Do your online and offline messages connect? The signs of disconnect are common in today's recruitment advertising campaigns: direct mail that doesn't include an online component, list overlaps, inconsistent messaging across media, and media biases. To appeal most effectively to candidates, recruiters must break down the silos that exist between offline and online media. The payoff for integrating your online and offline messages can be huge. Create seamless campaigns that are on message across all media and imminently measurable down to the customer level.

The online, offline disconnect didn't happen by accident. Online marketing grew up as a separate marketing tool, driven by a more technical breed of recruiter. It was new, cool and exciting. Driven by compelling cost efficiencies, online thought it was in a class of its own. And it was, for a while. Old-school marketing never completely fulfilled its promise of customized one-to-one marketing, mostly due to reach limitations and cost issues. Furthermore, its long-term focus on customer relationship management wasn't up to the demands of a fast-changing economy with a short-attention span.

When planning a recruitment campaign, it's important to understand the relative strengths of both online and offline media. According to Christine Hirsch, President of TalentEvent.com, "Online is ideal for engaging and entertaining customers and facilitating direct outreach." The reach and immediacy of the Internet are excellent for drawing attention to your company and delivering a custom message at a relatively low cost. Less glitzy, but tried and true, "offline media is best suited to delivering a call-to-action to a specific demographic group," according to Hirsch.

Using in concert, offline and online media can send a powerful message. However the road to integrated media is not always easy. Companies need to review current communication streams and make sure each element is functioning optimally. Review all your communications outlets - online, television, face-to-face, direct mail - to determine where there is overlap and mixed messaging, where the brand is not being portrayed properly, and identify opportunities to improve the advertising outreach experience.

When online efforts and offline messages are integrated, and the candidate experience is consistent across all media, businesses can realize the power of an integrated strategy. Companies will benefit from a more dynamic outreach program as well as an immanently measurable one. "When offline and online media are integrated, the impact of the message is much more apparent," according to Hirsch. The bottom line: an integrated media platform is easier to control and easier to measure, and hence easier to manage and optimize.
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