Targeting talent in an established geographic area is a surefire way to discover the most successful job candidates for your business. That’s where geofencing comes in, which delivers recruitment-related marketing content to candidates in a particular location. Sounds good, right? Although work from home has impacted geofencing marketing to some degree, this technology still provides lucrative opportunities for recruiters. Learn how below.
What Is Geofencing?
Geofencing is a technology that uses GPS, RFID, Wi-Fi or cellular data to target smartphone users when they enter a specific ‘geofence’ — a virtual perimeter around a real-world physical location. When a prospective target enters a geofence, organizations like yours can send users location-based digital marketing via banner ad on websites or mobile apps. Geofences range in scope from a 3-foot by 3-foot square to entire cities and states.
Benefits of Geofencing
Geofencing helps organizations reach the right people at the right place at the right time. By sending marketing material to smartphone users within a specific geofence, organizations can advertise their local services, improve engagement, build brand awareness, get their message across, and even encourage a prospect to set up an appointment with a member of their team. For example, an organization can target workers in the financial services sector in a city’s downtown area (unless, of course, they are working from home).
Geofencing is incredibly valuable because people spend, on average, five to six hours on their smartphone every day, and that’s not including work-related device use. Therefore, this technology presents lucrative opportunities for organizations to engage with prospects as people are constantly checking their phones throughout the day.
Geofencing for Recruitment
While geofencing is used in a variety of industries and for a variety of purposes, it can be highly effective in the recruitment sector as well. That’s because it targets people in a specific area who might have valuable skills that employers look for or appreciate. For example, geofencing a college campus and surrounding area can allow organizations to target job-seeking students who possess a particular set of skills. Alternatively, geofencing Silicon Valley can help recruiters target tech professionals who are not working from home.
Below, find some of the many benefits of utilizing geofencing for recruitment.
Connect With Passive Candidates
Geofencing lets recruiters engage with ‘passive’ job seekers — those who aren’t actively looking for work but might still be a good fit for a certain industry or job role. Talent acquisition and human resources departments can catch these professionals online in a certain geofence and send them relevant job ads or career opportunities.
Increase Diversity
Geofencing makes the location a priority over other factors that influence recruitment. HR departments can access talent in a particular area and reach out to specific communities to increase diversity. Therefore, geofencing can be more effective than recruiting employees from across an entire city, state or region.
Support Hiring Events
Geofencing at hiring events can prove even more productive. Recruiters can create multi-channel experiences where they engage with job candidates in person and then send them marketing materials via their smartphone. Even if recruiters don’t attend a hiring event, they can still geofence an event venue and send attendees marketing, increasing their organization’s visibility.
The Impact of Remote Work on Geofencing Tactics
The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting work from home policies have significantly impacted geofencing marketing in all industries, including recruitment. With lots of top talent working from home, creating a geofence that targets workers in a particular industry or employees with a unique skill set is now more challenging. Geofencing still proves valuable for industries like retail and healthcare, where people need to visit a physical location. However, it’s ineffective in sectors like finance and creative services, where many workers are still working from home.
Nonetheless, savvy recruiters can get around this issue by targeting potential job candidates who still gather in one precise location, such as college students at a campus or workers at a construction site. Recruiters can send targeted ads to these groups, thus and improvinge their hiring processes. Plus, there are still millions of people across all industries who have returned to work, providing recruiters with ample marketing and advertising opportunities.
Alternatively, talent acquisition and HR teams can use tactics like behavioral targeting to reach niche audiences working from home. This type of advertising can target remote workers based on their business profiles and job titles, helping recruiters connect with workers who have extensive experience or a special skill set.
How Bayard Can Help
Bayard is a full-service recruitment and advertising agency that focuses on talent attraction and employer branding. Work with Bayard to develop powerful recruitment strategies that leverage all that geofencing has to offer, even when more people are working from home because of the pandemic.
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