Recruitment marketing remains a hotly debated topic. And no matter how you look at it, we all do a bit of it. Some run campaigns on LinkedIn, others focus on lead generation. But why is recruitment marketing not simply the same as online marketing? And why can't we simply unleash standard marketing applications and technologies on a recruitment strategy? In this blog, we will show you the 4 main reasons why recruitment marketing is not comparable to online marketing.
1. Life-changing event as the end point
With online marketing, at the end of your marketing journey there is often a product waiting for you, for example a pair of shoes. A clear difference with recruitment marketing. After all, at the end of the candidate journey, a new job awaits you. In other words, a Life Changing Event. Because the value and impact of such an event is so different and personal, it changes the entire marketing process. A process with a different type of content, different information needs and, above all, a dynamic between company and candidate instead of company and consumer.
2. Personal contact has a different value
The most successful buyer journey for the online marketer is one where there is no face-to-face contact. When someone finds a product and also proceeds to purchase it without having to be convinced by another person, that is 'mission accomplished'. How different is this in recruitment marketing. Here, as a recruiter, you actually want personal contact as soon as possible to investigate the potential match. Deciding on paper whether a candidate is a fit with your company is obviously impossible. An additional advantage of getting in touch with your talent quickly is that you will reach your potential candidate sooner than your competition. Reaching your target audience quickly therefore has obvious implications for your lead generation, content strategy and call to actions in your content.
3. Not every buyer is a fit
Every recruiter knows the problem of irrelevant applications. In online marketing, it matters little who buys your products, but in recruitment marketing, it does matter who applies to you. That is why the recruitment marketing funnel at the top (the people you target) is preferably narrower than the online marketing funnel. In addition, during the candidate journey, you want to make sure that the people who are not a fit discover this before they apply. This impacts everything you do within marketing. From your content strategy to the software you use for your marketing automation.
4. Different technology infrastructure
Besides the above reasons, there are also technical limitations in the candidate journey that make standard marketing technology inapplicable to recruitment strategies. This is because companies use other systems for recruitment to achieve their goals. ATSs, HR ERPs and Recruitment CRMs are not on the list with which most marketing tools integrate. This makes deploying standard marketing technology very impractical.
A business in its own right
Conclusion? Recruitment marketing is a profession in its own right. Within recruitment marketing, we can still learn a lot from the methodologies and technology for online marketing. But always focusing on a solution that will be recruitment-specific.
Want to know more about what recruitment marketing can do for your candidate journey? Let's talk! Our specialists will be happy to answer your questions.
