Any architecture, engineering, or construction (AEC) company is only as good as its employees. As you already know, finding good employees is harder than it’s ever been, so you might want to turn to digital marketing to give your company an advantage in the race for the best people. How can you make this work?
Read through the post below to understand how digital marketing can be deployed to bring in a consistent flow of promising talent.
Jumplinks:
- Mastering the Art of Timing
- Diverse Digital Marketing Tactics for Recruitment
- Leveraging SEO for Recruitment
- Utilizing Job Boards and Aggregators
- Employee Advocacy
- Conclusion
The Power of Digital Marketing’s Massive Reach
One of the most challenging aspects of recruitment is getting your job opportunities in front of as many potential candidates as possible. The right employees are out there, but the real challenge lies in finding them and presenting them with a compelling offer.
Digital marketing can be a game-changer in this regard, thanks to the impressive scale offered by online ads, social media, and other digital platforms. If you’ve been relying on traditional methods to seek new talent, you might be surprised at the potential of digital marketing tactics.
Mastering the Art of Timing
Timing your digital marketing recruitment efforts can be a bit tricky. You want to ensure you are properly staffed at all times, but you also don’t want a flood of qualified candidates when you don’t have any open positions.
Understanding how each type of promotion works can help with this. For instance, direct methods like running ads can yield results almost immediately. On the other hand, strategies like blogging or social media posting are more about the long game, establishing an online presence that potential job seekers may come across at some point.
Diverse Digital Marketing Tactics for Recruitment
Digital marketing offers a plethora of options for your recruitment needs. You might not use all of these, but even leveraging one or two can significantly increase the number of qualified candidates reaching out to you.
Organic Social Media
Social media platforms are a great starting point, given the amount of time people spend on them. You can use your company accounts to promote job openings and encourage your employees to share these opportunities on their personal accounts. This strategy can be particularly effective, as your employees are likely to have connections within the same industry.
Ensure you have a plan in place for interested candidates. A dedicated landing page on your website for job opportunities is an excellent idea. This page could list open positions and provide general information about working for your company and the application process.
Running Social Media Ads
While free forms of social media promotion are a good start, they may only get you so far. This is where paid social media ads come into play. With ads, you can scale up your reach and put your job openings in front of countless people in a very short period.
When using ads, creativity is key. You’ll want to make a bold, appealing statement in the ad that encourages users to learn more. Like with all ad campaigns, some experimentation will be required to find the right combination of headline, ad copy, and image to draw the most clicks from the right people.
Video Production
Today’s employees are looking for more than just a good salary and solid benefits. They also value a comfortable, friendly, and enjoyable work environment. This is something that’s hard to convey in text but is easy to demonstrate through video.
Consider creating short videos that showcase what it’s like to work for your business. These can include interviews with current employees, tours of the office, and more. Providing a personal touch and helping prospective employees get to know the company better will go a long way toward piquing their interest.
Leveraging SEO for Recruitment
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a powerful tool that can significantly enhance your recruitment strategy. By optimizing your job postings and career pages for search engines, you can attract more organic traffic from job seekers actively searching for opportunities in your industry. This strategy involves using relevant keywords, creating quality content, and ensuring your website is user-friendly.
Importance of SEO in Recruitment
In the digital age, job seekers often turn to search engines like Google to find employment opportunities. By optimizing your job postings for these search engines, you can increase your visibility among potential candidates. This increased visibility can lead to more applicants, giving you a larger pool of candidates to choose from.
Moreover, SEO can help you attract more qualified candidates. By using industry-specific keywords in your job postings, you can ensure that your vacancies appear in the search results of job seekers with relevant skills and experience.
Keyword Optimization
Keyword optimization is a crucial aspect of SEO. It involves identifying and using relevant keywords in your job postings and career pages. These keywords should reflect the job title, skills, qualifications, and location.
For instance, if you’re hiring a civil engineer in New York, your keywords might include “civil engineer,” “New York,” and “construction.” Including these keywords in your job postings can help you attract candidates who are actively searching for these specific roles.
However, keyword optimization isn’t just about stuffing your content with keywords. Search engines prefer content that is valuable and relevant to users. Therefore, your keywords should be incorporated naturally into your job postings.
Quality Content Creation
Creating quality content is another essential aspect of SEO. Quality content is informative, engaging, and provides value to the reader. In the context of recruitment, this could mean providing detailed job descriptions, outlining the skills and qualifications required, and giving an overview of the company culture.
Quality content not only helps improve your search engine rankings but also helps candidates understand what you’re looking for. This can lead to more qualified applicants and a smoother recruitment process.
User-Friendly Website Design
A user-friendly website is essential for effective SEO. If your website is difficult to navigate, slow to load, or not mobile-friendly, potential candidates may leave, increasing your bounce rate and negatively impacting your search engine rankings.
Your career pages should be easy to find and navigate. Each job posting should be on its own page with a unique URL, which can be shared on social media and other platforms. The application process should be straightforward, with clear instructions and an easy-to-use application form.
Local SEO
If you’re looking to attract candidates from a specific location, local SEO can be incredibly beneficial. This involves optimizing your job postings to appear in local search results. This can be done by including location-specific keywords in your content and ensuring your company’s name, address, and phone number are consistent across all online platforms.
SEO Analytics
Finally, SEO isn’t a one-time task. It requires continuous monitoring and adjustment. SEO analytics tools can provide valuable insights into how your job postings are performing in search engine rankings, which keywords are driving traffic, and what type of content is most effective. These insights can help you refine your SEO strategy and make your recruitment process even more effective.
Utilizing Job Boards and Aggregators
Job boards and aggregators are a crucial part of the digital recruitment landscape. By posting your job openings on these platforms, you can significantly expand your reach and tap into a wider pool of potential candidates. Moreover, by applying SEO strategies, you can enhance the visibility of your job postings, attracting more qualified applicants.
- The Power of Job Boards and Aggregators – Job boards and aggregators serve as a central hub for job seekers. They aggregate job postings from various sources, making it easier for candidates to find suitable opportunities. By posting your job openings on these platforms, you can reach candidates who are actively looking for new opportunities, including those who may not be aware of your company.
- Choosing the Right Platforms – There are numerous job boards and aggregators available, each with its own unique audience. General job boards like Indeed or Glassdoor cater to a wide range of industries and roles. In contrast, niche job boards focus on specific industries, roles, or demographics. Choosing the right platform depends on the type of role and the kind of candidate you’re targeting.
- Optimizing Job Postings for Visibility – Just like optimizing content for search engines, job postings should be optimized for visibility on job boards and aggregators. This involves using relevant keywords in the job title and description, providing comprehensive details about the role, and using clear and concise language. The more relevant and detailed your job posting is, the more likely it is to appear in search results and attract qualified candidates.
- Leveraging Sponsored Posts and Ads – Most job boards and aggregators offer sponsored posts or ads, where for a fee, your job posting can be promoted and appear at the top of search results. This can significantly increase the visibility of your job postings, leading to more views and applications.
- Building a Strong Employer Brand – Job boards and aggregators often provide opportunities for companies to build their employer brand. This can include creating a company profile, showcasing company culture, and collecting and responding to reviews. A strong employer brand can make your job postings more attractive to potential candidates.
- Tracking and Analyzing Performance – Most job boards and aggregators provide analytics on job posting performance. This can include the number of views, clicks, and applications your job posting receives. These insights can help you understand what works and what doesn’t, allowing you to refine your job postings and improve their performance.
- Integrating with Applicant Tracking Systems – Many job boards and aggregators can be integrated with Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). This allows you to streamline your recruitment process, making it easier to manage applications, schedule interviews, and communicate with candidates.
Employee Advocacy
Employee advocacy is a powerful recruitment strategy that involves encouraging your employees to become brand advocates. By sharing their positive experiences on social media platforms, review sites, and other online platforms, they not only help attract potential candidates but also enhance your company’s overall online reputation.
The Impact of Employee Advocacy
In the age of social media, word-of-mouth has taken on a digital form. People trust recommendations from their peers more than any form of advertising. When your employees share their positive experiences, it provides a genuine and trustworthy insight into your company’s culture and work environment. This authenticity can be a powerful magnet for attracting top talent.
Moreover, employee advocacy can significantly expand your reach. Each employee has their own network of connections, many of whom may be potential candidates or know someone who is. When employees share job openings or positive experiences, they are essentially vouching for your company to their entire network.
Cultivating a Culture of Advocacy
Creating a culture of advocacy starts with fostering a positive work environment. Employees are more likely to advocate for your company if they are happy and engaged. This means providing competitive compensation, opportunities for growth, and a supportive, inclusive culture.
Encourage employees to share their experiences and achievements on their personal social media accounts. However, it’s important to ensure that employees feel comfortable doing this and understand that it’s completely voluntary.
Providing Social Media Guidelines
While it’s beneficial for employees to share their experiences, it’s also important to provide guidelines to ensure that the content aligns with your company’s values and branding. These guidelines should cover what type of content can be shared, how to handle negative comments, and how to maintain professionalism online.
Leveraging Employee Testimonials
Employee testimonials are a powerful form of advocacy. These can be shared on your company’s career page, social media platforms, and job postings. Testimonials provide a firsthand account of what it’s like to work at your company, giving potential candidates a glimpse into your company culture.
Recognizing and Rewarding Advocacy
Recognizing and rewarding employees for their advocacy efforts can further encourage this behavior. This could be as simple as acknowledging their efforts in team meetings or as elaborate as creating an employee advocacy program with rewards for the most engaged advocates.
Monitoring and Measuring Advocacy Efforts
Just like any other recruitment strategy, it’s important to monitor and measure the effectiveness of your employee advocacy efforts. This could involve tracking the number of referrals, the engagement on social media posts, or the traffic and applications received through shared job postings. These insights can help you refine your strategy and maximize the impact of your employee advocacy efforts.
Conclusion
Digital marketing can be a powerful tool in the hunt for great new employees. However, it may require an experienced hand to help you find the right methods. Consider reaching out to us to learn more about how to approach this challenge. With the right strategies, you can ensure the brightest people in the AEC industry are aware of the opportunities you have available.
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