Ready to post a job on an online job board or marketplace? Here are our 6 top tips for effectively writing a job listing that gets noticed by the right people.

Tip 1: Give The Applicant Exactly What They Want To See

When potential applicants are browsing jobs, they likely have a clear vision in mind for the position they’re looking for, including: 

• Their preferred salary
• Their level of responsibility/management
• Their day-to-day tasks
• Their working hours
• The job location

If you want to avoid time-wasting for both you and the applicant, make sure to include all these details within the job listing. And yes, that includes the salary. It’s a controversial point, we know, but a good percentage of potential applicants (25%-35%) simply won’t apply for a job if the proposed salary isn’t listed. 

If you list everything an applicant wants to see, you’re likely to have more people apply for the job role within a shorter time period because you aren’t giving applicants a reason to leave your listing due to a lack of information. 

Tip 2: Sell The Role

Remember, a job listing is an advertisement. So, you need to use advertising tactics to sell the role and your company, and ultimately entice potential applicants to take the time to fill in your form. 

How do you sell a job role? Here are some points to keep in mind: 

• Use exciting wording. “Dynamic”, “passionate”, “enthusiastic”, “fast-paced”, “stimulating”, and “developing” are all great words to use to describe either the candidate you’re looking for or the job position that’s available. Help candidates to visualize themselves in your job role, and make it clear to them that you’re offering a compelling opportunity. 
• Mention company perks. Do you offer competitive holidays? Company discounts?  Social events? Schemes for mental health? Duvet days? List all of these perks in your job description. Even if your applicants could apply for the same role with another company, you’re showing them the unique benefits that they’ll enjoy from working for you. 
• Toot your own horn. If your company has won awards, has a prestigious title, or is the biggest, longest-running, or best in any category, mention it in the job listing. You want your candidates to feel excited about the opportunity of working for you (and getting to boast about their new role to their friends). 

Tip 3: Keep It Brief

We get it: hiring a new employee is a big deal, and you want to make sure your applicants understand as much as possible about the job role, your company values, and what you expect from your staff. 

But if you try to cram too much into a single job listing, you’ll lose your audience’s interest (remember what we said about a job listing being an advertisement). 

It truly is important that your applicants have a clear understanding of exactly what job position they’re applying for, but you can highlight your key information in a couple of paragraphs and a bullet-point list. 

Once you move onto the next stage of the hiring process, that’s when you can provide more detailed information to your applicants and get a better understanding of whether they’re the right fit for the role through conducting one-on-one interviews and assigning trial work (where possible). 

There’s no need to overwhelm all your applicants from your very first job listing, since only one person will get the job. 

Tip 4: Avoid Jargon Or Fancy Writing

It’s natural for you to want your company to be presented in the best possible light in your job listing. 

But you don’t have to write unnaturally or fill your listing with jargon or confusing terms that anyone outside of your business might not understand. This could deter candidates from applying because they’re either not sure exactly what the job entails or they think they’re not a good fit. 

Don’t get into the nitty-gritty of the role until you’re further on into the application process and approaching training. In the job listing, your main aim should be to demonstrate your company culture and your working environment.

Tip 5: See What Your Competitors Are Doing

There’s no better way to learn how to write an effective job advertisement than checking what your competitors are doing. 

Read your competitors’ listings as if you’re a candidate on the hunt for jobs. If you see a formatting or writing style that your competitors are doing well, copy it. Or if something puts you off, don’t do it yourself. 

Reviewing competitors’ listings also helps you to make your own listing more competitive. Perhaps you can offer a slightly better salary, or more company perks, than your competitors sharing similar job listings. 

Tip 6: Post The Listing In The Right Places

You’ve spent all that time crafting the perfect job listing – but it still won’t be seen by the right people if you don’t list it in the right places. 

As well as using generic job sites like Indeed, we recommend using listing, advertising, and selling websites and marketplaces that are specific to your industry. This will help you to attract a target audience of enthusiastic candidates actively searching for jobs. 

For instance, if you’re in the turf industry (agriculture, greenkeeping, groundstaff, and so on), post your listing on sites like Turf Market, which offer affordable listing prices for industry professionals and share these listings to an interested audience.