You want to attract more mobile applicants, so you made your company’s career site mobile responsive. But even after making it mobile friendly, your career site still isn't converting mobile job seekers! What could be the problem?
If your responsive career site isn’t converting mobile job seekers, it’s likely because your mobile career site’s experience isn’t effective. Even if your career site loads quickly on mobile devices and automatically adjusts to fit any screen size, the experience it provides can still deter mobile job seekers. This is largely due to one simple and unknown fact.
Research shows that what engages mobile job seekers is different from what engages desktop job seekers. It’s scientifically proven that we perceive, analyze and read websites differently on mobile devices than we do on computers. To convert more mobile job seekers, learn what it truly takes to design an engaging mobile career site:
According to OnlineVideo.net, mobile users are three times more likely to watch videos than desktop users. Videos watched on mobile devices also make up 44 percent of all video plays, and Ericsson Mobility Report claims that mobile video traffic will grow 55 percent every year. This data reveals the importance of utilizing video on your mobile career site, and this trend will only become more important in the future.
So to attract more mobile applicants, make it a priority to create and showcase employment videos on your mobile career site. Keep the videos short and sweet, because a study from Opera Mediaworks reveals that shorter mobile videos (six to eight seconds) increase engagement by 36 percent. For examples of effective employment videos you can create, learn about 8 Ways to Use Video for Recruiting.
A few years ago, eyetracking visualizations revealed that desktop users read webpages in a F-shaped pattern. In other words, our engagement on desktop screens is mainly focused on the top-left and decreases as we move our focus to the bottom or to the right. But this isn’t the case on mobile screens.
According to a study conducted by Briggsby, mobile users look primarily at the very center of the screen. Consequently, the center of your mobile career site gets the most attention. So if you want to engage and convert more mobile job seekers, position your career site’s most enticing element in the center. Considering the facts mentioned above, it’s best to position a short and compelling high-resolution video in the middle of your mobile site.
Because mobile screens are much smaller than desktop windows, it can be more challenging to see and read text on a website. Knowing this, it’s essential that the copy on your mobile career site is short and concise. But no, this doesn’t mean that your mobile career site’s content needs to be different or more concise than your desktop’s content. The average attention span of Americans is a mere eight seconds, so you can and should make your career site’s content concise and engaging across all devices.
Content Marketing Institute explains that short headlines and sentences are especially important on mobile sites because long headlines and paragraphs usually don’t fit entirely on the screen. Short, attention-grabbing text is also more effective because both desktop and mobile job seekers tend to scan your site, rather than read it in depth. So by incorporating eye-catching content throughout your career site, you can engage more job seekers and motivate more of them to convert.
Due to the smaller screens, mobile users are also much more likely to miss buttons, forms and menu items than desktop users are. Knowing this, your key calls-to-action (telling visitors what you want them to do or where to go) should be front and center on your mobile career site in order to increase conversions. Place these calls-to-actions on the homepage, because a study from Google User Content proved that mobile users have the easiest time completing tasks on sites that display primary calls-to-action in the main body of the site.
And because you’re catering to a different audience, your mobile career site calls-to-action should slightly differ from your desktop version. While you should still encourage mobile job seekers to explore and apply to your jobs, it can be beneficial to offer calls-to-action that cater specifically to mobile job seekers too. For instance, TargetMarketing reports that click-to-call buttons are the most effective mobile call-to-action. Provide a click-to-call business phone number on your mobile site to increase the likelihood that interested candidates will contact you.
According to Google User Content, mobile users looking for specific information prefer to use search tools. So make it easy for your job seekers to find and search through your job openings. Google User Content explains that mobile users respond best to visible, open-text search boxes, meaning that you should place a prevalent search box on your career site that allows candidates to type in a job search query.
And most importantly, make it easy for mobile job seekers to apply to your jobs. Minimize the number of clicks it takes to apply, and don’t require candidates to fill out long forms. Instead, consider asking for basic contact information with an optional resume attachment. Also give job seekers an option to save or send themselves the job, in case they prefer to apply later from a desktop computer
Your career site’s mobile responsiveness is only a small piece of the mobile recruiting puzzle. Just like with your desktop site, your mobile career site’s design affects how long mobile job seekers stay on your site and whether or not they apply. By learning how to create a more effective mobile career site, you can expand your candidate reach and convert more mobile job seekers into engaged candidates.
If you need help creating a mobile career site that engages top talent, learn how Recruiting.com can help.
