Successful Recruitment Marketing in Action: How a CPA Got 200 Qualified Job Applicants in a Month

Mike’s business, Pine & Company, CPAs, was growing quickly. He needed to find talented candidates to fill 8 job openings fast. He had been working with a recruiter and was frustrated with the results: just 4 qualified applicants per month.

Mike said “you’re so good at marketing, is there anything you can do to help me hire?” The answer was “yes,” because the same marketing strategies that bring you ideal customers will bring you ideal employees. So, we helped him create a successful recruitment marketing strategy and then wrote the words he needed to put it into action.

At the end of our 90-day hiring action plan, Mike was getting 200 qualified applicants each month and was able to quickly fill all of his open positions. Here is an outline of the killer recruitment marketing strategy and tools we used to engage candidates and grow Mike’s talent pool:

Key Recruitment Marketing Strategies

Part 1: Have a Solid Foundation

We had begun working with Pine the previous year to improve their marketing collateral. During that time, we clarified their company messaging and overhauled their website.

Then, we wrote some sales email sequences that they could send out to potential candidates to increase their conversions. We also began writing high-value blog posts so that they could better support their clients throughout the year.

Pine began getting 7 qualified customer leads each day through their website (a huge improvement). They also tapped into a growing niche and established key referral partnerships that filled their pipeline. By the end of the year, they had seen an 80% increase in sales. Naturally, with 80% more business Mike desperately needed more staff.

Mike’s firm foundation of clear messaging, a professional, easy-to-navigate website, and regular helpful content not only created the need for more staff it also set him up to get higher-quality applicants.

Why Clear Messaging Matters for Recruitment Marketing

If you are short-staffed and stressed out, your company messaging and website may not be a high priority. This probably sounds like an extra step you definitely don’t have time for.

We get it. Although we would never put you through a whole rebrand when you desperately need to hire staff, it is still an important piece of the puzzle that will impact your results.

Your potential employees want to know what kind of company they are applying to work for. They will research your business, just like a potential customer would. If they can’t figure out who you are and how you help people, candidates are going to be less likely to want to join your team.

Most people want more than just a paycheck. They want to get up each day knowing that they are contributing to the world in some way. If your website tells them what makes your company different and how you contribute to something bigger, you are more likely to get applicants who agree with your mission and company culture.

Pro Tip: If you envision needing to hire staff soon, contact us today so that we have time to set up your marketing foundation before we start seeking candidates for your open roles.

Part 2: The 90-Day Hiring Action Plan

Step 1: Clear Career Messaging

To create successful recruitment marketing campaigns, you need to know what your job applicants are looking for in a position. Gone are the days when people were content to apply for any job that offered a steady income. People want more — they want to know why they should choose your company and how working with you will make their lives better.

A good recruitment marketing strategy to attract top candidates is to position the job seeker as the hero and the company as the guide.

Your main recruitment marketing goal is not to tell a job candidate what you expect from them. Instead, you want to sell the applicant on the idea of working with your company. An effective recruitment marketing campaign will have job seekers excited to fill out your application because they genuinely want to join your team.

For Pine, that meant focusing on many CPAs’ desire to grow in their career while still maintaining work-life balance.

The headline of their careers page is entirely applicant-focused: “Career-Making Positions for Tax Professionals”.

In this hiring “story,” Pine is not the hero. They are the guide who will help lead interested tax professionals toward a fulfilling career.

Step 2: A Compelling Job Description

Most job descriptions are long, dull, and boring. Although the job descriptions we write are still long, they are far from boring.

In fact, Pine’s recruiter initially didn’t want to use our job description because it seemed too long and “too different.” Mike told her to run it anyway and the results surprised them both.

Our job description drew qualified candidates in because it included the information they wanted, like:

• A description of who will thrive in the role.
• Personable language that reflects the employer brand.
• Employee testimonials so candidates can see what it’s really like to work with your company.
• A transparent hiring process that tells suitable candidates exactly what to expect and when.

Job descriptions like this one stand out among all the duds filling up job boards. By including these important details in your job description, your target candidates will go from mostly zoned out to invigorated and ready to apply.

Step 3: A Careers Page Designed for Long-Term Growth

Most of the time, when companies are hiring, they write a job ad, post it to LinkedIn or Indeed and then sit back and wait for applicants to come.

What if, instead of searching every time you need to fill a position, you already have a list of potential employees to contact? Wouldn’t it be nice to have people anxiously waiting to get to work with you?

We agree.

That’s why creating a permanent careers page is part of our 90-day hiring action plan. Not only does it provide applicants with more information about your company and give them an additional way to apply, but it also sets you up for long-term success and company growth by allowing people to apply even when you aren’t actively hiring.

Step 4: Applicant-Centered Ads, Emails and InMails

Since Pine needed to attract top talent, we knew that their target audience probably wasn’t sitting around searching for a new job. They likely already had one that they just weren’t happy with.

To engage candidates, we used social media marketing to reach passive candidates who weren’t actively job searching.

Since LinkedIn was a valuable piece of Pine’s recruitment marketing strategy, we wrote inMail message templates for the recruiter to customize and send to ideal candidates.

Just like the job descriptions and careers page, these job advertisements and direct messages were applicant focused. We highlighted what prospective employees would gain by working with Pine.

Step 5: Consistent Communication

Consistent communication is an essential part of the hiring process. All too often, job candidates hit submit on an application only to be left in the dark, never to hear from the company again.

We help our clients avoid that trap by using email marketing systems for job applicants. We wrote a series of email messages to keep the conversation going with applicants throughout the hiring process. This improves the candidate experience, reduces misunderstandings, and builds trust with your company from the beginning.

You can also use automated emails to provide more information about your company and the open role, allowing job seekers to make informed decisions about whether or not the position is a good fit.

Need a Happy Ending for Your Hiring Story?

At the end of the 90 days, Mike was happily onboarding the 8 employees he needed to keep up with the steady influx of new clients.

No business should be at risk of shrinking or failing because they don’t know how to attract the right employees. But traditional recruitment strategies often aren’t enough to get you the results you deserve. We want to share our effective recruitment marketing strategy with the world. (Becky even talked about it on the Marketing Made Simple Podcast!)

If you are tired of recruitment marketing that doesn’t work, schedule a call with Guide MKTG today so that we can create a recruitment marketing plan and all the digital marketing materials you need to attract top talent.

You’ve been stuck in a hiring horror story long enough. Let’s write you a happy ending instead.