Organizational Wellness

Recruitment Marketing: The Ultimate Guide to Attracting Top Talent

Last Updated Jan 13, 2025

Time to read: 11 minutes

Recruitment has come a long way from the days of just posting a job listing. Now, 87% of recruiters are laser-focused on strategy — and for good reason. The goal isn’t just to fill roles anymore. Recruitment is all about finding the right people who bring real value. That’s why a powerful hiring strategy is key.

Yes, today’s recruitment practices might feel more intense, but the results are game-changing. Finding employees who not only fit but fuel your company’s culture and success is worth every bit of effort.

Ready to attract top-tier talent and build a team that drives results? Recruitment marketing is your secret weapon.

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What Is Recruitment Marketing?

Recruitment marketing refers to the strategies and practices used by organizations to attract, engage, and nurture job candidates, similar to how companies market their products or services to potential customers. It combines traditional marketing techniques with recruitment goals, helping HR teams build a strong employer brand and create a talent pipeline.

This approach not only focuses on advertising on job boards but also on engaging passive candidates—those who aren’t actively seeking jobs—and creating an ongoing relationship with potential hires. Sometimes, a specialized recruitment marketer will handle these projects, but HR professionals can also take them on.

Key Elements of Recruitment Marketing:

Employer Branding: Establishing a compelling and consistent brand image that appeals to potential candidates. This includes showcasing your company’s culture, values, and mission through various channels, such as social media, career pages, and employee testimonials.
Content Marketing: Creating valuable content that highlights what it’s like to work at the company, including blog posts, employee spotlights, behind-the-scenes videos, and thought leadership pieces. Content should answer questions candidates might have about the company and foster interest in working for you.
Social Media Engagement: Using platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter to reach out to candidates. Sharing engaging content and responding to candidate inquiries is critical to creating an online presence for the social recruiting that attracts top talent.
Job Advertising: Running paid job advertisements on platforms like Google, job boards, and social media to promote open positions. This includes both active job listings and "evergreen" content that keeps the company top of mind for future hires.
Talent Nurturing: Developing a talent pool or database of candidates who are not currently looking for jobs but may be interested in the future. This could involve regular communication via email campaigns, newsletters, or personalized messages.
Data and Analytics: Tracking and analyzing metrics like click-through rates on job ads, conversion rates of candidates from various channels, and engagement on social media posts to understand the effectiveness of recruitment marketing strategies.

The Recruitment Marketing Funnel

The recruitment marketing funnel is a model that illustrates the stages candidates go through from first learning about your company to being hired. It mirrors the traditional sales and marketing funnel, with the goal of guiding candidates from awareness of your brand to accepting a job offer. Understanding this funnel helps HR professionals create a strategic approach to attracting and engaging top talent. The basic stages are:

Awareness

At the top of the funnel, candidates become aware of your company as a potential employer. They may not be actively looking for a job but are getting exposed to your brand through various channels. The goal here is to capture attention and leave a positive first impression.

Strategies for the Awareness Stage:

Employer branding on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.
Sponsored content and job ads on platforms like Glassdoor and Indeed.
Employee testimonials, stories, or videos highlighting your company culture.
Participating in or sponsoring industry events, webinars, and career fairs.

Consideration

In this stage, candidates begin to engage more deeply with your brand. They explore what it’s like to work at your company and evaluate whether your values, culture, and opportunities align with their own goals.

Strategies for the Consideration Stage:

Engaging, well-designed career page with information about company culture, benefits, and job opportunities.
Informative blog posts, case studies, or video content about working at your company.
Email campaigns that nurture passive candidates by sharing company news, job openings, and culture insights.
Highlighting your employee value proposition (EVP), including perks, diversity initiatives, and growth opportunities.

Decision

Here, candidates are weighing their options and deciding whether to apply. They may be comparing your company to other potential employers, considering job role specifics, and checking your reputation through reviews and testimonials.

Strategies for the Decision Stage:

Transparent job descriptions that reflect your company’s values and expectations.
Showcasing employee success stories, career growth opportunities, and internal mobility paths.
Strong social proof, such as positive employee reviews on Glassdoor and LinkedIn endorsements.
Clear, easy-to-understand information about the application process and next steps.

Action

This is the final stage where candidates take action by applying for a role. This stage includes the application submission, the interview process, and ultimately, the hiring decision. Ensuring a smooth candidate experience during this stage is critical for securing the best talent.

Strategies for the Action Stage:

Simple, mobile-friendly, and streamlined application process.
Personalized follow-up emails or thank-you notes after application submission.
Transparent communication during interviews and timely feedback to candidates.
A structured onboarding process to help new hires integrate smoothly into the company.

By aligning your recruitment strategy with these four funnel stages, you can improve the candidate experience at every touchpoint. Focusing on nurturing potential talent throughout the funnel — especially during the consideration and decision phases — helps keep top talent engaged and motivated to take action.

How to Build Your own Recruitment Marketing Strategy

Marketing may feel a world away from normal HR practices. But don’t let that scare you! This could be a great way to revamp your recruitment strategy. Dip your toe in the water with these four attainable strategies.

Craft a Brand Identity

For potential candidates to be aware of who you are, you first need to establish that for yourself! The rest of your marketing plan will build on this foundation. Your brand identity can be defined by these key components that embody who you are as a company:

A mission statement
Core values
A vision statement
Employee value proposition
A strong benefits package

You likely have many of these elements already in place. If you do, great! You can pull them all together to get rolling. If you are missing any, this is a great opportunity to fill in any foundational gaps in how you present yourself to potential candidates.

Set Clear Recruitment Marketing Goals

With that strong groundwork, the next step is determining what you hope to achieve with this strategy. Consider establishing goals that will not only measure your success but also maximize the impact of your recruitment efforts, such as:

Increase the candidate pool
Connect with applicants who have the necessary skills to fill roles
Find candidates who are good culture adds
Increase web traffic to your career site
Improve job acceptance rates
Increase employer brand awareness

To determine how you’ll gauge success, consider ways to quantify these goals. For example, if you’re trying to increase your candidate pool, you could compare the number of applications you received this year versus last year.

Identifying Target Candidate Personas

Marketers will create personas to help them know exactly who they’re trying to reach. You could do the same for your ideal applicants. To create a persona, consider including this information for your hypothetical candidate:

Education level
Degree type
Current employment status
Geographic location
Communication style
Career goals

Personas are a representation of the audience you’re trying to reach. The more specific they are, the better. Take the time to thoroughly research your ideal candidate to ensure your persona is filled with accurate information.

Choosing the Right Marketing Channels and Tactics

Based on your personas, you can determine which methods of communication will help you most effectively reach these individuals. Some common channels include:

LinkedIn
Facebook groups
In-person networking
Visiting career fairs
Instagram
SMS/text messaging
Email

Here’s how that might look in the real world. If your persona for an entry-level coding position is a recent graduate with one internship on their resume, you would research where those individuals are learning about new jobs. You might find university career fairs are a good way to reach them. At those fairs, you could hand out flyers on the perks of working for your organization and information about where they can follow you on social media.

This example illustrates the ultimate goal of finding these channels: to determine where you’ll put the content you create. By using multiple personas and the right channels, you can craft a recruitment strategy that resonates with diverse audiences. This approach ensures your message reaches the right people, in the right places, at the right times — maximizing your chances of connecting with top talent.

Recruitment Marketing Tools and Techniques

Diving into marketing can be overwhelming. Luckily, there are several tools you can leverage to enhance your strategy:

Social Media Outreach

Social media can be a great place to establish your brand and reach candidates. The most obvious solution for professional connections is LinkedIn. With 930 million users, this platform can be a successful way to find active job searchers. Plus LinkedIn lets you search for certain qualifications and message individuals directly, which can help you nurture someone’s interest in your company before they even start applying.

You could also join groups to build relationships with people. For example, if you know you’re going to be hiring in a specific field — like marketing — you could join professionally relevant Facebook groups. There, you can connect with potential job seekers and post your listings.

Career Site Optimization

The career page on your website is where potential candidates will go to learn about open roles. Having a great landing page will help ease your candidates through the recruitment funnel and encourage them to apply. Some ways to make sure you have a top-tier page include:

Focus on UX: Your user’s experience with the site can affect how they perceive your company. If your page is hard to use, they might get frustrated and lose interest. Consider going through the application process yourself to see if there are any places where you get stuck. You could also work with your development team to work out any issues.
Consider SEO optimization: To make your site easier to find, you’ll likely want it to show up on search engine results pages. Look into adjusting the metadata or targeting specific keywords related to your field and open position to show up higher on Google results, making it easier for candidates to find your organization.
Create an aesthetically pleasing view: A beautiful website can amplify your company’s reputation. Plus a clear layout will help your potential candidates find the information they need, without having to search for too long.

Texting and Email Marketing

Different candidate personas use a variety of messaging platforms. The “right” one to use depends on who you are trying to reach, but every option has best practices you can use to get the most from the method.

Texting

There are a few advantages of choosing to text applicants. One is that many prefer it to the more traditional call — In fact, about 89% of job seekers prefer text over a phone call. In addition, texting can feel more personal and help you build a relationship with potential candidates. If you’re going to use text, here are some suggestions to get the most out of it:

Get permission: A good first step is to let your candidates opt into texting. Since SMS feels more personal, you might let them check a box on their application as a way for them to consent to this form of contact.
Respond quickly: The average person responds to a text withinthree minutes. Consider setting up an automated response to help you get back to a candidate as soon as possible.

Email

Email is a traditional approach and is a trusted channel with a high ROI. These are some suggestions for utilizing email as a part of your recruitment strategy:

Send a variety of content: To build a connection with potential applicants, consider sending application tips or general career advice.
Segment your email list: Instead of emailing your entire contact database, send emails to smaller groups of qualified individuals who might be interested.
Optimize emails: Keep emails concise and check that they’re mobile-friendly.

Elevating Your Recruitment with Marketing and Wellness

Recruitment marketing offers a powerful way to woo workers by showcasing your great employee experience. And today, workforce wellbeing is a foundational part of having a positive employer brand: A full 93% of workers value their wellbeing as much as their salary.

This makes employee wellbeing a crucial part of any recruitment marketing strategy. Integrating a wellbeing program into your benefits package can be a great way to showcase your commitment to worker wellbeing. It’s a great addition to your careers page, and can provide the powerful employee testimonials about your company's commitment to work-life wellness that drive applicants to your LinkedIn page.

Ready to add a benefit that will help your company stand out? Talk to a wellbeing specialist today!

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[*] Based on proprietary research comparing healthcare costs of active Wellhub users to non-users.