What is the future of marketing in recruitment?
What can marketing offer recruitment companies going forward?
Few industries were as heavily affected by COVID-19 as recruitment. While the market is now buoyant and optimism is pervasive, some of the effects of the pandemic's initial period remain in place.
Nowhere is this more true than recruitment marketing.
Despite growing significantly in importance in recent years, most of the industry has not yet brought their marketing capacity back to pre-pandemic levels. This presents opportunity for those seeking to capitalise on the current strength of the market.
Pre-pandemic
Before the outbreak of the pandemic last year, the two central trends in recruitment marketing were the proliferation of content creation and demand for quality websites integrated with CRM systems.
Our industry's significant online presence meant that appetite for original content that could make a brand stand out was growing rapidly. This was particularly true of video content, increasingly adopted in recognition of its ability to engage attention and deliver marketing messages in succinct and creative ways.
Additionally, this online presence drove demand for top-notch websites, as companies sought to attract customers, clients and new hires with slick, detailed and easy-to-use platforms that functioned as lead generating sales funnels.
A further priority was integration with CRM systems, to ensure leads created by marketing through websites and social media presences were smoothly converted into actionable opportunities for consultants.
Something from nothing?
The pandemic, however, has seen a notable shift in the recruitment marketing landscape. While both trends remain in place across the industry, the structure of marketing functions at recruitment companies has changed significantly.
Forced into making deep cuts to their back office during 2020, many companies lack specialists in these areas. But now that the recruitment market is once again booming, marketing is set to return to prominence.
Competition for lucrative new clients and the need for high-calibre consultants is higher than ever before.
Taking advantage of the recovery BOOM...
Marketing’s temporarily diminished standing within the industry represents real opportunity for savvy businesses looking to advantage themselves over competitors.
Developing effective brand awareness is key to attracting clients, candidates and consultants.
After all, the first thing anyone does when seeking to find out more about a company is look at their website. On social media platforms in particular, it is easy to see the value that original, engagement-garnering content can provide to your brand.
Creating a brand that MEANS something
As the world of recruitment becomes increasingly virtual, the smartest companies are those adapting fastest to our new surroundings.
Recruitment businesses should therefore be seeking to reinvigorate their marketing function and capitalise on its potential.
Maximising brand awareness is an excellent way to strategically position yourself for growth, by conveying key messaging on your services to clients and candidates, while also demonstrating the attractiveness of your workplace to prospective new employees.
Nothing compares to in-house
Many recruitment companies have sought to outsource content creation in order to make up the shortfalls in their marketing functions, but acquiring in-house professionals remains the best way to guarantee marketing success.
This ensures that those in charge of developing and communicating your brand have the kind of intuitive, detailed understanding you can only truly gain from working at your company.
It also creates potential for business partnering to develop your consultants’ own marketing abilities.
Successful recruiting today is often as dependent on communicating personal brands as it is company ones, so ensuring your top billers are optimising their online presence should be a real priority.
As Camino Partners’ Matt Franklin says, “data is power”. Our industry is increasingly awash with it, but a limited marketing function cannot take full advantage.
Similarly, high-quality content creation can have a transformative effect on brand awareness and your capacity for internal and external attraction, but requires creativity and skill.
Camino Partners specialise in recruiting non-sales professionals into recruitment companies, giving us an unrivalled pool of high-calibre marketing candidates who could bring real value to your business. To find out more about what we can offer, get in contact:
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