Writing job descriptions is an art. It forms the very first touchpoint – and first impression – between a company and its prospective employees. While some employers have their job advertisements written by copywriting professionals, most are still stuck with vague templates that get buried under the noise of other job listings vying for the same attention.
From a marketer’s perspective, there’s plenty of untapped opportunity here, especially when you already have a receptive audience to start with! The question is, how do you stand out and capture their attention to drive the desired action. Here are 5 useful marketing tips that we found relevant for a successful job posting!
1. Brevity is key
Think of your job advertisement as any other commercial. You need to get in front of your audience, interest and influence them within a short span of time – 14 seconds to be exact, to decide whether to apply or move on to your competitor’s job ad.
Job seekers today are exposed to plenty of opportunities, along with the convenience of searching on the go with mobile. So it’s no surprise that shorter job posts tend to do much better with higher conversion potential. It’s a tough task not to jampack your job listing with every bit of detail, but if no one is looking, your job ad will only be a waste of money and energy.
Imagine you’re paying for every additional word on the ad, plus an incremental loss of your audience’s attention the longer your job post gets. Take that into consideration and try pitching your role with a single, clear message that can inspire and draw candidates in. This can help you to be more concise and pinpoint the most important information you want to put upfront that sticks to your candidates’ mind!
2. Write for your audience, not for Google
This can be counter-intuitive and even controversial, since it’s almost instinctive to want to write to rank high on search results. After all, the goal is to get as many clicks – applicants in this case – as possible.
But a high-quality job posting, like any content, has to be relevant, useful, and engaging for your audience. That’s what brings people in and gets you your results – plus, search engines actually reward you for that, more than optimizing with keywords!
For instance, while creative, catchy job titles like “jedi” and “guru” headlining your job descriptions may show off your fun and cool culture, most of the time it can be problematic. Likewise for corporate jargons and acronyms, it makes it difficult for candidates to understand the role or even be able to search for it in the first place!
Instead, stand out with job ads that are easy to understand, but not generic and uninformative. This tends to be the downfall of over-relying on job description templates or copying from other job posts.
They “get lost in the huge mass of advertisements that are out there. They speak to anyone and therefore appeal to no one. It’s purely a matter of luck whether suitable candidates will apply.”
Personio
Your selling point should be how you excite your prospective employees about the role. Define what success looks like for them, and the impact they would have on the business.
3. Hiring is a two-way street
Like in marketing, you want to avoid just talking about yourself. It can come across as narcissistic and offers not much value to your audience.
It’s tempting to want to hire a unicorn who fits the bill exactly, but it’s not realistic at all. A long list of criteria scares suitable candidates off where it may not even be a reflection of what the role truly requires. It can also exclude certain demographics, according to a widely quoted statistics.
Instead, prioritize and limit your must-haves to a small number of four to six bullet points, and have a list of nice-to-haves for what’s desirable but not necessarily crucial for the role. This also helps in keeping your job ad concise while getting qualified candidates through the door!
At the same time, think of what’s in it for your applicants and what they would want to know. A LinkedIn study identified compensation (salary range and benefits), qualifications and day-to-day details of the job as the top three components that job seekers look for in a job posting, way more than information about your company.
Use this to your advantage and put forth the value that candidates want to see – and what you can deliver – in your job opportunity.
4. Be inclusive, not exclusive
In job descriptions, it’s not only the requirements that can discourage applicants, but also the language that you use. Having gender-biased words like “strong” and “nurturing” has a proven negative impact on the make-up of your talent pool, and also hurts your diversity effort, especially with 67% of job seekers prioritizing that in their job search.
Needless to say, diversity goes beyond gender. It also includes age, nationality, ethnicity, marital and family status, and more. In fact, statistics show that the economy will be powered by a more diverse workforce, with younger workers from ethnic minority backgrounds and older workers growing to make up a majority.
If it’s not clear by now, it’s paramount to write your job ad in a fair and non-discriminatory manner to both appeal to your candidates and not run into trouble. Countries like the United States and Singapore also have legislations and guidelines governing this to keep bias off the table from the very first touchpoint you have with candidates, i.e. job advertisements.
5. This is not a test
With all the above covered, the one final but crucial touch is actually to proofread your job ad. Not catching typos, be it grammatical or spelling errors, can happen to the best of us, especially if we’re the one writing it!
This might come off as tiny and insignificant, but such mistakes can be embarrassing, and even costly if it ruins your credibility as a serious, professional employer-to-be.
Put yourself in the reader’s shoes and imagine seeing this in a job ad: ‘capable of ruining (running) an office’, recruiting for a ‘resauce manager’ (resource manager) and an ‘ales manager’ (sales manager).
As harsh as it may sound, unless you’re intentionally testing applicants on their language proficiency for a writing position, a careless oversight does not look good in the eyes of your audience.
So rather than undermining all the time and effort that goes into creating your job posting, get a second pair of eyes to review your ad before hitting the Publish button!
Summary
Crafting job ads like a marketing pro requires careful attention to detail and a focus on engaging your target audience. Here’s a summary of the five tips you can implement to create job ads that stand out, attract qualified candidates, and reflect your company’s values and culture.
- Keep your job ads concise and impactful. Focus on a single, clear message that captures candidates’ attention within seconds.
- Create job ads that are relevant, useful, and engaging for your target candidates. Avoid jargon, acronyms, and generic descriptions. Highlight how the role can excite and benefit prospective employees.
- Prioritize the essential qualifications and skills. Provide information on compensation, qualifications, and day-to-day details to attract applicants.
- Use inclusive language that does not discriminate against any demographics. Promote diversity and appeal to a wider range of candidates.
- Proofread to avoid typos and grammatical errors in your job ads. Have someone else review your ad before publishing to ensure its accuracy and professionalism.