Recruitment Marketing Trends for 2022

As we finish up for the first full year of Search Stack I thought it would be fun and interesting to share some of our predictions on what could really work in the Recruitment/B2B marketing landscape in 2022.

I’ve made these predictions purely through assumptions and observations on what looks like is working from individuals and companies already implementing and succeeding with them now.

So there’s no big market survey, no data, it’s all speculative so take it all with a pinch of salt!

Authenticity is the new buzzword.

And rightly so, with an increasingly diverse, complex, and switched-on audience, the old ways of one message for everyone just won’t work.

Smart companies are investing time into researching and understanding their target market and creating specific campaigns that speak directly to them. We need to get personal to break through the noise.

Try doing a bit of in-depth client research at the beginning of the year.

TikTok is becoming more appreciative of informative content.

The video-based social platform is stepping out of its Wild West days, and creators are finding a lot of success creating informative, fun, and value-adding content. With user adoption growing every week, it may be the right time to experiment.

There’s a growing trend of creators giving advice, tips, and guidance; rather than the usual dancing and meme content. If you can piggyback on the fun, trends but also good solid advice on the platform then you may be onto a winner.

Email is big – but not how you remember.

Newsletters are seeing an increase, they’re becoming niche and seriously value-driven. The companies that put a face to their newsletter and consistently turn up with an email packed with great content are catching attention.

Scrap the cold automation and lifeless company updates. It’s 2022 no one cares.

You need to use your platform to aggregate great content from your industry niche, or share value-adding content (not links to your blogs) pack it with easily digestible value-adding content.

Modern marketers need to put trust into creating relationships with their audience. Rather than forcing the action with a CTA. Which leads to my next point…

Stop gating content, trust in dark social brand advocacy.

With privacy being the next big topic of discussion and big tech ruining the trust of their users, what hope do you stand? Emails and contact details are becoming more precious. And, content in exchange for personal information is not a fair trade anymore.

Marketers need to phase out that distrust and step away from those email-driven KPMs, because much of your success will now be down to the intangible dark social.

Companies that back their content so much that they’re confident giving it away without the need for email addresses are going to bank favor, trust and advocacy with their audience. We just need to be smarter about how we earn their time.

Branding is more important than ever.

The noise out there is crazy. You’re competing with millions of companies and individuals for a small slice of attention. And one of the best ways to stand out is to have a strong, solid brand.

Spending time with a branding consultant will help you unlock messaging and visual identity which talks directly to your audience, rather than bore them by saying why you’re so great.

If you need more convincing begin by reading the starting a story brand book in the new year.

NFTS are going to be huge in communities.

Wow what can I say about NFTs, flash in the pan, genius, stupid, overpriced, fad, future of everything; many opinions for the non-fungible-token. But you cannot argue their stratospheric rise in 2021.

What really is interesting though is their ‘token’ aspect, many people don’t realise that these NFTs can have real-world benefits attracted to owning one; like the bored ape yacht club VIP parties, or Gary Vee NFT Vee Con tokens.

And what really excites us about this is DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Organisations) the blockchain and these tokens now allow us to create exclusive communities with perks, value, and most excitingly a democratic say to the future and development of that community.

I think recruiters are in a super interesting position with this and if they can build a DAO community for their niche then they could be trailblazing the future.

Personal brands are the #1 channel for businesses.

The reach personal brands are getting across all social platforms is unbelievable, views, engagements & leads you’d hope to dream of from other sources.

People really do buy from people. And, when you consistently show up day after day to provide value, engage with your target audience, and build a personal brand you will stand head and shoulders above any competitor that is relying on regular social.

If you’ve not taken the time to grow your personal brand then 2022 needs to be the time to do it.

Niche podcasts are killing it.

We’ve been helping multiple recruitment clients build and grow their podcasts in 2021, it’s been super interesting watching them grow and flourish and the niche audience they develop over time.

We always advocate for the power of podcasts, for the business development aspect, the stretching of content, the personal brand benefits. But one of the most powerful things coming out of these niche podcasts is communities that are growing around them.

Stretching content is more relevant than ever.

It’s obvious that time constraints are one of the biggest barriers to creating content and marketing. So it really defies sense when we see so many companies just not stretching their content.

We have so many different mediums and platforms that people engage with, but we pigeonhole that one great idea into something like a blog, post it, then abandon it.

If you’re not already utilising content stretching to share your content across various platforms then you’re wasting your time and not getting the most out of your content.