Recruiting has come a long way since the days of classified ads in the newspaper. Today, there are thousands of platforms to advertise your openings to prospective employees. Yet somehow, hiring managers still struggle with not getting enough applicants – or the right ones.

Where are hiring managers going wrong? The post and pray model has been around for decades and although job postings are a great place to start, there’s more to the equation now. In order to stay competitive, hiring managers must diversify their recruiting strategies to capture the best talent.

Several components go into a successful recruiting strategy: job postings, candidate sourcing, and recruitment marketing. If you’ve been recruiting for awhile, chances are you’re already leveraging one or two of these tactics. However, a powerful recruiting strategy relies on incorporating all of these components, not just one or two.

Job Postings

Posting a job is the first step for any hiring manager or recruiter. Although not as strong as they once were, postings will still attract applicants on its own while you dedicate time to seeking other professionals out. Craft your job description with the goal of being clear and concise. Include the major job responsibilities as well as the needed qualifications to succeed.

It’s also important to include a company description highlighting what it’s like to work at your company.  Job postings are still necessary, even if it’s only listed on your company website. However, you’ll still need other methods to to ensure you don’t face the issue of not getting enough applicants.

Sourcing

Sourcing, or searching for candidates, gives you the power to handpick candidates you want to apply for the role. By expanding your reach beyond just a job posting, you’ve opened your role up to a new batch of qualified talent.

Sourcing candidates through social media or massive candidate aggregators like Monster might seem like the most intuitive place to start. In reality though, the more targeted you are the better the results. Start sourcing on a platform dedicated to your candidate audience. Use advanced search to narrow down the candidate pool by job title, company, licenses, and whatever other requirements are expected for the role. If you’re still struggling to find the right candidates, refer to this boolean operator tip sheet to help you construct your search criteria. Once you find qualified candidates,  invite them to apply or see if they have time for a phone interview.

Recruitment Marketing

Attracting the right talent all starts with your company brand. If you’re not getting enough applicants, it might be because you work at a lesser known firm or your company has yet to define their company culture. The past few years have brought recruiting and marketing closer together in order to cultivate a brand that talent wants to work for. Recruitment marketing spans everything from advertising your job postings to promoting your company on social media.

The good news? You don’t need a whole recruitment marketing team with an extensive budget to make a dent. Even if you’re a one-man team, highlighting the unique benefits your company brings to the table is a great start. Include any differentiating factors in the job description as well as in any places you share your job. Include employee spotlights on your social media channels and work with your marketing team to design a long term strategy.

Not getting enough applicants, or the right ones, is a problem that most hiring managers face at some point during their career. Incorporate the above strategies into your recruiting this year and you’ll most likely be confronted with so many applicants that you need tips for organizing them.

This post originally appeared on the OneWire Resources blog. Still struggling to keep track of candidates while recruiting? OneWire's talent management platform can help.