Advertising Top Tips...

When recruiting online, writing a successful advert can be the key to attracting the perfect candidates, so we’ve put together some ‘top tips’ to help along the way!

Keywords

• Your job title is the most important part of your advert.  Make sure you use your job title in the first sentence, as well as repeat it a number of times throughout the advert – this will help it to appear in candidates’ searches.  Most candidates will search under a specific role, using phrases such as “marketing assistant jobs”.  It also helps to use more specific terms, for example “marketing assistant” will attract a better response than purely “assistant”.
• Location – again, we recommend that this appears in the first sentence of your ad.  It will help when people search for jobs in a certain location, e.g. “marketing assistant jobs in Bristol”.

Keep it short and sweet

• Job-seekers will generally skim-read most ads on internet job boards before delving deeper, or of course applying.  We advise keeping it snappy – get the right information in there without writing a novel!  A catchy first line will always help to grab people’s attention too.
• Make the most of candidates’ curiosity – give them a brief insight into the role, your company, what you need from them and what they could get out of it.  Not giving too much away from the start will help persuade candidates to apply for more information – as part of our nature we are all far too curious for our own good!

Keep it legal

• Discrimination – it is illegal for employers to discriminate against employing anyone due to their sex, age, race or disability, unless for a genuine reason (or 'genuine occupational qualification').  An example of this may be for a female support worker needed for a female welfare service.  If your role has a ‘genuine occupational qualification’, please state it! 
• Minimum wage – please adhere to government guidelines in this respect.  For up to date information, please refer to the www.direct.gov.uk website (for the UK only).

Presentation

• We strongly advise breaking up the text of your recruitment advert into relevant paragraphs or bullet points!  Chunks of text are harder to read and less likely to attract attention.
• Spelling and grammar – please always check this thoroughly, as mistakes can often make the wrong impression!

Content

• Job-seekers will be looking for the following information: title, location, job role, nature of the business, qualifications or experience needed, permanent/temporary, full/part time and the salary/pay rate. Make sure that these core elements are explained, and indicated in a clear and positive manner.