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5 ways to use Marketing Automation for recruitment

5 ways to use Marketing Automation for recruitment

Maddja Nazari
Oct 2018
Maddja Nazari
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Like marketers, HR and recruitment work to attract stakeholders, build relationships and trust through personal communication and dialogue over time. So although recruitment and marketing are two separate things, there are a lot of common challenges and opportunities, one of which is working with Marketing Automation.Despite the similarities in the processes and challenges that marketing and HR have, HR is rarely an area that is discussed when organisations consider Marketing Automation. Instead, we hear associated terms that deal with the classic digital marketing applications: engaging potential or existing customers in a Business to Consumer (B2C) or Business to Business (B2B) context through a number of digital communication channels. Isn't that the same thing HR and recruitment professionals do? As competition for the best talent and manpower intensifies, companies are investing significant resources in employer and employee marketing. In this context, it is a shame not to use digital tools to work on the candidate journey and ensure that HR and Marketing are consistent in their communications. Beyond the recruitment stage, an excellent area for Marketing Automation is in Business to Employee (B2E) communications. In this post we will present 5 ways in which Marketing Automation adds value to the HR and recruitment processes.

1. Do your audience analysis - create personas

Before you start using Marketing Automation in your recruitment process, start with a candidate analysis and develop personas for the type of employees you want. You can also develop personas in case you have recurring positions in your company with different person profiles.As in marketing communications, there is a risk that if you try to appeal to everyone, there is an increased risk that no one will feel met. To facilitate both strategy work and production, it is smart to segment target groups based on personas, i.e. fictional people based on roles in the different target groups to give a clearer picture of different target groups. Designing a job ad and career page with a clear target group in mind increases the chances of attracting candidates with suitable personalities.

2. Find the right channel

Social media is an important channel for building your brand and attracting the right candidates for different positions. Email, SMS, banner ads are common marketing channels but what are they right in the HR context? Social media may play a bigger role here. Where your organisation has a presence and how you present yourself on social media says a lot about your company culture, values and success. Many Marketing Automation systems have social media functionality such as "Social Posting" and can push out or schedule posts from specific accounts.By linking social media with Marketing Automation, social post analytics that measure views and clicks, can allow you to segment and market to those who show interest in the other channels as well. Trying to work "cross channel" in communication where the message is tailored to who you are trying to communicate with rather than which channel that person happens to come across you becomes more important to be relevant.Traceability also makes it possible to find the source where you reach the best candidates and to tailor the messages to who you are communicating with. Modern recruitment requires companies to be aware of which communication channels their ideal candidates use and want to be contacted through, which social media channels they use and which groups they participate in the most. By tracking and collecting this type of data, companies can have a more relevant conversation with candidates.

3. Take advantage of forms features

Using forms in a smart way can simplify data collection. A dedicated recruitment form allows you to decide which fields you think should be included - and not be limited by the form fields of the standard 'contact us' form. By using dynamic fields, the questions in the form can be adapted to the candidate's answers, for example to ask follow-up questions directly in the application.The collected data can be directly sent to the right place without manual administration and the right recruiter can be notified about the application, initial qualification or disqualification can be made directly based on the answers, if the candidate does not meet basic requirements, for example if someone is not allowed to work in the country.It is also possible to take the information collection one step further through so-called "progressive profiling". To spread the data collection across the different stages of the recruitment process, you can ask for more information from the candidates still in the process, which means that only unanswered form fields are displayed.

4. Building interest over time (Nurturing)

What motivates and drives different candidates varies, although income is one factor, it is usually not the only thing they look for in an employer. They want meaningful work in an enjoyable workplace and an employer whose mission and values align with their own personal values. Here, communication is an effective tool to inform, inspire and spread the company's values, whether it's an engaging mission statement, philanthropic efforts or interesting jobs. You can also use scoring and grading to identify and interact with the most interested and engaged candidates.The scoring model is behavior-based and shows how much someone interacts with your content on the website or other digital channels.By tagging and scoring relevant pages for candidates, you have the opportunity to reactivate old candidates. You can also reach out to the right person when a vacancy arises.Using scores and grading, you can increase relevance and deepen the relationship with all those who have ever applied for a job with you and hopefully create positive candidate journeys that lead to candidates becoming brand promoters.

5. Timing is everything

All too often, the candidate journey ends for all applicants when the position they applied for is filled. At best, they are informed that the post has been filled and thanked for their interest. By automating communication and establishing candidate nurturing flows, the relationship can be maintained. It can also create a greater opportunity to attract back old candidates when new positions open up. This can be especially valuable with candidates who have gone far in the recruitment process but did not get the particular position advertisedThe next challenge is to keep the candidate data current. The candidate may have changed jobs or industries while you were out of dialogue. Missing it can hurt recruitment opportunities, or worse; negatively impact your company's brand.Using the power of Marketing Automation, you can gather data from a variety of sources. This makes it easier to stay current with potential candidates and, through targeting, encourage previous candidates to keep their profiles updated and let you know if they are no longer interested in new career opportunities. A structured candidate database built up over time will make it easier to segment candidates and quickly target new offers to an already warm candidate list.By using the opportunities that Marketing Automation systems bring to HR, the candidate journey can be developed and the recruitment process made more efficient.There are excellent opportunities for Marketing Automation in Business to Employee (B2E) communications, even beyond talent acquisition. In an era of digitalisation in HR, Marketing Automation can be used to improve other talent management phases as well. Examples could be onboarding of new employees, employee retention, employee branding as well as in career and skills development. All areas that are becoming increasingly important priorities for you as an HR professional.Want help with Marketing Automation? Contact us.You can also keep up to date by following us on LinkedIn.

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