The recruitment and selection process is fundamental for any company, but it can be long and costly when not well prepared and strategically thought out. This is due to the high responsibility of hiring qualified people, who have the appropriate profile.
In this sense, it is interesting to look for alternative strategies that help to optimize this process and make it more efficient. One of these strategies is the use of Content Marketing .
Much has been said about the use of marketing to recruit people, which is associated with the idea of employer branding. It is a mentality of positioning the company in a pleasant and attractive way for job seekers, just as it is done for customers. Content can be used as a part of this larger strategy.
By better understanding this issue, you will be able to fill company vacancies with the right candidates, based on an effective process. So, if you want to know everything about using Content Marketing in recruiting and selecting candidates, be sure to follow the article below.
We will cover the following topics:
What is Content Marketing?
Let’s start with the general definition. Content Marketing is the set of strategies, techniques and methods for planning, producing and distributing content for marketing purposes.
When it comes to content, it is important to note that we are referring to different formats, such as articles, ebooks, videos, infographics, quizzes, etc.
In other words, it is the whole process involving the materials that will be used to generate value for the public, in order to make people make a decision and become customers.
However, you cannot talk about Content Marketing without first addressing the idea of Inbound Marketing .
Inbound represents an evolution of the previous model – Outbound – which is a more incisive approach to advertising and brand presentation, motivated by the company’s initial action. On the other hand, Inbound is about the public’s active search for the consumer brand.
The client can find the organization through an internet search engine, for example. When necessary, the interested person will look for a solution or try to understand more about the subject of interest. So, for this customer to find the company, it is necessary to invest in attractive content available on a channel, such as a blog.
These contents are personalized and specific, addressing issues relevant to the pain of that person who reads the persona . As such, they are materials strategically created to break objections, clarify issues, educate the public and encourage people to take action closer to the purchase.
Therefore, it is a different way of thinking than traditional marketing and less incisive. It is a more friendly communication approach, focused on educating and generating value for consumers. After a while, when the customer is ready, he can reach the purchase stage.
In order for the customization to be perfect and to know how to approach the topics, Content Marketing involves the idea of sales funnel . The funnel describes the steps taken by the user from the moment he accesses a company channel until making the purchase. There are three main phases: attraction, consideration and decision:
- attraction: the reader still doesn’t know much about his problem. His research is driven by curiosity and clarification;
- consideration: the reader is closer to the final decision, knows more about his pain and is evaluating possible solutions;
- decision: he is actually choosing which company to hire or which product to buy.
The content is created aiming at these different moments of the consumption process. In the attraction phase, there are more publications that seek to bring people closer and educate, while in others, the number of materials is less, since they are more specific and focused on the purchase itself.
All that we saw is the main definition for customers who actually buy something from the company or hire a service. However, this same strategy can be adopted in order to recruit employees, with a focus on generating value to win their attention in the digital world and reach only the ideal people.
What are the advantages of using a content strategy in recruitment and selection?
Continuing on the subject, we will now see some advantages of using recruitment marketing and a solid content strategy in this process.
Drive people on the journey
Every candidate, as well as clients, goes through a journey. He goes from being a contact researching the company to a contractor effectively inserted in the organization’s culture. In the process, they learn more about the company, convert to become leads, receive more direct messages and finally schedule an interview, for example.
We can talk about the three stages of the funnel that we have already mentioned or even in different phases, such as attraction, closure, conversion and enchantment. The important thing is to try to understand what is the most common path for your candidates.
What is the relevance of the content in this sense? Now, with publications in different formats, companies encourage people to move forward at each stage, since they learn more about the company and better understand how the famous match will happen.
Thus, at each stage the person becomes more certain of his decision to be part of the team, all with the support of good informative and personalized materials.
Prevent adaptation problems
Likewise, it is possible to prevent a major problem in recruitment and selection: the lack of adaptation of newly hired employees. This is due to problems in the fit between candidates and the company, as an inefficient process without strategy can result in inadequate hiring.
On the other hand, with a robust content strategy, companies reach the right people, who share the same purposes and values. This is one of the paths that lead to the success of the employer-candidate connection.
Provide brand visibility
In addition to making the organization reach the right contacts, Content Marketing is also crucial to optimize brand visibility, by exposing the company to more people and generating authority.
Based on good materials and the development of specific subjects, it is possible to show the company’s credibility in a given topic and conquer the market.
How to put it into practice?
The time has finally come to talk more about how to put content marketing into practice in recruitment.
A first tip is to work well with branding, which consists of strategies to reinforce the company’s positioning and image to external people.
So, establish the values, the mission, the purpose very well, making this very clear with the actions, the content and the visual choices of the sites and products. In this way, it will be clear to the future candidate who his company is.
Good planning is essential. When planning, you should think about what kind of content to do, for whom to do it, where to do it and set the goals. The plan should also contain a publication schedule, which will be crucial to achieving consistency in the production and publication of content.
This preparation step is essential to choose what content will be made for each step of the journey as well.
Another tip is to conduct a survey with current employees, in order to raise positive and negative points about the company today. With the answers from the inside, you will have a perception of what could become good arguments to use in your content and try to convince people.
Also don’t forget to define your persona very well. This will be the semi-fictional profile of the ideal candidate, with psychographic characteristics, aspirations, fears, pains, habits, preferences and other aspects that make up a profile. Do research internally and understand well what is this model of person that you hope to hire, in order to reach an ideal profile and create good materials for this type of candidate.
Also define the formats to be used. It depends a lot on who your persona is, her tastes and preferences. As we have already said, there is a multitude of options that can be explored: quizzes, articles, ebooks, videos, infographics, among others.
Static content or interactive content can be adopted, which requires user participation. The ideal is to work with an interesting variety to increase the chances of success.
What are the tips to ensure the success of the strategy?
In this last section, we are going to provide you with some valuable tips that you can’t fail to follow to achieve success in your selection processes.
One of the recommendations is to use storytelling . Storytelling helps to engage people, making them learn complex concepts in a playful, didactic and exciting way. So, take the opportunity to develop a story involving the journey of the candidates and their company, in order to establish the relationship very well.
Use social networks very well. You can make these communication channels a way to get closer to the people who will be candidates for your company. In fact, it is a good idea to encourage employees to create specific content to generate a broad view of how the day-to-day works.
The last tip is: use the metrics well to monitor their creation and distribution. From the numbers analyzed, you can make improvements to your publications. For example: the reading rate of an article helps to understand if they are too long or monotonous, which can motivate changes in the structure or style of writing.
Content Marketing in recruitment is an extremely powerful approach to reduce the costs and time of this process. By delivering specialized content to the right people, you increase the chances of finding candidates with a good fit and making their adaptation a success.
In this way, it is possible to optimize this journey and ensure effective hiring, which will lead the company to growth.