What Marketing Techniques To Boost Your Recruitment?

There are many similarities between marketing and recruitment. The recruiter seeks to "sell" a job to a candidate, while the salesperson sells a product to a customer with marketing support. So, can we imagine mobilizing marketing in support of recruitment?

It is rare to spontaneously combine marketing and recruitment. On the one hand, marketing is intrinsically linked to sales: it covers all the actions that will allow a product to access a market. As for recruitment, it could be defined as the set of actions to find the right candidate for the right job. These two definitions are interesting: in both cases, we speak of a set of actions directed towards the same goal. So, could there be a "recruitment marketing"? After all, recruitment also aims to facilitate a candidate's (instead of a product's) access to a firm (instead of a market), and to a particular job (the need he meets).

But the main difference that immediately comes to mind is that marketing is often perceived as a set of actions aimed at "attracting" the prospect, while recruiters are more likely to hunt candidates, source them directly. Yet ... What's the difference between a company that's advertising, and a recruiter who's advertising? The logic of attraction is found in both cases.

So, what techniques used in marketing can be successfully recovered and applied by recruiters?

If you have only one time in your life followed a marketing course, you must have heard about the famous 4P (product, price, promotion, place). That is to say the product (the offer), the price (the counterpart expected from the customer), the communication (making the offer, the product, and the brand known) and the distribution (how to deliver the product).

What would be the 4Ps of recruitment?

"Product": the job offer

First, in marketing, no quality action is possible without a clear definition of its offer, its outlines, and the value associated with it. It is then by communicating on this value that we will be able to attract prospects, customers, and users.

The system is the same for recruiters: whatever the urgency of the need to be filled, it is always necessary to take the time to think about the contours of the offer to be filled, and what your company can offer: package, benefits in kind, but not only! Remember to take into account all the elements that contribute more to your value, be it the corporate culture, the work environment, the prospects for evolution ...

Especially if you want to attract young people, a sometimes difficult target to reach, remember that any job offer is a product of the company. And that if this product is defective (promises unfulfilled, benefits considerably lower than the rest of the market ...), then you will have little chance of succeeding in selling it in the long run! Maybe some candidates will be trapped, but it's a safe bet that they will not stay long in the company.

"Price": the right profile

The definition of this second "P" is more convoluted, but let's try anyway. In marketing, the price refers to the money the customer pays to get your product. But in a broader sense, the price is ultimately what the customer gives you in exchange for your product.

So, if the product is the job offer (the job) ... Then the price is the candidate itself! Indeed, it is he who will give you time, investment, energy, he who will choose that his career will now go through your business. It has been said before that recruitment is finding "the right candidate for the right job". It must be remembered that the "good candidate" will vary according to this position! This is where we can use the concept of persona. In marketing, once the contours of the offer are created, it is a question of defining to which customer segment it will best address itself. B2B? B2C? Men? Women? Youth? Old? Citations? Commuters? Etc.

By defining your ideal candidate, not only in terms of background and experience but also in terms of personality, well-being, and abilities, you can refine your understanding of your target. This is called, in marketing, the ideal customer profile. Recruiters can recover the concept, and create an ideal candidate profile: if the perfect candidate existed, what would it look like? (the famous "5-legged sheep" so much sought).

Finally, it is from this ICP that it is possible to create the persona of this candidate, i.e. a true psychological profile to elucidate how the candidate thinks, what are his expectations, his fears, his factors motivation, etc. And then…

"Promotion": employer marketing

Once the candidate profile is in hand, once the offer is created and well designed, you know who your target audience is, what they are looking for, and what you have to offer them. It is now a question of showing it to him! This is where the employer marketing comes in its most common sense, which will include the employer brand, but also the different actions of hunting and communication on different channels. Strategic thinking is necessary upstream so that the various actions deployed are consistent between them (social networks, company site, etc.).

It is also at this stage that we can distinguish the two major marketing trends: inbound and outbound. Outbound marketing aims to directly target the target through actions such as the direct approach. It is the method that requires the most effort and energy, but it is the most effective way to reach extreme profiles. targeted, e.g. having several years of experience in a specific industry.

Conversely, "the inbound" aims to push its target to come to you, including providing content and elements that make it want to know more about your company. This is where the employer brand becomes a preferred channel of action, and for which the recurrent publication of testimonials, information about the company, its actions, culture, etc., end up acting as a real magnet on the candidates.

"Place": the candidate experience

Finally, it's a matter of choosing how you will deliver the promise to the target who is starting to look at your product, i.e. how to effectively offer the candidate what he expects from the job offer? This is where the candidate experience comes in, which will then continue during the employee's onboarding, and throughout his presence in your company: employer marketing aims to attract as much as loyalty!

To stay on the only recruitment prism, it will be necessary to set up coherent actions between them, able to guarantee a fluid, sincere and pleasant experience. For example, by combining the 4Ps of marketing and applying them to the employer brand, you will be able to attract good candidates more easily. This is a medium / long term approach, but one that pays off: in the end, with the right approach, all you have to do is let the candidates come to you!

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