Recruiter Outbound: Your Gateway to Content Marketing.
In order to move to a different future, incremental change needs to happen. That change starts with making the thing that recruiters are already doing—going outbound to candidates—better. And this happens with content, not with more technology.
60-second read (+2:44 video)
There is a different future for the recruiting industry—one that more closely resembles a brand-led consumer buying experience.
But there’s a big gap between that future and the current reality of the industry.
And for some reason, that reality—and ways to improve it—isn't being talked about.
The challenge with being brand-led is that most (almost all) in-house recruiting teams are not in a position to operate that way. They're understaffed, overwhelmed with req loads, and have little to no creative and/or marketing support.
Not to mention, their job depends on filling roles. Building brand sounds nice in theory, but priority lies elsewhere.
Therefore, in order to move to a different future, incremental change needs to happen.
That change starts with making the thing that recruiters are already doing—going outbound to candidates—better.
And this happens with content, not with more technology.
Recruiter outbound is currently the main distribution method for candidate information.
Yet, these channels (InMail, email, etc.) are treated as transactional sales channels.
Switching to a content-led outbound motion begins the evolution of turning a recruiting team into a marketing team.
Here’s what happens:
You simultaneously build brand (aka trust) while increasing conversion rates.
Why? Because you're meeting high-demand candidates who get blasted with shitty messages all day long in a more empathetic and information-led way.
You’re cutting through the BS, respecting everyone’s time, and helping your audience make an informed decision about whether to opt-in or out of your process.
You’re letting the candidate pre-qualify you.
If you value transparency, this is your opportunity to offer ungated information via direct distribution to your consumer—most of whom are not currently in-market actively looking for opportunities.
Start here:
1. Create two core assets: A robust candidate FAQ and a one-pager for each of your priority hiring teams.
2. Share those in outbound recruiter messages with relaxed copy that’s not trying to convert. (Write as you talk.)
[Go 2.0 and turn this into video content by having your recruiter's interview hiring managers and team members. These videos then get shared in outbound + on social.]
What to measure:
Response rates to outbound messages.
Productivity of candidate conversations.
Quality of candidates.
Conversions.
Not clicks. Not views. Just recruiter efficiency and productivity.
By simply doing these two things, you quickly go from being a recruiting team that operates like outbound SDR’s to content marketers sharing information and value.
This shift in mindset and approach is how moving in the direction of being brand-led becomes a both/and, not an either/or.
I’ll be banging this drum for a while. Get used to it.