Candidate recommendations are more powerful than any form of marketing or advertising you’ll ever pay for. And whilst it can be difficult to control how many glowing candidate reviews you receive, what you can control is what you do with the reviews you do get.
Recent research has revealed that 85% of consumers trust online reviews just as much as they do personal recommendations, so it makes sense to make them a big focus of your recruitment marketing and employer branding strategy.
Your happy candidates are your best marketers – here’s how to make the most of them!
Make it easy to leave reviews
If you’re serious about using online reviews as a marketing tool, you’re going to need some material (aka reviews!) to work with. So think about the different channels available for candidates to leave reviews on and make sure these pages are live, look professional and represent your brand well.
For example, have you set up a Google My Business listing? You can’t get Google reviews unless you have one – here’s how to set it up. Other options to think about would be Glassdoor reviews, Facebook reviews and even creating a space on your website where candidates can leave them directly.
Bonus tip: Optimize your reviews
On most platforms, you can ‘upvote’ the reviews you find most helpful. It’s a good idea to keep an eye on things and periodically upvote your favourites to ensure they’re the most visible.
Make reviews easy to find on your website
Research has found that 63% of consumers are more likely to trust a website that has reviews on it – and it’s no different when it comes to candidates.
The great thing about hosting reviews on your own website is that you can choose the ones you’re most proud of or that you think reflect your USP (unique selling point) really well so you pull in the right candidates.
To make your glowing reviews a real seller on your website, try to make them one of the first things they see. You could display your favourites in a carousel on your website homepage, for example, or create a ‘reviews’ button in the navigation menu. Essentially, you just want to make it as easy as possible for anyone visiting your website to stumble upon solid social proof that you really are as great as you say you are.
Use video testimonials
Straight-up text reviews are undeniably powerful, but doing something a bit different with your reviews or repurposing your review content is when you really put your marketing skills into practice.
Testimonial videos are a brilliant way to catch attention and peak interest. There are two ways you can approach this, depending on whether you’re part of an in-house team or at a recruitment agency:
- Agency - create short videos with candidates saying how you helped them find their dream job
- In-house team – create videos of current employees talking about how much they love working for your brand.
Shout about it on social
Social media is the easiest way to attract new candidates to your business, so make your first impression count by posting your best reviews across all your social platforms.
Creative and eye-catching content tends to perform better on social media, so don’t just copy and paste reviews into a standard post. Repurpose quotes by turning them into images, or even an animated video, in order to sell particular strengths of your service. This way, you can highlight your USPs at the same time as reviving and reusing older reviews.
Sharing positive reviews on social media also creates momentum and motivates others to do the same, so this should encourage more candidates to submit positive words about their experiences with your brand.
Pulling in candidate reviews is a great way to improve your branding, whether you’re an in-house team looking to improve your employer branding or an agency looking to boost your overall branding.
And if it’s the latter you’re looking to work on, we’ve got just the eBook for you:
