Only 1% of the visitors on your work-by site apply, while the other 99% are definitely interested in you as an employer. Why do they drop out? And more importantly: how can you prevent this? With the 3 tips in this blog, you will discover how to get in touch with more candidates via your work-by site. A hint: mobile-first, soft conversions and full funnel campaigns with retargeting. Read on for our optimisation tips and get more candidates from your work-at-home site!
The importance of a converting work-at-home site
Your work-at-home site is your business card as an employer. Your signboard. Decisive for your employer brand. On your work-at-home site, you want to get slightly interested candidates excited about a job with you. The ultimate goal of your work-at-home site is therefore to fill your recruitment pipeline with high-quality candidates.
With many of our clients, we initially see low conversion rates on the work-by site. On average, only 1 in 100 visitors apply. A shame, because those other 99 people are definitely interested in you as an employer. Yet, for one reason or another, they drop out. Use the following 3 tips to increase your conversion rate and get more results from your recruitment marketing campaigns.
1. Optimise for mobile users
By far the majority of your website visitors scroll through your job site from their mobile. It is therefore important that your worksite is optimised for mobile users, i.e. that it is set up with mobile-first in mind. Mobile users are generally transient and are more likely to leave your site if, for example, it does not load quickly. With these 5 practical tips, you can make your worksite mobile-friendly:
- Reduce the loading time of your website by using low-resolution images and/or setting lazy load of images.
- Make sure your website is easy to navigate. With just a few buttons in the menu, you create overview and clarity for your visitor.
- Work with short, scannable texts that you alternate with images. Hardly any (mobile) users read long pieces of text. The same goes for your job ads. Make your job pages scannable by adding - besides short text blocks - other, visual elements such as icons, images and quotes.
- Use clear call to actions. Rather than a "click here button", make the link or button descriptive, such as "download now", "apply directly" or "ask your question via chat".
- Keep your forms - such as application forms and contact forms - as short as possible. After all, every input field is a potential abandonment moment. So only ask for the essential information. All other data can be retrieved later when you are in contact with the candidate. The same applies to the application form: omit the (compulsory) uploading of a CV and/or cover letter. Many people do not have these on their mobile phone and will drop out if you make it compulsory.
2. Add soft conversions
With soft conversions you ensure that you also get in touch with candidates who have questions, are still in doubt or are not yet ready to take the step to applying. Changing jobs is a 'life event' and candidates often don't make such an important decision overnight. If you offer them - besides the 'hard conversion' of applying - soft conversions, they are suddenly much more likely to contact you.
Simply put, soft conversions are low-threshold actions that a website visitor takes on your work-by site. This way, candidates don't have to make a big decision immediately, but you encourage them to at least take a small step towards your organisation. It is an alternative action on your work-at-home site, next to the well-known application button. Examples of soft conversions on a work-at-home site are:
- register for a job alert
- schedule a (digital) cup of coffee
- request an introduction
- attend a webinar
- register for an open day or walk-in day
Another effective soft conversion is offering the opportunity to chat directly, for example with recruiters. You can think of a chat pop-up that opens after 20 seconds and starts the conversation or a pop-up that appears when the visitor wants to leave the website. By offering the opportunity to start a conversation at that moment, you encourage someone to share questions or doubts. And you get the chance to answer or even remove them.
Soft conversions often still lead to a 'hard conversion', because by introducing the candidate to your organisation step by step, he or she becomes increasingly enthusiastic and doubts are removed. Then that step towards a job application is suddenly not so exciting anymore!
3. Full funnel recruitment campaigns with retargeting
To get the most out of your website traffic, it is important to have a continuous flow of visitors to your work-at-home site. Without visitors, no leads or job applicants! If you opt for full funnel campaigns with an awareness, consideration and conversion phase, you guide candidates step by step through their orientation process.
In each phase, you refer to a different part of your job site so that candidates discover more and more about you and become increasingly enthusiastic about you as an employer. In the awareness phase, for example, you can refer to the homepage or 'about us' page on your work-at-home site, while in the consideration phase you choose a project page to show what substantive work you do.
Add retargeting campaigns to refer people who have already visited your work-by site back to your website. You can also choose to work with lead ads in your retargeting campaigns. Here, a candidate fills in his/her details directly, without leaving the social media platform. A great way to remind candidates of your organisation and get them to take action quickly and simply.
With full funnel campaigns plus retargeting, you stay in view with your target group and the chance grows that someone will take action: contacting you or even applying for a job. And that is exactly what your work-at-home site should do!
The effect of a well-converting work-at-home site
Even if you only manage to increase your conversion rate by a few percentage points with the above actions, the impact is huge. A calculation example: If your work-by site receives 3,000 visits a month and you increase your conversion rate from 1% to 4%, you will receive 120 responses a month instead of 30. That pays off!
Download our free e-book to read more tips & tricks on lead generation via your work-at-home site!
Or would you prefer to discuss optimising your work-at-home site and using recruitment marketing tech to boost your results? Discover where the opportunities lie for your organisation during a demo.
