Employer Brand Headlines - The "King of Rock n Roll" Edition (#53)
In this edition:
Are your employees “influencers?”
What’s the fastest way to rethink your job postings?
Reviving a dead brand (the right way)
Getting personal(ization)
All employer branding is local
On to the Headlines
Further evidence that you and your marketing team should be spending more time together and occasionally taking long walks on the beach: employee advocates are the new “influencer.” In a lot of ways, influencers made a kind of sense in a world with a million options (or products, services, lifestyles, etc) because they acted as a kind of “native guide” to these things. A Kardashian can point to weight loss products and fashion because it’s something they know about. But as influencers as a celebrity become stale, the new advocate is the insider, someone with the inside view on things. They have a more credible voice and are seen as more real than marketing and can change people’s minds about your company (both as an employer, and as a vendor).
Hung Lee dug up this oldish article about better job postings, but I’d never seen it and I thought it was amazing. Remember: job postings are your #1 channel for creating first impressions (and they are all but free). Doing them right really makes a difference in setting the frame on your employer brand. What’s the secret? The article suggests it’s the word “if.” I’d suggest the real change agent here is knowing what a good job posting even looks like.
There’s a lot of gold in this article on how “reviving a brand” isn’t about new taglines and creative concepts, but a rethink on how your customer (i.e. your employee and prospect) value and use what you provide.
As a perpetual “outsider,” I struggle with the power of belonging when it comes to brand building (and advocacy, retention et al), but I have to assume there are many companies who actively want to create more sense of belonging as well as telling stories about what that means at that company.
Sure, working from home, and the increasing likelihood that is it here to stay, might be great (for some of you). As many candidates want remote work, and remote work allows you to hire the best matching candidate from pretty much anyway, its a chance to really level-up your talent. But there’s a downside: management isn’t always comfortable with remote workers and are distrusting of their productivity. When one company proclaims its love of remote work, many people will see that as a red flag, an excuse to install spyware and implement “always on” expectations for remote. So how will you talk about your remote work brand when there isn’t always a lot of trust in the room?
Too many employer branding CRM strategies and campaigns feel like extensions of boring job postings. But outside of the EB world, the industry is learning how to optimize conversion rates by providing compelling micro-experiences. A big part of that is personalization, which means a lot more than “Dear [First_Name],”.
We don’t talk much about “business model” here on the newsletter, and really, it’s because we aren’t treating brand management as a business. But business model thinking and brand architecture have a lot of similarities, and the fact that you need to sell your brand to business leaders who think in business models suggests that there might be something interesting in the intersection here. It’s not just how you make money, it’s how you use everything in your ecosystem and how you differentiate yourself (sound familiar?). Anyway, here’s the formula for business model innovation.
A quick list of talent brand tech that its users would marry, boff or kill.
Are you measuring your brand equity?
Thinking outside the box is really about changing the box.
Here’s a nice case study on EVP development and activation at Booking.com. (youtube video)
14 things to think about as you manage your brand for the long haul.
EB Tip Of The Week
When’s the last time you audited your performance on Google for Jobs? Grab a top job title and plug it in and see who else you’re competing with. Where do you rank? What’s the text that pops up as the preview? How does it look next to hundreds (at least) of other opportunities in your area (and even more if its a remote job). What changes do you need to the content do you need to make to make it more attractive and what changes to your metadata schema do you need to make to get it to rank better?
On The Talent Cast
We are seeing the end of “monolithic employer brands,” concepts that focused more on consistency that connecting to a person. But if you start thinking about your brand and how it can leverage its pillars better to various micro-cultures, suddenly your brand has more meaning. It turns out that all employer branding is local.
Other housekeeping
At ATAP, I’m talking with Todd Raphael about budget-constrained recruiting and branding, August 18th
I’m going to talk about data-driven talent branding over at The Goodhire Summit, August 20th
Thanks, everyone!
I really appreciate you signing up and reading this. As you know, my mission is to help you get better at employer branding, so if you have questions or want me to consider other articles, just let me know (reply to this email and it comes straight to me).
Cheers!
-James Ellis (LinkedIn | Twitter | Podcast | Articles)
Makes a perfect Labor Day gift!
By James Ellis, Employer Brand Nerd
In a sea of content, how do you stay up to date on employer branding news? How do you know what's worth reading and what's just a waste of time?
So glad you asked! Here's a weekly digest of the best content to make you smarter about employer branding, curated by James Ellis.
In order to unsubscribe, click here.
If you were forwarded this newsletter and you like it, you can subscribe here.
Powered by Revue
James Ellis, 421 W Melrose, Chicago, IL 60657