4 Ways to Leverage Marketing for Employment Branding|4 Ways to Leverage Marketing for Employment Branding
marketing-employer-branding

4 Ways to Leverage Marketing for Employment Branding

HR and talent acquisition pros probably didn’t consider marketing as a must-have skill when pursuing their career. Yes, in essence, recruiters have to market jobs in an alluring way when posting openings and throughout the candidate experience. That used to be the extent of it… until recently.

The digital age has caused the need for information and transparency to blow up at lightning speed. Now, people in HR or recruiting are fighting to stay competitive in a candidate’s market by positioning their company as the best place to work. Through social media, email marketing, print ads, events, career sites, blogs, videos, and more, the role of HR and talent acquisition has transformed into one that requires people to think creatively and execute quickly. Employment branding has turned the industry upside down and dictates how companies are able to engage candidates and convert them into engaged new hires.

So what happens if you just don’t have a marketing bone in your body?

Recruitment marketing and employment branding can be mesmerizing when done right but if you’re in the driver’s seat, it can also be terrifying. Companies can’t afford to push this back on the priority list and get left in the dust. The truth is you probably won’t gain all the marketing know-how you need in time for your campaigns to get off the ground. After all, your competitors are moving fast and timing is everything. But don’t worry, that’s where your marketing-based teams like communications, creative services, content development, and/or PR save the day.

You have valuable resources at your disposal. Even if you’re a small company that uses freelancers for your marketing needs, or an enterprise organization with massive teams dedicated to it, there is always someone you can turn to for expertise. And depending on how hands-on you want to be, there’s a range of ways you can partner with these teams to help your initiatives.

Here are some ways you can leverage them:

Brainstorm sessions

Sometimes finding a starting point can be the biggest challenge to getting your branding and marketing up and running. Having brainstorm sessions with your marketing teams is a great way to get the ideas flowing. They can not only help you kick off the process but can also provide some insight from their own examples.

Additionally, they can teach you best practices, suggest ways to ways to measure success, and even recommend additional things you may not have thought about. For example, maybe you were planning on promoting something on social media. They could propose expanding it to things like e-blasts, adding something on your career site, creating swag, and more. Your needs can flourish just from gaining outside perspective.

Content creation

People in HR or talent acquisition may want to be hands-on with their marketing plans but may not have the time or skill to execute it. Let your marketing team take the reins. Partnering with them can help you with a range of content creation, such as writing copy, photography, illustrations, press releases, or even full on marketing campaigns. This can ensure your promotion is on brand and looks professional. To make sure you’re partnering effectively, ask them what their typical process and turnaround times is. For example, do you need to submit a work request and is there a standard 3-week turnaround?

Audits

It can be astonishing how much can change over a short period time. From major refreshes of mission, website copy, and logo updates, to minor changes in wording or tweaks in color. It can be hard to keep up with it if you’re not involved in the day-to-day. Having your marketing team do an audit of your career site copy and assets, social media sites, third-party career sites (like Linkedin, Glassdoor, Indeed, etc.), candidate and new hire communications, and so on, guarantees that your information and assets are current. You could even ask them to periodically refresh your content, keeping your candidates and employees engaged with new info.

Mentoring

Maybe your goals aren’t a huge overhaul. Perhaps all you care about is creating social media content for your careers and culture and monitoring your Glassdoor Open Company status. Maybe you’ll just have an occasional campaign. Or maybe you feel like you’ve mastered your skills enough to take the lead on implementing a bigger employment brand strategy. Either way, if you’re planning on being fully hands-on with little to no help from your marketing team, you can still be mentored by them to make sure you’re getting off on the right foot and staying on track. Set up one-off or on-going trainings to learn strategy and best practices. Or get some feedback on the initiatives you have in place to support your goals.

As the Talent Brand Partner at Constant Contact, I can’t tell you how invaluable these partnerships are and how much it’s elevated our employment branding initiatives. It is surprising to see how many people in our industry miss out on using this resource. If you’re feeling overwhelmed or don’t know where to start, take the time to foster relationships with people in marketing/communications, content, PR, and creative. This partnership can help you get the edge you need to become an employer of choice in your talent markets.