Bland Brands Kill 🔕

Being dull and bland is not how you attract great people.

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I got some feedback the other day about how “beefy” my emails were. I get that. So I wondered, would you prefer it if I split this newsletter into two weekly editions? One that had the links and resources,

The goal of employer branding is to make the company desirable to target talent. A simple statement, right? You just have to portray the company that those people want to work for.

I suspect that’s why there are so many brands built on a foundation of “we have a great culture” or “you can grow here!” messages. I mean, who wouldn’t want to work at a place with a great culture, or a place where they can grow? These are almost universally attractive messages, so it seems like simple math to say, “Since they are universally attractive, these messages will make people want to work here.” Pat yourself on the back for a job well done.

It seems simple, but that simplicity skips over a few critical steps.

First, the message has to be seen.

Check your LinkedIn feed. How many other companies are talking about their great culture? How many others talk (in the broadest of strokes) about growth opportunities? So many that your eyes start to scan past them in search of anything worth resting upon?

Image that person is looking for a job and every job post starts with the same surprisingly vague claims. It’s like being force-fed junk food: everything looks and tastes the same. Its only purpose is to stuff you like a goose at the foie gras farm.

Nothing is worth looking at because it’s all the same. Sure, different fonts, different color schemes, and different Canva templates, but it is a sea of sameness all the same.

And if no one wants to read it, no one will take the next most important step: remember what you said.

If your message isn’t memorable, if the person allows their eyes to alight on what you have to say and forgets it five seconds later, are you making your brand more desirable? And if your brand isn’t becoming more desirable, what exactly are you trying to achieve?

Being dull, being unwilling to say something worth reading and remembering, is killing your brand.

There’s a lot of research on how “dull” messaging is far less effective than more memorable messages. That it takes 1.3 times more views to have the same sticking power as something memorable (that means you’ll spend thirty percent more to generate the same interest as a strong ad or a compelling message). Memorable messages need to be recampaigned more often than messages that are so interesting, people are happy to see them even a year or two after you’ve built them.

Regardless of where you work, your goal is to bring in the best possible talent in the shortest period for the lowest possible cost.

Sure, a dull message will get some clicks, but are they the ones you want? Or are they the folks you’d never hire currently clogging up your ATS? An interesting message attracts candidates who will never ever click your “wonderful place to work” because it was the 27th one they saw.

In an age when employer branders are losing jobs and left and right, you won’t show your value by being dull. The days when simply having an employer brand gave you a clear advantage are gone. Now, we need to be thinking about what it takes to make a truly effective employer brand.

🧮 How important is strategic hiring? I don’t know but Google spent billions of dollars to fire some people. »

🧮 You might remember the Tik Tok I shared about the woman who talked about how the majority of her work time was spent justifying her work. Maybe it’s because we have no idea what people do at work and how they are productive. »

🧮 Culture is all about knowing who you are. (Employer branding is compellingly telling people about it) »

🧮 Your employer brand drives corporate success. »

🏛️ All 2,200+ articles from this newsletter are in a searchable archive. Go get ‘em!

This week, Tracey Parsons and I broke down OpenAI’s employer brand. Check it out!

Hundreds of free (and dirt-cheap) at employerbrand.ing. Check it out.

***This Newsletter Contains No ChatGPT***

-James Ellis [LinkedIn] [Website]

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