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How to Write a Job Advertisement That Attracts Top Talent
© 2003 CallCenterCareers.com
The difference between a successful job advertisement that attracts highly qualified candidates and a job posting that is a failure and attracts few or no candidates is based upon simple yet powerful marketing techniques that are easy to use. The following techniques will help you write exciting job advertisements that attract great candidates:
- Make Your Job Advertisement a Powerful Marketing Tool:
Understand that your job advertisement
is a marketing tool. When you post a job, your job advertisement
is directly competing against other job ads for the same pool of
candidates. If you want the best candidates applying to your job
advertisement, you must make your job advertisement a powerful
marketing tool that draws candidates in and excites them about
working for your company.
The formula for attracting top talent begins by writing a job advertisement as if you were writing sales copy for a direct marketing classified ad. View your company's job opening as the product you are trying to sell and view job seekers as the customers you are trying to reach. The rule is to excite and motivate candidates to apply to your job posting - not scare them away.
- Post A Descriptive Job Title: The
job title is the first thing job seekers see when they conduct a
job search on CallCenterCareers.com, or any other job board for
that matter. Therefore, the job title is the most important part
of writing a great job advertisement. Job seekers will first
click on job titles that grab their attention. Spending the time
up front to write creative and exciting job titles will lead to
far more candidate applying to your jobs. Think of writing your
job title as writing a headline for a classified ad in a
newspaper. Titles that are exciting and call people to action
will stand out and make people want to read your ad. Writing a
title for you job advertisement is no different. The actual
content of a job posting becomes meaningless if no candidate
clicks on your job title to read your ad. Make your job titles
exciting and you will reap the rewards!
- Make your job advertisement sell the benefits of working
for your company: Like all consumers, job seekers want to know
what is in it for them--how will your job improve their quality of
life. To write a job ad that attracts top talent remember this--it
is not what a job seeker can do for your company but what your
company can do for the job seeker! Sell them on how working for
your company will improve their quality of life and you will
attract top talent.
Take advantage of the generous space allowances to write great ad copy and provide detailed information describing the job and the company offering the position. However, try not to write more than 500 words per ad because ads that are too long may bore the reader with too many details. When writing the ad, the format should be of an outline rather than one big block of text. Using an outline format makes it easier for candidates to read the job content. Dashes or Asterisks should be used instead of bullets because many job boards cannot correctly post bullets.
- Provide a brief description of your company and the product and/or service it provides. List the benefits of working for your company - have you received any awards as a great place to work? If yes, list them. Sell your company!
- Describe the general scope of the work the applicant will perform. Walk the applicant through a typical workday describing the duties he/she will perform.
- Describe any job responsibilities.
- Will the employee be managing a team? If yes, how large is the team?
- Describe your work environment and why an employee would want to work in that environment.
- Describe career advancement opportunities. Candidates want to know how their career can advance with your company.
- Describe company benefits and perks such as tuition reimbursement, free training, an outstanding benefits package, onsite daycare, an onsite gym, nearby walking trails, etc. Benefits and perks help separate your company from the competition and help you to attract the best candidates.
- Describe the job requirements but only include "must have" skills. The more skills you list, the fewer candidates you will have applying to your job posting. If you can teach these "required" skills, you have just created job benefits (free training) and increased the number of good candidates that will apply to your job ad. Be very careful not to scare away great candidates by listing dozens of skills they may never use.
- Include your contact information including e-mail, fax, telephone and snail mail. The more application options you provide to candidates, the more responses you will receive from your job ads.
Additional Resources
For more information on writing great ad copy, purchase the book,
"Tested Advertising Methods: Fifth Edition" by John Caples
(1997). This book is considered to be one of the top books ever written
on writing ad copy. It is inexpensive and the writing techniques will
help you write job ads that attract world class talent.