The Difference in Marketing and Branding Your Recruiting Firm

Do you market your recruiting firm . . . or brand it?   Do you do both?  Or do you try to do both, and end up accomplishing neither?  And finally, is there even a difference between marketing and branding your recruiting firm?

That’s a lot of questions, but fortunately, there are answers.

The first step is to firmly distinguish between the two terms.  The second step is to ensure that you’re carrying out each of them in the correct fashion.  This could mean the difference between sending mixed signals to potential clients and positioning yourself correctly in front of both candidates and hiring authorities.

Although the terms “marketing” and “branding” are often used in conjunction with one another, so much so that they’re sometimes treated as interchangeable, this is not the case.  They are similar, yes, but they serve distinctly different purposes.

Those purposes, when boiled down, can be explained in the following fashion:

Marketing is a term for those actions you take to gain more exposure in the marketplace and to make more people aware of your services.

Branding describes the decisions that potential and current clients, customers, and candidates make about you as a result of those actions.

But these one-sentence descriptions are just the tip of the iceberg.  Fully understanding the differences between and implications of marketing and branding can help you to transform your business, no matter if you’re a one-person operation or a firm owner with 20 or more employees.

Now that I’ve addressed the differences in marketing and branding your recruiting firm, I’ll discuss the vital role that experience plays in the branding process in my next blog post.