Marketing and Public Relations Ideas for Recruiting

Every day, thousands of job candidates look for a job. They begin by looking for a publicized opening or contacting a third-party recruiter. Once they see or hear about a position that interests them, they begin to research the company. This may include checking the company’s website, joining online chat rooms or forums about your company or industry, searching online, contacting friends or family that may know or have worked for your company, going to their social media communities, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Recruiting an “employed” (passive) professional, now means that a company must have a much more sophisticated marketing and public relations (PR) approach to recruiting. Improving your visibility will help with your recruiting efforts and your ability to attract the best possible candidates as new employees.

Promote Your Company As A Great Workplace

One of the primary ways of convincing applicants to work for your company is by building your company and its brand as a great place to work. This is where a consistent flow of PR and marketing is essential to having a successful recruiting process. This means creating a public image of your company whereby a quality candidate is going to look to your company to give them not only financial opportunities, but also a career where they can grow with the company. Today’s job hunters want to work for companies that will train them for the next job.

Take a few minutes a day and join chat rooms, forums and social media discussions about your industry. Look at where the people are going that you want to recruit. Review the blogs specific to your industry.

One of the best ways to get the word out about your company is to have the support of your executives to consistently promote your company as a great place to work. When any executive speaks internally or externally, they must mention how important recruiting is for the future of the company. It doesn’t need to take long, just a few seconds every time they speak.

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Working With A Creative Agency

The following overview will help you become familiar with creative process and give you an understanding of your role in ensuring the success of your projects when working with your creative agency.

S t e p  1 – Assign A Project Manager

Assign one company staff member as the decision maker and contact person for working with your creative agency. This person should be prepared to be available when needed, be ready to make decisions in a timely manner and be responsible for getting the necessary approvals
from within your company.

S t e p  2 – Your Creative Brief

It is important to establish clear direction at the onset of a project. This ensures that everyone has a common understanding of what is to be accomplished.

The best way to do this is to work with your creative agency’s Account Executive (AE) to establish clear objectives and expectations on the outcome of your project. The AE should ask you a series of questions in order to create a design brief for the project. A design brief is important in defining project goals and objectives, identifying audiences and key messages, establishing a budget, setting a completion date, and identifying the desired outcome and how it will be measured. This should be given to the creative team and used as a reference throughout the design process.

Working closely and clearly communicating with your AE is the best way to ensure your project’s success. You must articulate your project objectives, establish processes and ensure that the creative agency has access to what it needs from you to complete the project on time and within budget.

S t e p  3 – Initial Research

An agency’s job is to create strategic communications that will establish a distinct position for your company, your products and services. In order to do this effectively, they should work to understand your business and objectives. Their initial research should include a review of your competitor’s and company’s current communications, marketing messages and activities.

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Proactive Media Relations Will Increase Your Brand Visibility

Companies should welcome and encourage attention from the media. If you aren’t getting press coverage, you should be taking steps to increase your company’s brand visibility.

The process begins with establishing and maintaining good relations with reporters, editors and broadcasters – on and offline. Good media relations are not one-shot events. They are relationships that you carefully build and maintain over time.

Media relations can help your company gain marketplace attention, providing clarity and credibility to help move your customers and prospects to buy your products and services; news stories will reinforce a positive brand image of your company.

The goal of a media relations program is to build business in your markets by creating an image of your company as the best provider of your type of products and services.

Your company can generate a considerable amount of good will, customer loyalty and new business by a proactive, continuing media relations program. To achieve this, you should actively seek media coverage on an ongoing basis, and not wait for reporters to call your business. Under a proactive media relations program, you will initiate contacts with the media on a regular basis.

Media Relations Requires Commitment From Top Management

A proactive program requires the commitment and involvement of top management; they need to be available to the media and cooperate with your public relations (PR) staff or an outside agency in seeking out media opportunities.

A successful media relations program includes routine announcements of personnel changes and promotions, calling attention to community projects, and promoting operations and activities unique to your company. It also requires positioning your company’s top managers as thought leaders in the community and your industry by offering comments and reactions to events that affect your industry and company.

A proactive program will build lasting relationships with reporters and editors, so that they will get in touch with your company when preparing stories and needing an expert opinion.

The key to becoming a reporter’s source of news is to follow these four simple rules. Know

  • The publication, radio station or broadcast network that you are sending information to.
  • The reporter who would be the most interested in receiving your information.
  • When to call the reporter.
  • How to pitch a good story.

Developing a solid and effective media relations plan requires

  • Researching past and current media coverage and public opinion of your company. You need to evaluate the overall market and factors that affect your organization.
  • Identifying and developing your goals and objectives for your communication efforts.
  • Determining your intended audience and what you want them to know.
  • Developing your message before contacting a member of the media. Make sure your message is easily understood, pertinent and motivating.
  • Knowing the right media source before you need them; this will allow you to reach your target audience.
  • Keeping the press informed of what is happening at your company and supplying information that allows them to write newsworthy content.

Media Relations is a Year-round Responsibility

Good media relations take place year-round with you exchanging and providing relevant and newsworthy information about your company to the media.

You need to measure the results of your communications to determine its effectiveness and any needed improvements. Over time, media coverage and placements will build and create awareness of your company and have a positive effect helping to generate sales.

Developing and carrying out an effective media relations publicity program takes a lot of work, and requires constant attention, measurement and evaluation. Yet, it’s well worth it!