Brent Hodgson, Copywriter

If you’ve ever surfed job ads, you’ll know that these are some of the worst ads online!

(Some of those recruitment companies are in desperate need of a good copywriter!)

Have a read through a few online job ads - they practically read like:

“Market leader in some growing industry, with a large portfolio of clients seeks highly motivated, talented, multi-tasking, passionate, like-minded professional individual with good time management skills for menial labour. Must have university qualifications.. Applicants can direct their CV, portfolio and grovelling to the HR Manager at blah blah etc”

They might as well read “We think we’re better than you are - so try and prove to us that you’re good enough to work here while we make you jump through hoops!”

I read some of these ads and hate the idea of working for some of these schmucks already.

Maybe it’s just my aversion to the job application process…

But surely it would be better to focus on the benefits of working for your company, and try and attract the best employees.

After all, apart from having more zeros on the salary, why would an applicant respond to your job ad over any of the other 500 similar ads which were posted today?

The company I’m working for (my copywriting pimps, Alliance Software) are employing a new developer right now… and they’re using this theory in their ads.

In fact, they’re the first company I’ve seen who has used a long-form benefit-driven salesletter in their ads.

I won’t post the ad here, or link to it (because that could skew our split test results) but it’s based loosely on Gary Halbert’s famous personals ad (which I have a copy of in my swipe file).

The basic run-down is it talks about what it’s “really” like to work here - right down to how all the guys here go out for Indian food on Thursdays.

It talks about how the company’s (generous) remuneration package works, and how people who put in more are rewarded accordingly.

It (of course) talks about the company’s expectations of applicants as a negative qualifier.

Plus it has something which I’ve never seen before in a job ad… Testimonials from staff members!

There are 2 versions of this ad currently posted.. one in a “traditional” style, plus this long-form one.

It’s only just been posted, but every fibre of my being as a copywriter says that this ad will be a killer!

Brent

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