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Previously, we showed you how to invest in attracting candidates and building your talent pools. (Read the article) You’ve done the groundwork to ensure they’re filled with quality talent. But what happens next? Now, it’s time to keep these candidates engaged to ensure your talent pools don’t become a forgotten repository, one that feels more like a black hole than an engaging source of future hires.
In this post, we’ll explore how to engage your talent pool with Recruitment Marketing, turning it into a proactive asset that keeps your candidates interested, involved, and ready when you need them.
Why Engagement Matters in Recruitment Marketing
Recruitment Marketing doesn’t stop at getting candidates to apply for jobs or encouraging Talent Community sign ups. The hard work is keeping all of your potential candidates engaged. Engaged candidates are more likely to respond positively to job opportunities, and they have a better perception of your employer brand. Disengaged candidates lead to lower conversion rates and higher costs, as you struggle to re-engage cold candidates or seek new ones.
According to PageUp People, the process of nurturing talent pools is an ongoing cycle. The key to success lies in maintaining active relationships, which can significantly reduce the time-to-hire when a suitable role arises. It’s not just about filling roles but about creating meaningful connections that turn passive candidates into active prospects.
Building Profiles and Personalising Engagement
Understanding who is in your talent pool is the first step towards creating an effective engagement strategy. One-size-fits-all messaging will quickly fall flat, instead, focus on building detailed candidate profiles that capture each individual’s preferences, interests, and motivations.
For example, some candidates might prefer email updates, while others might respond better to SMS or social media. Some candidates will prefer updates about career opportunities others will prefer content which brings to life organisation culture, benefits or latest news. Over time, you should build a profile for each candidate, identifying their preferred engagement channel, frequency of contact, and specific interests. By understanding these factors, you can tailor your engagement efforts for maximum impact.
A tailored, two-way communication plan is crucial for sustaining long-term interest. Engagement is not just about reaching out, it's also about making it easy for candidates to update their preferences, share updates, or schedule catch-ups with your team. This dynamic approach not only personalises the candidate experience but also helps keep your data current and relevant.
Encouraging Candidates to Enrich Their Profiles
As candidates engage with your content, look for ways to encourage them to update their profiles regularly. This not only keeps your data fresh but also helps you gauge candidate readiness. Candidates who frequently update their profiles, add new skills, or engage with your content can signal higher levels of interest.
One effective tactic is to offer incentives for candidates to complete profile updates, such as access to premium content, networking opportunities, or even career coaching sessions. Additionally, you can use these updates as touchpoints to deepen your relationship with the candidate and assess their readiness for future roles.
Candidate Segmentation: Quality vs Engagement Framework
Once you have full and current profiles for your candidates, next comes segmentation. Segmentation is key when it comes to managing engagement. By categorising candidates into hot, warm, and cold segments, you can tailor your approach to each group’s level of interest and readiness.
Hot candidates are those ready to move now. They require high-touch, personalised engagement, such as direct phone calls or face-to-face meetings.
Warm candidates are interested but not immediately looking. Maintain a moderate level of contact, such as regular email updates or occasional calls.
Cold candidates are those not currently interested in moving. Keep them in the loop with general updates, newsletters, or industry content.
Using data points like profile updates, response rates, and content engagement, you can dynamically update these segments, ensuring that you focus your efforts on the candidates most likely to convert.
In addition to this, you can also classify candidates by their suitability to the role: Low, Medium or High. Combine the two together and you get a fancy matrix that shows you exactly how to focus your efforts.
For example, your “Cold & High” candidates should get the brunt of your efforts, as they are extremely valuable candidates that are not engaged. You want to try to move them up to warm and then hot gradually, without scaring them off.
On the other end of the spectrum, “Hot & Low” candidates are extremely engaged but don’t fit any of your roles. You want to keep these people “on the hook” with lots of high-touch content so that when a role does come up that matches them, they are ready to go.
Candidates in “Cold & Low” can basically be ignored, while “Hot & High” candidates should be those you prioritise for direct phone calls and face-to-face engagement.
Leveraging Automation
Managing your talent pools at scale can be daunting, but that’s where AI and automation come in. Tools powered by AI can help you track engagement levels and automatically segment your pool into ‘hot,’ ‘warm,’ and ‘cold’ candidates. This allows you to prioritise high-touch engagement with those who are ready now and send more general updates to those who might be interested in future opportunities.
Automation can also assist with drip campaigns, which nurture candidates over time. By setting up a sequence of emails or messages, you can keep candidates informed about relevant company updates, industry news, or content that adds value to their professional growth. Automated messages can be personalised based on candidate profiles, ensuring that each candidate receives content that resonates with them.
Top tips
Your choice of CRM is an important enabler for drip campaigns. The very best will allow you to use a call to action (CTA) as a trigger or a condition to execute one or another next step in the campaign. e.g. if the previous email was opened or a URL was clicked or a form was completed then send email 2. If previous email was not opened send email 1 reminder.
Remember: TalentTech can assist you to select the right CRM for your requirements.
Creating a Content Calendar for Consistent Engagement
Now, the fun bit. A content calendar is an invaluable tool for ensuring you have a steady flow of relevant content going out to your talent pools. When building your calendar, start by identifying possible content themes and consider a mix of content types that will engage candidates at different stages of the candidate lifecycle.
For example, you could send:
Profile update requests: ask the candidate to review and update profile i.e. to keep it fresh. Collect new information from candidates to build a richer deeper profile.
Employee testimonials: What better way to show how great it is to work for your company than from your employees themselves?
Company updates: Share insights into company culture, upcoming events, and success stories.
Industry news: Highlight trends, challenges, and opportunities within your sector.
Learning and development opportunities: Offer resources that can help candidates grow professionally, such as webinars, articles, and training programs.
Job alerts: Notify candidates about new opportunities that match their skills and interests.
A well-structured content calendar ensures you maintain consistent engagement without overwhelming your candidates. Aim for a cadence that aligns with the preferences you’ve gathered in your candidate profiles.
Top tips
Have fun and brain storm with your team to create an initial list of content ideas
Start low tech and digitise later. When you're in the 'thinking' stage, use a white board or pen and paper to capture ideas.
Review and Improve
Now that you're started with Recruitment Marketing, it’s essential to regularly review content performance and iterate accordingly. Analysing the reach, engagement and conversion of your previous content allows you to identify what resonates with your audience and what falls flat. This process isn't a one-time task but a continuous effort to stay aligned with your audience’s evolving interests and behaviours.
Typically a detailed review or content performance will yield insights about the best content themes, content format and use of media formats (images, blogs, videos), and the targeting criteria. Use these insights to refine your content calendar.
Top tips
Use A/B testing results will significantly enhance your Recruitment Marketing efforts.
Focus on what time of the day generates the best results. If your audience is multi country then consider splitting up your campaigns by time-zone.
What to do now? Getting Started
Ready to turn your talent pool into a source of engaged candidates? Here are some quick tips to help you get started:
Create a content calendar: Plan a mix of content types to engage candidates across different stages. A regular schedule ensures that candidates stay engaged and informed.
Set up drip campaigns: Drip campaigns keep candidates warm by delivering valuable content over time. They are an excellent way to maintain contact without overwhelming candidates.
Encourage profile updates: Find creative ways to motivate candidates to enrich their profiles. This keeps your data fresh and helps you gauge interest levels.
Segment your talent pool: Use engagement metrics to identify hot, warm, and cold candidates. This helps you allocate resources effectively and tailor your outreach based on candidate readiness.
Use candidate preferred comms channels: Don’t fall into the trap of assuming all candidates want to receive emails. Mix it up to make it feel personal, if you have SMS integrated with your ATS/CRM use short form messages for quicker call to action.
Measure what works (& converts): Regularly review your past Recruitment Marketing content to pinpoint what works and what doesn’t. Do more of what works and experiment and improve what's not performing.
Making Recruitment Marketing Work for You
An engaged talent pool is a powerful asset that can significantly reduce time-to-hire and improve hiring outcomes. By focusing on personalisation, leveraging AI and automation, and maintaining consistent engagement, you can prevent your talent pools from becoming black holes.
Remember, engagement is an ongoing process. By continually assessing and adapting your strategy, you can ensure that your talent pool remains a dynamic resource that supports your recruitment goals. With thoughtful planning and a candidate-centric approach, you can transform your talent pool into a well-oiled recruitment engine that delivers results when you need them.
Recruitment Marketing is about creating a relationship with candidates. When you actively engage and nurture your talent pool, you create a candidate experience that’s more than just transactional. It’s about building trust, staying top-of-mind, and positioning your organisation as a preferred employer. So don’t let your talent pools become black holes - start nurturing, engaging, and maximising the potential of your talent pool today.
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We offer a full suite of services around and key service lines: Tech Stack design, Implementation and Talent Operations as a Service.
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