HR professionals and talent acquisition need to act like marketers when it comes to employer branding. That is, to truly understand the value of using content to attract new audiences and nurture relationships.

Technology, the internet, and social media have shaken and stirred us, and as consumers now, we expect more from the brands we follow. But these same consumer expectations have trickled over to shape candidate and employee expectations, too.

We’ll explore how content marketing can be used to:

• raise awareness of your employer brand,

• communicate your brand effectively,

• connect with your talent communities, and

• nurture that interest to cultivate engagement and desire.

Covid’s enhanced the need for employer branding

Before Covid-19, it was considered the employee’s market. Then Covid-19 hit, and the market disappeared entirely. Now, as the world rebuilds and vacancies continue rising to pre-covid levels, the market has returned to the employees.

Bet ya didn’t see that comin’, eh?

So, employers find themselves back where they left off – except now, perhaps they’re also in brand damage control, too, depending on how well they treated their employees during layoffs, stand-downs and adjusted working conditions.

Y’all thought that wouldn’t come back and bite you?

Most forward-thinking employers will prioritise their employer branding initiatives, and central to this will be content.

The best employer brands always win

Best in this sense is, effective: positive brand recognition and sentiment.

You get this from clearly and consistently communicating your values, mission, and workplace culture and experiences to set realistic expectations of work-life with your company. When done brilliantly – you create desire.

Your ideal candidates will explode with excitement and determination to work with you, helping candidates to self-select in… or out of your hiring process when they identify misalignment.

= more good fits applying, fewer poor fits applying.

I’m not going to get into the specifics around the cost of poor hires and the benefits of awesome hires. You already know that.

So, let’s jump straight into the specifics of employer branding; branding being the process of marketing your brand.

Here’s how you get a strong employer brand

A strong employer brand evolves from consistent communication and experiences throughout the entire employee lifecycle, from;

• job seeker to candidate,

• new hire onboarding,

• highly regarded and rewarded employee (reward and recognition, leave benefits, innovation, inclusion, flexibility, wellbeing, upskilling, career progression, etc),

• everyday leadership and management,

• all the way to the end of offboarding.

Just as you’ve created a memorable customer journey for your brand, you’ll need to consider your employee journey, too.

This means your EB will probably take some time to evolve.

Marketing your employer brand

Employer branding is about humanising your workplace and the people in it, telling your stories.

As with all things marketing, it starts with strategy. And strategy can’t exist without purpose; understanding where you are now and where you intend to be at the end, so you can work out the fun stuff in the middle that helps you get there.

For your strategy, you’ll need to consider:

An intentional brand personality

Who you are, who you aren’t, how you show up, how you won’t. How do you want people to feel when they interact with you at every touchpoint throughout their journey?

Your employer brand is based on your values, mission, and people; formulating a summary of this leads to a unique and useful EVP; and from this, you can define the personality your brand will take on when you communicate (words, videos, images). However, it must, must, must align with your consumer brand (i.e. get marketing involved to guide you!).

Your existing reputation

It’s wise to audit your current branding efforts:

• how you are communicating your brand and if it’s successful,

• the effectiveness of recruitment marketing campaigns,

• candidate and employee reviews and feedback,

• application quality / recruitment trends data,

• employee engagement (talk to existing employees and see what they most like/don’t like about working with you).

Dig deeper and compare with competitors and industry leaders.

Your candidate and employee journey

Audit all touchpoints in the candidate and employee lifecycle.

Where are the gaps you need to fill? What information is missing that will plug a hole further along? Where are there inconsistencies in expectations vs. reality?

Goals

What’s your purpose for a stronger employer brand? What do you expect content marketing to deliver?

e.g. We want to increase the number of female STEM applicants; promote our diverse and inclusive workplace and well-being philosophy.

Create a content marketing plan

This is the part where you’ll use content to tell your stories and communicate key messages. Content can be used as an educational resource, to inspire, inform, and/or entertain.

First, get intentional about your content.

Don’t publish $hit for the sake of it. Be intentional and publish with purpose (better ROI *wink*).

Who should care about you?

Why should they care about you and what you have to say?

1. Research and create several candidate and employee avatars/talent personas (be as specific as possible). How do they each like to consume news and information? Where do they most consume it? Are they on social media? What do they expect from brands on socials? What interests them? What do they most value in an employer? What makes them say yes? Education? Language and style? What do they need to know that you can tell them?

2. Note the goals and priorities coming up for your business. Which roles will you be hiring? What does data tell you about the people who apply and the people you need to apply but aren’t? Which key messages need to be over-communicated to cut through?

Start with your goals and audience and work backwards. Think about the information you can start dripping out that helps you achieve those desired goals, and which formats and channels are best for communicating it.

Second, create and distribute your content

‘Content’ essentially covers every digital piece of information you can think of, such as video, photos, blogs, emails, social media posts, whitepapers, infographics, e-courses, podcasts, chatbots, career site, FAQs, Insta and Facebook lives, guides, and even games, to name but a few!

But don’t fall into the trap of thinking you need everything. Always consider your audience and message.

Some ideas to get you started:

• Employee-generated content: pictures, case studies, day in the life of selfie videos, social media ‘takeovers’.

  • Requires trust on both sides. To draw employees in authentically, you must communicate your desires with them and encourage them to share genuine stories (and why it helps). Share tips or a guide with ideas to inspire them, reducing the effort for them to think of stuff. Guidelines are good… but endorse creativity.

• Employees as micro-influencers – a nod to Ben Satchwell for this framing. Chances are, you’ve got some bloody bright people in your organisation who have a lot of interesting, inspiring, thought-leading things to say. So, give ‘em the damn mic. Endorse their podcasts and LinkedIn articles, or invite them to write guest posts for the company blog > When employee ambassadors are invited to contribute to conversations, they share with their network. We value personal endorsements more than ads

• Share your stories as much as possible. Think about, why your business began/the mission, what it’s like working with you (employee profiles and stories), what people can expect from their role, their team, their leader, which mouth-watering benefits you provide and why.

• Cover the pain points and FAQs for different audiences at different career and life stages. Consider an email drip/nurture series or a company blog/content hub to do this well and repurpose for your relevant social platforms.

  • For employees, write about topics like career coaching, upskilling, career transition (internal), resilience, preparing for maternity/paternity leave, working from home, returning to work, offboarding, onboarding, graduate progression etc.

  • For candidates and job seekers, your content would likely centre around employee stories and recruitment and career advice, promoting recruitment campaigns and specific job opportunities, candidate care communication.

Create a content plan that plots the topics you’ll discuss, when you’ll share them, and how (distribution channels), so the right content is published and shared on the right platforms at the right time for the right audience.

Finally, measure the results

What worked and what didn’t?

Look at your metrics; views, reach, engagement, shares, conversions, open rates and click-throughs. How have applicant data trends changed over the period? Have you met the goals you set out to achieve? If not, what happened? What needs to change?

Don’t be afraid of trying something new and not getting instant results. Some things take time. Some things will never work for you. But you’ll never know unless you try. Remember that attention on social media is fleeting.

Love that content

Content marketing helps you communicate your employer brand consistently and effectively, raising brand awareness and engagement with target audiences. It will help you persuade the right job seekers to check you out, connect socially, and apply for your opportunities. It can also help you educate, inform, and inspire current employees, improving engagement.

Focus on your goal, brand persona, and key messages.

Most of all, keep showing up.