They Want to Hear From You

According to SmashFly’s 2020 Recruitment Marketing Benchmark Report, only 43% of the employers interviewed have a “talent network,” and of those, only 8% send content other than jobs.

I shouldn’t be surprised by this. But I kind of am.

First of all, when you have a team of recruiters who rely on email and messaging to engage with potential candidates on a 1:1 basis, why wouldn’t email marketing play a more prominent role in your overall nurturing and engagement strategy?

If email doesn’t work, then why aren’t you doing something else to initially contact a candidate?

I know you’re not calling each candidate. That hasn’t been done since the early 2000s.

You’ve done the hard part. You’ve been able to convince someone to opt-in to a list that will help them learn more about your organization, team, projects, and open roles. They’re interested and want to hear from you.

Then nothing happens. The candidate never hears from you other than the sporadic “spray and pray” of open jobs.

I’m still trying to figure out what the recruitment CRM “AI and machine learning” does to reach the right candidates with the right message.

What messaging?

Compare this to non-recruitment marketing being done at companies.

Nearly 90% of companies engage in email marketing compared to only 39% of marketers who consider using social media to increase brand awareness as a top priority.

That’s nearly the opposite of what I’m finding as I learn more about recruitment marketing and employer branding.

Not only that, but 59% of marketers also say that email marketing delivers the highest ROI of any channel, and 81% of businesses use email as their primary customer acquisition channel.

This isn’t to say that email should be your only focus, but it’s an integral part of your entire recruitment marketing strategy.

It shouldn’t only be used at the beginning (as another job broadcasting platform) and end (a 1:1 email inviting them to the interview process), but as another touchpoint throughout their information gathering and consideration phases.

It should be used to nurture, build trust, and inform. Not to sell.

Photo by JC Gellidon on Unsplash