Let’s be honest, if your job ad still starts with something like “Are you passionate about delivering world-class solutions in a fast-paced environment,” there’s a good chance it sounds like it was written in 2015. And that’s completely understandable. We’ve all reused old content, copied the last ad we posted and added a few bullet points about tasks and qualifications.
But while the words haven’t changed, the candidates have. Today’s talent scrolls fast, reads selectively and makes decisions in seconds. If your ad feels templated, they will assume the rest of the experience is too.
This is not about job boards being wrong, they still matter, but they’re not enough on their own. If you post in the same places with the same formats using the same language, you’re not reaching the full picture of the market. You’re speaking to the people who are actively searching, but not to the ones who are casually open, or the ones who don’t even know yet that your job is exactly what they’ve been waiting for.
That’s why recruitment marketing is not an add-on, it’s the bridge between you and the people you haven’t reached yet. It meets them where they are, not just where you think they should be. It shows up in social feeds, in moments of curiosity, in between a podcast and a coffee refill, not just when someone types a job title into a search bar.
Recruitment marketing means writing job ads like someone is actually meant to read them. Not just filling space, but speaking to real people, with real language and a real point. It means thinking about how you sound, but also where you show up. Distribution is not a formality, it’s the unlock. You don’t need to shout louder, you need to show up smarter. Because the right person may not be actively looking, but if your ad finds them at the right time in the right place with the right tone, they might just click.
You can still write a job ad like it’s 2015, just don’t act surprised when 2015 applies.
The candidates you actually want are out there right now, not searching but scrolling, not desperately applying but quietly observing. If you want to reach them, you need to meet them where they are, with the right tone, the right timing and a message that feels like it was written for them, not for a system. Because recruitment is no longer about broadcasting vacancies, it’s about building relevance, and the future belongs to those who know the difference.
