Recruitment is increasingly using conventional marketing techniques. In order to expedite processes and compete for the top people in this competitive labor market, recruiters must begin thinking like marketers. Campaign-based marketing, nurturing, omnichannel engagement, and each stage of the hiring funnel should be familiar to us.

Where to Start? The Talent Brand Audit

Your employer brand is the unifying factor in all of your recruiting marketing initiatives, and it should be the first thing you look at when analyzing your current procedures to see where you can improve them. This thorough analysis, which is frequently referred to as a talent brand audit or employment brand audit, looks at every facet of your digital brand and candidate experience. It focuses on many areas, but specifically, the top four are:

Your Recruiting Technology

Your applicant tracking system is the heart of your recruiting and application process. Your ATS can enhance the candidate experience with customization, including social media job posting, sharing, and apply buttons that make it easier for qualified candidates to apply quickly and easily for the jobs they want. You can also set up messaging automation with a FAQ for candidates and use your apply bounceback email to direct candidates to questions most asked by them during the interview and hiring process, as well as use the opportunity to re-engage previous applicants with content marketing.

You can move more swiftly to find a strong candidate with the aid of technology. The time these candidates spend on the market is getting shorter, so investing the time up front to create a clear method and plan for everyone involved in the hiring process with your recruiting technology offers you the flexibility to act swiftly when it matters. You can secure an excellent candidate if you move quickly, before they move on to another opportunity.

Your Social Media Channels

With 76% of all U.S. Internet users on social media (Pew, 2015), and 92% of employers using social media (The Muse), social channels are low-cost and necessary channels for amplifying your brand. Work with your marketing team and collaborate on a dual strategy to drive a strong presence on social media by cross-posting customer and employee stories to engage new customers and drive quality candidates to your career site to apply.

With more than 6.5 million jobs posted and 500 million members, nearly 90% of recruiters report using LinkedIn to attract and source candidates. Regular content, co- branded profiles and featured (paid) jobs on LinkedIn could go a long way to provide candidates information about your company and drive qualified traffic back to your career site.

Facebook, especially Facebook videos, and Instagram stories can also give potential candidates insight on what it’s like to work for your company. Ask questions to engage candidates, create a unique Instagram hashtag and encourage current employees to use it when sharing workplace photos, and tap your existing talent to share their expertise in articles on LinkedIn showcase pages.

Employee testimonials are a powerful way to share what makes your organization unique and a great place to work. Companies such as Twilio combine video with testimonials that complement their employment branding and social media efforts. Beyond research and employee testimonials, visual media helps to set employers apart from one another. This includes photography, videos and other digital assets that complement your job posting. For similar examples, check out AT&T’s career site, T-Mobile’s career “tours,” and careers at Airbnb.

Your Job Descriptions

The best job postings provide information on the qualifications and skill sets needed in order to be successful in the role. The single most important part of your job posting is the title. Like an email subject line, it is the first piece of information your candidate will read. It should accurately describe the job, provide information about the skill sets required, and encourage the candidate to either explore or move along to another opportunity. A poor job posting headline can keep you from reaching the best talent and draw out the hiring process possibly indefinitely.

An effective job description should include key responsibilities for the position as succinctly as possible. You might consider a short version for posting to job boards and elsewhere online, with a link to the longer description on your career site. The second most important feature of a job posting is a call to action that drives candidates to apply. Keep your call to action short and to the point. It could be as simple as, “Apply here,” but you want your call to action to stand out from those of your competitors. Take a look at your competitors’ job postings and consider conducting A/B tests with different calls to action to see which drives better results.

Your Career Site

Your career site is your company’s most important recruitment channel and the top resource candidates access during their research process. A 2017 report from LinkedIn discovered that not only do candidates spend one to two months gathering information, your company website is the first destination for research (53% of candidates), followed by LinkedIn (38%) and job search engines (35%). Candidates are looking for company values, what current employees have to say about working for your company, transparency (especially in job descriptions), and what makes your company stand out in your industry.

Your talent brand includes the perceptions of prospective, current, and previous employees and influences whether or not people choose to apply, accept offers, and stay at your company. A talent brand audit is an excellent way to measure this information with regards to where you are now, set goals and define where you would like to be, and implement or change processes based on the information gathered via your audit. This is how you control (most of) the information that is out there about your company, your messaging, and the perception of your company for the long-term. It’s dynamic by its nature, which means that a long-term candidate marketing strategy that supports your employer brand must be maintained and audited frequently.

In part two of this post, we’ll focus on what lies beyond your brand, including identifying your audience, developing marketing personas, and what metrics you should focus on to evaluate the benefits of your recruitment marketing strategies.