How to be specific in your recruitment copy?

Many recruiters, marketers, and those who produce recruitment copy appear to be filled with pride. Nothing against them, but this pride reflects in copy that everything is down to as few words as possible. There is so much marketing fluff and nuanced terms and phrases that it works against getting specific. It's as if they're saying, "Oh, we finally got that wonderfully polished message that everyone will enjoy." However, in most cases, no one understands what you mean, especially regarding today's job posting level.

Making imprecise claims in your recruitment copy is simple, but it doesn't help your reputation. In fact, it can harm your reputation because knowledgeable candidates are naturally skeptical of a lack of depth.

"What are you concealing?" they would wonder.

So when you want to be specific, we're going to do things like focusing on one topic. So it's hard to get clear about anything if you're talking about many different things. So to be specific in your copy means you have to select what is vital for the candidate to read about and that you explain clearly.

When you are specific, you are more likely to keep your commitments. Why? Because relevance sells and irrelevance annoys people, and being specific creates relevancy. Because being detailed implies you're either telling the truth or being a liar.

Being specific means, "Can you reader figure out what you're trying to say?

It all breaks down to understanding that your recruitment copy is all about the candidate and not your company or you.

You have to help your reader, whatever word you use, visualise the thing you're trying to explain to them. Not just generally, but how it would work if they would join your company or what it would look like in their lives when they work with you.

Being specific doesn't mean to be crazy detailed or to write in over-creative fluff. Not at all. But can you use your words to engage your candidate's imagination? Can you do that?

Getting specific can help you do exactly that.

How can you be more specific?

• Use or back claims up with concrete statistics, statements, and numbers.
• Use testimonials, tagged content, and social account buttons to back claims
• When describing job roles, use concrete activities and projects they would work on in 6 or 12 months instead of just the field they would work in.
• Use names (e.g., names of team members they would work with)

for example:

"Our founders John and Mitch weren't sure if this business would work out and look at our company today, within 2 years, 190 people, 37 cultures, 90 engineers, in 3 countries, ~ 2mil. downloads - Sky is the limit!"

OR

"You'll report to John, our CEO, and collaborate to develop and execute scale-up sales strategy to get us to Series B. Next to it, you will lead our EMEA sales team of five talented and dedicated Account Executives. We are currently operating in Benelux, Nordics, UK, Spain, and France."

OR

"As for recruiting: you will be in charge of the implementation Greenhouse, co-creating a new job site, and intensifying our recruitment marketing campaigns to ensure there is always more talented light at the end of the funnel."

Final Thoughts

"On the average Web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely."

As a result, you must communicate so that your audience can grasp it the first time they read it.

Nobody ever stated, "This is too simple to understand." But many people say: "WTF this is about..."

One of the most powerful copywriting tactics is specificity. It is what distinguishes you from the millions of "supposed" writers.

As we previously mentioned, you must communicate the organisation's story and assist the prospect in visualising themselves working there. That is why you must be specific.

Specific simply means to add more details to your writing.

In conclusion, you need to give your readers the information they want and need to make the right decision. It's easier to tell them what they want to hear than what they need to know. So, make sure that your content is specific and relevant. Then, your readers will thank you for it.

If you're interested in learning more about copywriting in recruitment, then check out this ebook!