Chances are most of your marketing is either B2B or B2C.

But how much thought do you put into your B2T (business-to-talent) marketing?

Most SME’s don’t give it much thought & I find that quite strange because those same companies also say that their “people” are their most important assets…

Ask yourself these two questions:

What impact would/does the best talent have on your business?

What impact would/does below-average talent have on your business?

I’m sure the answer to the above questions will be the same for most people. The best talent will generally cost more in the short term, but the investment will usually pay off and result in growth in the long term. Below average staff will cost less in the short-term, but they’ll result in stagnation or failure & a higher cost in the long term.

So, how can you improve your B2T marketing?

Get your marketing people involved in your recruitment advertising. 

Seriously, a job advert should make somebody want to find out more, it shouldn’t be a job description or a photo of a sign saying “we’re hiring”/”new job”.

Make your candidate experience straight-forward, positive & quick. 

If you have a process where people don’t know what’s coming next, you’ll lose out on them. If people go away with a negative experience, it’ll affect your business because NI is a small market & people talk. If you don’t move quickly, you’ll lose out to one of your competitors who’ve realised the importance of moving quickly.

Give everyone that you interview constructive feedback. 

People don’t like wasting their time. If you interview somebody and don’t provide any feedback, you’ll have wasted that person’s time. NI is a small place, people talk. If you don’t provide feedback, it will negatively affect your ability to recruit. You will get people saying: “You’re interviewing at ….? I wouldn’t waste your time, I went there and didn’t hear anything back”

Show appreciation & celebrate the success of your employees. 

B2T marketing isn’t just about attracting new people, it’s about retaining your current talent. It’s important to feedback to them & celebrate their successes.

When people leave, conduct a proper exit interview where you ask for their advice on how to improve as a business. 

You could be doing everything right but you’ll never retain all your staff. When people hand their notice in, treat them well, show that you respect them by asking them how you can improve your business. The more that you understand about your business, the better. Don’t be afraid to hear negative things, if you listen & take action to try to fix the issues, you’ll only improve as an employer.

This might all seem new. That’s because it’s relatively new.

When it came to recruiting talent, companies used to be the buyers – “We’ll just post a job, you’ll apply and then you’ll tell us what you can do for us”. That’s now changed. Now candidates are the buyers – Before people apply to your jobs, they’ll now likely do more research. They’ll google you, look on Glassdoor, look at your website, look on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter etc to get a feel for what you are like as a business. A US piece of research from 2016 found that 72% of people now research a job or employer for over 1-hour before applying for a job. This means that now more than ever, your B2T marketing needs to be on point.

We’re in a candidate-driven market, there are more jobs that there are suitable people to do them. The issue is that lots of SME’s are still trying to recruit how they were 20 years ago… And if you do that, you’ll be unlikely to get the best talent… which means your company will stop growing.

Candidates are the customers. If you want to attract the best, you need to have a strategy in place to attract and retain them. We call this B2T & if this is the first time that you’ve heard of it, we’d be happy to sit down with you to discuss it.

I’m not saying that B2B & B2C marketing isn’t important. What I’m saying is that B2T is also important and it’s something that’s worth thinking about if you’re serious about the growth of your business.

At Corvus, we’re experienced at supporting companies to attract, recruit & retain top talent, if you’re in growth mode but feel you have some gaps in your business, let’s talk.

028 9091 8529 / hello@corvus.jobs