Originally posted on the SmashFly Recruitment Marketing Blog.

Recently, I’ve been using Freelancer.com to find a designer for a web project I am doing. I received over 46 bids for the project and sifted through every one of the responses. What surprised me the most was the lack of personalization in the messages we received. Some started with “Dear Sir/Madam”, some never mentioned our company name or the project that we posted but it was the freelancers that went out of their way to personalize the message for us and our project. It was the last group that got our attention and ultimately had the chance to win our project.

For recruiting, you face a similar situation to the freelancers. You need to convince the job seekers that your company and that your job ad posting is better than the rest or they won’t apply. You need to personalize your job posting and give them insight into your company culture. Here are three ways you can personalize your job ad posts:

1. Don’t be a Robot – Sure you need to let job seekers know about the job requirements and about your company but you don’t have to be boring about it. Make sure that people know that it was written by a real person that is excited about the prospect of hiring great people.
2. Personal Touch – If you are in the capacity to do so, you may want to include a personalized email address of the recruiter recruiting for the position within the job description. This gives the job seeker the opportunity to reach out to the recruiter if they want to and gives them an expectation of who will be deciding on the position.
3. Connect them with people – Don’t just highlight the tasks and responsibilities of the job but let them know the people and atmosphere they will be working in. Is there something extraordinary about the office, is your company culture exciting and different, what other departments can they get involved with in the position? Job Seekers want to know the people and work environment that they will be working in just as much as the salary and job position that they will be interviewing for.

Have fun with your job ad descriptions and think of yourself as a marketer. What aspects of the job and our company are the ones that we want to highlight and the ones that will attract the best and brightest? Sell your company and the position in your job description from a personal point of view, because in the end potential candidates want to work for and with good people and not be a cog in some robotic system.

About the Author: Chris is the Marketing Analyst for SmashFly Technologies. SmashFly provides a recruitment marketing platform that enables companies to easily launch and more importantly measure all their recruiting campaigns anywhere on the web.