5 Lessons Learnt at The Recruitment Marketing Congress

We recently participated in the Recruitment Marketing Congress, joined by a panel of recruitment marketing experts for an afternoon of insights, debates and Q&As. The sessions discussed everything from automation and SEO to TikTok and video, giving marketing managers a wide range of topics to sink their teeth into.

Leading Venn’s session was our Head of Search, Sara Kavanagh. To provide best practice guidance and get marketers to consider the value of SEO strategy, we explored our approach for recruitment websites, landing pages and best practice content. For those that didn’t have time to watch the entire event, we’re taking a closer look at our top five takeaways from the afternoon to give you a quick snapshot.

If you missed Sara's session, you can download our slides here.

1. Building a community on social media

There’s been a lot of talk about ‘community’ over the past few years, driven by the increase in online activities such as social groups, webinars, and even messaging groups like Whatsapp. It’s become a bit of a buzzword, and the definition has been a little lost along the way.

One session tackled this trend head-on and gave us a 6 step approach to building your own community on social media.

Step 1: Be specific about who the community is for

It’s easy to get distracted by the outcomes, followers, engagement and platform growth, but marketers often forget to consider the basics. First, plan out who your target audience is; this will help you produce the right content in the right space resulting in higher engagement.

Step 2: Share content they care about

Don’t produce content for yourself; think about the audience you’re talking to and create customised content that follows trends and challenges they are facing. Remember, this community is not about you. It's about your audience.

Step 3: Choose the right platform for your audience

There are so many platforms and channels to choose from, whether it’s LinkedIn, Discord or Whatsapp. Choosing the right one depends completely on who you’re trying to reach. Research your audience and identify where they hang out. They may be using a platform you don’t like, but if that’s where they are, you need to be there too.

Step 4: Make sure you have a few influencers on board

When we say ‘influencers’, we don’t mean the Molly Mae’s of the world; this just refers to influential people within your space. These people will help drive conversations and attract like-minded people.

Step 5: Join other communities to start conversations

Engaging with other communities within similar spaces allows you to get your name out there and build a following of your own.

Step 6: Add value, don’t pitch

Don’t treat your community channel like a sales pitch; that’s an easy way to lose your following. Building a community is about transparency and knowledge sharing, and members want to feel they are in a safe space to engage without being pounced on by a member of your sales team.

2. Content creation for recruitment marketing

At this event, speakers talked a lot about different types of content and how marketers can get the most out of their valuable time. The best piece of advice, and the one we always bang on about, was ‘spend more time with the experts.’

You can’t be a master in every area for every form of content; that really is an impossible task. It’s important to gain information from those around you to inform your content and create authentic pieces that add value. For example, if you’re writing a specialism page for your website, sit down with the head of that department and extract the information. This will save you time and improve the quality of your content.

3. The homepage is dead

A controversial statement, we know. In Sara’s session, we wanted to bust the door open on SEO for recruitment and explore our approach for website optimisation. When we say the homepage is dead, we’re talking about marketers trying to focus on everything all at once, on one page. Trying to be all things on the homepage and producing generic pages without consideration for your core business services and specialisms is ineffective for improving your organic performance.

The truth is, you can’t target every keyword all at once. SEO is a long game and should consist of a carefully crafted strategy. Putting all your focus on generic service pages is unlikely to make you stand out from the competition. Investing time into your specialisms, sector pages, and sub-sector pages lets you get granular with your keyword strategy and rank for what people are searching for online.

Too often, we see agencies creating generic pages called ‘IT Jobs’ or ‘Chemicals’. These pages don’t consider the user's search intent and, therefore, don’t reach your target audience. Understanding how people are searching online allows you to build out pages and gain authority in your unique space.

4. TikTok for recruitment

Did you know the hashtag #ukrecruitment has 5.6 million views on TikTok?

Many agencies and employer brands have already taken advantage of the TikTok phenomenon, but others (including ourselves) have been reluctant to invest time and energy into yet another social platform. With an estimated 15 million users in the UK, it’s becoming more apparent that TikTok is not just for a younger audience but also for brands and professional profiles to share and engage.

Whether you’re doing it for your own recruitment or finding candidates, TikTok can be a rewarding platform. During the Congress, we discovered a few tips for recruitment marketers to get the most out of their TikTok content. These tips include:

• Instagram perfection is being rejected, and authenticity is rewarded. A profile that adds value whilst remaining authentic will be more popular. Over-edited content that is unrelatable is no longer what people want to see.
• Be consistent. Decide what you can commit to and keep it up. Posting once every couple of months isn’t going to get you far.
• Find your niche and add value. Share tips and guidance on your specific area; don’t make generic content that will get lost or ignored. Think about whether that video is adding value to your audience. If it's not, it’s not worth your time.
• Add personality. Comedy and authenticity gain the most traction on TikTok, so don’t be afraid to make it fun and engaging.
• Don’t get hung up on follower count. TikTok is designed around the content put into it and not the follower count, so try not to focus on the followers you have. If you post a great piece of content, the algorithm will share your post far and wide.
• Trends, copying and discovery are rewarded with the TikTok algorithm. We’ve all seen the TikTok trends involving certain topics and trending soundtracks; jumping on these allows you to remain relevant on the platform. Not all trends will relate to you, but it's good to keep an eye on what's popular.

5. Find your video champion

Whether you’re already producing video content or thinking about starting, there’s no denying the importance of this medium for engagement.

SEMRush.com

The biggest challenge businesses face when it comes to video is finding a willing and engaging member of the team that can become the face of the business. The trick is to find one or two members of your team that genuinely enjoy making video content. This may take some trial and error, but by doing this, you can find the face of your brand.

Look for someone that brings their own personality whilst effectively reflecting your brand values. Utilise people in your team who maybe already create this form of content in their personal lives or have a passion for media. Someone with their own social following will help guide your content and provide tips on how to get the most engagement. Likewise, if they have videography skills, that’s a big plus.

Where can you watch the Recruitment Marketing Congress?

If you missed the live event or want to take a closer look at any of the sessions, you can rewatch the recorded session and download our slides to catch up on everything discussed during the event.

If you have any questions for our experts, you can reach out directly to Sara Kavanagh on LinkedIn and explore our recruitment marketing services. We’re always happy to offer advice and support the recruitment marketing community. As part of this commitment, we host our monthly webinar to talk all things recruitment marketing. So, if you want to learn more from our team, you can register for this monthly session.