Last week we talked about why having and email list + nurturing your subscribers is so important.
This week we’re going to dive into ways to collect those subscribers to ultimately grow your subscriber base full of potential candidates to add to your talent pool.
There are two main ways to collect email address:
- Landing Pages
- Opt-In Forms
These two generally work hand-in-hand, and it’s a solid idea to have both technologies working for you on your website + careers site.
So what are landing pages + opt-in forms? Here are the textbook definitions (served up Kinetix-style.)
Landing Page – These are pages that are used to capture information, such as first name, last name, and email address. The only purpose of this page is to collect this information, and in exchange for that personal data, the user will receive something in return—aka— an “opt-in incentive” or “freebie”.
In layman’s terms, it means: “I landed on this page (omg, “landing page”) and I see you’re providing the option to “opt-in” to receive something awesome. I’ll give you my email address because I really want this cool thing you created that’s packed with valuable information that I’m dying to see, so please, take my life history and gimme all you got. I’m interested.”
Here are a bunch of great example of what various landing pages look like.
Opt-in form – This is literally a form that can be placed in various places on your website, careers site, within blog posts, headers, footers, etc. that give someone visiting the option to sign up to your email list to receive something in value.
In layman’s terms, it means the same thing as a landing page, except it’s a form. So I, the visitor to your careers site, would say: “Wow this blog post about working in the marketing department was so cool! I see this form at the bottom that tells me if I input my email address, I’ll get a freebie sent to me revealing the “Top 10 Interview Questions <company name> Recruiters Will Most Likely Ask You”!! Since I’m so intrigued and want to work at this company, I obviously want to be prepared, right?! I’m going to submit my email address so I can download this freebie.”
Plain and simple: These are the tools you’ll use to promote your “freebie” or “opt-in incentive” in exchange for email addresses.
Now to attract email addresses/subscribers you can add to your candidate database, think of a freebie that your ideal candidates would want—something that would peak their interest enough for them to give you their email.
Some ideas are:
“Free Checklist for How to Prepare for an Interview with our recruiters at <insert company name.>”
“Top 10 Interview Questions <company name> Recruiters Will Most Likely Ask You”
Or if you have a podcast series, create some super exclusive episodes about positions in your company that are only available to email subscribers who sign up via your opt-in form/landing page.
For example, you could create a “Day in the life: Marketing Coordinator” podcast episode featuring one of your top Marketing Coordinators describing their role, responsibilities, and what to expect. Then, using a specific landing page or opt-in form, promote this podcast + encourage potential candidates to download + listen! Serious candidates will do this, no doubt.
These are very specific freebies that only seriously interested candidates in your company would want to download.
**Remember that research says people typically need to see something seven times before taking action. This is another reason why having multiple areas on your website with your opt-in form is best (like within blog posts, in a side bar, in a footer, etc.)**
Once you capture these emails, you need to nurture them.
So knowing they are obviously interested in you enough to give you their email address for the incentive, start emailing these potential candidates more about your company culture, life at the company, etc. via weekly or bi-weekly email newsletters. Soon enough, the most serious potential candidates in this new talent pool will begin applying and convert into employees!