Can You Use Inbound Marketing for Recruitment?

Most businesses that use inbound marketing do so to drive sales, and it’s undoubtedly one of the best revenue-generating strategies of the digital age. But there are other advantages to inbound marketing, too. For instance, inbound can be used to raise brand awareness, build business authority, and even to solicit investment and funding. So, what about recruitment? Can you use inbound marketing as a recruitment tool?

The short answer is ‘yes’. The same tactics you use to attract and engage customers through inbound marketing can equally be used to draw high quality talent to your organisation. By improving the visibility of your business to target candidates, and encouraging engagement by offering them relevant and useful information, you can increase the effectiveness of your recruitment strategy, and reduce your dependence on job boards and recruitment agencies.

Benefits of inbound marketing for recruiting:

1. Affordable: recruitment can be a pricey business, especially when using intermediaries and advertising services. Compared to this, inbound marketing often requires a lower financial outlay for each hire, and you can use the software infrastructure and processes you already have in place for inbound marketing for sales. Creating and promoting content in-house or with the support of your agency can be more budget friendly than traditional recruitment, while also reaching a wider audience.

2. Enhanced candidate experience: one of the most frustrating things about looking for a job is finding the relevant information about what positions are available and what they entail. This can sometimes deter potential candidates for applying for positions. By increasing the value of the content you deliver as part of your recruitment strategy, your business can build a more positive relationship with potential recruits before they even apply – fostering greater trust and credibility in your business as a desirable place to work.

3. Higher quality candidates: by targeting specific applicant groups, an inbound marketing strategy can attract candidates who are more genuinely interested in your company and aligned with its long-term goals and values. This can create a better-quality talent pool that is more likely to convert into successful hires.

How do you go about using inbound marketing as a recruitment tool?

The same tools, processes, and tactics used to attract sales can also be used to recruit talent. We recommend keeping both strategies separate to sustain the accuracy of your metrics, but otherwise you’re good to go. Start with the following:

• Develop recruitment-focused blog articles, videos, downloadable guides, and other content to showcase your company culture, career opportunities, and employee stories. Tailor your content to the interests and concerns of your target candidates.
• Optimise your content for easy discovery on Google, Microsoft Bing, and by AI assistants, using the keywords that candidates are likely to search for, and improving your website’s rankings for important search terms. The same tactics can often also be used to improve visibility on job search boards.
• Many people use social media platforms, especially LinkedIn, to search for lucrative positions, so take advantage of social media to share your recruitment content and engage with potential hires. Use these platforms to explain what you are looking for and highlight the benefits of your job openings. The ‘leaders of tomorrow’ – current uni students and school leavers, can also be targeted through specific content on Tik Tok and Instagram, drawing attention to graduate training and career progression opportunities.
• Build an email subscriber database of people looking for work and nurture relationships through regular updates and valuable content. This helps you reach out to people who may not be looking right now, but may be in a position to apply for a role in the future. Tailor your messages to keep potential candidates updated and interested in your business.

How recruitment segues with marketing

While marketing and recruitment are distinct activities, both are people-focused engagement strategies, with considerable long-term segues. By improving the general awareness, authority, and credibility of your company in your sector as a whole – not just among business owners – you create a stream of potential business opportunities. For example, someone who hears about you through your talent acquisition programme may not come to work for you today, but they may take on a buyer role in one of your target companies, or become a future supply partner as a consultant, manager, or business owner.

Recruitment-focused inbound marketing helps build the relationships that sustain your company internally and across your value chain both now and in the future.

Get in touch

Get in touch with JDR today to find out more about how inbound marketing can supplement your recruitment strategy, and how it can improve candidate engagement, conversion rates, and time to hire.

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