5 Pieces of Content That Will Re-Engage Your Existing Candidates

This year, 56% of agencies surveyed by us said they intend to combat the challenges of the candidate shortage by re-engaging candidates in their CRM. But it’s no secret that re-engaging candidates is easier said than done! It takes skilful planning and execution.

Before you start tackling the list of unengaged candidates in your CRM, it's important to recognise this isn’t a one-message-fits-all situation.  For your content to work, you first need to dive into your CRM, cleanse your database and identify the most promising candidates. That way, you’ll be able to speak directly to them which is crucial for re-engagement!

Here are five content ideas to help you boost engagement, and place more candidates…

1. Industry insights 

Industry insights, such as data from your CRM or external recruitment statistics, are powerful tools that can be used to re-engage candidates by educating them on their place on the market.

The idea is to leverage statistics that show a candidate exactly how their current role fares against similar positions, or better still, show them exactly what they’re missing out on!  

Think about it: would you stay at a company that’s continues to pay well below average and has 0 company perks? Sharing up-to-date statistics on the average salary in their niche, or the number of companies in their sector now offering extra benefits is the kind of attention-grabbing content that’ll warm them up to the idea of moving.

Using a free design tool, create a graphic or graph will help make the insights jump out of the page and catch a candidate's eye. And if you’ve spent any time building your personal brand, this will be great content to share across your socials too.

2. Candidate success stories

Candidates are sometimes reluctant to move roles because they’re afraid of change, or worse, failure – especially after the last few years of uncertainty!

If you want to get them to be open to moving roles, you've got to provide solutions to any worries they have. Candidate success stories are great for providing reassurance and showing them you're the recruiter that can take care of their needs.

Something as simple as a few paragraphs, or graphic that tells a succinct story of a candidate you placed in their dream job is exactly the type of proof candidates need.

To get your story together, reach out to a well-placed candidate and, with their permission, get a testimonial and build out an anonymised candidate profile. The goal is to help candidates see themselves in the story so include age, industry and even what they were looking for in a role.

Based on the testimonial, the story should talk up what they loved about the process, your services and their new job. You could take it a step further and add in a client testimonial, or a simple list of the benefits (wage increase or promotion) you secured for the happy candidate in question.

3. Video content 

Job ads that feature a video get 800% more engagement than those that don’t. With this in mind it’s easy to see why video is fast becoming the go-to medium for improving engagement across the board.

Here are three ways to utilise the power of video and bring it into your re-engagement efforts:

• Talk up industry insights and how they relate to the candidate – Once you’ve gathered some enticing industry insights, bring them to life on video. This is a great way to educate candidates, show off your industry expertise and stand out from the crowd.
• Ask a candidate to film their success story – Storytelling is powerful because it creates memories and engages human emotion. If you’re close enough to a previous candidate, why not ask them to share their story on screen? This can also double a video testimonial for your website.  
• Create video job descriptions for your live vacancies – These days, candidates are hit with so many vacancies, so to cut through the noise you need to switch things up! Instead of reaching out with a generic job description, talk about the roles you have on and what makes them exciting on video. It’s all about adding colour to your process and video can do just that!  

4. Something real and emotional

The recruitment process is an emotional rollercoaster for candidates: When they find the perfect role, they experience joy but they can just as easily feel disappointment if they don’t get a job offer. 

As a recruiter, it’s your job to create a candidate journey that is full of positive emotions. So how can you be more real and emotional?

First off, don't settle for standard email templates, instead edit them to be less generic. A good way to do this is to write them in the same tone and personality you use on your professional social accounts. Something as simple as adding a sign-off you regularly use in place of "Yours Sincerly" can make all the difference. By being more like yourself, you’ll come across less like a robot (even on your bulk sends!).

Reaching out on a one-to-one basis may seem time-consuming, but your CRM is full of notes on candidates. By including something personal, you'll make that all-important human connection and ultimately increase your chances of re-engaging (and placing) them.

A huge part of re-engaging candidates can be done by automating your communications. It's a great way to engage more, with less graft. To find out how to get started, download the eBook below.