Increase Application Numbers on Job Adverts?

Increase Application Numbers on Job Adverts?

Top 6 Strategies to increase application numbers.

In this day and age, recruitment agencies are finding it a daunting task to attract the right candidates. Organisations have been posting job adverts on repeatedly in hope of acquiring qualified candidates, but to no avail. While many recruiters strive to increase application numbers, they fail to make use of all the right recruitment strategies. This can produce profound results.

The demand for qualified talent has surpassed the supply, but another major reason behind the scarcity of quality job applications is increased competition for the same candidate. Great candidates know their value and the fact that your recruitment competitors are producing attractive job advertisements, plus engaging with potential candidates is not helping.  One example is that the job advert that helped in attracting applications a year ago might be tired, inaccurate or simply not appealing now. Are you reposting the same old job adverts?

With use of enhanced and engaging recruitment strategies growing, lazy recruiting just isn’t working anymore.

Job and technology trends are evolving at such a pace that regular review is essential. Design, layout and the content of your job ads needs consideration on regular intervals. To increase application numbers and draw the right candidate to your company, you need to add the appeal!

If you are already posting and reviewing your teams job adverts, you are on the right track. However, streamlining and adding process to your recruitment strategy can improve quality and bolster job application numbers drastically.

Here are the top 6 strategies that will guarantee better results:

1 – Simple Spell Check

You may not progress an application with spelling errors, so why would they apply if you did the same? It is essential to use correct spelling, punctuation and grammar in your job adverts if you want to be taken seriously. By posting a job advert that contains poor formatting, grammar or spellings will not only minimise your chances of intriguing talent, but will also affect your credibility as a business. Therefore, make sure your team uses spell check before posting.

To increase application numbers, make sure your job advert is well articulated to communicate with your audience with flawless grammar, immaculate spellings and spot-on punctuations. A well-crafted advert reflects positively on your professionalism as a corporate entity.

2 – Check Legalities

While posting a job advert, it is important to ensure that the content of your posting adheres to the legal requirements and policies. Most applicants desire to work with a company that understands employment legislations. Drafting your advert in compliance to HR law will help avoid legal action and create a profound impact amongst the pool of talent you seek to acquire.

To understand the legal framework, ACAS has compiled an extensive guide on publication of job adverts to prevent and resolve workplace related issues.

3 – Gender Biase

Organisations produce job adverts that are unintentionally gender biased. Since society has deeply ingrained sets of values discriminating both sexes, this tends to reflect in the language we use on a regular basis.

For instance, according to a study published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Job postings for fields like programming, engineering, carpentry, etc. feature masculine words such as leader, competitive and ambitious. Such words discourage women from applying for these jobs. Moreover, research also suggests that women feel disconnected to job adverts that feature words that perpetuate gender inequality.

To eliminate the gender bias, organisations can make use of tools like a gender decoder. This will not only help in maintaining a neutral tone, but will appeal to a broader audience. Resulting in an increase in application numbers.

4 – Reflect Your Brand Tone

The brand tone is about what you say, rather how you say it. This includes the words you choose, along with the pace, rhythm and order. In the corporate world, brand tone refers to the written content instead of spoken words. Your brand tone nurtures and develops the personality of your brand. A brand is expected to use similar tone of voice across all marketing collateral including job adverts.

For instance, writing ‘ideal candidate’ or ‘successful applicant’ can make the most suitable applicant question his abilities. On the other hand, using phrases like, ‘In this exciting role you will work alongside …’. ‘Coming from a strong marketing background, you will be expected to …’. Can bolster the confidence of an applicant, encouraging him to apply.

5 – Read It and Get Someone To Check

As obvious as it might sound, it is imperative to read your job advert before posting it. Reading your job posting will help you in overcoming any potential mistakes. You can also ask someone else to read the advert for better results.  Individuals tend to neglect minor details which can only be detected when another person proof-reads the content.

Furthermore, make sure that your content is interesting. Studies suggest that less than a quarter of your target audience will click through the ad, while most people only skim through the description. In order to increase application numbers it important to make your content appealing. Even if you have just 140 characters, focus on articulating an engaging description to create a profound impact, encouraging applicants to apply.

6 – Next Step Or How To Apply

While it is important to create an enticing job advert, it is also important to make it accessible to your intended audience. Most applicants desire to know about the position in depth. Therefore, creating a landing page with adequate details can help you get better responses.

For instance, a client has created a landing page devoted to a single job vacancy, providing appeal and desire. A similar technique can be used to draw potential talent to your organisation and Woya Digital can help you develop and implement market leading candidate attraction strategies.

With cut throat competition in terms of talent acquisition, it is important to have a recruitment strategy in place to attract potential talent. In order to succeed in gaining traction in a candidate led market, being an attractive recruitment agency or employer is pivotal to success.

Top 6 Recruitment Marketing Strategies for Agencies

Top 6 Recruitment Marketing Strategies for Agencies

We are in a candidate led market and people have changed the way they hunt for jobs. Clients and potential candidates alike are online, scouting for new concepts, ideas or next career move. Employers need to have a strong online presence with interactive job opening posts and recruitment messages to appeal to the job hunters. Your recruitment marketing strategies need to be well tailored for candidate attraction to get the desired results. Recruitment marketing needs innovative and evolving techniques with targeted strategies to be successful at talent acquisition for either permanent or temporary recruitment agencies.

What Are Recruitment Marketing Strategies?

Recruitment marketing strategies and techniques are focused on two primary techniques. The use of both strategies and all techniques are essential ingredients: Inbound Marketing:

  • Marketing through use of engaging content that appeals to your audience, quite simply they find and come to you. This customer or candidate offers much more value as they will be more suited to the vacancy or at least interested.
  • Inbound marketing techniques in recruitment marketing could include:
    • Posting job adverts on job boards
    • Targeted paid advertising on
      • Google
      • Social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter
      • Job boards such as Indeed
  • Blogs and subject matter expert articles on your website
  • Targeted email campaigns or auto-responders
  • Search engine optimisation – SEO
  • Social media content generation
    • Branded images / videos
    • Blogs / articles
    • Sales messages
    • New vacancies
    • Word of mouth / Referrals

Outbound Marketing:

  • This is generally more traditional methods of marketing.
  • Focused on direct marketing tactics that push out a general message to candidates for example such as:
    • Spam emails
    • Cold calling
    • Trade shows
    • TV / Radio advertising
    • Print adverts (leaflets, newspapers or magazines, brochures etc)
    • Online banner adverts

Both recruitment marketing strategies are instrumentally important for recruiting a potential candidate. However, Inbound Marketing is gaining significant momentum as it aids in building long-term relationships and encourages dialogue between interested candidates and the recruitment agency. Here are a few recruitment marketing strategies that support candidate attraction:

1 Social Media

Social media platforms have become part of our modern lives. Today, Millennials are using these platforms for a variety of purposes. Having an active social media presence can greatly assist you in acquiring and attracting the right talent. To engage potential candidates, post regularly to social media platforms to endorse employment opportunities and recruitment agencies. Your social media strategy should include all popular social media platforms to include: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Moreover, you should also focus on improving your search engine ranking through blogs, discussion platforms, link building, and so on.

2. Paid Social Media Advertising

While organic strategies do produce results, it is getting harder. Paid social media advertising on Facebook and LinkedIn can be extremely targeted and further amplify your reach. Paid adverts have a greater reach and produce immediate results. If you wish to reach your intended audience immediately, then invest in paid social media advertisement campaigns. A balanced organic and paid marketing strategy can produce massive results.

3. Website

To build your trust as a credible entity, a professionally designed and responsive website is a necessity in recruitment. Having a strong online presence will improve your chances of attracting the best talent. A modern, mobile friendly website will increase your professional image, enabling you to engage easily and attract your desired audience. The content featured on your website will assist in ensuring you have a better search engine ranking for better visibility.

4. Mobile Web

According to a survey conducted by Statcounter, mobile web usage in the UK has now superseded desktop consumption. This clearly indicates that smartphone usage has significantly increased. Making it integral for recruitment agencies to have a strong mobile web presence. Mobile web must be a primary constituent of your marketing mix. Having an interactive and responsive mobile website will give you the best opportunity of reaching and engaging with your intended audience.

5. Job Boards

Head hunting websites are essentially important for the recruitment agency. Candidates looking for a job or career switch are most likely to visit a job board in search of potential employers. Job posting on popular job boards in the United Kingdom. Such as Reed, CVLibrary, Monster, Indeed and Jobsite will create more visibility of your brand, and will aid in attracting potential candidates.

6. Job Advert Quality

Modern day recruitment competition is cutting-edge. Businesses have to focus on all aspects of marketing including content, style, layout, and design. Job advert quality is key in reflecting your credibility and professionalism as an agency, and being taken seriously. Impeccable content paired with a responsive website, tailored social media campaigns and paid advertising will go a long way in supporting you to reach your target audience and attract the best talent. Make sure to give your target audience a synchronous experience across all mediums for desired results. All these recruitment marketing strategies have produced greater outcomes for agencies seeking to acquire talent. Having a well-kept marketing and social media strategy in place can also help you in reaching your goal faster.

Need Some Recruitment Marketing Help?

The team at Woya Digital is a social media marketing agency. Recruitment marketing is one of our specialities sectors. We offer web, SEO and social media marketing to a range of companies in the UK. Our fixed price offering is straightforward and yields results! We are fantastic at social media management, website design and SEO, all paid monthly, with no upfront investment.