engaging younger candidates. Use texts to send interview reminders, job tips, and other relevant information. Ensure messages are short, personalised, and include opt-out features to comply with regulations.

6. Build a Strong Talent Community

Creating a talent community allows you to engage with potential candidates even when they are not actively looking for a job. Use this platform for general talent management and to share company news, industry insights, and career development opportunities. This helps build a pipeline of interested candidates for future openings.

7. Utilise Employee Referrals

Employee referrals are a valuable source of high-quality candidates. Encourage your current employees to refer their contacts by offering incentives and showcasing the benefits of working at your company. This method often results in faster hires and better retention rates.

8. Manage Your Employer Brand on Review Sites

Ensure your employer brand is positively represented on review sites such as Glassdoor and LinkedIn. Respond to reviews, both positive and negative, to show that you value candidate feedback and are committed to continuous improvement.

9. Leverage Data-Driven Analytics

Use data and analytics to optimise your recruitment marketing strategies. Track metrics such as the number of applicants, interview conversion rates, and time-to-fill to identify what works best for your organisation. This helps in making informed decisions and improving the overall efficiency of your recruitment process.

10. Embrace Technology and Automation

Integrate tools like applicant tracking systems (ATS) and marketing automation to streamline your recruitment process. These staffing technologies can help in efficient candidate screening, creating better job postings, and managing the hiring process more effectively.

Best Tools For Executing Your Recruitment Marketing Strategy

To effectively execute your inbound recruiting strategy, you need the right tools to streamline your processes, enhance candidate engagement, and measure the success of your efforts. Here are some of the best tools available, each with unique features that can help you achieve your recruitment goals:

1. Ringover

Ringover is a communication platform that includes VoIP phone and AI tools that can be integrated into your recruitment marketing strategy to enhance candidate communication. Including an omnichannel contact centre software, this business phone system allows you to reach candidates on the right channel, at the right time.

Its features include call recording, power dialling, and integrations with popular ATS and CRM like Salesforce, Hubspot, Bullhorn and Zoho Recruit. Ringover's analytics also provide insights into call performance, helping you refine your communication strategies.

2. Glassdoor

Glassdoor is not only a review site but also a recruitment marketing tool. It enables you to showcase your company culture and job openings, leveraging employee reviews and ratings to build trust and credibility with potential candidates.

3. Greenhouse

Greenhouse is an applicant tracking system (ATS) that also offers recruitment marketing features. It helps you create branded career pages, manage job listings, and engage with candidates more effectively. Greenhouse also provides tools to measure the effectiveness of your recruitment marketing efforts.

4. Lever

Lever combines ATS functionality with recruitment marketing features, allowing you to create a seamless candidate experience. It offers a customizable careers page, easy application process, and robust reporting and analytics tools to optimise your strategies.

5. Workable

Workable is a user-friendly recruitment software that simplifies the hiring process. It allows you to build a branded careers page, distribute job listings to multiple platforms, and track the performance of your job postings. Workable also offers collaboration features for your recruitment team.

6. Beamery

Beamery is a Talent Operating System that combines elements of CRM, talent acquisition, and engagement. It helps companies attract, engage, and retain top talent by personalising the candidate journey at scale.

7. LinkedIn Talent Solutions

Just as having a big LinkedIn following can help candidates, LinkedIn Talent Solutions is a powerful tool for identifying and engaging potential candidates. It offers features like job postings, sponsored content, and InMail, allowing you to target specific demographics and reach a broad audience of professionals.

8. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a social media management platform that allows recruiters to schedule posts, engage with followers, and analyse the performance of their content across multiple social media channels. This tool is essential for maintaining a consistent online presence and engaging with potential candidates.

9. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a powerful web analytics tool that helps recruiters track and understand candidate behaviour on their career sites. This data can be used to optimise recruitment marketing campaigns and improve the overall candidate experience.

10. Yello

Yello simplifies the recruitment process with its CRM capabilities, focusing on improving candidate engagement, streamlining communications, and managing recruitment events efficiently. It helps in building talent pipelines and maintaining relationships with candidates over time.

What is Candidate Marketing?

Candidate marketing is a niche strategy within recruitment marketing, aimed at highlighting the benefits of working for a company to attract, engage, and retain the best talent. It weaves together traditional marketing techniques with talent acquisition objectives, crafting a compelling and positive narrative about the employer's brand.

Essentially, candidate marketing employs a variety of marketing methods to demonstrate the company's culture, values, and opportunities available. This strategy is pivotal in establishing a robust employer brand, a critical aspect in the current competitive job landscape where candidates are spoilt for choice and often conduct in-depth research on potential employers before applying.

More than just filling immediate vacancies, candidate marketing is about building a sustainable talent pool. It focuses on connecting with potential candidates at every point in their career path, regardless of whether they are actively seeking a new position. This forward-thinking approach ensures that when individuals are ready for a career change, your company stands out in their minds.

The fundamental components of candidate marketing include:

• Employer Branding: Articulating and promoting the organisation's culture and value proposition to attract potential candidates.
• Content Creation: Developing and sharing content that showcases the company's work environment, employee testimonials, and core values. This may encompass blog articles, video content, and social media posts.
• Candidate Engagement: Maintaining interest and satisfaction among qualified candidates through email marketing, career newsletters, and providing timely feedback throughout their journey.
• Data-Driven Analytics: Leveraging data tracking and analysis to identify the most effective recruitment marketing strategies and areas for improvement.

By implementing these strategies, candidate marketing enables organisations to attract better quality candidates, shorten the hiring cycle, and enhance the overall success of their recruitment efforts.

What is the Candidate Market?

The candidate market is a scenario within the job market where the balance of power tilts in favour of job seekers. This situation arises from several factors including low unemployment rates, high demand for skilled labour, and a plethora of job opportunities. It introduces a set of characteristics that profoundly influence employer strategies for recruitment and talent acquisition.

In such a market, employers often encounter:

• Abundance of Job Opportunities: With more openings than qualified candidates, job seekers enjoy a broad selection and significant leverage in negotiations.
• Higher Compensation and Benefits: Candidates are in a position to demand higher pay, superior benefits, and more accommodating work conditions. To attract and keep the best, employers need to present compelling offers.
• Selective Candidates: With the luxury of choice, candidates become pickier, holding out for offers that promise better career progression, cultural fit, and overall job satisfaction.
• Increased Turnover: The relative ease with which individuals can switch jobs contributes to higher turnover rates, as employees readily leave for more appealing opportunities.

This landscape requires employers to revamp their recruitment tactics, focusing on building a strong employer brand, streamlining the hiring process, and enhancing the overall experience for candidates. To stand out in the competition for talent, companies must offer attractive compensation, promote their workplace culture, and ensure the recruitment process is both efficient and engaging.

Benefits of Candidate Marketing: Improve Candidate Experience with Recruitment Marketing

Candidate marketing brings numerous advantages that significantly enhance the candidate experience, playing a pivotal role in modern recruitment strategies. Below are the key benefits of incorporating candidate marketing into your recruitment efforts:

1. Better Candidate Experience

The journey of a candidate begins well before the application process starts. Recruitment marketing enables the personalization of content and communication, ensuring every interaction with your company is meaningful and engaging.

This tailored approach makes candidates feel valued and understood, an important aspect in today's competitive job market.

2. Strategic Alignment and Efficiency

Candidate marketing aligns your recruitment activities with your company's strategic objectives. By focusing on nurturing relationships with high-quality candidates, you can expedite the hiring process and reduce the time-to-hire. This strategic focus ensures your talent acquisition team has a ready pipeline of engaged candidates, streamlining the process of filling new roles efficiently.

3. Stronger Employer Branding

A robust candidate marketing strategy enhances your employer brand by highlighting your company's mission, values, and culture. This attracts candidates who align with your organisation's vision, likely resulting in long-term employment matches. Strong employer branding is vital for setting your company apart in a saturated job market and securing top talent.

4. Increased Applications and Quality Hires

Utilising various marketing channels, such as social media, email campaigns, and targeted messaging, candidate marketing can significantly boost the volume of applications received. Additionally, these strategies attract higher-quality candidates who are more in sync with your company's culture and values, leading to improved retention rates.

5. Cost-Effective Recruitment

Compared to traditional recruitment methods, which can be expensive and less effective, candidate marketing offers a cost-efficient alternative for attracting and engaging candidates. Digital marketing strategies enable broader reach at a fraction of the cost associated with conventional recruitment channels like job boards and recruitment agencies.

Leverage Ringover for Candidate Marketing

Ringover’s features ensure you can reach candidates on the channel they prefer, and measure the impact of your actions. 

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6. Measurable Results

One of the standout advantages of candidate marketing is its ability to produce measurable outcomes. Digital marketing tools offer detailed analytics, allowing for the tracking of engagement, application sources, and other key metrics.

This data is invaluable for refining your strategies, ensuring your recruitment marketing efforts are as effective as possible.

7. Enhanced Employee Engagement and Morale

Candidate marketing also focuses on engaging your current workforce. Encouraging employees to share their experiences and advocate for the company strengthens your employer brand and boosts morale.

This strategy makes employees feel valued and invested in the company's success, contributing to better retention and a more positive workplace environment.

Conclusion

In the realm of today's competitive job landscape, candidate marketing emerges as an essential approach for drawing in and keeping the finest talent. This strategy, encompassing a variety of marketing techniques, empowers you to forge a compelling employer identity, elevate the overall candidate journey, and cultivate a reservoir of motivated applicants.

If you're looking to level up your candidate marketing strategy, consider integrating Ringover into your tech stack so you can take advantage of its omnichannel communications capabilities. You can even start your free trial today!