It turns out that digital marketing jobs aren’t safer than other jobs in today’s turbulent economic landscape. In March 2024 alone, 90,000+ more people found themselves at the wrong end of a pink slip. From what we’ve seen, many were digital marketers.
Every time we post an ad for a digital marketing role, we get an influx of job candidates. Unfortunately, many are desperate to earn a salary. While that’s understandable, it’s not great for employers. When people apply for anything hoping to snag an interview, they make it challenging to figure out who’s qualified and who’s not.
You’ll probably get frustrated if you’re trying to employ new digital marketers in this environment. However, it’s important to remain empathetic. Candidates are burnt out and stressed from not hearing back from hiring managers. If you can take away some of their anxiety, you can stand out.
By leading with empathy, you can transform a candidate’s overall experience. For instance, let’s say you get a resume for a digital marketer who’s not right for you but could be suitable for another opening you’ve seen — even if it’s at another company. Going the extra mile and matching that quality candidate with a quality job fosters positive engagement that could pay off in the long run. You scratch my back — you know the rest.
This doesn’t mean you can’t use technologies to be more strategic in your hiring processes. You should. Technological solutions mixed with an empathetic approach can rev up your hiring process by shortening your time-to-hire rates, increasing the permanence potential of applicants, and improving your retention stats. By leaning into tech and emotional intelligence, you can quickly fill your seats with great people ready to do their best work.
What are some key strategies to ensure your hiring processes are designed to appeal to talented digital marketing professionals?
Tip 1: Ensure Your Job Descriptions Are Clear And Accurate.
38% of new employees surveyed said they would leave their employer within six months.
New hires who aren’t a good fit will only stay for as long as necessary. The last thing you want is to be one of those employers and watch the people you’ve onboarded walk out the door prematurely.
You can’t keep every digital marketer you employ, but you can improve your odds of lowering your churn with a strong job description. A job description that precisely reflects the job and your company will attract more appropriate candidates. These will be people who understand what the role at your company looks and feels like.
There are plenty of tools to assist you in creating airtight and accurate job descriptions. For instance, you should run your job description through software that measures potential bias. Changing specific words or phrases can widen your candidate pool. Additionally, many AI-driven systems can generate first drafts of job descriptions. As a result, you can move to high-level editing and refining faster.
Tip 2: Iron Out Your Hiring Process
A clunky hiring process will turn off your applicants. Today, nearly all hiring managers use applicant tracking programs. Yet the program you choose could be causing more harm than good. Review your program to ensure it’s not bypassing quality candidates who deserve more attention and consideration.
In addition to examining your applicant tracking procedure, work out your candidate journey. Does the experience move applicants through your funnel seamlessly? Are there places where candidates are held up? The longer it takes to get to an interview, the higher the chance a candidate will drop out.
Speaking of dropping out, ensure your process includes getting back in touch with all your candidates. Never ghost candidates. It’s not just unbecoming — it’s disrespectful. It’s also fairly common,
4 out of 10 job seekers admitted they’d been a ghosting victim.
Ghosting candidates (or just communicating with them infrequently) will lead to frustration and negative feelings. This can backfire on your brand reputation and cause candidates not to want to work with you in the future.
Tip 3: Work With A Recruitment Agency.
Digital marketing talent can be challenging to find. Even though many digital marketers have flooded into the job-hunting scene, they aren’t necessarily going to see your position opening. That’s where working with digital marketing recruitment professionals (not generalist staffing firms) can be a game-changer.
Recruitment experts who source and hire exclusively for digital marketing employees understand the field. They usually have developed relationships with professionals who are both actively seeking employment and who are employed but willing to hear about opportunities. If you’ve been making inadequate hiring choices, you have nothing to lose by trying a recruiter.
One bad hire costs employers nearly $17,000 on average.
The one caveat is to ensure that your partner agency vets applicants in a repeatable, ethical, and systematic manner. Ask about the software they’re using or have developed to maintain connections with applicants and drive solid results for their clients.
It can be exasperating and expensive to wait weeks to fill digital marketing roles, particularly when new digital marketing candidates hit the pavement every quarter. By tweaking how you hire, you can make your company more appealing to the cream of the crop and ensure you remain competitive, even amidst a volatile job market.
