February 14 is just around the corner. And while this time may be all about candle-lit dinner dates, red roses, and all things romance, it is also the most opportune time of the year for marketing.
Valentine’s marketing strategies are perhaps what makes February 14 one of the busiest times of the year. This season allows companies and businesses to flood social media with every conceivable gift idea, flash sale, special offer, and a multitude of marketing campaigns to sell their products and services. It is, by all means, a field day.
However, more interestingly, did you know that Valentine’s Day is, in all likelihood, a field day for hiring managers and staffing firms?
Happy Valentines Day! Got a job?
The importance of marketing in recruitment cannot be overstated. In the last few years, hiring managers and staffing firms have noticed that the reasons for job candidates looking for work have greatly varied over time. Because of this, employers and recruitment agencies must find better ways to attract candidates and offer them what they want and need.
When it comes to hiring, the first quarter of the year is the rosiest time for many job candidates. That said, hiring managers and employers must make every effort possible to drive up their marketing campaigns to bring their companies to the forefront of the minds of these job seekers. And yes, this includes riding high on an effective Valentine’s campaign directed toward job candidates.
Here are some of the most effective ways you and your marketing team can use to amp up your strategies this Valentine’s Day.
Check each one and see what will work best for your hiring needs.
1. Use Digital Marketing
You must know that the weeks and days leading up to Valentine’s are when many people – especially millennials and Gen Zs – are on social media. Take this as a cue to ramp up your digital marketing campaign further!
Digital marketing is perhaps one of the most powerful tools to reach job candidates, and when they are online often, match their energy and make sure that they see you online as often as possible.
Ensure that your target audience is well-defined and that you can trace the online footsteps of your potential customer – your ideal job candidate. Will they be browsing pictures on Facebook or Instagram leading up to Valentine’s Day? Are they shoppers hooked on popular E-commerce platforms checking out Valentine’s Day sales?
Once determined, create an attractive AND engaging social media campaign for your potential customers or job candidates. Make the promise of a new job the perfect Valentine’s Day gift for them.
Come up with engaging content for them on LinkedIn, Medium, Instagram, and TikTok.
2. Create content that speaks to your candidate
Once you have defined your target audience and know what your potential candidates need or want come to Valentine’s Day, this presents the best time for you to use everything you know about them to come up with the most compelling content that motivates them to engage with your company.
A recent study from Lighthouse Research and Advisory revealed that the most persuasive information for most job candidates comes from raw and authentic content from hiring managers, employee testimonials, and other recruiters – including staffing firms.
This is why recruiters and marketers should have a seamless relationship in your company. The best thing you can do is to involve hiring managers and your company’s C-suite in marketing your company to attract the candidates that you are looking for. Make the job candidate a loyal customer of your marketing voice by creating relational content that they can vibe with. And if they do, you are bound to get them in no time.
3. Choose the Right Marketing Channels for your Recruitment Campaign
Once you have engaging and absorbing content for your job candidates, the next step to take is to make sure they see it.
However, note that since this is a Valentine’s campaign geared towards attracting top candidates, you need to be very discerning about where to post your materials. You may need to tweak it a little bit for a successful Valentine’s Day marketing strategy for your candidate’s needs.
Ask yourself these questions, should you hold back a little from posting your materials on generic job boards, aggregators, and niche websites? Must you instead focus on making your presence felt in social media and specific apps in the weeks and days leading to Valentine’s Day?
Must you pursue subtle but targeted partnerships with hotels, fancy restaurants, or resorts for these marketing materials, as these establishments are heavily on-brand on or before February 14?
All this should be considered when selecting the most appropriate marketing channels for your campaign.
4. Offer a Limited-Edition Hiring/Employment Perk for Job Candidates.
Since you are doing a Valentine’s Day campaign as a recruitment strategy, you may also want to offer exclusive perks for job candidates.
For instance, you may offer a more streamlined and expedited recruitment process for job candidates applying on or before February 14. You may also do on-the-spot interviews that cut days, if not weeks, of the hiring process and would be greatly welcomed by job candidates.
Furthermore, another good strategy is to offer a small token or gift to job candidates who will accept their job offer – say, on or before Valentine’s Day. This could be a free voucher for a dinner for two, discount coupons, or even a small but considerable sign-in bonus.
These small but very significant gestures of an employer to job candidates and new hires may also do wonders in improving your branding and company culture. It’s Valentine’s Day, after all. You might as well show your job candidates and new hires some love!
5. Create a Sense of Urgency.
Just as a business owner would treat a Valentine’s Day shopper, make your recruitment campaign time-bound.
Whichever marketing efforts you decide on – be it an email campaign, brand awareness, sms marketing, Facebook ads, or influencer marketing to attract potential job candidates, never miss a beat by excluding the time factor.
Just like a Valentine’s date, never give your job candidates the impression that you will be open to hiring all year round and that job vacancies will never run out in your company (even if this were true). Make all your engagements with them time-bound by setting deadlines and encouraging them to respond as soon as possible.
You may also check this out to learn more insights on how marketing can help maximize your ROI in your company.
Need More Help in your Marketing Strategies? Allied Insight is here for you.
Are you the CEO, owner, or general manager of a staffing firm that needs more guidance in your marketing strategies to stay ahead in this competitive world of talent acquisition? Check us out at Allied Insight. Mindful of your time and thoroughly knowledgeable of the latest industry trends in the staffing world, take your recruiting agency to another level by partnering with us.
Talk to us today, and let’s take your staffing firm to another level!
