Are your job advertisements boring? If you're not getting a reply, they probably are. And in today's episode, I'm going to share with you a proven and simple copywriting formula that will help you get a better response to your open positions.
Hey everyone, Jack Jostes here, and welcome to The Landscapers Guide Podcast. Right now, I'm out on a hike at about 8,500 feet in Colorado. So we've still got some snow on the ground here. But it is officially springtime, and my bet is you are hiring and you've got at least a couple open positions. So, today I'm going to share with you how to write killer job ads. It's a module from my new online course, The Landscapers Ultimate Guide to Recruiting, which has way more about the leadership, branding, core values, all the things that you need to do to get to the point of writing this ad. So you can't skip over that part, but I do want to give you some tips today. And if you want to check out the full course, go to landscapersguide.com/courses. And, now let's dive right into writing a killer job ad so you get a better response.
How to write killer job ads to make them look like opportunities, not wanted ads
Next, it's time to right killer job ads. Yeah. Killer whoa. Really, we need to be excellent here because most job ads that I read in the landscape industry are awful. They sound like wanted ads, not opportunities. So we need to stand out and tap into the emotions of our potential employees. I want to share with you the inverted pyramid that I learned in journalism school. It answers the most newsworthy info first. In marketing, I think the most newsworthy information is what's in it for me. So, basically in journalism, you've got to write a great headline that draws people in today's world out of their Facebook newsfeed, or out of Twitter, or whatever, clicking through into the article to read the rest of it. And then we need to get right into the nuts and bolts. And then we get important details. And then we get into background info.
How to tap into the emotions of your potential employees based on the inverted pyramid
Most landscape ads have this backwards, and they write the background info first. Johnson Landscape's, a landscape company that offers XYZ, ABCDEFG and H services, since 1985, is located on 123 Main Street, after moving there from 123 Jane Street. Anyways, they get into all about themselves. And you do need to get about yourself. You do need to get into... And then they talk about, "You're going to report to the Senior Vice President of this, and you'll do this, and you must be able to do this," and it doesn't read well. It doesn't draw me, the employee, in. So, we've got to start with them and mention the pains, and how your company is going to be different.
Job Ad Examples That Actually Work
So here's an example of how you could do that. If the pain is, they're working at a dead-end landscape company with no career advancement. "Are you tired of working at a dead-end landscape company that doesn't value its employees? Advance your career in our family culture at Johnson Landscapes, where you'll all benefit, opportunity, stability. You get the idea. If you're looking to learn new skills as a landscape professional and work outside with great team members doing work you're proud of, for appreciative clients, learn more about this opportunity and our realistic income ranges." Wow. Okay. So I'm tapping into some pains here working for a dead end landscape company. My boss doesn't in value in their employees. There's no culture.
Now I'm seeing family culture, learn new skills, work outside with great team members and I'm going to see income ranges. We got to get into the perks. These are the things that we already have on our careers page, our benefits, a specific salary range for each position. You can't get away with competitive pay anymore. This isn't 2008. You got to put in there what is the actual income opportunity and what are the opportunities for advancement? What are the three reasons to work? All of this should be going in there. What is your mission, vision and core values? The job description and responsibilities. Yes, we need to get into the work. What's your role? What will you be doing? And clear instructions on how to apply? What is the job application process and where should I apply? How should I do it?
If you're doing all of these things, if you're doing all of these things, truly, if you're writing compelling job ads that are interesting, that make you stand out, you've got your perks, benefits, all these different things, and you're not getting a response, you are probably under paying for the position and you should go back to Indeed and just look and see what other positions are paying the amount that you're offering. And are you offering a position that should be paying more? To me, that's one of the ways that I know if I'm not paying enough for a position is if I'm not getting enough applicants. That's a key thing. And for years I wasn't. And then I worked on that and was able to increase my pay and started getting the people I wanted. And they're here. I enjoy them.
Okay. So those are some of the tips to writing a killer job ad. And once you have it, in the next module, we're going to talk about how to promote it so people find it and start applying to your positions.
All right, everyone, I hope you got some tips from that that you can implement. And right now, I'm out on a hike and actually, I went hunting this morning and I'm up in the mountains and sure enough, the road is now closed that I need to drive over. They're working on this bridge. So that's why I'm producing this part of the podcast just out and about on my phone. But I have peace of mind knowing that my sales and marketing is just up and running. It's working. I don't even need to be there. I can be out of cell service and know that my recruiting and marketing is working not only for myself and for my clients. And in my course, The Landscaper Ultimate Guide to Recruiting, I share with you the exact systems that we're using. I share the templates, the tracking spreadsheets for applicants. I've got guest content from some of our partners who have recruiting software, so you can text message people. You've got to check it out at landscapersguide.com/courses so you can have this system working for you too.
And if you're a current Ramblin Jackson client, we are having a client advisory panel on April 7th where we'll be... This is private. It's just for current clients where we'll be going into great details, showing you exactly what we're doing and how we're doing some of this work for our clients as well. So ask your account manager about that. Hope to see you there. My name's Jack Jostes, and thanks so much for checking out The Landscapers Guide. I look forward to talking to you next week.