The increased pace of globalization and the current health of the global economy are driving many companies to seek more strategic ways to acquire and retain the best talent available.
And a key way many companies are differentiating themselves from the competition is by using content marketing to search for and attract skilled workers.
Content marketing improves the strategic efforts of talent acquisition, increasing a company’s awareness and attraction to prospective employees.
So how, exactly, does content marketing contribute to improvements in your talent search?
The following list breaks down how content marketing can amplify your talent acquisition endeavours.
1. Showcase corporate culture
Many companies see the “About Us” section of their website as a simple tool to introduce their brand to website visitors. But for prospective employees, the “About Us” page highlights key information regarding company culture and existing staff.
Creating a fully-fleshed out “About Us” page enables your business to demonstrate reassurance that a prospective employee can be a great fit for your corporate culture.
This is easier said than done though. To craft the perfect “About Us” section, it helps to:
- Acknowledge that it requires consideration and consistent effort as it must attract both prospective employees and potential customers.
- Have individual employee profile pages aggregated across the page to attract unique talent.
- Encourage each current employee to personalize their own biography page.
- Let your employees do the “talking” as this will capture and attract the attention of unique talent.
2. Encourage employee participation
To go further than a simple profile page hidden within your website’s “About Us” section, encourage your current employees to provide cameo contributions to several of your brand’s content channels. Whether it’s through social media, blog posts, white papers or other publications, offer opportunities for your employees to present their impressive content skills.
If your employees are enthusiastic about the company and its corporate culture, this will shine through in the content they share. Passionate employees attract like-minded talent. Nurture this desire to share their love for your brand through content, and you may find a larger, higher quality pool for your talent acquisition purposes.
3. Employ interactive content
Technology is transforming how today’s talent discover new opportunities. The rising demand for skilled professionals bestows a certain degree of power to prospective employees, changing the dynamics of the job search. The run-of-the-mill career site won’t attract the discerning candidate – not anymore.
- Use graphics. Visuals are a form of content that can be used to draw interest from highly qualified talent and help your business stand out from the crowd.
- Produce and share videos highlighting employees, corporate culture, and core values. Videos are one form of interactive content that is becoming increasingly important in converting prospective recruits.
- Use other forms of interactive content to effectively grab the attention of candidates:
- Fun quizzes
- 360-degree video tours such as Facebook 360
- Employee Q&As
Each of these various platforms provides candidates with a glimpse of your company culture, enhancing attraction, improving the candidate experience, and increasing retention.
4. The importance of ROI and measurements
Any marketing campaign will require measurable returns on investment to ensure the success of your efforts. When using content marketing as a recruitment tool, set up analytical software to track conversions and point to sources of traffic.
Understanding which marketing channels attract the highest qualified candidates provides strategic insight into where your efforts must be directed to relative effectiveness.
5. The benefits of marketing automation
As an important digital tool, marketing automation can serve to eliminate certain mundane tasks associated with marketing campaigns or initiatives.
Certain mediums of content marketing can be automated with marketing software and distributed through the right channels to the right candidates at the right time. Automation can make the most out of your content and give it context, generating quality candidate leads and nurturing a talent’s potential interest in your company.
A key recruitment driver
Content creation is a powerful marketing tool that can serve many purposes within your company. In the case of talent acquisition, content marketing can be a key driver to successfully attracting and converting prospective candidates.
Use the actionable takeaways above to implement a recruiting strategy that will attract candidates and proactively transform passive viewers into qualified, active leads.
A passionate recruiter with more than 12 years in the executive search industry, Payal Bhatia is an international headhunter and business partner for RM & Associates in the MENA region specializing in the FMCG, retail, telecom and engineering sectors.