One of the first rules of marketing is “Know your audience”, and many organizations do. They are intimately familiar with their customer personas and they work hard to use that information to build and communicate their Corporate Brand. But there’s another audience to consider and it’s one that is often overlooked – prospective and current talent.
Customers and talent are two very different stakeholders, who want different things from the organization. They have unique needs and distinct expectations of the organization and yet, many organizations make the mistake of using the same look and tone for their Employer Brand as their Corporate Brand.
This is a mistake. When brand messaging and customer needs don’t align, you run the risk of losing the attention of that audience. What we have seen over the years, with clients, is that if the employer brand is too closely aligned in look and feel to the corporate brand, it has less of an ROI than those that have a distinct look, and emotionally compelling and bold message delivered directly to the talent audience. Given both the big picture goals, and investment of an employer brand, it is critical that organizations take this into account when building their employer brand platform and recruitment marketing campaigns.
You Don’t Have A Lot of Time… Attention Spans Are Decreasing
Information comes at us from all sides and attention spans are decreasing, in fact, a facebook user spends an average of 1.7 seconds with any piece of mobile content and interactions become even briefer with younger audiences! It’s important that the instant people see content, the messaging stands out, making them stop and think “This message is for me.”
Employees see the Corporate Brand all the time, which puts any messages that appear similar at risk of being tuned out and passed over. But if they see messages that they know are specific to the HR Brand, they’re more likely to stop and pay attention because they know it will relate to them.
Engage The Right Stakeholders From the Beginning When Building the Employer Brand
The reality is that the Brand and Marketing leaders within an organization have a duty to build, and protect the corporate brand. They oversee guideline to ensure that the look, feel and message is consistent in the market to help build a top of mind awareness. In a global organization, this effort can be even more stringent. The problem is that there is so much corporate brand advertising, that the talent related brand messaging can get completely lost in the mix. It MUST stand out, to make an impact.
- First, ensure that marketing and branding leaders understand this need early in the process, ideally at the time of project kick off. It is important that the brand guidelines are used, that corporate brand colors, primary and secondary are utilized, and that the logo and placement is respected.
- Second, ensure you have the persona research and profiles. In order to have a strong business case for your own unique employer brand look and feel, it is really important that one starts with solid research of both internal employees and external target talent. This quantitative and qualitative data is critical to an informed persona and ultimately creative brief. Your brand leadership need the data to validate the unique needs of this audience to support your creative objectives.
- Third, even if there is awareness and agreement that the two messages need to be different, it can be a challenge to actually develop those messages. Leaning on an employer brand agency that has really exciting copy and creative in their background means that you stand a better chance of getting a fresh platform, that stands out against competitors and compliments all of the corporate goals.
Developing Effective Employer HR Brand Messaging
The first step in developing effective messaging for your HR Brand is to build an EVP and understand Job seeker behaviour. You can in turn, use the information gleaned to validate what type of creative content will resonate best with the group. You’ll have a strong idea of the average age of the audience, the tone they prefer, their behaviours, what matters most to talent and what messages will drive their preference for you as an employer
Use this information for everything from the job application process (don’t make it too corporate; keep it consistent with the cultural feel of the organization) to internal communications (consider a special HR Brand logo or colours to immediately let employees know the message is for them).
Contact Blu Ivy Group To Build Your HR Brand
Do you want your HR Brand to stand out from the Corporate Brand and attract and retain the right talent? Contact Blu Ivy to find out how to build and grow your HR Brand to attract the top talent you deserve.
Contact us online or call 647-308-2352 today!