Successful nurse recruitment is a constant challenge for many human resource and recruiting professionals.
One way for you to engage in more fruitful nurse recruitment is to reach out to qualified job candidates through targeted advertising, said Andrew Boydstun, manager of eCommerce analytics for OnCourse Learning Healthcare, a Relias company.
A targeted advertising database — such as our Nurse.com database — helps you find the type of applicants you need.
It also helps you get your marketing and advertising messages to potential candidates more effectively.
“A good database allows you to be specific in your messaging by targeting the list precisely to your target audience,” Boydstun said. “For example, if you’re recruiting for an ICU opening and want to reach out to critical care nurses with master’s degrees to advertise your opening, we have a database that can help you achieve just that.”
On the flip side, targeted databases also can help you cast a wide net and advertise positions to a wider RN audience too, Boydstun said.
Considerations for the best targeted advertising
While there are many providers of data, not all have as robust a database as we do at Nurse.com, said Adia Noel, director of eCommerce strategy and analytics at Relias Healthcare.
“We are a trustworthy partner with a valuable niche database specific to RNs,” she said.
Something to consider when looking to acquire the services of a database provider for targeted advertising and messaging is to assess how comprehensive and valid the information in their database is, Boydstun said.
“Clear data makes for more effective marketing because people expect more personalized messaging,” Noel said. “This also helps to ensure that each message leaves a good impression that counts.”
You may find less expensive lists regarding nurses for targeted advertising purposes. However, it will have far fewer details than Nurse.com’s lists, said Tammy Pennington, channel marketing manager of digital recruitment for Nurse.com by Relias.
“Ours is not a low-priced list,” Pennington said. “However, we offer a hand-crafted list with specific information that helps with creating emails and social media posts for more effective branding and messaging for healthcare organizations.”
Questions to ask when hiring a data provider
When you need to discern if a database is valid and comprehensive for targeted advertising, Boydstun says ask three questions:
- Where does the company source its data?
- Is the data up-to-date and accurate?
- How often is the information updated and validated?
“A lot of companies do what is called ‘scraping,’ which involves creating name, email and address lists from list aggregators from multiple sources, such as providing information on people who bought scrubs, nursing shoes, nursing magazines and other nurse-related products,” Boydstun said.
Just because someone purchased scrubs or nursing shoes does not mean they are a licensed RN, Boydstun continued.
Many list aggregators operate under the guise that users ‘self-declare’ they are RNs, or under a presumption that someone is a nurse.
“Nurse.com is unique in that we acquire the lists of licensed RNs from a vast majority of the state boards of registered nursing across the U.S.,” Boydstun said. “We then update our database approximately every six months using this information to verify that the names on our lists are licensed RNs. Another special feature of our database is we provide continuing education courses and conferences, both of which enable us to use information provided by nurses when using these features and services.”
It’s also important a database provider uses the National Change of Address system to ensure physical mailing addresses also are updated in their database, Boydstun said.
“We also update and validate the email addresses in our system approximately every six to 12 months,” he added.
Elements to look for in targeted advertising data
Finding a database that has all the data elements you need is essential, Boydstun said. Our Nurse.com database has several key elements essential for targeted messaging and successful recruiting.
Some of the key data included in our database and specific to RNs includes:
- Level of education
- Specialty
- Position
- Ethnicity
- Gender
- Email address
- Mailing address
“It does not matter how good your message is — it’s only good if it reaches the right people and the ones you’re looking for,” Boydstun said. “If you’re sending your call for experienced critical care nurses with master’s degrees to unqualified people, your message won’t matter. You’ll also have to field responses from candidates who don’t fit your qualification criteria.”
Sending a targeted message to the type of nurses you need to fill your vacancies will save you a lot of time and money. So choose wisely!