Brand awareness and SEO - the recruitment long game

When it comes to attracting great people, there’s no shortage of places to put your recruitment budget. But more and more in-house recruitment teams are realising that the real magic happens when candidates come looking for your brand, not just for a job.

Quality over quantity

Increasingly, recruiters are starting to realise that candidates who apply through your careers site, rather than from a job ad on a third party system, tend to be better matches, stay longer, and become ambassadors for your brand. This is because they’ve intentionally checked out your brand and have decided that they want to work for you.

The infamous ‘Chad and Cheese’ backed this up beautifully in their recent podcast live from Unleash America. In one of the most insightful interviews we’ve seen in ages, the wonderful Meghan Rhatigan, VP of Talent Acquisition Experience at Marriott, talked openly about how they’re driving high quality applications. In the video, Megan talks about how Marriott’s focus on driving organic traffic to their website results in the best quality candidates who stay the longest.

Playing the long game

Good recruitment marketing isn’t always about the here and now, it’s about planting seeds for tomorrow too. The more visible your employer brand is, through clear messaging, smart SEO, and useful, engaging content, the more likely it is that future applicants will think of you first when they’re ready to move.

We were fortunate enough to work with Marriott when they opened the Marriott Gaylord Convention Centre - a brand-new hotel and event space in California. They needed to hire a large team of F&B and customer service staff. crooton ran a multi-channel campaign that reached both active job seekers and the passive candidates who weren’t necessarily looking, but might just be tempted by the right offer (especially from a big name like Marriott!)

We drove potential candidates to the Marriott Gaylord careers site by geofencing competitor hotels and local restaurants, blended with a keyword targeting and retargeting campaign. As a result, they filled 108 positions and established a strong pool of interested candidates for upcoming roles.

A smarter way to invest

When your website and employer brand are working well, each £1 spent on building awareness and organic reach can be worth far more than £1 spent purely on job board sponsorship.

With several industry experts claiming that applicants who apply through organic sources are hired up to 3 times more often than those from job boards.

Smarter together

When people search for your brand and land on a clear, engaging careers page, you’re not just filling one vacancy, you’re creating a pool of future hires who already want to be part of what you’re building. You’re not just buying clicks, you’re building relationships.

The bottom line

Building awareness, optimising your site, and telling your employer story well is an investment that pays for itself over and over. It makes every other part of your hiring more effective, including your paid channels.

So next time you’re planning your budget, ask: How can we make it easier for the right people to find us, and want to stay?

‍