As a hiring manager, you’re not in the business of selling a product or service, but you are selling something – your workplace as a career opportunity. You need to make your company stand out from the other employers in your field and also persuade candidates that you’re the right choice for them. 

Below are five tips from Toronto recruiters on how to apply marketing strategies to recruiting. 

1. Build your employer brand

In marketing, your corporate brand is paramount. Customers form strong relationships with brands and often pay close attention to their favourite brands’ social values and actions in the community. In recruiting, similarly, your employer brand is a vital part of your identity. It defines your reputation as an employer, including your workplace values and company culture. Just as consumers are more inclined to buy from a brand that is actively promoted and maintained, job seekers are more likely to apply for a job with a company that has a strong, clear employer brand.

2. Treat candidates like customers

As a marketer, you always want your customers to feel they’re getting good value for their money and that they made the right decision in choosing your product over another. With this in mind, consider what selling points could lead a candidate to believe they’d be fortunate to work for your company. Then, across all your candidate touchpoints, from job listing to first interview to offer, focus on communicating these selling points.

3. Create candidate personas

Marketers routinely create buyer personas, which are profiles of a company’s best customers, to optimize their advertising and promotional efforts. Before launching a search, think about creating candidate personas. Factors to consider include the specific motivators, experiences and employee characteristics that are important to your organization. Good candidate personas can significantly elevate your recruiting by ensuring your searches are more targeted and your communications are more focused and relevant.

4. Employ storytelling

Marketing is a form of storytelling, and the best marketers are expert storytellers. Your current employees can be a rich source of unique, compelling stories that could make a big impact on prospective talent. The different ways you can tell your stories include testimonials, video interviews, blog posts and other market-facing content.

5. Use Social Media

You’re looking to find quality candidates and establish relationships with them. Candidates, like everyone else, hang out on social media, and LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are good examples of social media platforms that recruiters can use to connect with prospects. In particular, social media is an excellent way to find and connect with passive candidates, who are difficult to reach through traditional methods.