Wow, where do we start with an article titled “what is digital recruitment marketing”?!
Firstly, it is important to debunk some of the myths that exist around digital versus regular recruitment marketing:
- Contrary to popular belief, offline (job ads, events, etc) and online marketing both still have a place in a recruiter’s marketing toolkit. However, over the last 10 years or so, digital has definitely become the shiny new toy.
- Digital is not one single thing. This means that whilst automation can be considered digital, so can things such as inbound marketing, social media marketing, email marketing and, of course, paid online advertising.
So, What is Digital Recruitment Marketing?
In its simplest form, digital recruitment marketing is the use of digital channels to reach either candidates, clients, or potentially recruiters themselves, to get them to engage with a recruitment brand, with the end goal of generating more placements.
Digital channels utilised for recruitment marketing include:
Digital marketing in the recruitment sector will nearly always include something to do with LinkedIn. This is because the social media platform is the primary channel for business users. Marketing on LinkedIn could include a mix of both organic content posted to a recruiter’s LinkedIn company page and paid advertising targeted to specific user groups.
Email Marketing
The granddaddy of digital marketing, email has been around for so long now that it doesn’t feel like it should belong in this group. However, it is still one of the most successful recruitment marketing tools. These days, email has morphed into automation platforms (see the next point).
Automation
Automated recruitment marketing is quickly becoming the next big thing for recruiters who are looking to maximise value from their own databases. Setting up campaigns to re-engage existing candidates or actively develop new clients are all possibilities these days.
Google Search/PPC Digital/Social Advertising
This category is broad but each of the approaches has one thing in common: that recruiters will pay for the visibility of their brand either by click or the volume of users they reach. Search-based advertising can work well for some recruitment agencies, but often, PPC advertising is the more effective technique, especially through emerging channels such as Google Custom Intent.
SEO
This is another topic that has been around for a long while (and one that is also getting significantly harder to master). Search engine optimisation (SEO) for recruitment agencies can be a massive benefit, especially when recruiting for a specific niche in a specific area. Our advice is to focus on the two or three high-value recruitment areas and gear this towards either clients or candidates.
Digital Marketing Strategy for Recruitment Agencies
The areas mentioned above are only the main digital marketing channels that are available for recruiters – there are many others to consider. However, it is wise to not spend too much time looking for new and unique channels and instead to think more about crafting the right digital marketing strategy for your recruitment agency.
As with most marketing, success comes down to the specific messaging that is being pushed out to your audiences through these digital marketing tools. If you are unsure where to start, work backwards – think first about your goals, then determine the type of content that will engage the relevant audiences and, lastly, pick the one or two channels that you feel resonate with you and will most likely yield success.
How to build a digital marketing strategy:
Digital marketing doesn’t have to be complicated. If you are looking for a proven digital marketing strategy built specifically for recruitment agencies or would simply like some honest advice on what works, we would love to hear from you.
