5 Brand Awareness Tactics to Help Keep Your Staffing Agency Competitive
Originally published in the TimeSaved Blog
This is a challenging time for the staffing industry, and being strategic about your company’s brand can do a lot to help keep you relevant and attract the right talent. Because in the end, an increasingly candidate-driven market demands an online presence that will bring workers to you.
Build the brand
The first step in creating a brand awareness strategy is to know thyself. What are your key differentiators as a business? Why would talent come to you instead of someone else? Have a clear value proposition, and make that front and center in all of your marketing efforts.
Knowing your talent is important too. Think about developing specific candidate personas– what their actions and goals are — and tailoring messaging specifically to them.
Be social
Once you have understood your talent, it’s time to find them and engage. In a study on the future of recruiting by Future Workplace, job seekers identified social and professional networks as the most important resource in their job search — above job boards and employee referrals.
But it’s important to view social media as more than an alternative job board or a place to research candidates. It’s a place where you can connect and where the end goal should be to add value. So make sure you’re sharing interesting and helpful articles, and answering any questions you can, even when there’s nothing to be gained in return.
Leverage content marketing
Beyond the basic traction that content generation will create for any business (helping search rankings, overall online visibility, etc.) it will provide you another coveted communication touchpoint with talent. Think about developing a blog where you publish thoughts on industry trends or showcase your success in specific areas of expertise.
Staffing is a human industry, and candidates crave communication. The more opportunities for a high-touch candidate experience, the better.
Go mobile
Ultimately, your goal should be to fit your brand in the palm of your worker’s hand. More and more job seekers are taking to mobile, and future success will depend on your ability to make your brand part of that experience. Optimize everything you do for mobile, and think about a custom talent-facing app. Candidates are looking for an on-demand experience, and you can differentiate yourself by providing that before your competitors.
Be data driven
A marketing strategy requires measurement. Develop key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the journey of talent from pre-acquisition (like using AI to help write data-driven job postings) to retention. Pay attention to which channels are driving the most engagement and either decide to double down on successful efforts or give more love to areas where you see opportunity.
