The industry hit a pivotal moment over 2019. The point were broad HR community can’t talk about talent acquisition without mentioning the word ‘marketing’. While the name is familiar, and the conversations supportive, there's a question of how often the rubber-meets-the-road: is the industry truly applying today’s marketing approaches to increase ROI and effectiveness in the way it recruits?

Back in 2006, Philips applied a simple journey to translate traditional marketing to the candidate experience. It was back then when a majority of the HR community wasn't having marketing conversations. This simplified design helped this conversation to evolve from “why does this matter?” to “let’s build a campaign around this.”

Thinking about where recruitment marketing was back then to where it is today, we’ve come a long way. Here's the but (and, an homage to a grand old marketing phrase): "You've come a long way, industry, but... don't stop now." Change is a constant - our consumers start listening to other channels, and we need to move our messages and re-craft our content to keep up. It’s important to continually evolve the recruitment marketing approach in the same lines as marketers tackle the most effective consumer brands out there.

Consider Lego, as an example. From a 10-person wooden toy shop in 1939 Denmark, to arguably one of the most recognized brands of all time. Over the decades, they have carefully honed their message, anticipating how to meet the consumer where they lived, evolving their messages and medium.

“Marketing is really core to what we put out there … and that’s why we want it to be part of the results presentation.”
Julia Goldin - Chief Marketing Officer, Lego

Without doing this, you may find yourself spending an incredible amount of money and resources without even coming close to reaching the talent you need.

While there are a plethora of tools, techniques, and practices to run and manage consumer marketing  - some as simple as applying programmatic for advertising to some as complex as using neuroscience in decision making, we all know Rome wasn’t built in a day. If you're in the beginning stages, there are a few steps we recommend you master, first (and, even for those of us with some experience, it's important to review the basics from time-to-time.

Here are just a few consumer marketing approaches you can use to evolve into a consumer marketing strategy for recruitment.

• A/B Testing - While we may have the best data out there to support a particular campaign, A/B Testing can help steer your campaign in the right direction which maximize your dollars to provide an even more positive ROI. A/B Testing allows you to pilot different approaches to smaller audiences to gain deeper insights as to which approach would be more effective.  For example, say you’re wanting to launch a Facebook banner ad campaign to attract military veterans to a particular role. You’re unsure if an image with camouflage would be more effective than one without. Creating two different designs and launching a mini-campaign to a smaller audience will provide you with the data before launching the broader campaign.
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• Buyer Personas - In recruitment, the ‘buyers’ are the talent market. Personas are a fictional individual that represents a cluster of ideal candidates. Developing and using personas enables marketers to focus on a memorable and manageable cast of characters vs. the generic “everyone”.  By humanizing your audience, you can effectively build messaging campaigns that resonate in areas they most likely visit.
  For example, let’s look at Data Cruncher Dave. While Data Cruncher Dave is not a specific human, he/she possess these characteristics which allow us to tailor our campaign to connect with all that share the same characteristics. (Tip: Personas are NOT a role. Just our way of targeting it.)
  Looking at the Data Cruncher Dave persona, we can make decisions on whether to use Facebook over Instagram, country radio stations over rock, discuss 401k and work/life balance opportunities over pot-luck Fridays, etc. And since we get data when we're building our personas, we can make a data-driven case for resources and funding if/ when we need it. As an analogy, let's say you're a fishing tour guide, and you've been chartered to help find tuna. When your client says they want to use up the line they've used in the past, when they fished for bass, knowing how that line would be snapped by a tuna and being able to explain it is an important skill. We are guides, after a fashion: knowing how to explain to our clients what tools are needed, and why, matters.

• Storytelling Bringing storytelling into your recruitment content could be your lowest hanging fruit. There aren’t new tools to buy or platforms to invest in, you’re simply shifting the messaging from ‘corporate speak’ to an authentic, meaningful voice to create an emotional connection to the job seeker. While sharing facts and figures may seem like you’re telling the inside story, storytelling brings those facts and figures to life, allowing the reader to better understand why and to whom it matters.
  Take how compensation technology company PayScale shares their benefits. Candidates still want a list they can scan quickly - and this is where it requires some finesse. Within those constraints, delivering the information in a way that applicants enjoy. Studies have shown that people remember things that made them smile much more readily than ones that were bland. The goal is to make sure your bullet points are memorable ones. And, with a few simple text boxes, they use storytelling to reinforce their message. Not only does the job seeker have a better understanding of how the benefits could impact them, they also gain a better understanding of the culture and the type of talent PayScale employees.

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It's important enough to say again: test, measure, and adapt. Don’t believe us?  Do some A/B testing and let us know what you find out. We'd love to hear from you.

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