How DraftKings Supercharged Its Recruitment Campaign Strategy

August 22, 2023

Beamery Team

draftkings stats

About DraftKings

At DraftKings, they believe life is more fun when you’re in on the action. For that reason, they’re committed to responsibly creating the world’s favorite games and betting experiences. They’re developing the most innovative and entertaining real money products and offers; to forever transform how people experience sports; to be a fully vertically integrated sports betting operator. Their ultimate goal is to build the best, most trusted, and most customer-centric destination for their players.

Employees: 4,300+
Headquarters: Boston, MA
Industry: Tech/Entertainment
Website: DraftKings Careers

Why Beamery

DraftKings launched Beamery in July of 2021. Their journey with Beamery has been an evolution, and one that Michael Rizzi, Recruitment Marketing Manager at DraftKings, has been part of since day one. The team was focused on one big goal: Building a global talent community and nurturing candidates by delivering the right message, to the right candidate, at the right time. And that’s where Beamery came in.

2021: Phased Launch to 20 Users
2022: Feedback, Iterate, Build, Test
2023: Full Global Launch to 60 Users

“DraftKings uses Beamery through three very defined lanes to help source, target, and nurture the best talent in the market for the right roles.” – Michael Rizzi, Manager, Recruitment Marketing, DraftKings

DraftKings’ Challenges

DraftKings needed a Talent Lifecycle Management platform that could cross-functionally support the needs of all talent team members.

Before Beamery, recruiters and sourcers used different processes and workflows to inform their day-to-day activities. The challenge with this approach is that the lack of cross-functional awareness created gaps in their workflows and in turn, created missed opportunities. For example, qualified talent was being missed, silver medalists and future right-fit candidates were lost.

Common questions from the talent team included:

What is the best way to nurture my candidates?
What should a bulk message to candidates include?
When should I send a nurture campaign?
Should I include the link to the job post in my messages?

DraftKings needed a solution that could work in tandem with their existing Workday ATS, and one that could bridge the silos across their talent function to make sure they were able to attract and engage the right talent at the right time.

The Approach

DraftKings developed a Talent Attraction and Engagement strategy to fully align their global team and optimize campaign development, candidate engagement, and overall ROI. This strategy focuses on delivering the right message (including content and relevant CTAs) to the right candidate at the right time.

DraftKings’ approach to engagement using Beamery has been streamlined into three core pillars: Sourcing Strategy, Nurture Strategy, and Targeted Strategy.

SOURCING STRATEGY: Identify and engage candidates, to set up a conversation

The Sourcing Strategy is used to surface candidates when there is a defined need, such as: Professional or Technical Skills, Key Attributes, and Current or Prior Experience
Relevant candidates are found utilizing Filters, Boolean Search, and AI features in Beamery.
Messages are sent to candidates primarily using the Bulk Message feature.
Primary CTA: Set up a phone conversation

NURTURE STRATEGY: Engage candidates and keep warm for future opportunities

The Nurture Strategy leverages the Beamery database to keep prospects and past candidates warm for future opportunities.
Candidate segmentation (using Global Tags and Talent Pools) is essential.
No prominent CTA. Rather, the messages include relevant blog articles, company updates, or podcasts to encourage the candidate to “Learn More” or “Read More”.

TARGETED STRATEGY: Increase direct apply volume for open positions

The Targeted Strategy leverages the Beamery database to engage past applicants or prospects to directly apply to an open position.
This is often used for volume roles to increase qualified applicants on an active requisition.
Primary CTA: Apply to specific role.
Messages should be very specific, and tailored to the audience and role type.

WHY IT MATTERS

While each campaign may have a different goal or objective, DraftKings has defined primary CTAs for each pillar of their engagement strategy. This guidance helps to frame the intent of the campaign message and how to measure success.

Sourcing campaigns are often owned by the recruiting team and have a CTA to reply to the message or set up a conversation. Nurture campaigns share engaging content and are designed to have candidates click on a link to read a blog, watch a video, or listen to a podcast, which will direct them to the careers site.

Targeted campaigns are focused on increasing application volume to a specific requisition; the desired action for targeted campaigns is to click the apply link and submit an application.

“Because of the refined and tailored strategies our team has put in place, DraftKings has created 205 Talent Pools with over 33K new contacts!” – Michael Rizzi

Measuring Success

There are many different components to consider during the planning process before launching a new campaign – and all campaigns should not be measured the same way. Success can be measured by tracking different metrics aligned to the goal of each campaign type. Here is an example of how DraftKings identified specific success markers prior to activating their campaigns:

Sourcing Strategy success metrics to consider include: Messages Sent, Reply Rate, and Conversations/Phone Calls Scheduled
Nurture Strategy metrics include: Messages Sent, Open Rate, Click Rate, Talent Community Submissions, Career Site Visits and Organic Applications
Targeted Strategy metrics include: Messages Sent, Open Rate, Click Rate, Career Site Visits and Applications Submitted

Success by Numbers

“Having 56% of our talent community not yet tied into a vacancy represents an enormous population that we would not have ever had access to had we not set up our talent attraction and engagement strategy. This is an opportunity to nurture and target these candidates and lead them to becoming applicants when a relevant vacancy is open.” – Michael Rizzi

Since April 2023:

Average of 500 new Talent Community opt ins every month; with 56% of the Talent Community not yet tied to a vacancy
3K Sourcing Campaign Messages sent, with a 22% Reply Rate, 70% Open Rate
3.3K Targeted Campaign Messages sent, with a 14% Click-Through Rate
36K Nurture Messages sent, with a 12% CTR, 66% Open Rate
389 total applications received, and 4 hires made directly from Nurture and Targeted Campaigns
133 total applications and 7 hires from Sourcing Campaigns, directly from the Talent Community

Planning for the Future

DraftKings’ focus on segmenting their Talent Community based on desirable skills and attributes is a critical component to deliver the most relevant and engaging campaign messaging to candidates.
Leveraging new features like AI Talent Match, Vacancy Calibration, and Candidate Portals is helping set the foundation for the recruiting team to uncover existing candidates in Beamery and connect them to open vacancies.
Candidate Portals will allow for even more accurate segmentation and matching, as candidates in Beamery will easily be able to update their information within their profile in real time, to ensure their data is always current.

Advice to CRM Seekers or Switchers

Q: What advice would you give to other Talent or HR professionals looking to amplify their talent community strategy, or just getting started with one?

Mike: Don’t overcomplicate it – start small and scale the strategy over time. It’s overwhelming to curate engagement campaigns for all of the differentiated candidate journeys or talent segments at one time. Identify a couple of key hiring priorities, define key success metrics, and leverage existing content and messaging to build out a campaign.

Begin to benchmark results and focus on incremental improvement of core KPIs over time based on the campaign type. The best and most effective Talent Communities are built over time, through multiple touchpoints that are highly relevant to the audience. Developing a scalable strategy that can transform and grow with your organization will strengthen your talent community and overall employer brand reputation in the market.