Where has marketing gone that recruiting should go next?

Lots of places but here’s 3 to start

I won’t bore you with the “recruiting is like marketing” or “recruiting is like sales” takes. Duh.

We all get that. We’re just painfully slow to adapt.

If you want to know where recruiting *should be* headed next, look at the shifts marketing has made over the last decade: 

👉From spray and pray to identifying key targets.

Quantity over quality *was* the emphasis. X amount of ads (or outbound) will convert at Y rate and create Z revenue. 

More ads and more outbound = more revenue.

Sure, you still get ads for the think you *just bought* and spam is never going away. But every smart organization shifted to an efficiency focused model years ago.

Recruiting? Churn and burn firms (and internals) are still following the old daily activity numbers playbook.

(Admittedly, the best recruiters I know send out the least amount of messages.)

👉From finding those already ready to buy to educating your audience & creating new interest.

When I started Hirewell’s marketing recruiting org almost a decade ago, I hadn’t heard of Demand Gen. Because no one was hiring for it.

Now? It’s one of the most common things we do.

People aren’t going to wake up one day and realize your new fangled widget is the solve for all their problems.

Especially when they never heard of it. Have no idea what it does. And didn’t realized how far behind the times their current gadget is.

Recruiting? People aren’t just going to apply to the boring list of job responsibilities you posted on your web site.

They also aren’t going to magically see the value your org will add to their career. Or how it will make them happy.

Unless you tell them. And tell everyone.

👉Where’s the damn pricing?

It will come as a shock to absolutely no one that it’s easier to sell something when people know how much it costs. And wastes less time talking to people who can’t afford it.

Just like it’s easier to get qualified buyers of your position if they know it’s in their price range. Up front.

The “just put the salary in the job ad” take is played at this point. But still true. You’ll fill more jobs, faster. Full stop.

Sam Kuehnle spent the last 10 years in digital marketing and demand gen. This year he joined Loxo as their VP of Marketing, exposing him to the wonderful world of talent acquisition for the first time. He brought a fresh perspective to the Talent Insight podcast (link in comments). And yes…you’ll see me drop a few more of his clips soon.

James Hornick

Partner at Hirewell. #3 Ranked Sarcastic Commenter on LinkedIn.