It’s this simple: Your job board needs employers. Sure, it doesn’t have an audience without candidates, but it’s not going to have candidates without employers.

So, how can you attract employers to your job board? You can do that by adding features and services to your board that they’re looking for.

Here are three ways that employers gauge the effectiveness of job boards.

SEE ALSO: The 3 Most Important Statistics for Measuring Job Board Success

The Quality, Not The Quantity Of Applications Submitted

You may have done some mass advertising for your job board and, as a result, have earned a lot of hits. People view the job postings on your site and submit their applications.

At this point, the employer who receives those applications is going to evaluate them based on quality, not quantity. If an employer receives 500 applications from candidates who don’t even meet the criteria for employment, then that’s not going to serve you well. In fact, the employer will probably quit visiting your job board because poring through all of those resumes and cover letters wasted a lot of his or her time.

On the other hand, if the employer only receives three applications and they’re all from outstanding candidates, then you can be sure that the employer will be back for more.

To attract qualified candidates to your job board, you should try targeted advertising instead of mass advertising. You’re probably not going to be able to compete with the job boards that are household names when it comes to attracting everybody, so instead concentrate on attracting people to your site that are either part of your niche or are extremely marketable for a number of reasons.

Ease Of Use

Is your job board user-friendly? Is it easy to create an account, validate the account, and post a job? Is payment processing seamless?

These are questions that you might think that you can answer yourself, but you shouldn’t attempt to do so. Instead, ask a few people whose opinions you trust to pretend to be employers and go through the process of creating an account and posting a job. It’s likely that they’ll uncover some instructions that are difficult to follow or a process that isn’t intuitive. Then, you can make the necessary design changes based on their feedback.

Personal Attention

If you have a smaller job board, then you have a competitive advantage over the larger boards. This is because you can offer something that that might not be able to offer: personal assistance.

You probably know what appeals to your candidates better than employers. If you see an ad posted that you don’t think will attract much attention, send an email to the employer with recommendations for revision. You’ll impress that employer with you attention to customer service.

Your job board needs employers. Fortunately, you can attract and retain great employers by following these tips.