Recruitment advertising can be an important part of your news or trade publication website’s revenue development plan. But simply adding a job board to your site isn’t enough. You need to choose the best job board solution for your needs, integrate it into the look and feel of your site, and have an understanding of trends in recruiting and job hunting so that you can address the needs of both employers and job seekers.

News websites and trade publication websites are positioned to make the most of recruitment advertising, as long as they understand their audience and make audience development a critical part of their short and long term plans. Here are five recruitment advertising tricks that are designed to help your job board succeed in a competitive online environment.

1. Make it Easier for Employers to Reduce Time to Hire

A 2013 UK survey by jobs.ac.uk found that reducing time to hire was a critical priority for employers. Forty-one percent of employers said that time to hire averaged four to eight weeks, and employers are interested in reducing that time frame. By offering a range of features that are useful for both job seekers and for employers, you help make the hiring process as efficient as possible. Candidate matching is one key time-saving component of recruitment advertising – rather than using key word searches, job seekers can be automatically matched to relevant job postings in your database with the right job board technology. For advertisers/ employers, candidate matching reduces the amount of time spent sorting through unqualified applicant resumes.

Applicants should be able to apply with as few keystrokes as possible to prevent application abandonment, and employers should have multiple options for reaching promising applicants in real time via text, chat, or other methods.

2. Address a Specific Sector or Niche

Companies that hire for positions with specialized educational or experience requirements often find themselves disillusioned with major job aggregators, because they’re inevitably flooded with applications from job seekers who aren’t remotely qualified. These employers would much rather advertise on a job board that addresses a specific niche, profession, or industry. Employers looking for local job candidates prefer to advertise on job boards that are geared toward a particular city, so if you have a local news website, recruitment advertising can focus on the immediate area. What you’re doing either way is helping employers find targeted audiences rather than facing the sea of useless resumes and applications they’d get by using a job aggregator.

3. Embrace Social Media and Mobile Devices

It isn’t just millennials who use social media and mobile devices all the time. Older workers are also adept at mobile use and spend time on social media as well. Your recruitment advertising solution should offer both employers and job seekers connection through mobile devices and through social media channels. Not only is it more convenient, it can help reduce time-to-hire metrics for employers. Make it easy for applicants to apply using their mobile devices with stored resumes and pre-filled applications, and share important job listings on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites to help employers and job applicants find each other quickly.

4. Engage With Your Audience

When you have a targeted audience that returns to your website for the latest in news, trade information, or industry trends, you have the audience that certain employers want to reach. But you have to keep readers coming back so that they will notice new job listings. Publish high quality content and encourage social media sharing and comment discussions on your site’s blog posts. Offer employers premium job listings that get extra attention and visibility on your site and social media channels. A targeted, engaged audience is exactly what employers want, so do your part to keep visitors coming back.

5. Educate Employers and Job Seekers on the Importance of Keywords

Don’t be afraid to include a blog post for job seekers about how to choose keywords for their resumes and applications. Explain how employers look for certain keywords and how they can be used for maximum effectiveness. Likewise, when new employers decide to list on your job board, send them information on how to use keywords in their employment listings to draw the attention of your site’s audience. Regularly assess the keywords that bring people to your site, and let potential recruitment advertisers know which keywords are trending among your readership. When both job seekers and employers know how to use keywords, they find each other quicker.

Recruitment advertising can be a strong part of your trade publication or news website’s revenue development plan, as long as you tend your custom job boards the way you would a prized garden. Know what makes the ”crop” thick and healthy, and know what consumers want to find, and you’re on your way to a recruitment advertising solution that gets results and increases your site’s revenue.

Photo Credits: Ambro/freedigitalphotos.net, adamr/freedigitalphotos.net