The lure of a great landing page

It’s simple. Every successful recruitment marketing campaign needs a great landing page. Especially in the digital age, where you are often recruiting with a brief post, Google ad or even a text, you need to direct candidates to a landing page with specific and recognizable content. Some media (like Google) will even measure your campaigns by how relevant the landing page is to your message.

When we are setting up a recruitment marketing campaign for a client and we’re asked to direct candidates to a job posting, an ATS landing page or a career site home page, NAS will suggest developing a landing page. While general destinations may be fine for awareness campaigns, they are not ideal for targeting candidates in specific disciplines, promoting an event or hiring for a location – the most frequent “asks.”

Here are some handy rules to guide you in creating an effective landing page. (Or you could ask your agency, like NAS, to do it for you!)

Know your purpose

The campaign you are running determines the content on the landing page. Are you promoting a hiring event for nurses? Are you hiring for manufacturing employees at a specific location? Are you targeting pharmacy techs for multiple locations? Think about your goal, then put yourself in the candidate’s place and decide what you would want to know before taking action. That’s the starting point for your page.

Cut the clutter

Now that you understand who you are targeting and what you want to tell them, create a clear hierarchy of information:

• Catchy and clear headline
• Opening that states your need and why candidates should be interested
• Specifics on the job or event, with a strong “What’s in it for me?” focus
• Information about your location, if a selling feature
• Easy to find CTA (call to action)

Make it pop

As we get into the copy and design for the page, here are some key rules to follow:

• Write with SEO in mind (use the keywords that a candidate might enter into a search engine).
• Write it bite-sized, rather than in heavy blocks of content.
• Develop a layout with a simple scrolling design that is easily scanned by the eye.
• Use large photos of your people and work environment (avoid stock images, if possible).
• Include videos and testimonials to personalize and offer peer-to-peer testimony.
• Make sure your design is sleek, well-organized and responsive on all devices, as most of your traffic will probably be coming on a mobile device.

Offer a clear CTA

What do you want the candidate to do? Make it clear and obvious:

• If you want them to APPLY, link them to a specific posting or create an in-page form with a few fields to get them started with a recruiter.
• If you want them to RSVP for an event, link the button to a monitored email address or set up a form on the page.

Don’t make them go through hoops or link them over to additional pages to navigate. This page should be the one stop before they take a specific action.

Final tip: Have some employees review your beta site for content and navigation to make sure your target audience is on board. Take their feedback seriously and adjust accordingly.

With the right strategy and media selection and a focused, info-packed landing page, you’re ready to launch and lock down the candidates you need. Here’s an example of a landing page we’ve created for Learning Care Group.

• Handy Hacks for High-Volume Recruiting
• Q&A with our Programmatic Power Players