Physician Recruitment Marketing: 7 Things You Need to Know

Recruiting a qualified physician requires more than just placing a generic job posting on a job board. With so many options for physicians to choose from on their job search, it has been left up to the physician recruiters to find a way to make their opportunities stand out from the crowd. In order to do this, many recruiters have begun to think like marketers and employ several traditional marketing tactics and tools in their hunt for prospective candidates.

Below are seven things recruiters need to know about recruitment marketing, from what to say, to how to say, and on what platform to say it.

1. You Always Need a Candidate Profile

Marketers have used customer personas for some time now. These detailed descriptions of the different types of customers that are attracted to their brand/product help marketers identify pain points, motivating factors, and personal preferences that allow them to tailor their marketing for each unique segment. Recruiters have started utilizing these as well, with great results. Make sure to create a detailed candidate profile of what your ideal hire will look like – qualifications, demographic information, interests, and motivating factors – to help you create targeted recruitment marketing materials and messages that will engage candidates.

2. Identify Your Audience

Are you reaching out to active candidates or passive ones? Knowing which kind of candidate your marketing materials are destined for can make a huge difference in how you present your opportunity and where you advertise it.

For active candidates, job boards and journal advertisements are some of the most commonly used and effective channels. However, for passive candidates, using job boards and journal classifieds is not likely to do the job. With over two thirds of job seekers falling into the passive bucket, that is an audience you wouldn’t want to neglect. Using direct mail, email, and social media can help you reach the candidates who otherwise wouldn’t see your postings.

3. Branch Out of Your Comfort Zone

Many recruiters fall into the “rinse and repeat” trap when it comes to physician recruitment marketing. It worked before, it will work again, right? But sometimes branching out and trying new ways to recruit candidates can have a big reward.

Instead of just running ads and job postings, branch out into direct mail, email, or texting, and vice-versa. Trying new things can help you reach candidates you never would have before and fill positions quicker than you had previously thought possible.

4. Build Up – And Utilize – Your Employer Brand

In today’s world, candidates don’t just want a position, they want one with the right organization. Company culture, mission, and values are all aspects of an organization’s brand that will help a candidate decide which employer to join. Make sure to flesh out your employer brand and incorporate it into all of your recruitment marketing to help engage prospective candidates.

5. Get Comfortable with Social Media

The vast majority of Americans have at least one social media account, and this is especially true of candidates that are coming out of training. With most of their free time spent on any number of social sites, social media has become a tool that employers can utilize to reach prospective candidates who may not be checking their email or searching job boards. Social media can also help organizations enhance and spread their employer brand and highlight their company culture, further helping attract prospective candidates – especially those connected to existing employees online.

Make sure to identify which channels are the most effective for reaching your ideal candidates and create unique, engaging content for each social media site you choose to use.

6. Paint Candidates a Picture

When creating an email blast or direct mail piece, too many recruiters will utilize stock images of physicians or stethoscopes. Instead, use pictures that can help a candidate picture themselves at your facility or in your community. Pictures of landscapes, activities, and events can help candidates get an immediate idea of what your community has to offer, allowing them to picture their new lives there.

7. Create Multiple Job Descriptions

While the basics of a position (hours, call, location, etc.) will stay constant, the way you present the information and frame the narrative shouldn’t – especially when your taking your target audience and marketing channel into consideration. Because of this, you should create new job descriptions and copy for each campaign, taking into consideration who you’re trying to reach and how.

Key Take Aways:

• Customize your recruitment marketing’s copy and creative based on the channel and target audience
• Create candidate profiles to help you target your marketing efforts
• Think outside the box – in addition to job board postings, consider using social media, email, text campaigns, and direct mail to reach prospective candidates