What if we told you that you could come across your dream job tomorrow… and not recognize it because the landing page fails to deliver the message. This happens more often than you might think! Whether you’re a recruitment marketeer, performance marketer, or an employer branding professional, having a set of marketing skills gives you a distinct advantage, and the keyword is content.

“Recruitment IS marketing. If you’re a recruiter nowadays and you don’t see yourself as a marketer, you’re in the wrong profession.”

–Matthew Jeffrey, global head of sourcing and employment brand at SAP

Wonderkind is here to help: we’re giving you some free tips on how to build your content kit to attract the talent you need. We’ll start with SEO, then we’ll move over to text and page structure, and finally we have some tips on visuals and how to use them. 

Pick your keywords – and stick with them! 

A landing page needs to be landed on, preferably by the right candidate. Everything starts with being found. Here are a few pointers on how to improve your SEO ranking.

Take a mental picture of who you’re talking to. 

Having a clear image of your target in mind at all times will help you make choices later on in the process. A typical mistake here is to make your description too narrow or too wide. Too narrow and you might not get many applications. Too wide and you’ll get applicants who aren’t qualified.

Create a list of relevant keywords. 

Ask the hiring manager(s) which keywords are important for the profile you’re trying to attract. Keep it simple: around 5-10 is enough, maybe even less if the profile is very specific. Operators of heavy machinery might be searching based on which VAPRO certificate they have, while web developers might be looking for “Ruby on Rails” or its eponym RoR.

Rank the desired skills for your listing. 

Make sure the essential terms are at the top, and that they return at least 3 to 4 times throughout the listing. Non-essential terms are best used sparingly but keep them in there anyway: they might help someone stumble across your listing. 

Try to vary the language as much as possible because “unique” pages are always prioritized by search engines. Copy-pasting your text over hundreds of pages? Google knows and might push you to page 5 or 6 of search results.

How to make your landing page stand out?  

So you have your text all lined up and ready to go, full of saucy search terms that will sway any applicant. Excellent! Time to move on to the visual side of things. Here you’ll want to look out for several psychological triggers: 

Put the brand forward.

If your landing page looks different from the rest of your website, it can lower trust among prospective candidates. The recruitment section can have its own look, but make sure it aligns with your brand style. 

Keeping it recognizable serves another purpose: it will help people remember your brand. When candidates notice they’ve visited similar-looking pages, they’ll realize that this is probably a company for them to keep an eye on. 

Make it easy to navigate.

Marquee elements should be available at a glance: salary, working hours, and location deserve a spot at the top. Don’t forget to give links to your company info and team pages a prominent spot either, people will want to find out more about you. Allow people to access your other job openings as well. Openness is valued.

Go easy on the text.

Fitting all the information about a job on one page is a challenge, and wanting to say absolutely everything is a common pitfall. We advise you to try to keep the top half of the page simple. 

A few headlines, some keywords, and a rough outline of the job. The rest of the text can be on the lower half of the page. Don’t worry: if your reader is interested, they’ll scroll down or click through. 

Don’t be afraid to get graphic! 

Stock photography works great for ads and general communication. But to get the feeling exactly right for your company pages, nothing beats creating your own assets. An investment in custom visuals will see people stay on your page longer, will make them understand your messaging better, and can provide a clear picture of what you’re all about.

Invest in quality photography of employees and offices.

We’re biologically hardwired to notice faces. Couple that with the fact that nearly 80 percent of millennials look at people and culture fit when considering prospective employers, and you can see how these visuals are one of the most powerful factors that decide whether someone will apply. 

By showing real employees, you raise your credibility and show that you as a company care about the people that work for you. Plus, the fact that your employees don’t mind being on the company website shows they feel the same way, and are proud to be working there.  

Do not be afraid to explain things using visuals.

Reading comprehension is deteriorating worldwide. Your applicants might be smart, but even the smartest among them are molded by a world that’s becoming increasingly visual. 

Eye-tracking tests also show that images keep you looking at a page longer, and raise conversion rates. Bonus points for making these visuals say something about your company, for instance by using infographics. 

Video is the future.

One of the biggest challenges in recruitment can be giving candidates a feeling for what a company is and does. They can take your word for it… or you can show them. 

Are you repeatedly hiring for the same position? Consider creating short videos with an employee in said position explaining what they do. Hiring for a company that applicants struggle to get a feeling for? Make a short company video that features several employees talking about why they love working there, or show the working environment. Honesty and openness are valued in this context. 

These are just a few best practices you can use to get inspired for what your content should look like. ​​Need help getting people to land on your brand-new, carefully designed job section? Wonderkind has the solution. Our easy-to-use platform makes it simple to spin up creative ads in minutes with campaign templates, a library of stock photos, and instant image cropping. Once ads are running, keep track of performance and spend across all social channels in one overarching dashboard. 

Ready to turbo-charge your talent sourcing? Check out how Wonderkind works or see it in action.