Inbound recruiting: when marketing becomes part of your recruitment strategy!
Are you looking to revamp your recruitment strategy and be more proactive and innovative in attracting the best candidates? The importance of employer branding is no doubt no secret to you.
But have you also heard of inbound recruiting? If you haven't yet, don't worry, we're here to tell you all about this marketing approach and its benefits for making your recruitment procedures more effective!
So let's slip into the shoes of our market colleagues for a moment, and get ready to create a candidatecustomer experience that will make all the difference!
First of all, what is inbound recruiting?
Inbound recruiting: definition
In a few words, inbound recruiting refers to a set of methods designed to enhance your brand and create a unique experience for candidates and future employees, using marketing tools.
This involves producing and distributing content tailored to your recruitment targets in order to :
- create a positive perception of your employer brand
- increase their attachment to your company
- build a relationship of trust and continue through all the phases of recruitment.
The challenge here is to become an attractive company in their eyes. Selling them a dream, so to speak! ✨
💡 In contrast, outbound recruiting is when you mobilise resources precisely to go out and find candidates as soon as a recruitment need arises. But this strategy has its limits, because it doesn't aim for the long term like inbound.
Depending on your recruitment needs, you may benefit from a combination of the two approaches. Outbound recruiting helps you to achieve results more quickly, for example if you're just starting up, whereas inbound provides you with a continuous flow of candidates with whom you've already established a relationship .
Attract, engage, close!
The levers of Inbound marketing applied to recruitment
Like inbound marketing, this approach aims to use :
- content marketing
- social media
- SEO (search engine optimisation) tools, etc.
to reach the best talent (HR 'customers') when they are not yet actively looking for a job. This way, they can engage and connect with your brand - and become candidates when they are actively looking.
In short, these are all techniques aimed at attracting qualified talent, converting them into candidates and expanding your talent pool, ensuring that you interact with them at every stage of the recruitment funnel until they become your employees.
🛠️ A digital recruitment solution such as Beetween optimises all phases of inbound recruiting, from sourcing to candidate engagement and follow-up. Take advantage of features such as
- multi-posting your job offers on more than 150 job boards,
- sourcing talent directly from LinkedIn,
- complete management of your talent pool,
- a fully customisable CV database.
3 benefits of inbound recruiting
#1 - Higher quality applications
Do you want the best of the best? We know what you mean, talent is money 😉 Working on your content and your image means getting yourself known and attracting atypical talent who have exactly the profile and skills your company is looking for.
You're more likely to create a match with a candidate who has taken the time to take an interest in you, and get to know you, rather than arriving at your door by chance.
#2 - Save time and money
Thanks to a database that you feed continuously, you save time when sourcing candidates, because you're much more efficient when a need arises. And you'll be one step ahead of your competitors!
And that's not all: in fact, you speed up the whole recruitment process. For 49% of companies that have adopted an inbound recruiting strategy, the time taken to acquire talent has been significantly reduced.
By devoting a dedicated budget to it, the cost of acquiring candidates is reduced by an average of 85%! (source: NewsBreed).
With an inbound recruiting approach, the positive effects are felt in both the sourcing and acquisition phases, reducing your overall recruitment costs. That's right, because all the actions you put in place will serve you well for several recruitments, over several months or even years... A winning ROI, in short! 🥳
#3 - Greater visibility
An approach like this encourages you to diversify your points of contact with future candidates. You increase your visibility among your recruitment targets, for example via:
- a communication strategy on social networks,
- creating SEO-optimised editorial content,
- taking part in professional events, etc.
The objective? Identify the channels and places where your ideal candidate is present, and strengthen your presence there. This also allows you to reach passive candidates and increase your chances of converting them.
For example, you won't go looking for certain profiles on "classic" job sites. Instead, publish content that is of direct interest to them, or organise a fun challenge (like a hackathon to recruit a developer).
3 examples of strategies that work
As a recruiter, your role goes hand in hand with marketing. To work on your online employer brand, your e-reputation and your presence on social networks, and to give your inbound approach greater impact, we assume that your company's brand strategy is already in place.
Your brand platform (which brings together your history, vision, missions and values) is your foundation for communicating your brand promise, corporate culture and value proposition.
#1 Create attractive, targeted content
By offering content that is of direct interest to your target audience, you can create direct interest in your recruitment targets. Put in place a genuine content strategy, taking care to :
- addressing your carefully identified candidate persona;
- selecting the right communication channels
- plan an editorial calendar and the right publication frequencies;
- an editorial line and tone that are unique to you and reflect your identity, etc.
This could include content on the highlights of your business, team celebrations, the projects you're working on, the values that drive you, etc. You demonstrate your expertise in your field and reinforce your legitimacy in the eyes of potential candidates.
You can also vary the formats, from videos on social networks to blog articles, depending on your strategy. And, of course, your careers page or site should be given special attention. It's the ideal place to attract your candidates, as it centralises your available job offers and is also a showcase for your employer brand.
#2 Offer a unique candidate pathway
Engage candidates in a simple, signposted digital pathway, with call-to-action buttons, a landing page, a form to fill in, white papers to download, etc. that create a link and encourage them to move forward in the recruitment funnel.
The experience should be as seamless as possible, with information that is immediately accessible and understandable. Take care to eliminate any sticking points, such as an application form that is too long and dissuasive, or a job ad that is unclear and lacking in detail. You gain their trust and increase their chances of conversion!
The experience must also be personalised. Content and delivery can be adapted to geographical location, tastes and interests, the devices used by your targets, and so on. Personalisation also means responding to applicants in a personalised way, because they don't expect to be just another number on a list.
Your objective, if you had to choose just one? To delight the candidate experience!
#3 Monitor and control your e-reputation
Your e-reputation encompasses all the comments and opinions left about your brand by third parties. For the sake of your online brand image, be aware of everything that's being said about your company, and moderate comments made by Internet users. Even in the event of a negative review, a transparent and diplomatic response is appreciated. In all cases, avoid bad buzz!
To go even further, encourage your employees to promote your company, via social media or in their close circle of friends. With this in mind, why not adopt an employee advocacy programme? As part of your strategy, it's an excellent way of turning your employees into ambassadors for finding new candidates: your company receives talent that is already familiar with the company, and participating employees receive financial or in-kind rewards if they are hired. It's a win-win situation! 👏
To sum up
Are you convinced by inbound recruiting? Incorporating it into your recruitment strategy is a real opportunity to build up a pool of qualified talent who support your company's values and positioning. Thanks to targeted content and regular interaction, you can build a relationship of trust and ongoing dialogue with your candidates, so as to create genuine commitment.
This approach cannot exist without mobilising the other departments in your company to build the most effective strategy possible. Not only with marketing, to promote your brand, but also with business line managers, to gather their expertise and experience in the field, which is essential for recruiting the best profiles.
Finally, make sure you involve all your employees in your recruitment strategy, as it will amplify its effects if they all feel concerned. Take them into account in your HR and employee advocacy programmes and get them to become ambassadors for your company. In return, you create a positive dynamic, strengthening employee commitment and, ultimately, limiting staff turnover.
So it's up to you to seize the opportunity of inbound recruiting!
Article translated from French