A big part of the recruitment process is addressing the concerns of today’s potential students and their family members by using higher education branding. Regardless of age and education goals, students are looking for more information to help them make their decision.

Potential students are interested in the intangible qualities that set a school apart and help them picture themselves as part of the student body. They also are concerned about the cost of school and the return on their investment. Furthermore, they want to know about a school’s unique opportunities and strengths. These are questions your school can answer with a strong marketing strategy.

To stand out, your school needs to make connections with potential students and provide the information they need to make an informed choice. How can you do this? There are 3 ways to direct your marketing efforts toward helping students learn more about your school:

1. Bring out intangible qualities

Every school has a story, and that story is shaped by its history, geography, and culture. The intangible qualities of your school, such as student body atmosphere and campus environment, help spin that tale.

Make a list of these qualities in your school, such as cultural diversity, historical events, location, and special traditions. Use that list as a starting point for engaging prospective students with storytelling.

Execute your stories using humor and creativity; avoid complicated business language and stock images. Partner with student ambassadors and student staff for fresh and relevant images and messages.

Video content is an effective way to tell genuine stories. Moreover, video is a medium on the rise, the perfect platform for imaginative storytelling. Break out of the mold by using live streaming platforms such as Facebook Live and Periscope to:

  • Hold Q&As with students about campus life and their favorite aspects of the university
  • Broadcast campus events such as concerts, performances and job fairs
  • Give virtual campus tours
  • Shine a spotlight on professors and students who win awards and graduate with distinction

Infographics and animations are other effective ways to tell stories about your school. Tell a famous (or infamous!) story in your school’s history with animation and recruit a history professor to narrate the story. Additioanlly, use an infographic to explain quirky school traditions or popular cheers at sporting events.

Above all, tell your school’s story in a way that is engaging, encourages interaction and offers a personal touch.

2. Be transparent about costs and financial aid

In addition to wanting to know more about the look and feel of your school, students want to see the price tag. In a 2015 national survey of people ages 16-19, 67 percent were concerned about being able to afford college. Furthermore, 77 percent of those students said figuring out the financial aid process was an obstacle for them in deciding whether or not to go to college. Financial stress among college students has been linked with a higher likelihood to drop classes, withdraw from school and take longer to graduate.

In order to mitigate these worries among prospective students, your school should be prepared with a strategy of financial transparency.

Students want a clear understanding of how much their education will cost and what financial aid is available. They want information on graduation rates, job placement rates, and board certification rates. Of students surveyed in 2015, 64 percent are worried about being able to get a job after graduation. Many students research schools online and are likely to seek out this information before contacting you.

One way to make this information easily accessible is to put it on your website. You may be thinking, “but we already have financial aid and tuition landing pages on our website.” The question is, how easy are they to find? How clear is the information available? Landing pages with vague copy and outdated information may confuse or discourage students.

Dig deep, get specific and be transparent. Providing clear information about your tuition and fees shows a desire to help students plan for college. Furthermore, attach a contact form to your financial aid page to make it easy for students to reach out for more information.

Today’s students are worried about the cost of their education and how to plan for the future. Educate them about the costs and advantages of your school to ease those concerns.

3. Highlight hidden treasures

In addition to the price tag, students are looking for opportunities. Regardless of school size, educating students about standout departments and opportunities informs their decisions.

Does your school:

  • Offer unique research opportunities to students?
  • Provide student leadership and student organization opportunities?
  • Partner with local businesses to offer field experience?
  • Have unique technologies students can access on campus that will be relevant to their industry?
  • Have a department that won awards or set benchmarks?

Some students are undecided on their field of study or want to build their own degrees. But if you’ve set up the necessary structure to provide degree flexibility, make sure students know it’s available.

Older students already in the workforce represent an emerging, non-traditional cohort looking for flexible options. Moreover, online class offerings, a four-day school week or night classes are relevant to these students. Additionally, tailoring your information to address multiple cohorts of potential students makes it easier to attract students who are actively looking for what your school can provide.

Use these tips to examine your branding efforts and identify gaps in information that students are seeking.

Contact us now to learn how you can apply these insights to your recruitment process.

Manufacturing Recruitment Strategy

Worker shortages in manufacturing industry is real. Highly skilled positions remain open as a significant portion of the manufacturing workforce is nearing retirement age. For manufacturers, building and maintaining a robust and skilled talent pool is key for both short-term and long-term hiring success.

Recruitment Marketing as a Relationship Builder, Not Just Candidate Sourcing

Don’t wait to be present until a position is open – consistently position your brand in front of both passive and active job seekers. Consistent branding creates a talent pool who is familiar with your company, benefits, culture and therefore more likely to consider you when looking to make a career change. Top of the funnel marketing tactics such as video and display make your brand presence known.

Build A Connection By Understanding Your Best Potential Candidates 

Develop personas, marketing strategies and campaigns specific to your common open positions. Different positions attract different types of candidates. Understanding the nuances allows you to more directly content with job seekers, to communicate your company story and to welcome them into your culture with a personalized approach. Seek out a recruitment marketing partner with a deep data bench, capable of developing audience segments, media placements and creative to speak directly to specific candidate audiences.

Enhance Your Job Board Presence with Display & Video

Placements on job boards are effective in reaching those actively seeking a position. However, other traditional marketing methods like targeted display and video allow companies to share their full story. More visual formats let prospective candidates see your benefits and experience your culture. Both elements that can cause them to choose you as their next employer – over your competition.

SUCCESS STORIES

Healthcare Recruitment Strategy

A growing aging population, pandemic burnout and a ramp up of traveling nurse opportunities have put a strain on healthcare recruitment. Nurses are in high demand – with an abundance of employment options to choose from. How does your healthcare facility standout in this mad dash for employment?

Invest in the Community You Serve

Healthcare is essential to the community. Consider supporting the community you serve by sponsoring local events, job fairs and awards to keep your organization top-of-mind. Not only will these positive associations bring your organization front and center, it will also generate positive word of mouth among the community – reaching friends and families connected to potential candidates.

Showcase Company Culture

Give a glimpse of what its like to work at your organization on any given day. Show the people who work there, the halls to be walked and the benefits to be had. Video succinctly communicates positive culture through virtual tours, testimonials and more. Written testimonials and other content featuring current employees lend authenticity to your showcase.

Replenish Talent Pools with New Grads

New graduates are critical in helping to fill staffing gaps and to replenish talent pools. Utilize highly targeted strategies to reach new graduates, while still on campus, where they are spending their time. Hyper local mobile targeting puts your organization front and center among soon-to-be-graduating adding you to their consideration set for post-graduation employment.

SUCCESS STORIES

Education Recruitment Strategy

Like most categories of business, education providers are facing faculty and staff shortages. Finding experienced and passionate educators and faculty continues to be a challenge. Education institutions should look beyond salary and benefits to larger strategies to drive interest and applications for the upcoming school year ahead.

Build Your Talent Pool with Year-Round Strategy

Primary education recruitment season begins at the end of the previous school year, with many schools starting from scratch every year. Establishing a year-round recruitment marketing strategy, allows you
to reach faculty and staff considering a change throughout the school year, adding them to your talent pool as the year progresses. Having a year-round plan also puts your institution front and center, outside of the more cluttered traditional recruitment period.

Utilize Your Community As A Recruitment Tool

Your community has the potential to be a unique selling point for your institution. Consider highlighting the quality of life – showing prospective employees the community you serve. Community events, local activities, cost of living and more can have pull over prospective employees looking to make a move or to enjoy a way of life your community offers. Partner with local events, local organizations and even your convention and visitors bureau to generate content about your community.

Job Fairs Help Build Awareness of Your Institution

Passive and Active job seekers join job fairs to learn more about prospective districts and institutions. By merely being present, among your competition, you can ensure that your district or institution is in the consideration set for educators looking to make a career move. Both in-person and virtual career fairs provide additional visibility and awareness for your institution.

SUCCESS STORIES

Warehouse Recruitment Strategy

Warehouses are experiencing unprecedented growth thanks to a shift towards online shopping. As growth continues and timely shipping remains critical, warehouses face a continual shortage of workers.

Tout the Benefits That Make You Stand Out

Warehousing jobs are not historically known for good benefits and upward mobility. With changing demand and increased competition, more warehouse companies are adding long-term benefits and job training to their offerings. As an employer, tout benefits like 401Ks, employer matching and paid training as part of new hire packages. Talk about your openings more as long-term careers vs. short- term or holiday employment for additional appeal.

Get Connected In the Community

Grassroots community efforts and word of mouth tactics still hold strong in warehousing recruitment. Sponsoring local community events and job fairs raises brand awareness in the community, spreads positive sentiment about your organization and jump starts word of mouth. This simple activation makes your organization more likely to be noticed by potential job seekers and considered as a stable, future local employer in a future job search.

Local Jobs, Local Placements

Warehousing recruitment pulls most applicants and new hires locally. Very rarely to companies hire outside of their immediate market. Tap into the local job seeker scene through local job boards, job fairs and other local job posting opportunities. Local job seekers continually use these outlets to find new employment opportunities.

SUCCESS STORIES

Trucking Recruitment Strategy

Facing an aging workforce and increased competition for new talent, the trucking industry struggles to keep recruitment pipelines full and trucking routes staffed. Trucking industries should look to implement full-funnel marketing strategies to not only attract active job seekers but it keep talent pools fresh with new prospects.

Address Trucking Industry Myths

Increase top-of-the-funnel prospects by introducing the benefits of a trucking industry careers to passive job seekers. Address potential concerns head-on, including hours, mileage goals and living conditions while highlighting employment benefits such as 401K matching, healthcare and time off. Video and written content are both great vehicles to communicate this information.

Stay in Touch with Prospects

Deciding to change careers can be a lengthy process for passive job seekers. Keep your talent pool active with periodic communication about your business, job openings and career benefits. Set up an email calendar, reaching out to a list of emails from those who you met at job fairs, submitted an inquiry or sent a full resume. Frequently post about your culture, the trucking industry and openings to keep your followers engaged.

Job Boards Are Important

Trucking applicants remain tapped in to local and regional job boards. A presence on local job boards and job aggregator sites provide you business with bottom of the funnel presence – reaching those interested in the truck industry and actively applying now.

SUCCESS STORIES

Professional Recruitment Strategy

Finding outstanding talent that fits your culture is a concern for any business. Make the most of your time and resources by attracting qualified candidates that can hit the ground running and succeed within your organization. Identify quality talent and cultivate your talent pool with leading recruitment marketing strategies perfect for professional businesses.

Showcase Your Company Culture

Tell the story of your business, your history, your employees and more. The more a prospective employee knows about your operations and culture the more they are able to determine whether they are a match for your organization. Office tour videos, employee testimonials and other visuals can help to show daily life within your company.

Tailor Communications to Open Positions

Instead of deploying blanket recruitment ads for all positions in your company, consider developing custom creative and campaigns for each position. Messaging should focus on key benefits and operations of that role, showcase photos and videos of that segment of your business and speak directly to those candidates. Specific communication, drives more qualified applications – increasing your odds of finding a match while building up your talent pool - than general recruitment ads.

Use Job Boards to Reach Active Job Seekers

Job Fairs, local job boards and job board aggregators remain critical bottom-of-the-funnel tactics in securing applications for open positions. While other flashier tactics will fill the top of your funnel, these more nitty-gritty media elements provide a place for active job seekers to seamlessly apply for the positions they want – now.

SUCCESS STORIES