Do you write a job post regularly?
If you do, I’ve got something for you that will significantly improve the impact of your job posts.
You might now ask: What do you mean with the impact of job posts?
What I mean with impact is that your job post does it’s job to appeal, inspire to and action your ideal candidates to send their application to you.
Most job posts that I’ve seen during my lifetime suck at this. We waste a lot of opportunity when we leave our job posts lazy and ineffective.
Why words matter (in a job post)
Words either create meaning and evoke emotions or confuse us. If they confuse us we stop reading and get away. That’s how our brain works.
Words truly matter if you want your text to achieve something.
When you write well and choose the right words, people will understand you better, they are likely to be more inspired by what you say. Your words have the power of changing people’s minds, their views about you and what they associate with you. And if you have a call to action in your text, they are much more likely to answer to it, do what you asked them to do.
Your words have the power of changing people’s minds, their views about you and what they associate with you.
When you write a job post (or any text), you must think about the person you are writing to. Often times we can see job posts that are written for the writer. They project the writer’s personality, not the ideal job candidate’s.
This is not a problem if the writer’s work personality matches with that of the ideal job candidate. But it is a huge problem, when it doesn’t. And often it doesn’t.
A job post that does not project the ideal reader’s personality and identity does not sit well with them. And thus, they won’t read it and if they don’t read it, they won’t apply to your job.
The purpose of job posts
Let’s remind ourselves a job post is a marketing and sales message. It must promise a solution the reader’s problem and a vision of a better life if the reader gets the job. And to get the job, they must apply by a certain deadline.
A job post is a marketing and sales message. It must promise a solution the reader’s problem and a vision of a better life if the reader gets the job. And to get the job, they must apply by a certain deadline.
Most job posts are like a shopping list for a dream candidate. Make sure yours isn’t.
Often times, when we start writing a job post, we just start either writing from a blank piece of paper, or we update an existing text.
This is a problem.
What happens when you just start writing? You end up with either no text at all, because you have no idea what you should write. Or you end up with a pour of random thoughts that make no sense to the reader.
If you wrote a personal journal, that would be ok.
Not so much with a job post.
What takes place before the actual writing defines the quality of your job post. You must plan what you say to make it relevant for the reader.
What a great job post achieves
The goal of every single job post out there is to get the reader to convert into an applicant by your deadline.
A good job post achieves this.
A great job post does even more.
- It invites the reader to a short process during which they decide if they should read the post to the end. Yes! It’s not even guaranteed these days your job post gets read from start till end!
- Should they choose to say yes, your words should then start another brief process, an evaluation process in the mind of the reader:
- Is this opportunity ideal for me or not?
- Does it solve the problems driving me to change jobs and put myself out there?
- Is this opportunity a risk for me?
- Does it seem to match with my career plans and expectations for an ideal workplace?
- Does this job post answer my questions and welcome me to the application process?
When your recruitment post really works, it kicks in a filtering process to match ideal candidates with your offer and solution.
What’s great about this is that it is as much of a benefit to you as it is to the reader. Entering a job search process is stressful and hard work. A great job post makes it easy for the reader to see whether they should make the effort of applying to this position or not.
The accompanying podcast-episode
In this episode #19 of Building a Modern Employer Brand we are going to talk about words, more specifically about why choosing the right words really matter in your job post.
Episode-length: 15:17 min
Listen to this episode on Soundcloud >>
Listen to this episode on Spotify >>
Episode content:
- Reminding ourselves of the purpose of a job post
- 5 goals a job post must deliver
- The 3 stages of a great job post goes through
P.S I’m building a new Facebook Community for people like you inspired to learn how to Build a Modern Employer Brand (with me)!
You are welcome to join it here:
www.facebook.com/groups/modernemployerbranding
The more the merrier!
About Building a Modern Employer Brand -podcast
Building a Modern Employer Brand-podcast is a weekly podcast bringing you a modern breath of air into HR marketing and employer branding.
This podcast is dedicated to all modern growth companies and modern employer branding practitioners who want to really influence their talent audiences and add measurable value to growing and scaling modern businesses with HR marketing and employer branding.
The Building a Modern Employer Brand -podcast is sponsored by Employee Experience Agency Emine and scripted & hosted by Susanna Rantanen.
Find this podcast currently on Soundcloud and Spotify.