In my 20+ year career in consumer and recruitment marketing, there is one universal truth: people believe people. I know this is true because we all see and feel it. Think about your own experience as a consumer and a candidate; you scroll past ads at lightning speed, but you will always stop and engage with your friends, family and people you have met and gotten to know online. In fact, 69% of consumers trust influencers’ recommendations over information straight from a brand.
For the last 15 years, we have seen the practices of consumer marketing implemented in recruitment marketing. From CRM strategies to text, attracting new talent continues to take our cues from consumer marketing.
Right now, influencer marketing is a top channel for B2B and B2C consumer marketers. Why? Well, it’s simple, people believe people and the proof is in the pudding. Approximately 36% of brands say influencer content outperforms branded content.
It is growing in terms of spend because it is a powerful tool for both sales and marketing.
You see, the creator economy which fuels influencer marketing is enormous.
Today it’s a $155B economy and expected to increase to $525B by 2030.
Influencer marketing is an untapped tactic in recruitment marketing.
In an era where trust between job seekers and companies is at an all-time low, and 28% of the American workforce admitting they are actively looking for jobs, and while that is the highest I remember that number being, it also means that 72% of the workforce ISN’T looking. And if we are thinking like marketers, we know that we cannot ignore 72% of anything.
So, what is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing is a strategic approach where brands collaborate with individuals who have substantial online followings and influential voices within specific communities. These individuals, known as influencers, leverage their credibility and social media platforms to promote and advocate for products or services. The goal is to tap into their authenticity and reach, fostering genuine connections and trust between the brand and its target audience. This form of marketing capitalizes on the influencer’s ability to shape opinions, drive engagement, and ultimately inspire consumer behavior in a way that traditional advertising methods may not.
Like most things in recruitment marketing, the time has come to leverage this tactic to drive traffic to your jobs and your company. As you consider how influencer marketing impacts your recruiting efforts, think of it as a way of expanding your employee referral program to include external referrals as well.
When you tap into a trusted professional in your sector to share your jobs with their audience, we can tap into new pockets of talent. New people who fall into that 72% are getting information from the people they follow on social media. Just like all of us in employer brand and recruitment marketing learn a lot from our industry influencers, like the people who write for ERE, the people you want to attract to your jobs in software development are following coders on social media to learn about their jobs. It is a natural extension of recruitment marketing and job distribution.
It’s time to put your jobs in the hands of people the talent you need to attract are already following. It’s passive talent candy, and it works.
As you start to consider a move in this space, take small, calculated steps to pilot or test influencer marketing as a channel in 2025. Because the reality is the people you want to attract are just like you, they are listening to and buying from the people they trust in online channels.
