HiQ
How HiQ used recruitment marketing to attract tech talent

Recruiting tech candidates is a difficult task as they simply do not want to be found. Simultaneously, they are even harder to impress, as every company wants them. In the fall of 2022, HiQ invested a significant part of their marketing budget in one single thing: strengthening their employer brand to increase the inflow of new consultants.

To get attention from the right candidates, Invise combined powerful content with targeted audience segmentation in a unique recruitment marketing campaign. With the colorful concept “End bad tech” combined with insights from real-world consultants, HiQ nearly doubled their applications from qualified candidates – and was nominated for the Swedish Employer Branding awards.

Results:

94% more applications
127% more candidates interviewed

"A progressive, different, and eye-catching concept, along with close collaboration and incredibly skilled performance marketing, were important success factors for the campaign’s results."
Isa Sjösten, Head of Marketing & Brand, HiQ

(About the client)

HiQ is one of Sweden’s largest tech consulting firms, with nearly 2,000 employees specializing in software development, communication, critical IT, and design. The company was founded in 1995 and has offices in Sweden, Finland, Germany, and Poland. HiQ offers services in a range of areas, focusing on digital and technical transformation for organizations in all industries.

(Challenge)

Attract tech candidates

The value of IT consulting firms solely lies in their consultants. Attracting and recruiting candidates with the right tech profile is essential for building the company brand and strengthening one’s offering. However, the target group is difficult to attract, as many are unwilling to change jobs. HiQ was fishing in a pretty empty pond from the start.

High competition for the target group

Not only is the target group difficult to reach – just about every tech company is after these people. As the competition is sky-high, HiQ had a significant challenge in creating awareness and attracting candidates.

Strengthen the employer brand

HiQ’s first goal was to have the strongest employer brand in the tech market. They wanted to rank high on Universum’s top lists of attractive companies for tech and IT consultants and be top of mind among candidates looking for these types of jobs.

Focus on the right people

HiQ also struggled with carefully selecting who they wanted to reach with their marketing. Their second clear goal for marketing was to increase the flow of relevant applicants. Both candidate personas and segmentation played a major role here, as the goal was to attract high-quality candidates, rather than just as many as possible.

(Solution)

Groundbreaking recruitment marketing

To solve HiQ’s challenges, Invise began a close collaboration with ad agency Post Sthlm, who were coming up with an advertising concept. Based on HiQ’s two clear goals, we created a recruitment marketing campaign against the selected target group intending to build brand and drive conversions, i.e., attract tech consultants to apply to HiQ. The work consisted of both strategy and production, where we developed candidate personas, wrote content, set up social media advertising, designed campaign pages, and optimized the career site for conversions.

Refined content strategy with consistency

With the concept “End bad tech” created by Post, we had an edgy and credible starting point for content creation. Writing content closely based on HiQ’s candidate personas, we kept consistency throughout the material. The goal was to have the target group engage with our content to first build brand, instead of directly urging them to go to the career site and apply for a job.

With a combination of articles, white papers, and banners aimed at senior and junior developers, we created a batch of content with target-specific messages and effective CTAs. Ensuring everything was results-oriented – from ads to content, copy, images, videos, CTAs, and landing pages – we kept relevance and effectively drove the visitor to the next action.

A colorful, one-of-a-kind campaign

HiQ has a strong and established brand in the tech consulting industry while also being committed to the edgy tone of voice that reflects their employer brand. Keeping the recruitment marketing campaign in the same spirit was therefore crucial. The colorful design, unique visual expression, and straightforward copy perfectly matched the more serious, value-creating content.

The initiative became the talk of the town. In February 2023, HiQ and the campaign were nominated for the Magnet Awards, Sweden's Employer Branding competition, and HiQ climbed the Universum employer branding rankings.

A smash with paid social

With careful segmentation and thoughtful strategies for paid social, we translated the employer branding concept into targeted social media advertising to reach junior and senior target audiences. The campaign's goals were to raise awareness of HiQ's brand, drive traffic to articles, and generate conversions through lead ads. The material focused on the challenges facing the campaign's two personas and linked to targeted content. At the same time, we created behind-the-scenes solutions that seamlessly integrated the social channels with the campaign's landing pages, Teamtailor, and HiQ's talent management process.

(Key Activities)

Recruitment marketing strategy
Content marketing with articles and whitepapers
Ads – copy, design, images and video
Performance marketing – setup, reporting, and optimization of ads on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Google

(Results)

94% increase in applications – a total of 2,567 (compared to 1,325 in the previous period)
127% increase in candidates invited to interview – a total of 238 (compared to 105 in the previous period)
80% increase in visits to the career page – a total of 55,100 (of which 20,487 were generated by the advertising campaign)

37% increase in branded search with "HiQ" as the search term
696 SEK in Cost Per Hire (total spend included)

* The campaign period stretches from 2022-08-19 to 2022-12-31, compared to the same period in 2021

Success factors

Results-focused employer branding

By applying B2B marketing strategies to employer branding, we developed brand-new recruitment marketing methods that were highly effective. This approach and the results clearly show that Invise has broken new ground in the field.

Close partnerships with the platforms

To reach the right audience with advertising on LinkedIn, Meta, and Google, we worked closely with the platforms to segment the perfect target audience. Through our partnership with LinkedIn, we were able to dive deep into details and create a tailored advertising strategy for these target groups. Invise conducted an extensive analysis based on lists of different titles and roles to identify and select the right people within the developer category.

Thorough strategy and groundwork

A key factor in the results was the expansive groundwork on the target groups and figuring out how to communicate with them to drive conversion. Another success factor during the strategy phase was how we divided responsibility between ourselves, the customer, and their external agency. Workshopping and collaborating closely with HiQ and Post, we worked consistently with the concept in every single output to ensure that the campaign was both engaging and results-focused.

A clear goal and strong budget

With HiQ's concrete goal of increasing the flow of relevant candidates and having the strongest employer brand in the tech market, our direction was clear. Along with the trust HiQ's large marketing budget brought for the campaign, we had the resources to focus on the details required to achieve our goals.

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