How marketing helps recruit high-tech employees
How can marketing help recruit high-tech employees?
The demand for high tech workers is only increasing, giving top tech talent more options than ever before. For example, software developer employment is expected to increase 31% by 2020. Across all computer and information technology occupations, employment is expected to increase 13% by 2020. The average increase in employment across all professions is 7.4%.
In this highly competitive recruiting landscape, your marketing can help you stand out.
Be known
Whether you are a startup or an established company of several hundred, your potential new hires need to know you exist. If you’re a large company, prospective employees need to know that specific departments or focus areas of interest exist. Being known means that candidates will be actively seeking out opportunities with you, and are more likely to reply if you or your recruiter reaches out to them.
And marketing helps boost your recognition among potential recruits. Whether it’s an eye-catching backdrop at a trade show that draws attendees into your booth (we successfully used a hidden message encoded in a backdrop for one of our clients), a snappy billboard (can’t miss it on a commute), or something else, a rule of thumb in marketing that it takes 6-8 touches to generate a good lead. Good marketing makes those impressions count.
Be findable
You’ve probably heard a hundred arguments for good search engine optimization (SEO). Here’s another: even if people have heard of you, they have to be able to find you when they search. We recently saw a business we had worked with in another capacity drop off the first page of Google search results—for its own name. While they were heavily focused on recruiting. Don’t let that be you. Search engines are cracking down on sites without good SEO, so make sure you follow the rules.
Be proactive
Most of your potential hires are only passively looking for new opportunities. Let them know you’re hiring! Even if they don’t reach out to you, it will be easier to get a reply from them if they’ve already thought about working for you. So, get those ads out there and in front of the right people.
Your potential hires might not be on job boards, but they might be on LinkedIn or other social media (Reddit’s redesign might be improving advertising on their platform). Social media ads are getting more expensive, however, so targeting the right people is paramount.
Focus on the first impression
We all know that first impressions matter, even if the second impressions are encountered much later. And, for most potential hires, the first impression they form will probably come from your website. What message will does your website project? Hopefully it shows that you care deeply about the quality of work you do, that you’re organized, up to date, tech savvy, and even bold in your thinking. It DOES say that, right?
Corporate reputation is one of the most important aspects of hiring, and the employees you want will be checking out your website early in the process.
According to the Stanford Guidelines for Web Credibility, most people judge the credibility of a business by its website design. Is your website eye-catching? Is it energizing? Does it concisely state what you do?
Spruce up recruiting support materials
Do you take as much care with the items (physical and digital) that you send home with potential employees as you do the ones for potential customers?
It’s no use saying that computer workers and engineers are accustomed to staring at code all day, and won’t care if you hand them a text document outlining the company benefits. Engineers score higher in visual learning than the general population, so neglecting the design aspect of recruiting materials can only backfire.
Stay top of mind
After your first contact with a potential employee, what is keeping you top of mind? What compels them to consider the job change you want them to make?
Sure, you can have your recruiters reach out every few days, but that can quickly get annoying for everyone involved. But what if a more subtle approach is all you need? Maybe they just need to see your ads around the internet, or receive the occasional email talking about the great coworkers they would have if they joined you (a tactic that marketing automation tools can handle without any effort on your part).
Yes, marketing costs money and planning time. But the great news is that any investment in marketing will help with both your recruiting and your business.
If you want to talk about how marketing can help answer your specific recruiting challenges, let us know!
Be sure to save our infographic detailing the ways marketing can help recruiting:
