4 Elements That Recruiters Should Remember About Branding

In past blog posts, I’ve covered a lot of ground as far as the difference between marketing and branding for recruiters, how to brand yourself in a positive AND negative fashion, and who’s responsible for actually doing the branding.

So what now?  What are you supposed to do with this information in order to grow and cultivate your recruiting business? What follows are the four elements that recruiters should remember about branding.

Well, first of all, if you haven’t already done so, recognize that marketing and branding aren’t one and the same. Understand the different purposes that they serve and utilize them with those distinct purposes in mind.

Second, make certain that your marketing message and branding message are consistent. If you say that you do something or are something, ensure that’s the case. Validate your marketing message through your clients’ branding experience.

The third step is to make sure that the recognition and implementation of these different messages is consistent across your entire company. If you’re a one-person operation, that might be fairly simple. For a 20-person office, the degree of difficulty increases.

In order to maximize the impact and effectiveness of both marketing and branding, everybody must be on the same page and must realize their individual roles and how they contribute to the big picture. (As with all successful endeavors, effective communication is the key.)

Fourth, continually refine and tweak both systems. Find out what works and what doesn’t and react (and act) accordingly. Marketing and branding your firm and its services should never be a stagnant process. It should always be evolving, changing, and adapting to meet your unique needs, as well as the different challenges presented by today’s marketplace.

In the recruiting business, all you deal with are people. People represent the customers. People represent the service. People represent the product. And all of these people have the power to brand you in their minds, either negatively or positively. Make it one of your top priorities to influence their branding decision any way that you can.

Remember, an effective marketing campaign is just the beginning. Fulfilling the promises of that campaign, and fulfilling them consistently, will allow you to brand yourself and your firm positively and make you the recruiter of choice for both candidates and prospective clients.