What is recruitment marketing and why is it important?

Nowadays, one of the most important terms in both business and the labor market is undoubtedly a “brand”. This word can refer to three entities: a company offering certain products or services, any individual taking care of their image (personal branding), and an employer focusing on building recognition among potential candidates, as well as current and future employees (employer branding). Each of these entities conducts specific marketing activities to achieve the expected goals – in the case of an employer, recruitment marketing used by HR departments is of particular importance. What does this process involve and what results can it bring? Read on.

What is recruitment marketing? – table of contents:

1. Recruitment marketing – definition and basic goals
2. Recruitment and recruitment marketing – isn’t it the same?
3. What does recruitment take from marketing?
4. Recruitment marketing – processes
5. Summary

Recruitment marketing – definition and basic goals

The company sells its products, the specialist building a personal brand, the skills it possesses, and the employer simply has itself – as the best place to achieve career goals, develop, and earn. This is where the essence of recruitment marketing by HR professionals lies. Using best practices known from traditional or online marketing, recruiters try to reach out to candidates (customers) and advertise the workplace (service).

The goal of recruitment marketing, then, is not to attract a candidate already interested in an offer who has responded to an ad, but to connect with job seekers who can turn into candidates for a particular company.

Recruitment and recruitment marketing – isn’t it the same?

While it might seem that recruitment and recruitment marketing are the same phenomena, it should be pointed out that there are very important differences between them. First of all, in recruitment processes, we respond to the current needs of the company, relying on open positions and seeking candidates, for example, on LinkedIn or using recruitment agencies. Conducting recruitment marketing activities, on the other hand, requires a holistic approach and focusing on advertising the workplace even without open recruitment processes. Thus, it responds to future employment needs, creating an image of a place where you simply “want to work”.

What does recruitment take from marketing?

Recruitment marketing is associated with two important concepts familiar to all those who deal with marketing on a daily basis: persona and sales funnel. When conducting marketing activities, specialists always start, among others, by identifying the target group and building a persona, i.e. a profile of the ideal customer (along with their demographics, lifestyle, needs, motivations and frustrations). The goal of such a procedure is to tailor the created messages to the customers’ needs. It is no different in the case of recruitment. Hr specialists start with creating a description of the ideal candidate, and then develop a communication strategy.

The sales funnel, on the other hand, represents the consumer’s path to making a purchase, and includes activities aimed at: getting the customer’s attention, generating interest, creating a need and making a purchase. In the case of recruitment marketing, we focus on the first stage of the funnel – we try to increase the awareness of the company, create interest, encourage people to check our offer, make a decision to change employment, and above all, inspire them to search for the perfect job.

Recruitment marketing – processes

How does recruitment marketing promote a company as the best place to work? The foundation is regular communication with the audience (primarily through social media) focused on showing the organizational culture, company values, business operations, approach to the employee or benefits. It is also important to take part in events that give the opportunity to meet people from the same industry and market your business at a booth. Regularly obtaining feedback from current employees and implementing changes based on this can also be regarded as processes of recruitment marketing.

Summary

The labor market today is a kind of battlefield for the best candidates. After all, employees are the company’s greatest asset. With shortages of specialists on the market, the growing importance of soft skills and dynamic competition, a talented candidate can choose from a wide variety of job offers – and it’s the HR department’s job to advertise the company in such a way that the candidate has no doubts about where to develop their career.

Read also: 5 important steps to build your personal brand as a recruiter.

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