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The Best Job Posting Strategy to Get Great Hires!

Written by: Roger Lear
Published on: Sep 19, 2019

Best Job Posting Strategy

 

I was recently putting together a marketing plan for our live career fair event in Orlando, Florida. Knowing that I was going to run a radio schedule, I asked some of my coworkers what radio stations they listen to when they drive to work. I thought I had an excellent demographic representation since we have three generations of employees. To my surprise, sixty percent of my staff listened to ad-free Spotify, and the rest was divided between podcasts, playlists, and news/talk radio. I listen to satellite radio, so I was not ever going to hear these radio commercials either. I started thinking a radio spend may be a bad idea.

However, I ended up meeting with iHeartRadio, and my account manager (Lisette, who is awesome) took the time to go over our goals (drive qualified job seekers to the 120 employers) and she put together an advertising schedule that included seven radio stations and a great message. Our career fair had over 5,000 job seekers attend in very low unemployment (3.1%) in Central Florida. Needless to say, job seekers still do listen to terrestrial radio. I just didn’t (nor do I want to) understand how to pick a radio schedule.

Job posting strategies are very similar. Years ago, if you needed to hire anyone, it was easy because you just ran an ad in the Sunday paper. Even when the first job sites came online (like Monster, CareerBuilder, etc.), they didn’t have much competition as they became the new Sunday paper.

2019 is a whole new game... or is it? As an employer, you have thousands of places to post your jobs. Your goal when you post a job is to get a great hire, period. If you post to just one site, you may get a good candidate, but is it the best candidate? Now throw in machine learning and artificial intelligence, you may be feeling overwhelmed.

What is the best job posting strategy in 2019? The simple answer is to post on job sites where your qualified audience hangs out. The challenge is to understand what this means. Here are some things to consider:

 

  1. Does the site you post use programmatic ad buying?
    Along with our natural search traffic at GreatInsuranceJobs.com, we also invest our client’s revenue into technology that allows your jobs to be seen on other websites at the exact time someone is searching for that specific job. This is done by programmatic ad buying, which uses real-time dynamic machine learning and highly developed algorithms to expand the reach of your job posting beyond GreatInsuranceJobs.com. Our investment in programmatic gets your jobs more targeted views and applications without you having to post on multiple sites. Sounds high tech because it is but just like when I was trying to understand how to buy radio ads, I don’t need to understand how it is done as long as I can reach my goal. When job posting, it is qualified applications and eventual hires.

 

  1. Posting your jobs on niche websites is still a big deal.
    No matter who you may be looking to hire, there is probably a job board that specializes in that sector or location. We tell our clients, while we may be able to get you applications for your technology openings, you should post those jobs on tech job sites. The challenge is to identify the leaders in each niche. The easiest way to do this is to Google key terms like “Java Jobs in Atlanta” and see what job boards appear in the search results. The next thing you HAVE to do is call their offices and speak to an account manager. If you can’t find a phone number or no one picks up or returns your call, this usually means this is a has-been job board. The niche sites prospering right now have great staffs that embrace new technology so they can deliver results for their clients.

 

  1. Branding your job postings is a must.
    No matter where you post, make sure you brand your job postings with things like your social profiles, pictures, videos, and testimonials. Each job posting today is its own website, and when a job seeker lands on this page, the more you can engage them, the more applications you will receive. Niche boards can rock your brand! This is what makes them stand out from generic job boards like Indeed. Most significant, generic job boards are listing services for active candidates with every job no matter what level looking exactly the same. Outstanding branding with niche boards will put your company in lights!

 

  1. Make sure your job posting websites are mobile-friendly and have a mobile application.
    Over 50% of job traffic comes from mobile devices. No matter where you post your jobs, make sure the job seeker can easily read your job and apply using their phone. This is a significant issue with those who redirect to your applicant tracking system (ATS) since most of those are not mobile-friendly. The workaround is a short application that delivers an email to the job seeker to complete the application at a later time. Statistics show that less than 15% of mobile applications ever get finished. Hard to believe that in 2019, this issue has not been solved for mobile device users.

 

  1. Understand how each job board uses social media to build your employment brand.
    Successful job boards have some element of social media marketing. When you speak with them, ask them how they use their social media platforms for marketing your jobs and employment brand directly. This helps cast your net of job awareness even further.

 

Bottom line is even with thousands of places to post jobs, after the top generic websites and the leading niche websites, if you post to at least three sites that meet the above points, you will be shocked how the quality (not quantity) of applications will improve. As a bonus, a great human account manager at each of these sites will also make your recruiting life easier!