Writing Better Job Ads

An alternative way to think about crafting genuine and engaging job ads

The content marketing industry has a trick up its sleeve where they analyze the language used in online product reviews, play around with it and then repurposes it for its marketing campaigns.

The idea behind this approach is to tap into the language of the target audience and create marketing copy that resonates with them, leading to increased sales for the marketed product.

By leveraging the words and phrases used by the people you’re trying to reach, your marketing message is sure to hit home.

TA teams can try putting this kind of spin on the digital marketing hack and bringing the same level of authenticity to their job ads.

This is relatively easily done because the members of the teams you hire are the experts on what makes working at your company so great. By running some simple workshop sessions with them, you could capture their thoughts and experiences to create job ads that truly stand out.

This would also arm you with dialogue that translates well across other forms of content. Think, social posts, career page copy, and even candidate packs.

Writing job ads doesn’t have to be a dull and uninspiring task and by tapping into the perspectives of your team, you can craft job ads that truly reflect the spirit of your company and attract the right kind of candidates.
Job seekers are tired of reading the same boring and generic job ads repeatedly. 

Phrases like “You will” or “Due to exponential growth” are often used, but the truth is, candidates, don’t really care. They only want to know how these things will make their lives better.

Most job ads or careers page copy is lackluster because they’re not written with the reader in mind. Not many recruiters are copywriters, and not many copywriters are recruiters. But your current team were all once candidates themselves. So why not tap into their experience and perspective and write job ads that speak the language of your audience?

Let’s be honest, we’re all tired of corporate mumbo jumbo and big words just for the sake of it. We connect with genuine language.

For example, none of us goes to the pub with our friends and says, “Due to an exponential downturn in liquid refreshments, we are seeking someone else to go to the bar and buy the next round.” (Although, now that I think about it, that could actually be pretty funny!) We just tell Dave it’s his round (for once, allegedly).

As Katrina Kibben puts it, “the only purpose of the job ad is to make a reader self-identify as a candidate”. By leveraging the language of your team, you can create engaging and genuine job ads that make candidates feel opt-in or opt-out.

I hope this helps you think differently about how you go about your job ad writing.

Give it a go and just ask if you have any questions. I’ve put some resources together below that may help you move this quickly