Who wouldn’t jump on a decent job offer? Imagine finding a job that ticks all your dream job boxes; you would dive right into such an offer.
If you’re hiring writers for your agency or company, you have to be twice as concerned about writing great job ads. Great writers read everything thoroughly, including job ads. And they can perceive an unprofessional or mediocre job ad right away.
Attracting quality candidates is the biggest challenge for 76% of recruiters, and most times, it’s a result of the job ad they put out. Your job ad or job description must be worth applying for to candidates before they can click on the apply button.
In this article, you will learn how to attract quality writers for your company by writing great job ads.
How do you write a great job advertisement?
If you have written a job ad in the past that didn’t give the response you expected, it can be one of two things: candidates can’t see your job ad, or you are just not getting it right.
Writing a job ad is like copywriting. You’re not just writing to sell your brand. You’re writing to persuade your ideal candidate that not applying means that they are missing out on a lot.
It’s essential to learn how to put out unique and engaging job descriptions. This will help your job offer stand out from many other exhausting job adverts posted on job boards. And most importantly, it would help you get your ideal candidates to apply for the job.
Most great writers look out for specific details before applying for any writing job. When such elements are absent, they may ignore that advertisement and proceed to seek better opportunities.
Tips for writing attractive job ads;
For your job advert to achieve its goal —getting top-notch writers to apply for the role you put out— it must have a good structure that includes specific details. These details include, who the role is for, the required skill and expertise, and the benefits available to prospects. It should be written to give a summary of why a candidate should move forward with applying.
Ideal Job description structure for a content writer
Generally, a great job ad is structured in this order:
- Job title
- Salary
- Location
- Defining your brand
- Role and responsibilities
- Requirements—Core qualifications and skills
Homerun content writer description templates will help you structure suitable job ads for your content writing job openings. You can always tweak the structure to suit your needs with the template. Here are things you need to note for each component of your job ad.
Job Title
Clearly define the type of writer you need before writing your job title. Do you need a Content writer or a Copywriter, a fiction writer, an SEO writer, or even a medical writer? This should be considered when you write your title. You have to be as specific as possible. The more defined your title is, the more you get ideal applications.
Job titles state the talent or candidate you are after, but it also ensures that your perfect candidate gets to you. Most candidates look for job openings by googling their intended job role titles. Hence, to get your job ad published to them or to get them to your advert, your job ad must contain those keywords they search for.
You have to find keywords that most applicants would include when searching for their desired job role. If your job title doesn’t contain those keywords, candidates may not get to see them.
Whatever job title you come up with, though, ensure it suits the job description. You do not want to write an ambiguous job title that is vague to applicants or misleads them. Your job title should mean what it states, and it should be as defined as possible.
Salary
Many employers choose not to disclose the pay they offer prospects so that they can give room for negotiations, safeguard their salary structure from competitors and attract varying applicants.
However, job Ads with stated salary schemes have more clicks than a listing with no salary range. It is stated that there is a 27% increase in the number of applicants for jobs that publish their salary. Considering the shortage of quality writers and the need for good content, employees have discovered that to attract the best possible candidates, listing the salary offers help.
A salary range helps you to;
- Save time and hiring cost
- Get the right candidate
- Improve retention
- Promote transparency
Including the company’s salary structure in your job description is vital for company credibility and candidate attraction. Generally, people prefer to work with credible and transparent companies. 96% of job seekers say that it’s crucial to work for a company known for transparency.
Location
Some things act as deal-breakers for candidates, and an unspecified location is one of them. When putting out your ad, you should be very transparent with your job location. Is the writing position an in-office one or remote? You should include that in the job description.
A lot of candidates avoid applying for vague job postings, and for something as crucial as location, you should be as clear as you can be. Imagine finding a perfect candidate and losing them because of the location.
To relieve yourself of such undue stress, always state your job location in your job advert.
Defining your company
Next, you should add a brief introduction about your company and why a good writer should choose to write for you amongst other available job openings.
This is an excellent section for employer branding. It should help candidates know from the beginning what your company is about and if they’d be interested in writing for you. You let candidates in on how great your company is and why they should choose you.
Some writers have specific niches, so you must give information on the particular type of content you expect applicants to deliver. Content types can vary from social media content to email copies, blogs, and articles. When you state the kind of writing you need, only qualified candidates that meet the requirements will apply, saving you the stress of going through thousands of irrelevant applications.
Role and responsibilities
Another essential part of your job description is what the role entails. The title most times already says what the job role is. But the functions and responsibility section helps you to say what you expect the writers to write on, specific topics, and any other additional responsibilities. Ensure you have job roles broken down with bullet points, so it’s clearer to applicants.
This section should cover the job schedule. Would it be a Monday to Friday job, or are weekends inclusive? Candidates like to see if a job schedule fits into their schedule. An excellent job Ad must state the primary responsibilities, tasks, and deadline schedules.
Requirements—Core qualifications and Skills
After stating the requirements needed to meet your job opening, the next step is to clearly say the skills and qualifications required to qualify for your job opening. This will ensure you have only qualified candidates sending in applications.
Use bullet points to state the required qualification and skills in this section. You may want writers with particular years of experience, published articles or bylines, background, certifications, education, and personality traits. It should be clearly stated in the description.
Ensure that it is also stated that applicants without the required qualifications won’t be considered.
Things to avoid when writing a great job ad
Here are a few mistakes to avoid as you write your job ad:
- Unnecessary jargons
When writing for the public, write in simple and very clear terminologies that are easy to understand with relevant keywords.
- Leaving out key information
Ensure to include every relevant information that attracts suitable applicants. Essential information like location, benefits, and qualifications mustn’t be left out. Job seekers skip Job Ads without this relevant information.
- Spelling and grammar mistakes
Mistakes like spelling errors can make your job ad lose value and discourage qualified candidates from applying. Imagine a writing agency putting up an Ad with spelling errors and mistakes; no skilled writer would get excited about such a job offer because that doesn’t speak well of the company. Ensure you proofread and double-check your ads.
- Ignoring proper structure
Just putting out a chunk of words strung together can discourage candidates from reading or attempting to apply. Avoid very lengthy job descriptions that overwhelm and discourage candidates. Job ads should be straight to the point and free of unnecessary details.
Use bullet points and smaller paragraphs to make your job descriptions easy to read.
Wrapping up
Employing the best candidates for positions in your organization is fundamental to the success of your business. Considering the number of recruiters struggling to find quality writers for their companies or agencies, you need to craft a great ad to attract the right talent.
You might be a good advert away from your dream hire. Follow these steps to boost your ‘apply now’ click rates by ideal candidates to live your dream.
Author’s Bio
Martins Favour is a creative content writer with over five years of experience writing SEO content for various brands. She finds a home in weaving worlds out of words. Stories are her life and LinkedIn is her favourite tool.
