Template: What makes for a great recruitment marketing newsletter?

June 25, 2021

 

iCIMS Staff

5 min read

“No problem, we’ll keep looking.”

You sigh and click send. Unfortunate, really. This candidate ticked all the boxes. She’s intelligent, results-driven, self-motivated, coachable. An all-around great culture fit. Her resume is excellent; the only problem is she doesn’t have much experience in your industry.

There’s no doubt she’d be a great fit. Given enough time, you know she’d be an asset over the long-term.

Your hiring manager agrees. But his team is short-staffed and behind on production. There isn’t the time or resources to invest in a long training period. He needs someone who can get up to speed immediately, and he needed them yesterday.

It’s back to the drawing board for now. But this isn’t a candidate you want to forget about. She really wants this job. In time, you’re confident there will be another opportunity for her. For now, you make a note to keep in touch.

Situations like the one above happen all the time. Regrettable, sure – but there is something you can do about it. In this post we’ll give you:

• Best practices for using your CRM to engage candidates
• How to incorporate video to drive career site traffic and engagement
• A free template for creating your own top notch recruitment marketing newsletter

Candidate relationship management prevents you from sourcing twice

The solution is to build a pipeline of prospective candidates, like the woman from our example. Knowing who you can call when the right position opens saves you the expense and time of sourcing for the same role twice.

This is where a candidate relationship management (CRM) system comes into play. A recruiting CRM works just like its sales-focused counterpart, often called a customer relationship management system. Think Salesforce or Oracle Netsuite, among scores of others.

Candidate relationship management systems are designed to collect job seeker information, including contact information, resumes, relevant skills, experience level, interests, and more. The result is a pipeline of qualified and motivated talent ready to tap into at a moment’s notice.

However, a candidate relationship management system only works when recruiters actively build relationships and engage with candidates over time. There are many ways to do this, but none more tried and true than the humble recruitment marketing newsletter.

Template: What to include in your recruitment marketing newsletter

Job spotlights

Spotlighting jobs is a great way to keep job seekers up to date on openings. You can tailor your newsletters, so job seekers see jobs that are relevant to them. For example, you might have a pool of marketing candidates in the U.S. and sales candidates in EMEA. However, it makes sense from time to time to share more in-depth information on a specific role, relevant or not.

Psychologically, this works on a couple of levels. First, it shows job seekers that there are a wide variety of jobs open at your company. A candidate seeking a niche position might get discouraged if they haven’t heard from you in a long time because there are no relevant openings. Sharing other opportunities proves your company is hiring. It also opens the door for them to refer a friend of theirs.

Employee videos

We get a lot of emails, most of them junk. It’s incumbent on us to provide candidates with exciting content they’ll want to consume. Video excels at this because it’s different. It’s engaging and particularly well suited to direct viewers somewhere else. It’s a win anytime you can take a job seeker from their inbox and direct them to one of your digital properties like your career site or LinkedIn page.

We’re fans of embedding employee testimonial videos into your recruitment marketing newsletters. Done well, employee-generated videos can look professional with high-production value, yet are authentic and personal. They’re also easy and inexpensive to produce at scale.

Company news

Sharing news keeps candidates up to date and invested in your company. One of the questions we’ve gotten asked most often by candidates is, “How is your business doing right now?”

The pandemic wreaked havoc on more than peoples’ health – it took a toll on many businesses. Candidates are still wary about changing jobs or taking a new role in an industry that’s been hard hit. Giving candidates a clear view of where your business and hiring priorities are can help assuage uncertainty and help them see where they might fit.

One last note: Keep the press releases to a minimum. Recruitment marketing is for candidates. While tempting to use, press releases are intended for a different audience, meaning they don’t always resonate.

Event recaps

Recapping events can be a fun way to share softer news and show how you are building your company culture. For example, we used to share pictures of our employee BBQs and beach cleanups. Those in-person events couldn’t take place during the pandemic, but culture doesn’t stop just because most of us are working from home. Share what real life looks like, including virtual happy hours and pets crashing Zoom meetings.

For other ideas, think about the various groups and interests prevalent at your company. Maybe you have a running group or a book club. We had iBelong – our employee resource group (ERG) focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion – conduct a virtual event celebrating Black History Month. We also have iFoodies, a group to swap recipes and restaurant recommendations, and iNerds, a group for movie fans to share theories and spoilers. All make for excellent recruitment marketing content.

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Ready to put your ideas into action?

Get a real recruitment marketing newsletter we sent our candidates to use as a template. Download your copy by clicking here.