Landing page: definition and key role in your recruitment strategy

Landing page definition and specifics for recruitment use

Landing page: term from marketing. What does it mean? It's a web page that a visitor lands on after clicking on a link available on :

• social networks,
• advertising,
• blog posts,
• etc.

It's important to understand that it's not only a web page where visitors arrive, but also a web page that's designed for conversion (from visitors into leads for marketing purposes).  

What does a landing page look like?

It's a single, stand-alone web page, that is not a part of a website with a menu, footer, etc. Often short and concise, it addresses a specific topic and focuses on that theme only.

Unlike a classic website or mini-site (both of which consist of several pages and an internal navigation system), the landing page is designed to trigger a specific action from its visitors. And everything is built with this goal in mind: design, content, title, call-to-action...

This one objective may be to trigger :

• A purchase or subscription
• A form contact request
• A file download
• A newsletter subscription
• Etc.

Landing page & recruitment: what are the particularities?

The landing page principle remains the same when it comes to recruitment, even if the target and objective are not similar. That said, considering potential candidates as potential customers is a best practice from Recruitment Marketing that shouldn't be underestimated.

Unlike a corporate or career site, it:

• often reaches a more precise target than all candidate profiles,
• focuses on specific positions,
• concerns a given geographic location,
• or focuses on a particular approach to recruitment: referral program, job event, campus recruiting, etc.

It can even be all 4 at the same time, for the largest companies in massive recruitment operations. The aim is to address a defined target group in a personalized way, and to hit the bull's-eye not only with relevant content and media, but also with eye-catching design and fluid navigation.

The conversion objective is also different, since it's linked to the target: it's all about turning visitors into candidates.

Why should you use landing pages in recruitment?

Landing pages should complement a stronger digital presence, in particular through an optimized career site.

Find out more: 10 points to check when diagnosing your career site

But landing pages are highly relevant to specific needs. Their primary purpose is to trigger action from potential candidates. They can serve the following recruitment objectives:

• applications,
• unsolicited applications,
• event registration,
• subscription to a talent pool,
• referral of contacts,
• etc.

Of course, you can only achieve these objectives if your landing pages are successful. You'll find more tips later in this article.

Good to know: while having a career site is fairly widespread among companies, using these dedicated pages, or even event pages, is less so. Stand out from the crowd!

Candidate journeys are also digital: landing pages enhance the candidate experience

In today's competitive job market, companies need to differentiate themselves from competitors and simplify the process for job applicants. That's where landing pages come in. They create a personalized and engaging experience, while meeting the specific needs of particular recruitment campaigns.

Here are just a few examples on how landing pages can improve the experience of your potential candidates:

Smoother, clearer journey: Landing pages minimize the number of steps required and the energy expended by a visitor to interact with an employer brand. Unlike a full site, there's just one page, one message, one action.

Optimized for mobile and fast interaction: Working on a single page that gets straight to the point makes it easy to create short texts that work very well on the small screens of smartphones, the preferred device of job seekers. With no additional menu or navigation elements, you avoid complex pages that might prevent visitors from interacting with your action button.

Personalized content: A landing page can be fully tailored to the profile or position for which you're looking (information, tone of voice, appropriate visuals, etc.), creating an immediate connection with the candidate. By addressing them directly in a familiar environment, it reinforces engagement.

More profitable advertising campaigns: When a LinkedIn or Google Ads ad links straight to a dedicated landing page, the results are often better. Why is that? Because the ad's message echoes right from the first screen of the landing page.

Performance tracking: Thanks to the tracking systems of landing page creation tools, it's easy to measure the page's effectiveness (number of visits, conversion rate, etc.) and thus improve it. 

What content for recruitment landing pages?

Recruitment landing page essentials

Whether it's a content or a functionality, a few elements are essential for a talent acquisition landing page:

A clear, concise and visible call-to-action button

• Only one call-to-action button is needed for the entire page, even if it means reusing it more than once (but not on every line either).
• No more than 4 or 5 words (ideally 2 or 3), so forget complete sentences.
• Use an action verb at the beginning of your button (e.g.: Register for the trade show) to make it clear that this button will trigger something and make people want to click.

A simplified application or registration form

• Ask only for the essential information, to avoid turning visitors off by a lengthy form.
• Make sure your form is adapted to all screen sizes (often mobile adaptation is systematic for the page, but forms may not meet the same ergonomic rules by default).
• Don't forget to include the mandatory information on data collection and treatment, as well as consent, to comply with the GDPR.
• You can offer a quick intro to the form to explain why filling it in, say in a few words the benefits for potential candidates of taking action.

Bonus: if your landing page's main action is to book meetings (e.g. for interviews or job dating during an event), you can choose to include a digital calendar on your landing page instead of a standard form.

Short, engaging titles, subheadings and sentences

• As the page must be as relevant as possible, every word must be useful and meaningful. Each sentence must have a purpose: to inform, motivate or reassure.
• The tone you use and the words you choose must speak specifically to your target audience. For example, you'll speak differently to young people in training than to managers, in terms of both the way you express the information and the information itself.
• The benefits of getting in touch with your company should be clear from the very first sentence, especially in the title. E.g.: “Become a sales representative for Europe's leader in the circular economy”.

Elements of reassurance

• No matter how many arguments you put forward, visitors will only be convinced to act if they're sure they can trust you. Every landing page needs to show proof.
• Use key figures to illustrate your arguments and provide tangible information. One number often speaks louder than a paragraph!
• Add verbatims from your employees and managers, and from any internal profiles who can provide their own insights and make your landing page more “human”.
• Include reviews and testimonials from external reference sites, for much stronger reassurance.

Bonus: what could be more reassuring than being able to ask questions and get answers quickly? A chatbot can find its place not only on a career site, but also on a landing page! Set it up to match your specific target audience, and your visitors will feel much more comfortable.

Engaging, personalized visuals

• A landing page without at least one visual may get less engagement because it's less attractive. The emotion provided by an image can really serve your landing page.
• Forget about stock photos, which depersonalize your landing page and provide no emotional information for your targets. Show the human side.
• Give preference to personalized images that resemble you: people, places, moments; they not only support your written message but also provide complementary elements. It's easier for your targets to project themselves in offices or with teams.
• Videos are also very interesting, as they can provide even more context and develop content that might be too long in written format, on a page that's supposed to be short and punchy.

Bonus: some landing pages can also be dedicated to regions, countries or cities, depending on the organization's recruitment objectives and scope. Images of key locations show that you took the time to personalize your page, and also provide reassurance. 

Examples of landing page construction for specific talent acquisition objectives

Here are 3 examples illustrating possible contents for specific types of recruitment landing pages.

Recruitment campaigns for specific positions

A landing page can be created to promote a key position, such as a developer or salesperson. It can include :

• A concise description of the role and missions.
• The benefits of working for the company specifically for this role.
• A simplified application form.

Promotion of recruitment events

For a job dating, webinar or recruitment session, a landing page can :

• Present the event and its practical details.
• Highlight the speakers on site.
• Enable direct registration of participants.

Employer branding campaigns

Companies wishing to highlight their culture and values can use a landing page to:

• Show employee testimonials on specific company aspects.
• Share videos of the premises or company life.
• Highlight certifications obtained by the company (e.g. Happy Trainees).

These 3 examples are not the only ones, and the order of the information is also very important.

How can you integrate the landing page tool into your global recruitment actions?

Although landing pages are stand-alone pages (not related to a full website), they must be 100% integrated into an overall strategy. 

Recruitment landing page and Talent Acquisition strategy

A landing page should only be created if it has a specific goal. So before you start, you need to define your communication strategy with potential candidates.

A few questions need to be answered. What positions do you need to fill immediately and in the long term? What is your proactive recruitment strategy to avoid talent shortages? How do you keep in touch with former candidates? Is your employer brand strong enough?

Depending on the outcome of this review, the strategy and priorities need to be set. Landing pages will be part of this strategy implementation plan:

• Recruit quickly for specific positions => industry landing page
• Grow your talent pool to prepare for future recruitment => unsolicited application landing page
• Boost your internal referral program > landing page for recommending contacts even if you're not an employee
• Attract talent from your sector to a job fair > event landing page
• Etc. 

Recruitment landing page and career site

Often, the tool used to create a career site can also be used to design landing pages, as can tools such as ATS or CRM (Candidate Relationship Management).

In any case, and even if each landing page is separate from the career site, it's a good idea for both digital spaces to have the same basics:

• Consistent design in corporate colors
• Offer description similar from one space to the other
• Employer-branded content that matches each other
• Etc.

Landing page recruitment and advertising

Most often, a landing page is not intended to be indexed by search engines (i.e. to appear in the list of pages resulting from a web search).

Instead, it can be accessed by landing (hence its name) from another space. Talent attraction campaigns therefore need to be considered as a whole, the landing page being just one component of the machine:

• One need > One target
• One target > One message
• One message > One ad (or several versions of one ad to test approaches and messages)
• One ad > Several distribution channels (social networks, media, job boards, QR codes on events, Google Ads, emailings and newsletters, mail signatures...)
• Each distribution channel > One landing page tailored to convert interested individuals into candidates

A landing page can be the final result of several communication actions targeting potential candidates. 

Recruitment landing page, conversion and contact follow-up

Does your landing page convert? Are your visitors turning into candidates? Congratulations! But have you thought about how you're going to manage these new contacts? This should all be part of your wider recruitment strategy, and defined before you launch your landing page.

Three points are particularly important:

• Tracking the results of your landing page and being able to identify which contact came from which landing page. To do this, your landing page tool must be integrated with your digital recruitment ecosystem: ATS, CRM, HRIS tools, etc. You'll be able to track the full candidate journey.
• If a candidate has performed the action proposed on a specific landing page, you need to know this in order to identify the information they already have. This way, you'll know how not to be redundant and what additional information to bring in as the relationship with this top talent continues.
• By getting the conversion results from a landing page, you'll be able to analyze what's working and what needs to be improved. Perhaps you realize that your sector landing page is attracting profiles that are too large? Then you'll know that you need to be more precise in your ad and/or landing page copy. You'll also know that you can consider adding a secondary call to action for profiles that don't match your specific need (e.g.: list of vacancies on your career site, unsolicited application form, newsletter subscription...). Of course, this is just an example.

Find out more: Conversion and recruitment, what are we talking about?