Last week talked about why graduate recruiters might be wasting resources looking for talent in all the wrong places and provided some tips for bringing talent to you with an effective ‘pull’ marketing strategy

Pull is tougher to achieve as we’ve mentioned. But the value and quality you’ll experience is well worth the effort.

So, how are you going to populate your communications calendar?

THE CHALLENGE

How can we hope to influence the way people feel about us when:

Your audience is extremely skeptical
The market is overcrowded and full of noise
The competition is fierce
Push marketing isn’t listened to
Corporate speak just doesn’t cut it

THE ANSWERS

Be human!
Be helpful!
Be valuable!

Actions such as targeted emails, campus marketing, careers fairs, sponsorship, brochures, driving likes on social are all great to build the brand presence. But the critical question is “what are you telling them that no one else is?”

Are you simply telling them that they’ll get great development and fast track to management, with a great total benefits package and flexible working hours with a strong social culture? If so, then you’re saying the same as everyone else. You’re focusing on the functional benefits of the brand.

What experience are you providing that’s going to start a two-way conversation? Are you just doing a nice creative campaign that’s telling people you’re a great destination for anyone with a 2:1 in computer science? Or are you really engaging people at a deeper level, and demonstrating this through a great experience?

What content are you sharing with your community that’s helping them out? Are you providing useful insight into the direction the industry is taking? Do you even have a content marketing strategy?

If you have any hope of gaining trust and building advocacy, then you need to become a source of value. The best way to do that is by being helpful, being human and by sharing valuable content. It has to be sincere and well planned with no sales angle or perceivable benefit to you.

Next week we’ll back to talk about social onboarding. Stay tuned, and thanks for reading.