The June Career Column discussed the job market as a resource for companies’ marketing. This month we will demonstrate how to increase the return on job postings by handling them as act of sales and employing marketing communication disciplines.


The idea that attracting talent is “selling” the position is commonly accepted. But are you really handling your job postings the same as the marketers next door would handle their campaigns? If posting a job is like advertising a product, then let’s see what they would have done…

A job posting on a job site is similar in many ways to a banner ad. They both have a goal to create leads (applications). They are designed to initiate direct communication with target prospects and they both “work” in a very narrow time frame of exposure.

Like other types of online advertisements, the job posting aims to invoke the visitor’s immediate reaction first by clicking the title to the posting page and through to making the contact. This is to be achieved in a very short window of attention (opportunity) as the candidate scrolls down the search results page.

Use of Keywords

Unlike a banner ad, which relies on the traffic on a host web site for exposure, a job posting affects its own exposure by inclusion of keywords corresponding to relevant job searches.

Our first goal is then to come up high on the searches under the keywords that we assume “perfect-fit” candidates would be looking for. Making up the list of keywords is not enough. Many of the job search functions default to sort the search results by relevance in a descending order. The relevance grade is based on the number of appearances of keywords in the job title and text. It is therefore good practice to repeat each keyword in the job description more than once.

The Role of the Title

Banner ads use graphics to create a subliminal association, so that just by glancing the visitor can make the “click” decision. Job postings, however, typically show in a list of titles. The title is therefore the first line of attraction. A well thought-out title can capture more attention as well as filter out/discourage unqualified candidates.

Job Posting Content

Now that we have succeeded to pull those “perfect fits” into our job posting, how can we motivate them to apply? The content of this page has an impact on whether the candidate will 1) move to the next ad, 2) bookmark the ad for later or 3) read it thoroughly and follow through with the online application.

Working with “basic” job postings using the template furnished by the job site, you don’t have much graphical means to support this “sale.” You can only rely on your well thought-out verbiage to attract candidates.

Without getting into what makes a job appealing, the posting works better if it mentions or implies the reasons that our best-fit candidate would want to come to work for the company. This is where we make our sales pitch, only that we are not there to complete or clarify. In addition to being informative, the job posting verbiage should highlight the points that would appeal to the candidate profile for which we are searching. Putting aside benefits and compensation, you may find the appealing factors to be professional challenge, opportunity for rapid career path, organizational environment and so on. The key is in understanding the possible expectations of the desired candidate profile. Including your logo distinguishes your posting and associates it with your company’s reputation.

Hands-On the Response

Response to online job postings has a weekly cycle, as candidates tend to spend more time searching jobs on weekends. After the first week or two you should have a pretty good idea for the level of response to the posting. If the host job site provides an exposure report (the number of times your posting page was viewed), you can figure out the rate of applications to the exposures the ad gained. This rate can be used to evaluate the appeal of the job posting content. If supported by the host job site, you can tweak the posting to improve the response.

Conclusions

Job posting includes these three elements affecting the quantity and quality of returning applications: Keywords, Title and posting verbiage. Smart selection of keywords results in a higher position on the search results, a deliberate title is an invitation to click and the posting verbiage is the marketing document influencing the visitor’s final decision to apply. Monitoring the response rate can provide real-time feedback and an opportunity to fine-tune online.

Isaac Mendelson
ElectroMagneticCareers.com
Isaac@ElectroMagneticCareers.com