A lot of talent acquisition teams want to use content marketing to improve their talent brand because the benefits are real: a LinkedIn survey found a strong employer brand translates into a 50 percent savings in cost-per-hire and a 28 percent lower turnover rate.
And that doesn’t even factor in a stronger quality-of-hire, which can exponentially increase the overall health of your company.
The problem is many recruiters have little experience in content marketing, so when they hear people talk about executing a content marketing strategy, they think they need this:
The reality couldn’t be further from the truth.
An effective content marketing campaign doesn’t even require you to create any content at all. Or, the content you create doesn’t have to be much different than content you might be creating already in your personal life, on sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Really, all it takes to start a successful content marketing campaign for your talent brand is a good plan, which can be built following the three steps below. And, as a bonus, we threw in a few free tools for you as well.
Step 1: Visualize your audience and create audience personas
To help you define your audience, create an actual person that represents each target market you want to reach. For most companies, this is probably around three or four people representing vital roles you need to hire for.
I know this may sound unnecessary, but if you have an image of the type of person you are trying to attract, figuring out what content they want instinctively becomes easier. Here are some examples:
Step 2: Decide how you will source content for your talent brand
Now that you have an idea of what type of content your targets want, it’s time to figure out who’s going to produce it. There are two options here: either someone in your company will create it or you’ll curate it.
Here is an example of what type of content you should be curating/creating for your social media talent brand posts:
For industry news, perhaps it is easier for you to share a post from Bloomberg. Conversely, for innovations and news from within your company, you can share your company’s press release on the topic.
Bottom line, it doesn’t really matter where the content is coming from, so long as your targets see you as a meaningful and trustworthy information provider.
Something worth remembering - every piece of content doesn’t have to be a 1,500-word blog post. A picture of your colleagues enjoying a company outing or a short video of your CEO doing the ice bucket challenge are two great pieces of content that are as effective as any New York Times piece.
Some rules to live by when creating your own content:
Step 3: Develop a content plan and map it out in an editorial calendar
Okay, you know what type of content your people will want and how you’ll get it. Now, it's time to create a realistic content marketing plan.
To get that done, feel free to download this editorial calendar template.
A calendar will allow you to map out all the content that you will be posting any given week or month and make sure you have the right mix. It will also help you keep track of the personas you are targeting and where you are posting each talent brand message. By having everything structured, it makes your campaign much more manageable.
Here’s an example of a strong content calendar:
Of course, this plan will change as you find out what works and what doesn’t. But by building a plan to begin with, you ensure your content marketing plan doesn’t become just another flavor of the month.
Final thought
Creating content to promote your talent brand doesn’t have to be a burden. Truth is, people create content all day long on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram and thousands of other sites for free, because they enjoy doing it.
You just have to start doing it. By building a plan first, it quickly turns a mountain into a mole hill.
Of course, that’s just the beginning. To truly become a content marketing ninja, download our free ebook on How to Boost Your Talent Brand Through Content.
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Topics: Employer brand
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