What is Inbound Recruitment Marketing?

Inbound methodologies have taken the marketing world by storm over the last few years. And with RM already borrowing pages from the marketing playbook left and right, it was only a matter of time before these techniques made their way across the marketing/HR divide.

Inbound recruitment marketing is the practice of engaging with passive job seekers so that when they’re ready, and you have an appropriate opening, they jump at the opportunity to change companies. 

 

 
 

Taking into consideration that inbound marketing generates three times more leads per dollar than traditional methods, chances are you’re already using some of these techniques and tactics in your RM activities, so the idea is to use this article as a guide to ensure you have everything set up to see the ultimate ROI for your inbound recruiting efforts.

 

Candidate Personas Give You a Target for Your Content

Based on the idea of a “buyer persona” in marketing, this is a semi-fictionalized version of your ideal candidate. You should have one of these for each department or job type you work with. Then, as you build your content and other aspects of your marketing strategy, turn to these personas to be sure you’re on track. 

A complete candidate persona should include everything about your ideal new hires; from basic demographic info like age and location; to details like hobbies and where they spend their time online. The more details you can include, the better able you’ll be to target your content and advertising, and the better your conversion rates will be.

 

The Core of Inbound: Content

Forming the center of any inbound campaign is the content itself. Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional Marketing and triples the leads. Informative, interesting, and engaging blog posts, social media updates, eBooks, and webinars form the base for your inbound recruitment marketing efforts. 

 

 

How do you build on that base with your social media presence?

  • engage with your audience by responding to questions, blog comment section conversations, and chats with potential candidates;

  • be consistent and share information about your company, success stories, employee testimonials, news about upcoming launches, and so on;

  • transform your audience into fans of your company and get ready to convert them to applicants as soon as they see that Facebook update about the perfect position opening up;

  • use an RM automation solution and save for you and your team hours if not weeks worth of time and energy by taking the time-consuming tasks off your daily plate;

  • schedule regular blog posts, social media updates, and even having a chatbot set up on your careers page ree you up for the more people-oriented tasks like screening candidates and coaching applicants on interview tactics.

 

Knowing Your Funnel Increases Inbound Success

Targeting all that great content is extremely important, and success lies in knowing what stage of the recruiting funnel your audience is at.

The inbound funnel looks slightly different from what you might be used to in recruiting:

 

 
 

Integrated Technologies: Help Keep Inbound Flowing Smoothly

You probably already have a CRM and ATS in place (we hope you do at any rate). To see the best ROI possible from your inbound efforts, it can pay to take the necessary steps to fully integrate these systems. It’s also time to consider adding a recruitment marketing automation (RMA) solution to the mix.

In order to completely delight your candidates throughout their journey, these systems need to play nicely with each other. That way, you know your automated messages will have the personal touch provided by the information in your CRM, and you won’t lose anybody to the ATS black hole because you have alerts set up via your RMA tool. 

 

The Future of Inbound Recruitment is Mobile

To take the last point one step further and truly delight your audience wherever they are, your careers portal and application process must be mobile-friendly if not mobile-first in design.

Predictions are saying that by 2025, 75% of the workforce will be millennials or GenZ. This is the first digitally native generation in history, and the way to ensure you reach them where they are is to reach them by smartphone.

 
  • 44% of candidates apply for job offers via mobile phones (Glassdoor), therefore you have to make sure you keep all of these candidates in the application process with responsive forms.

  • 48% of candidates will drop off the application process due to complicated ATS forms (PotentialPark statistic). A candidate should be able to move through the funnel from general public audience member to new hire, without ever putting down their mobile device. 

  • The application process has to be as comfortable as possible - with easy application forms to fill in via Facebook or Linkedin. You want them to be able to apply from the bus, and get their interview reminder while they walk the dog.

You may have noticed a heavy emphasis on technology in all of these points. That’s because the inbound methodology was created as a direct result of the internet and the impact it’s had on the marketing world. This works to your advantage in RM, as all this technology and automation frees up your team to focus their human energy on the human-centered aspects of their jobs. And that’s the real strength of the inbound recruitment marketing strategy and how you’ll delight your candidates, making them fans for life.