Most hospitals have faced the challenge of staff shortages at some point or another. It can often take a long time to attract the right candidates and fill positions, which may serve as a strain on your hospital’s ability to provide the highest quality of care.
But here’s some good news: There are various online advertising strategies that can help your hospital target and attract the right talent sooner rather than later. To give your recruitment efforts that extra push, your hospital can use strategies such as paid search ads on Google; display ads on websites; social media ads on platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn; and video ads on YouTube.
One of our hospital system clients recently saw immediate success from their recruitment campaign. In a little over a month of launching the campaign, the hospital system had two hires, with both hired nurses working in specialized areas. Both of the hires tied directly back to digital campaigns that Scorpion managed. In comparison, the hospital system’s previous recruitment campaign that used traditional/offline media led to zero recruitment referrals.
How to Run an Effective Recruitment Ad Campaign
If you are thinking of using online hospital advertising to give your recruitment efforts more momentum, remember that a lot goes into creating a successful campaign. You can’t just create your ad and expect results—there are a lot of other steps and best practices that you need to follow!
When setting up your recruitment ad campaigns, you should:
Make your ad’s messaging and images warm, welcoming, and compelling. You want your ad viewers to get the sense that your hospital is a pleasant place to work and that the position is worth their time and effort. Try using images that show happy hospital employees, and highlight what your organization has to offer, such as excellent benefits.
Target the right audience. Are you searching for certain types of employees, such as nurses, radiology technicians, or phlebotomists? Are you seeking applicants within a certain geographic area? Fortunately, you can use keywords, geo-targeting, and various other targeting methods to make sure you reach the right audience online.
Use landing pages to lead your ad clickers to the right place. If your ad is highlighting a recruiting event, such as an open house, lead your viewers to a page with more information about the event and a form to sign up. If your ad is calling for applicants, you can lead your viewers to a page where they can learn more about the position and fill out an online application. The goal is to make it easy for potential applicants to take the next step so you can get the hiring process going.
Give potential applicants the best experience possible on your website. One of the first things people naturally do when they hear about an open position at your hospital is check out your website. If your site appears outdated or unprofessional, is difficult to navigate, or does not properly highlight the hospital’s strengths, it can discourage potential applicants. And it may be even more of a deterrent for prominent physicians or other more experienced medical professionals who are looking to align themselves with leading healthcare organizations that share their values.
Be sure that your H.R. department gets back to applicants in a timely manner. Once you launch your campaign, you should expect the calls and applications to start coming in. Make sure you’re ready! If you keep applicants waiting too long, they are likely to move on to other opportunities, and that could lead to your hospital missing out on some of the best talent. In addition into that, you’ll be cutting into your campaign’s effectiveness and return on investment (ROI), and that’s perfectly good advertising dollars and effort down the drain.
Scorpion’s Hospital Advertising Experts Can Help
Here at Scorpion, we combine effective online advertising strategies with expertly designed landing pages and websites to help hospitals like yours with the recruitment needs. We also offer comprehensive reporting and analytics to give our clients a clear view of how their ads are performing. Whether you’re launching a nurse recruitment campaign or some other type of recruitment campaign, we can help you find the right applicants.
Contact us to discuss your needs with one of our hospital advertising specialists!
