How to write a cracking good recruitment advertisement

You’ve got a new opportunity in your organisation and you’re looking to attract great candidates. How can you prevent top talent from skipping over your advertisement or being turned off by your layout or copy? Follow Recruitment Communications and Advertising specialist Elzette Fourie’s effective strategies to craft an effective, attention-grabbing recruitment advertisement that makes people want to apply.

The best recruitment advertisements are eye-catching, concise and engaging. So start by branding your advertisement to catch your ideal candidate’s eye. Craft your language and layout purposefully, and only include the most important details to keep them engaged and enthusiastic about applying.

Marketing and employer branding

For the majority of candidates, online advertisements are a given. But in today’s information age, it can be hard to stand out from the crowd!

Start by personalising your advertisement by branding it with an attractive header and your logo. Do you have a careers video? Video is taking over as one of the biggest recruitment marketing trends. So feature your careers video if you have one.

Talent is becoming more and more scarce. Because people are understandably cautious when moving jobs, you need to have a very good employee value proposition. Have you crafted an authentic employee value proposition that showcases what makes your organisation unique? If it’s passive candidates you’re targeting, you’re asking them to leave their secure job to work for you. So what can you offer them in return?

Language

Keep your advertisement concise and to the point. On that note, don’t make the mistake of using the header, “previous experience”. Experience, by its very definition, has already happened, so the correct term would be simply “experience”. It’s like saying a square block or a round circle. It’s unnecessary!

Avoid using big, confusing words; it adds to candidates’ reading time and can come across as a bit pretentious.

In your advertisement, ensure you speak directly to your target candidate. Simply mentioning “the successful candidate” puts doubt in their minds from the outset. Personalising your approach, using words like “you” and “your” will help the reader visualise themselves in your role.

Layout

If you use a headline, make sure it’s short and makes sense. Don’t put it in just for the sake of having a headline; it should be relevant to the role you are advertising!

It might be a good idea to start with a job title, but ensure you use one that is known to the public and not only internally.

A little tip – don’t “shout” your job title by using CAPITAL LETTERS. Studies have shown that people respond more positively to lower- or sentence case grammar.

Information

It’s always handy to include where the job will be based, especially when advertising online or in a national paper.

Research also reveals that advertisements that include a salary range receive 30% more responses than those that don’t. (Tip: if the salary for your role is not yet confirmed or depends on the experience of the applicant, simply set a wide range, e.g. $60 000 – $80 0000.)

Now that you have the candidate’s interest, win them over by including a sentence or two that flags the most important information about the job. When writing copy for an online job board, try to repeat the job title at least once in your first paragraph.

State what the candidate will be accountable for in their role, but remember to steer clear of internal jargon. Avoid using abbreviations, as this hinders how frequently your advertisement is picked up in online searches.

Now that your potential candidate knows what they’ll do on a day-to-day basis, how about telling them what you need from them? I always suggest keeping this part short and focusing on the most important aspects – education, experience and knowledge. Stay away from soft skills – leave this for the interview phase. (Everyone thinks they have a sense of humour and can communicate well!)

Lastly, don’t make your application paragraph bigger than the rest of your advertisement.

Include the closing date, and the application form or your email address. Ensure your inbox is cleared and working.

Screening questions provide extraordinarily valuable insights into your talent pool, but only ask the most important questions to keep the application process simple. Consider submitting a test to ensure the application portal (or your email) is working, and you are not doubling up on the information you are requesting.

Recruitment advertising is a marketing process. So start with your branding to catch potential candidates’ eyes, personalise your advertisement, and build excitement. Use concise, personal language and only include the most important information relevant to the role. Streamline the application process to make it simple and straightforward for your candidates to apply.

Do you use any of these strategies when crafting a great recruitment advertisement? Let us know in the comments.

Elzette Fourie is a Recruitment Communications and Advertising specialist based in Cape Town. With more than 15 years’ experience in the recruitment advertising industry in South Africa and the UK, her strengths lie in creating advertisements, and social recruitment advertising and targeting. She has strong media relationships which allow her to negotiate the best deals for her clients’ campaigns. Elzette stays effortlessly up to date with the latest trends because of her inherent interests in communications, community and recruitment. Catch her Mondays 4pm – 5pm SAST with co-hosts Tim Barry, Vanessa Raath and Wesley Madziva on the #JobAdviceSA Twitter Chat.