Anatomy of a Good Recruitment Ad

If you are going to attract top talent you have to use the right lure. You need to write your ads so they appeal to the person likely to be successful in your environment. And, you have to attract that person’s attention. In short, you need to use your Unique Hiring Proposition (UHP).

Your UHP simply answers the question, “Why should I work for you?” Think of it as the driving force, your mission statement for all your recruiting activity. People need a reason to work for you and your UHP supplies that reason. As a side note, your UHP also helps identify those people who should NOT work for you.

With your UHP in hand, you need to view attracting candidates as a sales problem. How do you go about attracting prospects for your product or service? First, you identify what a good prospect looks like. What interests them? Where do they live? What do they read? What do they do for fun? Where do they congregate? Once you know all this, then you can determine the best way of raising their interest. Finally you present your product in an appealing way and try to close the deal.

Recruiting is no different.

You can start to put your strategy in place armed with all the information you know about your prospective candidates. You use this knowledge to decide where to advertise, in what publications or on which sites. More than 50% of the success of any ad is determined by where it is placed. The greatest ad running in the wrong location is not likely to generate a whole lot of response. Industry specific publications, web sites, ezines and discipline specific sites are a much better source than general newspaper classified or generic job-posting boards. Think strategically about where you will place your ad.

Next, you have to attract attention. This is done with the headline. Forget the boring “Tax Preparer” headline. You need to use the right words to attract just the right types of people. Remember, you must break the person’s pre-occupation and get them to read the copy. The purpose of the headline is simply to get them to read the ad copy. Here are some great words for your headlines:

Imagine
You
Amazing
New
Introducing
How would
Discover
Life
Do you
Now
Join

The best way to get the person’s attention is to appeal to something important to them … NOT YOU! If you have the word “we” in your headline, get rid of it. Remember, the focus of the ad must be on the candidate not you or your company. Candidates want to know what is in it for them.

In the body of your ad, you must appeal to the person’s interest or they will not read the ad. Once again, what’s in it for them? Talk about how they will benefit instead of features of your company. Solve their problem!

View this situation just like a marketing document. How do you stimulate interest in the prospect to learn more? You will not hire someone with an ad alone, but you will get the person to take the next step.

Finally, here is the most important technique you can use in creating a good recruitment ad: “Use Plain Language!” Write you ad as if you were talking to a prospect. After you write your ad, read it out loud. Does it read like a conversation or does it sound like an ad?

Your results will be significantly better when you use these techniques.

Samples Headlines

1. Join the fastest growing sales team in Cleveland
2. Join the #1 sales team in Seattle
3. Do you enjoy being on a winning team?
4. Imagine being surrounded by the best team in the industry?
5. Your life will never be the same
6. Now is the time to discover a winning opportunity
7. Do you want to help us grow in the fastest growing industry?
8. You have an amazing opportunity with our breakthrough
9. Discover and amazing opportunity
10. If fast growth and opportunity appeal to you, come talk to us
11. Want to sell the #1 product in the market?
12. Help us solve real problems for our customers
13. You will make a difference when you represent out product
14. Are you a quick study? There is an opportunity waiting for you
15. State of the art products require state of the art salespeople
16. Come grow with us
17. Your sales skills + our products = success!
18. Controlling your future is not an option, it is part of the job
19. Read on to find out why our salespeople are ranked #1
20. How would you like to write your own ticket?

One final thought, make it easy for them to respond. Give them as many options as possible. You don’t want to seem like a difficult place to do business with. You wouldn’t make it difficult for a prospect to get in touch with so don’t make it difficult for a candidate to get in touch with you.

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