How to Use Digital Marketing to Recruit for Your Landscaping Business
Your online presence, including your website, social media, and communication strategies, is a reflection of your landscaping business. It influences how your company is perceived and helps attract and retain top talent.
In this blog, we share our top ten tips on how to use digital marketing for hiring staff.
Learn to create an effective employer brand, optimize online job postings, and leverage social media to attract the best candidates.
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to enhance your recruitment efforts and build a strong team for your landscaping business.
Why Landscaping Businesses Need a Recruitment Marketing Plan
When it comes to finding the right candidates for your landscape business, having a recruitment marketing plan is critical. This approach is much more than just posting job listings and hoping for the best. A recruitment marketing plan helps identify the exact positions, skill sets, and experience you’re looking for, leading to a more efficient hiring process, better applicants, and a higher quality of hires.
One of the first steps in creating an effective recruitment marketing plan is to know your company’s values and mission. These factors determine the kind of people you want to hire and the type of culture you want to create. By understanding your company’s mission and values, you can create a recruitment marketing plan that focuses on attracting the right kind of talent and creating a positive and engaging workplace.
Creating a recruitment marketing plan requires a few key steps. The first is to create effective job postings that highlight the key responsibilities and requirements of the position. It’s also crucial to consider employee referrals, social media marketing, email campaigns, and other tactics to attract top talent to your business.
Key Takeaways
-
Optimize Your Career Page: Your career page should be optimized for search engines and provide a positive candidate experience.
-
Leverage Social Media: Use social media to promote job openings, share your company’s culture, and showcase your team events and awards.
-
Create Job Listings on Relevant Sites: Post job listings on relevant websites and job boards to increase the visibility of your job openings.
-
Share Your Work Culture: Share behind-the-scenes glimpses of your company’s work culture to entice potential candidates.
-
Showcasing Team Awards and Events: Showcasing your team’s awards and events can help in building a strong brand that attracts top talent to your landscaping business.
-
Use Application Forms to Qualify Potential Hires: Use application forms to ask pertinent questions and ensure potential hires meet necessary criteria for your business.
-
Request Reviews from Current Staff: Request reviews from your current staff to improve your online reputation and attract top talent to your business.
-
Develop a Staff Referral Program: Develop a staff referral program to incentivize your employees to refer high-quality candidates to your business.
-
Utilize Google Ads: Utilize Google Ads to attract local talent by targeting relevant keywords and directing click-throughs to your careers page.
-
Digitize Your Staff Training: Digitize your staff training to keep up with industry standards and provide flexible learning opportunities to improve your retention rates.
Tip 1: Elevate your Landscaping Website
As a business owner, you know the importance of a well-crafted website. It’s your digital storefront, your online calling card, the first impression your brand makes on potential customers. But have you considered how it affects recruitment? Your website is the first place ambitious job seekers will turn to when researching your company. It’s where they’ll go to learn about your values, your culture, and your professional image. Make sure your site is up to par. Showcase your brand’s best qualities and ensure your professionalism shines through. The right candidates will be drawn to your site and eager to join your team. So before you begin any other recruitment efforts, start with your website. It’s the most important place to begin with your recruitment marketing.
Pro Tip: Know When to Hire a Marketing Team
If you want to grow your landscaping business online, effectively reach your target audience, increase search engine rankings, and produce valuable content – hire a marketing team.
Tip 2: Create a Formidable Careers Page
As a landscaping company, standing out in a crowded market is essential for success. One of the best ways to differentiate yourself from competitors is by having a careers page on your website. Not only does it showcase your company culture and values, it also highlights the opportunities available to potential employees. By outlining the benefits and perks of working for your company, you can attract top talent and build a strong team. It’s also important to be clear about your hiring process and expectations, and to regularly update your job postings. Even if you don’t have any current openings, having a rolling application process and a list of potential candidates can help you stay ahead of your recruitment needs. Lastly, figure out your salary range and make this available on the page. After all, the reason employees show up and do a great job is to collect a pay cheque. If you’re not receiving the volume of applications expected, consider increasing your range.
Pro Tip: Address Your Staffs’ Biggest Challenges
To build a highly effective team in your landscaping business, you need to take care of your staff. Identifying the biggest challenges they face in your geographical area is essential. These may include the cost of living, housing, and lack of career growth opportunities. By focusing on addressing these critical challenges, you demonstrate a proactive approach to solving the problems your staff – both current and future – face. Providing practical solutions such as offering more flexible working hours or investing in employee training and development can make a significant difference in employee satisfaction, retention, and success.
Tip 3: Harness the Power of Third-Party Websites and Reviews
To attract top talent to your landscaping business, it’s crucial to establish a strong online presence. Utilize third-party websites such as Indeed, Glassdoor, Rise People, LinkedIn, and others to promote your job postings and showcase your company’s reputation. When job candidates search for “landscaping jobs near me,” Google pulls listings from these sites, making it essential to claim an account and optimize it with up-to-date, correct information.
By having a presence on these platforms, employers can improve their online reputation, making it easier to attract the best candidates. As of April 2023, there were 3,618 jobs on Indeed, 3,396 jobs on Glassdoor, and 938 jobs on LinkedIn in the landscaping industry in Canada. Showing up correctly and having an effective presence is critical to make the most of your professional networks. Make sure your account has accurate information, including your logo and contact information to drive the right candidates to your company.
Tip #4: Promote Your Work Culture on Social Media Channels
Social media is a powerful tool for showcasing your work culture and promoting your landscaping business to potential employees. Celebrate your staff and milestones by sharing photos and staff profiles on your social media accounts. Additionally, include links and information to job postings so that interested candidates can easily apply.
Showcasing how you make landscaping a viable career option for local people can also help attract talent to your business. Don’t be afraid to boost or run ads on social media during the hiring process to reach a wider audience. Sharing fun and engaging content with your community can also help you build your reputation and make your business a desirable place to work.
Pro Tip: Research and Plan Your Social Media Strategy
Conducting research on social media platforms can offer valuable insights for your landscaping business. Search for keywords like “landscaping” or “landscaping jobs” on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn, and analyze what your competitors are posting. Look for patterns, best practices, and ideas that you can apply to your social media strategy.
Develop a social media calendar with a well-planned strategy for consistent posting and to evolve your online presence over time. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different types of content, such as images, videos, and informative posts that showcase your expertise in landscaping. By crafting a comprehensive social media strategy, you can build a robust online presence, attract top talent, and engage with new customers.
Tip #5: Showcasing Team Awards and Events
Social media provides an excellent platform for showcasing your team’s accomplishments and events. Use the opportunity to share team awards and broadcast live events from social media platforms with photos, video content, and interviews. Whether it’s seasonal gatherings, team barbecues, reward dinners, or charity golf events, use these moments as fodder for your content marketing.
Behind-the-scenes glimpses of your company’s work culture can entice potential candidates. You don’t need a professional photographer or videographer to share these moments with your audience.
For special events like a yearly team building exercise or an in-house event like a staff retreat, consider hiring a professional videographer or photographer to create quality content that can be featured across social media platforms and your website. A blend of casual and professional media creates a balanced image of your company.
Tip #6: Qualify Your Applications
One way to ensure you only hire the most qualified candidates is by using application forms to filter out those who don’t meet the necessary criteria for your landscaping business. Be sure to ask pertinent questions such as what licenses or certifications they need to work at your company or whether they require a driver’s license.
Asking very specific questions related to the role, whether it’s for a landscape designer or machinery operator, can help you identify the most suitable candidates. This may seem like an obvious step, but asking the right questions can save you time and effort while streamlining the recruitment process. By qualifying your applicants with the right questions, you can ensure you only interview or consider candidates who meet your criteria.
Tip #7: Request Employee Testimonials
Asking your current staff for reviews can help improve your online reputation and attract top talent to your landscaping business. However, it’s essential to strike a balance and not pressure your staff to write reviews. Instead, explain how it benefits the company and their roles if they attract the right staff with new hires.
You can let your staff know that having more reviews for your company on platforms such as Indeed, Glass Door, LinkedIn, or Google positively impacts your online reputation, helping you stand out as a reputable and professionally-run business. Providing this context can encourage them to leave reviews without feeling like they are being pressured or burdened.
By requesting reviews from current staff, you can improve your employer brand, attracting top talent to your business and building a strong recruitment pipeline for your landscaping company.
Tip #8: Develop a Staff Referral Program
A staff referral program is an excellent way to tap into your employees’ networks of skilled and like-minded individuals. As your business grows and enters different seasons, you may need to double or even triple your staffing levels. During these times of upheaval, it’s crucial to have reliable candidates to fill roles in your lawn care company.
To incentivize your staff to recommend new candidates, offer a financial reward if their referral stays with your company for over a year. Creating this kind of referral program can help your business attract high-quality candidates who are pre-vetted by your current employees.
Developing a staff referral program can ultimately save your landscaping business time and money, as many of the candidates are already pre-screened by your staff. Additionally, incentivizing your current employees to help recruit top talent can help build morale and a strong company culture.
Pro Tip: Promote Your Staff Referral Program
When developing a staff referral program, it’s important to promote it to your staff to encourage participation. Use various methods to announce the program, such as posters, emails, and internal newsletters. You can also mention it during team meetings or performance appraisals.
Make sure you clearly explain the rules and rewards of the referral program, including how much the financial reward will be, and what criteria the referral needs to meet before qualifying for the reward.
Promote the program on social media, your website, and job postings. If you have a referral who becomes a top-performing employee, highlight their success and recognize the employee who referred them. These gestures can help boost morale and encourage your staff to continue the recruitment process.
By effectively promoting your staff referral program, you can tap into your employees’ networks and find qualified candidates who are pre-qualified by your best employees.
Tip #9: Utilize Google Ads
This is an interesting digital marketing strategy we’ve seen some companies use when they continually hire.
Google Ads can be a powerful tool for attracting candidates to your landscape business. By targeting keywords related to “landscaping jobs near me,” you can show up prominently in search results for people looking for such positions. For instance, there are on average 480 searches per month in Canada for the keyword “landscaping jobs near me” with an average cost per click of only 11 cents and a difficulty level of only 39%.
This presents an opportunity for any landscaping company with a budget to spend on recruitment. By dominating the relevant keywords, you can attract the attention of local talent and stand out from competitors in your area without breaking the bank.
Be sure to direct the click-throughs to your careers page, which should provide up-to-date and accurate information on job openings, qualifications, and application processes. Utilizing Google Ads can be an effective strategy to attract candidates to your landscape company.
Pro Tip: Consider Working with a Marketing Agency for Google Ads
While Google Ads can be a cost-effective way to attract new hires for your landscaping business, effectively targeting and optimizing these ads can be a challenge. Working with a marketing agency that specializes in landscaping recruitment can help ensure you get the best results from your Google Ads campaigns.
A marketing agency such as Landscaper Marketing has experience in creating targeted campaigns for the landscaping industry and can help you identify the best keywords, optimize ad copy, and target the right audience to ensure you get the most out of your recruitment budget.
Book a free call with our team to learn more about how we can support your landscaping business with effective Google Ads campaigns that help you attract the right candidates!
Our Landscaper Marketing Team
We pride ourselves on providing our clients with a comprehensive suite of services that can help them achieve their goals. Whether you’re looking for someone to help you produce high-quality video and image content, rank you higher in search engines, curate a social media marketing strategy, or need assistance with paid search advertising, we have the experts who can help. Our team of landscaping content marketing experts can create digital marketing assets that will make you shine online. And, our backend advertising wizards know how to leverage these assets in the most efficient way possible. So, if you’re looking for a complete solution to help you achieve your objectives, look no further than Landscaper Marketing.
Ready for your Recruitment Garden to Flourish?
Recruiting top talent for your business is a lot like tending a garden. You can’t just throw some seeds in the ground and expect a successful harvest. It takes careful planning, attention, and nurturing. Lucky for you, there are many techniques you can use to attract the best candidates online. But where do you start? It can be overwhelming, which is why reaching out to our team is an easy first step. We live and breathe digital recruitment strategies and know how to get your garden blooming with the best candidates for your business. Don’t settle for mediocre when you can have exceptional. Contact us today to get started!
