An effective recruitment marketing strategy helps recruiters build strong relationships with both candidates and clients. In order to attract, engage, and convert top talent, recruitment marketing utilises a wide range of marketing strategies. the goal is to present job openings in a compelling way while positioning the company as an employer of choice.
What is recruitment marketing?
Recruitment marketing involves the activities that take place prior to a candidate submitting an application or a client wanting to hire. It involves guiding them from a lack of awareness about your company to curiosity and finally to sending in that application or reaching out. With this method, hiring is no longer seen as a sales exercise but as a marketing endeavour. The emphasis moves to creating meaningful involvement long before jobs are posted, rather than depending just on persuasion in the later stages. Get Recruited, an Access Volcanic client and guest author, puts these strategies into action every day to ensure that they don’t just fill roles but build a talented network of professionals and a lasting employer brand. Volcanic gives them the tools to transform their recruitment marketing. From SEO-optimised job listings to intelligent content delivery and seamless mobile responsiveness, the Access Volcanic platform not only allows them to present a polished, professional brand but also empowers them to personalise the candidate journey. Whether it’s showcasing client testimonials, publishing thought-leadership content, or capturing leads through tailored landing pages, Volcanic plays a central role in their marketing engine.
The Recruitment Marketing Funnel
A complete recruitment marketing plan typically follows a process that is, more often than not, known as the recruitment funnel. This illustrates each step a candidate takes while making their way through your recruitment pipeline. Understanding the importance of early-stage engagement, we focus on building strong relationships from the outset, so that when the opportunity arises, the right candidates are already listening
The funnel typically begins with:
Awareness – potential candidates learn of your brand
Attraction – something about the organisation captures their attention
Interest – they begin to explore further
It continues through:
Application
Evaluation
Interview
Hiring
Recruitment marketing focuses on the early stages, drawing attention, nurturing interest, and initiating engagement. These foundational steps are crucial to building a strong pipeline of qualified applicants who are more likely to convert.
Why is recruitment marketing important?
Today’s global market is competitive, and 77% of companies find it difficult to recruit the right talent for open roles. Effective recruitment marketing can make a big impact in a market where many businesses are having trouble filling positions. Businesses that give priority to this strategy frequently see increases in the calibre of candidates and the speed of recruiting.
Benefits of recruitment marketing
A strong employer brand makes it easier to develop trust. Most candidates look at a company's reputation before accepting a position.
When utilised effectively, recruitment marketing may save recruiting time and total costs.
You can draw in applicants who closely match your ideal profile by running campaigns that are specifically tailored to your needs.
If you emphasise what makes your company unique, it will stand out in a crowded market.
Targeted efforts can reach passive prospects, or those who are not actively seeking employment but are open to the right offer.
6 recruitment marketing strategies to improve your brand
1. Content Marketing
Content is the most important factor in building brand credibility and awareness. Develop content for your two audiences: employers and job candidates. Provide tips on resumes, hiring trend summaries, interview tips, and pay information. Informative, timely content builds credibility and top-of-mind awareness.
Get Recruited regularly publishes blog content directly through our Volcanic CMS, which helps ensure it’s structured and optimised for search engines. One of their most-read posts, “How to Master Your Interview”, has generated over 1,000 visits thanks to the SEO suggestions Volcanic offers. The platform also makes it easy for us to target different sectors with specific content and tag them accordingly, helping us target niche talent pools
Recruitment content makes your employer brand come alive and provides a glimpse into your values, culture, and work environment.
Consider including:
Industry-related blog posts, interview tips, and hiring insights.
Video content that highlights employee experiences and team dynamics.
Information that reflects trust, expertise, and authority to improve both SEO and candidate trust
2. Optimise your website for users
In most instances, your website is the first stop for potential applicants. While your site may be client-oriented, a careers page is still required to address job applicants directly.
This section should neatly display your mission and values, workplace culture, employee benefits, and job postings. It should be easy to use, mobile-friendly, and backed by a good SEO plan to allow it to appear in focused searches.
Volcanic’s design tools have allowed Get Recruited to build a recruitment website that’s optimised for both clients and candidates. For example, they use the content blocks to feature rotating testimonials, which increased candidate engagement by 27%. The templates have been especially powerful in helping job seekers find and apply for roles on the go, which is an essential capability in today’s market.
Including engaging, multi-form content such as testimonials, video, and stories can further enrich the experience and motivate action..
Here are a few ideas of what you could include:
Clear job listings
Engaging calls to action
Testimonials or case studies
Insight into your recruitment process
Relevant content (multi-media)
Your background, values and mission
Consistency throughout
3. Use social media
Social media is an effective tool in your recruitment marketing strategy. As a recruitment agency, we’ve seen firsthand how platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok, when approached with intention, can expand your reach, attract candidates and build meaningful brand awareness. They provide an opportunity to promote job openings, share company updates, and highlight your internal culture. Avoid treating these platforms as simple job boards. Instead, focus on posting content that encourages conversation and showcases your organisation’s human side, whilst establishing yourself as an industry leader.
Social engagement by employees, in particular, has been shown to be highly effective, converting leads at a much higher rate than standard outreach. Authentic, employee-driven content, like behind-the-scenes moments and career advice, consistently outperforms and gains more engagement than formal company updates.
Research Candidates and Competitors: Understand your target audience and their preferences on social media. What posts perform well and have the most engagement?
Create Candidate Personas: To customise your messaging, create detailed profiles of your target candidates.
Establish Metrics and Targets: Set your goals for your social media efforts and measure your progress.
Select the Right Platforms: Select which social media websites are most popular among your prospective customers.
Engage with Followers: Promptly reply to questions, comments, and ratings
4. Do email marketing right
Once a candidate or client expresses interest, email becomes a key channel for maintaining that connection. This allows your business to stay at the forefront of the mind over time, even if an applicant isn’t ready to apply immediately.
Our email job alerts are fuelled by insights gathered from Volcanic’s dashboard. Using data entered by the candidate, we can tailor email content to their interests and embed personalised job recommendations. Our open and click-through rates have seen a 40% lift since personalisation.
You could use your emails to highlight what sets your agency apart and address the specific interests and challenges of your clients and candidates.
Consider sharing:
New job openings
Industry news
Skill development tips
Company updates
Success stories or client achievements, paired with relevant job openings
A nurtured pipeline means faster placements when new roles open up, and it shows candidates that you’re in it for the long haul, not just the next commission.
5. Invest in video marketing
81% of people say they would want to see more short-form video content from businesses they interact with.
Videos allow you to engage with customers more deeply than any other platform. You can use video marketing to market testimonials, brag about your company culture, teach people about what your organisation does and share market insights and tips. As recruiters, we can easily catch attention and convey messages in interesting, memorable ways by investing in high-quality video content.
According to Wyzowl, 88% of marketers say that video has helped generate leads, and 84% say that it has directly helped increase sales, making video a key component of recruitment marketing today.
6. Gather reviews & testimonials
Nothing builds trust like real stories. Reviews and testimonials offer real, social proof that enables potential candidates and clients to get a feel for your company culture and work experience. Gathering and sharing testimonials is encouraged at Get Recruited, across careers pages and social media to build transparency, trust, and stronger candidate engagement. These can inform your company reputation, which is one of the most critical factors in attracting top talent. Reviews can offer a greater insight into customer sentiment and areas where the candidate experience can be improved.
Featuring reviews on your careers page or social media channels not only boosts transparency but also builds trust with future applicants. Even feedback from candidates who didn’t end up joining your company can offer valuable lessons and show you’re committed to improving. Ultimately, positive reviews strengthen your employer brand and make your company more appealing to job seekers and businesses.
The goal of recruitment marketing is to establish real, lasting relationships with both candidates and clients. This is your opportunity to share the story of your business, highlight the unique characteristics of your culture, and be distinctive in an oversaturated recruiting market. From our own experience, we know that executed correctly, a strong recruitment marketing strategy does more than just fill a role; it creates a network of talent and grows your business's brand in the long run.
Read our case study to find out more about how Get Recruited use Access Volcanic to drive digital acceleration.
This is a guest post by Get Recruited.
