Your Guide To Job Board Success

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Your Guide to

Job Board Success

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Copyright
Copyright © 2014
© 2014 RealMatch,
RealMatch, Inc..
Inc.. AllAll rights
rights reserved.
reserved.
2

Contents
[Click on the titles below to jump to the corresponding articles]

Chapter 1 Your Job Board Technology --------------------- 3


a. Must-Have Job Board Software Features
b. Job Board Technology: Which Is the Best?
c. Job Boards: How Much Do They Cost to Run?

Chapter 2 Your Audience ---------------------------------------- 9


d. Job Bait: Attracting Job Seekers
e. Social Recruiting: How Social Media Can Help You Find the Best Job
Applicants
f. How to Make Your Job Board More Valuable Than Craigslist

Chapter 3 Your Advertisers ------------------------------------ 17


g. Secrets to Attracting Employers to Your Niche Job Board
h. 6 Tips for the Most Effective Job Board Postings
i. Job Board Ad Templates to Help Your Advertisers Succeed
j. 5 Ways to Get Employers to Post on Your Job Board

Copyright © 2014 RealMatch, Inc.. All rights reserved.


3

Chapter 1

Your Job Board


Technology

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Copyright©©2014
Copyright 2014RealMatch,
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4

Must-Have Job Board Software Features


When considering websites for all types of digital publishers, a custom job board can be an
important part of your website monetization strategy. Job boards help job seekers and
employers find each other and increase the stickiness of your site.

Choosing the right software is critical to


developing this revenue stream. A poorly
designed job board won’t draw much
traffic to your website and won’t pay its
way. If you’re considering adding a job
board to your website, look for job board
software that allows customization, uses
state-of-the-art technology, and ensures
that resumes and job opportunities are
classified appropriately. Here are some
Connecting job seekers with employers is one of the most must-have features for your job board
appreciated services your site can offer, and it can be a great
part of your monetization strategy. software.

Customization of Your Job Board’s Appearance


Great job board software allows you to customize its appearance on your site so that it
harmonizes well with your overall design and doesn’t detract from the aesthetics of your site.
Customizing employer categories is helpful to keep your job board in line with the traffic your
site attracts, and you may want to customize job alerts sent out to job seekers, or the search
fields that are used in your job board’s template.

Customization for Job Seekers


Job seekers appreciate being able to receive customized job alerts, and when you allow job
seekers to flag inappropriate job listings, you help keep your job board professional and
relevant. Allowing job seekers to search by location or by keyword maximizes their options and
gives them the best chances of finding job listings that meet their needs. Your job board
software should allow job seekers to apply for job openings online, save their job searches for
later, and create a resume online or upload their resume easily.

Tracking and General Administrative Features


Your job board software should allow administrative features like profile deletion, application
tracking, and the importation of bulk job listings. When you can feature companies or specific
jobs, employers can attract more attention to their listings and increase chances of finding the
right job candidate. Employers also appreciate features like receiving periodic (monthly or
weekly) email alerts of resumes matching their job descriptions. Some employers may

Copyright © 2014 RealMatch, Inc.. All rights reserved.


5

appreciate creation of sub-accounts configured with different permissions to be able to track


positions and candidates in a more organized fashion.

Other extras that employers appreciate include the ability to add notes to resumes they’ve
looked at for their own reference later. Some
employers want the ability to include videos or
screening questionnaires to their job listings, or
they may want certain applications to be routed to
particular email addresses for various reasons.

Job Board Software That’s Ready for You Right


Now
The best solution if you want to add a custom job
board to your website is cloud-delivered software
that you can deploy quickly rather than having to
download or install software to run on your own Email alerts can be very helpful for employers who
need to fill positions quickly.
servers. RealMatch offers white-label job board
solutions that are perfect for digital publishers interested in adding a job board to their sites or
enhancing their current site.

Access this article online: Must-Have Job Board Software Features

Job Board Technology: Which Is the Best?


If you’re a web publisher or have a website for your trade publication, your revenue
development strategy generally involves several potential revenue streams, like CPM
advertising, premium advertising you sell yourself, sponsored content, and in many cases, a job
board. If you are considering adding a custom job board to your site or if you manage a
standalone job site, you may be onto a terrific opportunity.

Custom job boards can be an important part of your audience development plan, because they
help draw a targeted audience while allowing you to maintain your existing audience. Job board
technology, however, varies, and you will need to explore the possibilities to make the best
choice for your particular site. There are three basic options for implementing a job board on
your site: building and hosting the job board yourself, using a job board or widget for a job
board that’s hosted elsewhere, or leveraging a partner’s technology to create your own white
label job board.

Copyright © 2014 RealMatch, Inc.. All rights reserved.


6

Building and Hosting a Job Board Yourself


If you go this route, you’ll do all the heavy lifting in terms of programming and populating the job
board. You’ll also have the responsibility of job board upkeep. It’s a big task, but the advantage
is that you keep all the proceeds. You’ll need to hire a programmer, or use a programmer you
already employ, to write the code for the job board or to take open source job board code and
customize it so that it displays and functions properly on your site. While the prospect of
reaping all the rewards from a job board is appealing to many site owners, few have the
resources to create, populate, and maintain such a major task.

Placing a Job Board Hosted Elsewhere on Your Site


There are numerous “plug and play” job boards you can
add to your site, and some of them are free. This solution
relieves you of a lot of the heavy lifting involved with
creating your own job board from scratch. However, it also
limits your earnings. Revenue models vary widely, as do
policies on back-filling the job board when you first start
using it. You’ll be able to quickly add a job board that’s
hosted elsewhere to your site, but you’ll be restricted in
terms of customization, and your earning potential may
also be seriously limited. If a job board is not going to be a
major part of your site’s revenue development, this option
might be worth considering.
The right job board technology can
improve your website’s bottom line.
Leveraging a Partner’s Technology for a White Label
Job Board
This solution lets you create a job board that will appear custom-made for your website. A
“white label” product is one that’s acquired from a partner, customized to your particular needs,
and “sold” as if you created it from scratch. A white label job board allows you to leverage job
board technology perfected by a partner, customize it for your site, and share in the revenues
generated from the job board. It has the advantage of being quick to implement, plus will match
the appearance of your site. With the right revenue
sharing plan, it can be a great opportunity for both
audience and revenue development. And the analytics
you can glean from a great white label job board can be
very valuable to your overall site development plan.

The Benefits of Doing a Job Board Right


Just placing any old job board on your website isn’t going
Crunching the numbers often indicates
to do much for your site’s stickiness or audience
that a white label job board is the best
development. But choosing job board technology
investment.
carefully can give your website a serious boost. A white

Copyright © 2014 RealMatch, Inc.. All rights reserved.


7

label job board attracts new traffic, gives existing visitors another reason to return, and
generates revenue. Furthermore, a successful job board solution will permit you to leverage its
analytics to convince more employers to list on your job board, and can even encourage them
to purchase advertising on your site. The right job board is much more than just another feature.

Access this article online: Job Board Technology: Which Is the Best?

Job Boards: How Much Do They Cost to


Run?
Job board software is a popular product that allows web publishers to boost audience
development efforts and increase website revenue. Putting a job board on a website draws new
visitors and makes the site stickier for established visitors, whether they’re actively looking for a
job, fantasizing about escaping a current employer, or just keeping up with the state of their
industry. Stand-alone job boards are often quite successful on their own as well, as the sole
purpose of a website.

Whether you are an existing job board site, or if you’re thinking about adding a job board to
your website, there are numerous different types of job board software products, and prices
vary widely. Here are some of the pricing models used with job board software.

Free / Open Source


Obviously, free open source software offers website owners the lowest up-front cost. Another
advantage to open source software is that site developers have access to the actual source
code, so they can modify it to suit their particular needs. But free open source software requires
the most effort on the part of website owners, who will have to incorporate the code into their
site design and populate it with jobs. This can be a challenge with a brand new job board.

Partnership Based
The next generation in job site technology involves a
partnership based agreement between online
publishers and their software provider – similar to how
RealMatch structures their business mode. With this
type of job board, web publishers implement the custom
job board platform at no cost to them in exchange for a
set portion of revenue per job listing. There are no
license fees or up-front costs to worry about and there
are also no monthly license fees under this partnership Job boards bring traffic and revenue to
your website.

Copyright © 2014 RealMatch, Inc.. All rights reserved.


8

model. The software is web-hosted so publishers don’t have to worry about installing it on their
servers or maintaining the software.

Hosted / Subscription Based


Some job board software is web-hosted, so that you don’t have to install it on your servers.
Hosted software usually carries much lower start-up costs, and is paid for on a subscription
basis (usually charged monthly). Costs range from a low of around $70 per month, to around
$400 per month, depending on features. One advantage of using hosted software is that
upgrades and patches are installed for you, so you’re always using the latest software version.

On-Site / Licensed
On-site software is licensed for you to install it
on your own server. While licensed software
typically has a steeper initial buy-in, you
generally don’t have recurring costs, unless
you’re required to renew the license
periodically. Costs range from under $200 to
over $800. If you want to install the software
on multiple servers, you’ll have to buy
sufficient licenses to do so. One drawback of
Software licenses can be expensive, so explore all your
options before choosing. licensed software you install yourself is that
you’re responsible for installing patches and
upgrades. You can also get into legal trouble if your license expires and you continue using the
software.

You have many options for adding a job board to your website. Consider your choices carefully
based on your budget and IT resources. Choosing a great job board for your website is a terrific
way to build traffic and revenue at the same time.

Access this article online: Job Boards: How Much Do They Cost to Run?

Copyright © 2014 RealMatch, Inc.. All rights reserved.


9

Chapter 2

Your Audience

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Copyright©©2014
Copyright 2014RealMatch,
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Inc..All
Allrights
rightsreserved.
reserved.
10

Job Bait: Attracting Job Seekers


You’re a digital publisher and have decided to add a custom job board to your website as part
of your monetization strategy. Or, you’re a stand-alone job board/ career site. Now what?
Assuming you’ve populated your job board (or are using a job board partner that brings you a
board already populated with job ads), you’ll need to do some outreach by announcing the
addition of your new job board on social media, and perhaps writing a blog post about it (which
you’ll also promote on social media).

Beyond that, there are ways to work with


the job board itself and the employers
who list on it to make it more attractive to
job seekers. Here are some ways to
make your job board irresistible to
potential job candidates.

Start With a Great Job Board Partner


A white label job board provider should
have access to a broad network of
Putting up a job board isn’t enough. You have to have employers and a revenue sharing plan
features that benefit both job seekers and employers that makes your site’s income go up as
more job seekers and employers use
your job board. Ideally you should have analytics you can use to convince advertisers that your
job board is a great destination for its premium job listings. You should be able to track statistics
about your job board user base, including numbers of registered job seekers and employers,
and have access to ad performance analysis pertaining to clicks to applications, numbers of job
post views, and numbers of applicants per job. A great job board partner sets the stage for
better revenue development for your site.

Listings Should Tell Stories


This part is challenging, but when you learn how to do it you’ll reap benefits. Job listings, of
course, should include the facts about qualifications, salary, and location, but if your job listing
tells a story, it will grab readers’ attention. In your job listing, you want the critical facts at the top.
The facts pique readers’ interest, but sharing a brief, compelling story causes them to act. That
story may be about an employee who advanced rapidly through the ranks, or about how
addition of an on-site day care center increased worker satisfaction and productivity. Facts are
necessary, but flat and sometimes dull. When job advertisers tell a story, they incite readers to
action.

Copyright © 2014 RealMatch, Inc.. All rights reserved.


11

Make It Easy for Mobile Users


If your job board doesn’t work on mobile devices you are seriously hindering your success.
Passive job seekers look through job listings on lunch hours and while commuting, and when
your job board looks great on mobile devices and makes applying simple for mobile users,
you’ll get a much better response from job seekers. Entry and junior level job listings that are
popular among younger job candidates succeed especially well when they look great on mobile
devices. Some 75 percent of job seekers participating in a 2011 survey said the “look and feel”
of a job listing influenced their decision to apply.

Link to Video
When a job listing links to an informative video about
the employer, the listing will be far more memorable
than a plain listing that only includes the basic facts of
the job advertised. Active and passive job seekers
want to know, “What would it be like to work at this
company?” and a video can give a concise,
informative answer. Video links may be used as part
of premium job listings that earn your website more
money. With job board analytics showing the benefits If your job board isn’t mobile-friendly you’ll miss out
on a lot of traffic.
of using video, you’ll convince more employers to go
with a premium listing.

Make It Interactive
Job seekers want interactivity, and so should employers. One of the biggest complaints job
seekers have about job search engines and classified sites like Craigslist is the feeling of
dropping their resume into a “black hole” when they apply. Your job board should give
employers the ability to get in touch with a particularly promising candidate immediately through
instant message, chat, or email. A-list job candidates aren’t going to bother sending off their
resume to “black hole” listings, but they’ll apply when they know employers have numerous
options for interacting with them starting as soon as they apply.

Attracting job seekers is tough. RealMatch offers recruitment advertising solutions for media
companies and digital publishers that drive traffic and get results due to mobile friendliness,
interactivity, and a large network of employers with jobs to list. Increasing numbers of digital
publishers and trade publication websites are discovering what a valuable addition a custom
job board can be to their website and their overall monetization strategy.

Access this article online: Job Bait: Attracting Job Seekers

Copyright © 2014 RealMatch, Inc.. All rights reserved.


12

Social Recruiting: How Social Media Can


Help You Find the Best Job Applicants
For employers looking to hire, social media can expand the pool of applicants and yield
valuable information about candidates when it is used with a disciplined approach that doesn’t
infringe on hiring laws. Sound social media hiring policies can help organizations keep their
hiring and screening lawful and ethical, and can help them compete successfully for top talent.
With social recruiting on the rise, it is vital for job board operators and managers to integrate
with social media as well, and know the top trends in doing so.

Employers use Facebook and Twitter to gain a more


personal view of job candidates, and LinkedIn to
gain a more thorough professional view of
candidates. These three sites are now core
components of many employers’ recruiting strategies.
Because of this, job boards should look for ways to
partner with these sites as well – save your
advertisers time logging into social media sites,
incorporate these features into your services. At
least, offer your recruitment advertisers advice when
looking to social media for their supplemental
recruiting efforts. Employers regularly use social media
sites to scout for top talent.

Strategic engagement is the key to successful social


recruiting. Here are five tips to share with your job advertisers when using social media for job
recruiting:

1. Look Before You Leap


Document defined goals before jumping into social media to find job candidates. Create a “Jobs”
tab on your Facebook page so potential applicants can learn more about your organization.
Articulate your goals for social media recruiting, and plan ways to use these sites to attain
those goals.

2. Keep Up With Social Media Trends


Make it a point to learn about social media site updates that could affect your strategy. Online
social media training courses are readily available and many of them are free. You may not
realize how much you don’t know until you try them.

Copyright © 2014 RealMatch, Inc.. All rights reserved.


13

3. Use LinkedIn’s Skills Section


LinkedIn’s free Skills section can help you find people with skills you want who are most closely
connected to you, delivering connections up to three degrees removed from your network. This
is great for finding people who can introduce you to promising candidates.

4. Add Career Offerings to Your Company’s Facebook Page


There are paid and free options for doing this. Some companies integrate job postings into their
Facebook pages, making it more likely that candidates who don’t visit the corporate website will
see job listings.

5. Be Interactive
Don’t just use social media as your foghorn. Participate in conversations where you might meet
potential candidates. Participate in #HireFriday on Twitter, or use tools like Hootsuite to follow
relevant threads. In your company’s profile description, use keywords relevant to job recruiting,
like “careers” and “jobs.”

Legal Considerations
Social media can provide employers with
information that in earlier times might not
have been known until after a face-to-face
interview, if ever at all. Social media may
provide information about a potential job
candidate’s religion, marital status, race, or
disability, and you are not allowed to use
such protected information to make Use recruiting techniques that expose your
employment decisions. Here’s how organization to a diverse group of potential applicants
employers can stay legal: to maximize your chances of finding your dream
candidate.
 Have someone other than the
employment decision-maker use social media for information gathering. They can serve
as a firewall between the candidate and the decision-maker.
 Give your screener specific criteria related to the position for which you’re hiring.
 If you hire a background screening company to screen using social media, bear in mind
that they are subject to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Under this law, applicants must give
permission for pre-employment background screening.

Make Sure You’re Casting a Wide Enough Net


Don’t put all your recruiting eggs in the social media basket, because you may miss out on
great candidates. Some surveys show that social media sites have lower percentages of black
and Latino users than the general population. Use job boards, newspapers, job fairs, and other

Copyright © 2014 RealMatch, Inc.. All rights reserved.


14

traditional recruiting methods too. Make sure you post a notice on your website that you’re an
Equal Opportunity employer seeking a diverse pool of applicants.
The use of social media for hiring is today’s reality. If you do it wisely and remain aware of
ethical and legal parameters, you can use social media to enlarge your pool of applicants and
find job candidates you may have missed before.

Access this article online: Social Recruiting: How Social Media Can Help You Find the
Best Job Applicants

How to Make Your Job Board More


Valuable Than Craigslist
Any custom job board worth including in your website’s audience and revenue development
strategy should be more valuable than Craigslist or general job search engines.

Fortunately, most job boards are more valuable and effective. Earlier this year, SilkRoad
released a study showing that job boards yielded
more interviews and hires than other external
sourcing methods, including Craigslist.
Considering that the average new hire costs a
company around $3,500, employers want to make
sure job boards are pulling their weight in terms of
bringing in high quality candidates. In the SilkRoad
study, job boards produced 54 percent of external
interviews compared to job search engines and
Searching for jobs on Craigslist is often
sources like Craigslist, so job boards are definitely
more trouble than it’s worth for A-list job
on the right track. Here are some ways to make your candidates.
job board more valuable than Craigslist or similar job
search engines.

Include the Names of Hiring Managers in Job Posts


One of the most common complaints from Craigslist job searchers is that hiring managers are
rarely listed, leaving most applicants feeling as if they’re sending their resume into a “black hole”
when they apply. In fact, many Craigslist job postings don’t even identify the employer.

The best candidates simply aren’t going to waste their time applying for a mystery job. The
internet has given people more tools than ever to learn about products, services, and
companies, and frankly, people are suspicious when they’re given little to no information about
who’s hiring.

Copyright © 2014 RealMatch, Inc.. All rights reserved.


15

The implications for employers that do not respond to job seekers can go beyond turning off
potential employees. A StartWire survey found that 77 percent of job searchers have a lower
opinion of companies that don’t respond to job applications, and 72 percent would actually be
less likely to recommend that company’s products or services. A shocking 58 percent would be
more reluctant to buy a product from such a company. However, only 33 percent of Fortune
500 companies give feedback during the application process.

Make Sure Your Job Board is Social Media and Mobile Savvy
Social connectivity with sites like LinkedIn
and Facebook are huge pluses to today’s
job seeker. Mobile friendliness is very
important as well. Job seekers want to learn
about the company’s professional network,
and often they’re using their mobile devices
to find this information. Furthermore,
applicants are more likely than ever to want
to apply for jobs right on their phone or
tablet. After another horrible day at work, if
they see a great opportunity while browsing Job boards that are mobile-friendly with easily shareable
jobs on the train home, they want to go listings give job seekers exactly the job-seeking
ahead and apply. environment they want.

Ensure that Job Listings are Easy to Share


Obviously, people are mostly looking for jobs for themselves, but there are occasions where
someone may want to, for example, share an interesting job listing on Facebook. You may be
looking for an executive level position for yourself, but if you happen to see a great opportunity
that could help your twenty-something child be able to move out on his or her own, sharing it
easily is a terrific bonus. When you can share a job listing with one click, you’re going to like
that job board a lot better than a regular online classified ad.

Offer Direct Interaction Between Employers and Candidates


Online classifieds and job search engines often have unnecessary “friction” associated with
them. First, there’s the friction of not knowing the name of the hiring manager or even the
company one is applying to. Then there’s the waiting for direct interaction that may or may not
ever occur. Great job candidates aren’t going to bother with that. They want a job board that
facilitates direct interaction between the company hiring and the applicants.

Conclusions
Carefully launching a custom job board as part of your website’s traffic and revenue
development plan gives your website value far beyond Craigslist or similar job listings. A good
job board gives employers and applicants what they want and need to find each other as

Copyright © 2014 RealMatch, Inc.. All rights reserved.


16

efficiently as possible. At RealMatch, we offer recruitment advertising solutions for media


companies and digital publishers with all the great features that job seekers want. They’ll
return to your website repeatedly, knowing they’ll have a job search experience free from the
friction and the hassles of regular online job classifieds.

Access this article online: How to Make Your Job Board More Valuable Than Craigslist

Copyright © 2014 RealMatch, Inc.. All rights reserved.


17

Chapter 3

Your Advertisers

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Copyright 2014RealMatch,
RealMatch,Inc..
Inc..All
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reserved.
18

Secrets to Attracting Employers to Your


Niche Job Board
Successful recruitment advertising involves pleasing not only job seekers, but also making it
worth the while of employers who will be placing ads on the job board. After all, you need
companies to post job openings before you can draw job seekers.

Niche or trade job boards have experienced


increasing success for several reasons. For
one, employers can get resumes from
qualified, relevant job seekers. With a trade
job board, the listing employer pays for
finding relevant job candidates, whereas with
a general job board, the employer pays for
finding all job candidates (the vast majority of
whom aren’t qualified).

Job seekers and employers are finding niche job boards


to be preferable to general job boards. When you create a job board or add a
custom job board to your website, you need
to ensure job candidates are informed about postings they probably won’t find elsewhere, and
you need to reassure recruiters that they’ll find qualified, relevant candidates from the website’s
target audience. Here are 5 ways to encourage employers to advertise on your site’s job board.

1. Find Out Which Companies in Your Trade Are Currently Advertising Job Openings
Often, employers’ own websites are up-to-date with job lisitings, and you can use job search
engines like LinkUp to let you search employers’ websites for job ads. Custom job board
providers like RealMatch offer services like RealLeads, which gives you current information
about employers in your niche who are currently advertising jobs on other job boards. Knowing
who is looking for employees is the first step to getting them to advertise on your site’s job
board.

2. Do Some Legwork on Social Networking Sites


Make a short list of names of companies you would like to see advertise on your job board. If
you don’t already have contacts in those companies, search on LinkedIn for people connected
with them and join relevant discussion groups on the site. Check out Google+ as well to find
online communities that are relevant to your trade. Your job is to establish credibility with these
people and their companies. By engaging in discussions about their companies and your trade
in general, you strengthen your website’s professional network and open the door to referrals
and introductions that can lead you to getting those companies to advertise on your job board.

Copyright © 2014 RealMatch, Inc.. All rights reserved.


19

3. Create a Helpful, Informative Marketing Package for Potential Job Advertisers


When you contact companies about listing on your job board, give them solid reasons why they
should do so. List the benefits of using your job board, such as:

 Your site’s targeted audience


 The cost efficiency of niche job boards
 The fact that competitors are already putting their job listings on niche job boards
 The fact that niche job boards reach passive job seekers better than general job boards

Emphasize quality of candidates over quantity, and offer them information on your site and your
site’s audience and traffic that will help convince them that your job board is where they should
list.

4. Make It Easy for Job Seekers to Share Job Listings

On your job board, provide an easy way for job


seekers to share job listings they find on your site
with people they know who might be interested in
applying. Collect pertinent traffic and social media
statistics for your site to show potential job board
advertisers that your site attracts qualified readers
and makes it easy for them to share job listings with
others.

5. Partner With a Strong Custom Job Board


Provider
When you work with a leading custom job boards
provider like RealMatch, you show employers that
Make it easy for the casual job browser to
you’re serious about providing the next generation in share job openings of interest with others.
job site technology. When you work with a top job
board provider, you demonstrate you’re committed to making your job board a success,
because it helps your bottom line while helping connect job candidates with jobs they want. Let
the companies you want to list on your board know how effective and efficient your job board is
and what you and the job board provider are doing to make it successful.

Access this article online: Secrets to Attracting Employers to Your Niche Job Board

Copyright © 2014 RealMatch, Inc.. All rights reserved.


20

6 Tips for the Most Effective Job Board


Postings
If you manage a custom job board, it’s important to have quality job listings on it that draw in A-
list applicants. Otherwise, employers won’t continue to list with you, and companies that are
considering listing may not bother because they won’t see a well-populated, dynamic job board
on your site.

It’s a good idea to offer help to employers


with the task of writing effective job board
postings to go on your site. Here are six tips
employers can use to write engaging,
effective job listings.

1. Use Relevant Keywords in the Title of


Your Listing
If you want to post a job listing, visit the Let employers know that your site is perfect for
reaching the applicants they’re interested in.
website with the job board you’re
considering listing on and put yourself in the
job candidate’s shoes. For example, if you’re considering listing on a site for business lawyers,
pretend you’re a lawyer searching for a job on that site. Important keyword phrases applicants
might use could be “business litigation attorney,” “contracts attorney,” or “business tax lawyer.”
Use appropriate keyword phrases in the title of your listing and in the body text, too.

2. Cover All Important Points, But Keep It Brief


This is the biggest challenge in writing an effective job description. Have a one- to two-line
overview, list minimum and preferred qualifications, and include a few details on what makes
this job better than similar job openings (bonuses, great benefits, etc.). Always list the job
qualifications that are non-negotiable to discourage under-qualified applicants.

3. Use Visuals, but Don’t Be Cheesy


If you have the opportunity to purchase a premium job listing that includes video, you should
seriously consider buying such a listing if you have a brief, professional quality video illustrating
why candidates should apply with your company. Avoid smarmy touches in your listing like
excessive exclamation points, or a string of dollar signs surrounding the job title. Your listing
should stand out in a positive way.

Copyright © 2014 RealMatch, Inc.. All rights reserved.


21

4. Target Your Ad to the Audience


Get to know the site with the job board you’re considering. Read discussion threads and get a
feel for the overall tone of the site.
Visit their social media pages, too.
If the company’s site has a more
casual feel, tailor your ad to be a
little less buttoned-up. If the site is
serious and formal, don’t write a
job description that’s full of slang or
with a breezy tone. Consider who
uses the site, and write the job ad
for that audience.
Cheesy job ads turn off applicants and make them wonder if
5. Avoid Company-Specific they should take you seriously.
Jargon
You may know perfectly well what
a “Level III Processor” does, but applicants generally won’t. While applicants should know the
exact job title for which they’re applying so they can fill out the application properly, it’s up to
you to state what that job entails in plain English. If you have a trustworthy friend outside your
company who can read the listing and point out jargon, it can help you write a job description
that will be meaningful to applicants who aren’t familiar with your company’s particular titles.

6. Give Specific Directions on How to Apply


Whether you use a link with the text “Click here to apply” or list exactly what candidates need to
submit (resume, cover letter, application, etc.) and to who they should send it (the name of the
hiring manager), you need a specific call to action in your job listing. If a job candidate has read
all the way through your ad, but then doesn’t know what to do to actually apply, you’ll miss out
on many good applicants. Make it crystal clear what an applicant is to do in order to apply for
the position.

Access this article online: 6 Tips for the Most Effective Job Board Postings

Job Board Ad Templates to Help Your


Advertisers Succeed
A job board helps your website make great strides toward traffic development and increasing
revenue. But what if your advertisers don’t know what to write, or how to write it effectively?
Their loss in applicants might translate to your loss in traffic. It’s worth your while to help them
succeed.

Copyright © 2014 RealMatch, Inc.. All rights reserved.


22

Create a job board ad template or two for employers to follow if they need it. This offers
direction, but it also gives your job board a more consistent, familiar feel.

Create An Easy-To-Follow Template

Job postings are marketing tools. And


what’s the purpose of marketing? To
attract the target audience. A solid
job board ad template explains that
potential candidates want to know up
front what’s in it for them.

Candidates might not care at all that


the employer is a Fortune 500
company. Qualities, not labels, make
a company attractive. Also, advise A strong job post template helps employers appeal to more candidates.
employers to ditch the acronyms.
ABCDE might mean something to someone, but words are searchable.

A template that follows those guidelines might look like this:

Title: Provide the name of the job, including identifying information. For example, if you’re hiring
a registered nurse, also tell which department he’ll work in.
Section 1: Explain why the candidate will like working for your company. Lead with a
compelling, relevant question such as, “Do you want to make a difference in the lives of
thousands of people?”
Section 2: Explain what makes your company stand out (characteristics, not labels like
“Fortune 500 company”).
Section 3: Describe what the position entails. This helps reduce the volume of candidates who
lack a special proficiency that you’re looking for.
Section 4: Offer some bullet points for what type of employment (contract, seasonal, full time,
etc.), the location of the job, salary range, and other
information.
Section 5: Explain what you need in a candidate, but
resist asking for personality traits. Entrepreneur
states that candidates may use that information to try
to be something they’re not, such as outgoing or
upbeat.
Section 6: Give candidates all the information they
need for the proper way to apply for the job, including
Ads that explain company characteristics help a link for uploading a resume.
bring in more of the right kind of applicant.

Copyright © 2014 RealMatch, Inc.. All rights reserved.


23

Above all, be clear and write in your own voice. Forbes chastises that corporate jargon such as
“core competency” sounds interesting, but usually fails to describe anything real. You’ll
communicate better if you say exactly what you mean, such as “fundamental strength.”

Smaller is Sometimes Better

Entrepreneur has a short and sweet example of an effective job posting that makes its point
and leaves candidates with the information they need to apply for the job. This type of
example may be just right for a small company.

“Interior designer seeks inside/outside salesperson. Flooring, drapes (extensive measuring),


furniture, etc. In-home consultations. Excellent salary and commission. PREVIOUS
EXPERIENCE NECESSARY. San Francisco Bay Area. Send resume to G. Green at P.O. Box
5409, San Francisco, CA 90842.”

Candidates aren’t inundated with too much descriptive information, but they do know at a
glance whether they’ve got what it takes.

A Bad Posting Might Be Worse Than None at All

Sometimes knowing what not to do is equally important. Unless employers really want to give a
bad impression of the job and their business, remind them not to follow this prickly example
from Smashing Magazine :

“Required Skills:
 Proficient in Mac-based Photoshop, ImageReady/Fireworks, Illustrator and Dreamweaver.
 Thorough understanding of the elements of good design, HTML production and web
process.
 Will be held accountable for the technical accuracy of their own work.
 Able to complete tasks independently and as part of a team.
 Perform effectively in a demanding work environment and show resiliency to stress.”

This job board post is pointy, and even cold in places such as “will be held accountable…” It
reads more like a warning sign than a marketing tool. It’s possible that the person who wrote
this had a balloon bouquet on his desk and was eating birthday cake five minutes prior. Instead,
it seems more like he’d just suffered through a root canal.

Reading the ad aloud is always a good idea; better yet, let someone else read it.

Employers have plenty on their plates, and not all of them have the writing chops to produce a
marketable job board ad on their own. With a little guidance and example, they’ll find
more quality candidate traffic and so will your website.

Access this article online: Job Board Ad Templates to Help Your Advertisers Succeed

Copyright © 2014 RealMatch, Inc.. All rights reserved.


24

5 Ways to Get Employers to Post on Your


Job Board
If you’re working on monetizing your trade publication website or are looking for ways to
diversify revenue streams, you may have considered putting a custom job board on your site.
Or, perhaps you manage a stand-alone job board.

With custom job boards, you make money from


employers who pot open positions on your site.
They’re a terrific addition to trade websites because
they bring in a targeted, primed audience interested in
the jobs your niche job board offers. They’re also
great for you because job boards draw new traffic
while encouraging repeat traffic.
Job boards appeal to new and
repeat visitors to your site. Once you have your job board up and running, you
need listings. Many providers “back fill” your listings at
first so you don’t go live with an empty jobs board. But to have healthy long term revenue from
your job board, you need to encourage employers to post their listings on your site. Here are 5
ways to encourage more employers to post on your job board.

1. Partner With a Respected Job Boards Provider


Your choice of job board software sets the stage for your success with job postings. Look for a
provider that offers the following features:

 Job matching alerts


 Profile and resume management
 One click application
 Social media integration
 Mobile device friendliness
 Premium / featured job listing capability

Your job board should be customizable so that its look harmonizes with the overall design of
your site.

Copyright © 2014 RealMatch, Inc.. All rights reserved.


25

2. Specialize: Niche Job Boards Are Easier to Sell


Particularly with trade websites, niche job boards are easier to sell listings on. For one thing, job
seekers find that niche job boards simply provide better opportunities tailored to their needs.
Targeted job boards usually include job openings that don’t show up on big job aggregator
engines like Monster. Niche job boards also typically provide contact information for hiring
managers, which is very valuable to job seekers. On Craigslist and big job aggregator sites, this
information is rare, and makes job seekers feel as if their resume is disappearing into a black
hole when they send it off. Show potential employers how your site draws targeted traffic, and
they’re more likely to list because they can reach just the type of people they’re looking for.

3. Use Press Releases Strategically


You’ll want to do a press release when your job
board first goes live, and with various other job
board milestones. For example, you could put out a
press release once your 10,000th listing goes live,
or when you partner with your job board provider to
do a virtual career fair on your site. If you start
offering premium or featured job listings for
employers, you could write a press release around Show employers analytics and information about
that. The periodic press release is like a steady the targeted traffic your site gets to convince them
to list on your site.
drumbeat of reminders about your site and its
services.

4. Create a Branded Experience Around Your Job Board With Video


If you have the resources to create a YouTube channel around your job board, you can use it to
create a branded video experience about it. For example, you could create videos around the
types of jobs that your job board advertises, using the same logos, colors, and other branding
cues that your regular site and job board use. Each video should have descriptive text links and
links back to your site. You could do a series of videos about jobs in your industry, or videos
offering career advice to your site’s target audience. An employer will want to list on a site that
shows effective outreach to targeted job applicants.

Copyright © 2014 RealMatch, Inc.. All rights reserved.


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5. Cultivate Your Online Community to Show Employers Your Targeted Audience


Cultivating your site’s online community is playing the long game, but it’s very important for
building your job board. Use analytics to measure traffic from various sources, and if you have
demographic data on site visitors (from filling out newsletter sign-up forms, for example), you
can show this to employers you want to list on your job board. Show them steadily increasing,
targeted traffic, testimonials from employers that have listed with you and give examples of
lively discussions that take place on your site. This shows employers that your site brings in
exactly the people they want to hire.

Job boards themselves add value to your site, but you have to market it just like the other site
content. Make your job board the subject of the occasional social media posting to rekindle
interest in it, and work on overall traffic development. Show employers that your site is the best
site for them to post job listings.

Access this article online: 5 Ways to Get Employers to Post on Your Job Board

Copyright © 2014 RealMatch, Inc.. All rights reserved.


27

About Recruitment ADvisor


Recruitment ADvisor is the go-to source for stand-alone job boards & digital publishers to find industry news,
insights, and tips for new revenue. Brought to you by RealMatch, recruitment advertising powered by
performance, Recruitment ADvisor has a focus on leveraging recruitment advertising as a new revenue stream.
You’ll find information on competing more effectively and earning more from recruitment advertising, while
generating more site traffic at the same time.

www.RecruitmentADvisor.com

About RealMatch
RealMatch is revolutionizing the highly fragmented online recruitment industry by allowing online publishers to
better monetize their communities using recruitment advertising, while offering employers and job seekers a
much more efficient way to connect with RealMatch’s proprietary job matching technology.

At the heart of RealMatch’s white-label job board solution for digital publishers lies the most advanced job
matching technology which drives quality and performance across all components of RealMatch’s platform and
network. Real-Time Job Matching™ operates off of a comprehensive database of industry specific taxonomy
terms, job seeker profile information, and employer requirements to automatically identify quality matches
between employers and job seekers. Real-Time Job Matching™ is setting the standard in accuracy and
eliminates the need to search - saving a significant amount of time for employers and job seekers alike.

RealMatch’s recruitment ad network, TheJobNetwork™, delivers ultimate reach across the web reaching over
100 million active and passive job seekers monthly. The network consists of over 1,000 local and trade
publications, broadcast media organizations, associations and job board sites – all powered by RealMatch.
Through third-party distribution agreements, the network also reaches job seekers across thousands of
additional niche job sites, job aggregators, search engines and social networks. To ensure maximum network
performance, RealMatch has developed automated posting optimization and campaign management
technology to effectively target and distribute job postings to relevant partner sites. Real-time performance
monitoring and automated campaign management produces 3-5 times the qualified response compared to the
leading national job boards. To learn more please visit www.realmatch.com.

RealMatch

77 Water Street, 12th Floor


New York, NY 10005
(888) 909-1991

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