I love to talk "content." As a writer for Clinch, I'm especially interested in the role content plays in recruitment marketing. I regularly read around the subject and while not strictly recruitment marketing-focused, one of my favorite blogs is Copyblogger. 

A little while ago, Copyblogger shared a "A Brief Guide to Fixing Your Old, Neglected, and Broken Content."

Events and Listings Need Love, Too

After outlining why you should bother fixing "old, broken, and neglected content" at all, and explaining how to go about doing that, the article listed 10 specific types of content that often fall into that "old and broken" category.

Topping the list was "Past Events." My "relevant to recruitment marketing" radar immediately went off. 

How many of you have hosted, or are planning on hosting a recruitment-related event? Plenty of you, I'm sure. Events are a fantastic way to meet potential candidates, grow your talent network, and promote both your employer and personal recruiter brands. And when it comes to spreading the word and drumming up interest in these events, dedicated landing pages, shared through social, are highly effective.

But what happens when the event is over? How good are you about removing or hiding that page? Is it first on your "to-do" list the following morning, or is it more likely to be relegated to the considerably longer, and ever-growing list of "things I'll do later?" You know, the list otherwise known as "things I have every intention of doing . . . but will definitely forget about?"

Of course, just because content is old or expired, doesn't mean it has to be deleted. Part of the beauty of digital content is its ability to be revived and re-purposed as needed, for little or no cost. In this post, social recruitment expert, Katrina Collier, lists five ways you can repurpose your recruitment video content. Casting a wider net, Buffer does a great job of explaining why and how re-purposing content is worth the time in this, the aptly named, "Ultimate Guide to Repurposing Content."

But back to Copyblogger. 

A few places down on the list of content types that are commonly "old, neglected, and broken," at number five, was "Expired Job Listings."

Ah yes. Who among us is not guilty of ever having committed this recruitment marketing faux pas?

Not only is it misleading and subsequently frustrating and disappointing for candidates when they discover the job they've applied to is no longer available, expired job listings also reflect poorly on the company that doesn't appear to care enough about its talent network, or indeed, its existing employees, to provide them with staffing and employment information that reflects the current set-up. 

Timely, Relevant Content is King

Before, when responsibility for the monitoring and upkeep of web content fell almost exclusively to editorial or marketing because it was their content that dominated the site, you could be forgiven for the odd outdated landing page or job listing. 

But things have changed. Recruiters are thinking and acting more like marketers, and as candidates seek to know more about a company before they'll even consider applying, recruitment content is becoming an ever-more prominent feature on company websites. 

What this means for you as a recruiter is that ensuring the quality and timeliness of the candidate-centric content that's on your website should be a very-real priority. These days, taking the time to audit your careers site or landing pages, and updating or removing expired or non-functioning content, is essential to delivering a good candidate experience and a strong employment brand.

So, keep an eye on your recruitment marketing content. In order for it to have the maximum impact — attracting, engaging, and converting the best candidates — it will need to be informative, relevant, and up-to-date.

Not only will well-constructed and timely content boost your recruitment marketing efforts by contributing to a positive candidate experience and a strong employer brand, it drives organic traffic, too, by signaling to search engines that yours is a site worth looking favorably on. 

If you'd like to learn more about creating recruitment marketing content that converts, check out the latest eBook from Clinch: Recruitment is Marketing: How to Create Recruiting Content that Con...