How To Market Your Job as a Product

If you've read my other blogs, or watched any of my videos, you know that I have a firm belief that hiring should be looked at very similarly to marketing. So if we look at hiring as marketing, then we should be looking at your job as your product, and the job seeker as your customer. Today I want to dive in a little deeper to that middle piece that is your job (or your job ad) as your product.

Before we dive in too deep into your job ad being your product, we're going to talk about another product most of us are familiar with: milk. Now I grew up on a dairy farm so if there is one thing I know forward and backwards, it's milk, and one thing that I know about milk is that it's a commodity. There are tons of different farms out there providing milk, and tons of different brands of milk at the grocery store but when it comes down to it milk is milk. Usually when someone is going to the store to buy milk, they're really only looking to see which brand is cheapest that day and that's the one they'll go with.

But if you take milk and add a couple of ingredients, maybe some sugar, some eggs, some candy and a splash of vanilla you have something super different and unique. You have ice cream. While most people don't care a lot about the brand of milk they're drinking, we could sit here and argue all day about which ice cream is the best, and I'm not even talking about which flavor is the best. I have seen many arguments break out over which cookies and cream ice cream is the best, whether it be from a specialty ice cream parlor or the best brand at the grocery store.

What do milk, and ice cream have to do with hiring?

When your company is hiring for a position you don't want to be milk, or the commodity. The downside of a commodity is it's a race down to the bottom, in other words it just comes down to what's cheapest. In hiring, you can look at the commodity as kind of the opposite of that as it's a race to the top – or what pays the best. If your company is just like every other company out there, and your customer service position is just like every other customer service position at those companies, then the only thing the job seeker really has to make a decision on is proximity and pay. Usually we want to stay away from our hiring becoming a pay race.

Whereas if you are able to differentiate your company and your job ad with all those toppings, and extra ingredients like the ice cream, your job seekers are going to have a lot more to look at when it comes to choosing jobs to apply to. If you want to be successful in marketing your product then your product needs to stand out from the crowd – not be just like the crowd.

How do you become the ice cream?

There are a couple different things you can do to differentiate your job ad and your company. Take a look at the list below.

• 1. Be unique.

When I say this, I'm not telling you to go and be different just to be different.Don't ask for your job seekers to submit hand written resumes just because you think that makes you stand out. You need to be different in ways that are compelling to your job seekers. You want to be compelling to your job seekers. Which leads us to step two...

• 2. Know, and continue to get to know your target job seeker.

In order to write a compelling job ad (which we can help with!) you need to know what their goals and pains and objectives are. If you aren't sure what your target job seeker is looking for, then there is no way can provide that to them.

• 3. Have a compelling product.

Now that you know what you're target job seeker is looking for make sure your product, your job, provides those things. Your job needs to be able to solve their pains and help them reach their goals.

• 4. Be credible.

Don't be an empty promise, don't put lipstick on a pig. Job seekers want to know that what you're saying you'll give is what they'll really get. You can establish this credibility in a number of ways including reviews, current employee testimonials, referrals from employment agencies, and case studies.

To sum up, if you want to attract more qualified applicants and hire the most qualified people for the job you need to act as a marketer. Remember the job seeker is your customer and you need to focus your energy on creating a great product, which is your job ad. Take some time this week to review your hiring process and turn your open positions into products for your job seekers. If you have any questions on how to turn your job into a product feel free to reach out to ApplicantPro and take advantage of our Job Writing team!