When you seek out and hire new talent, candidates evaluate your company and its reputation just as much as you evaluate theirs, which is why employer branding is so important. Your reputation sets you apart from other companies in your industry and can help you attract top candidates. These individuals value more than a competitive salary and benefits; they want a strong company culture, a healthy work environment, and an employer who appreciates them.
At KWSM, we have helped hundreds of companies build a strong reputation through employer branding over the past 13+ years. I have worked as a copywriter for the better part of a decade and can attest to the difference our agency’s efforts make in helping our clients hire.
What is Employer Branding?
Employer branding is a company’s messaging regarding its identity and culture to demonstrate what sets it apart from competitors. It highlights the value proposition of coming to work for your organization.
When implemented correctly, this messaging creates a strong reputation as an employer and conveys the value you offer to your people. Typically, employer branding serves two main functions: attracting new talent and retaining top talent.
In this post, we will focus on the first function. Also known as recruitment marketing, this strategy helps companies increase job applications, streamline hiring, and improve the quality of candidates they attract.
“In today’s hyper-competitive job market, investing in an employer branding strategy is important in building a strong team of the right people that can drive your company forward. A well-developed employer brand helps you set your company apart from the competition, but also encourages an inspired workforce that can make or break your organization’s long-term success.” – Greg Colacino, Director of Content, KWSM
How Does Employer Branding Help With Hiring?
Employer branding helps with hiring in a few key ways. This strategy showcases a strong company culture, provides a window into a healthy work environment, and gives a voice to employees who can act as brand ambassadors as they share their employee experience.
When people are exploring new job opportunities or browsing social media or LinkedIn, they will come across components of this strategy, like landing pages, blogs, or social media posts, that show them a culture they want to be a part of.
By spotlighting what makes your company an ideal workplace, you stand out to top candidates and save money by streamlining the hiring process. Strong employer branding can help you appeal to active candidates who are engaged in a job search, but it can also catch the attention of passive candidates who may not be looking for a job, but find themselves interested in what you have to offer.
A Case Study: How Employer Branding Helps with Hiring
At KWSM, we have helped several clients optimize their hiring efforts through our employer branding services. One notable client is a marine services company with multiple locations across the Gulf of Mexico and over 200 employees.
As a copywriter, I helped craft a cohesive and consistent brand identity in partnership with Junior Content Creator Miranda Vazquez, who specializes in content creation for social media. An inconsistent brand online could lead candidates to believe that a company is less credible.
This first component of our strategy involved building two separate careers landing pages that targeted different types of candidates, those who are new to the industry and those who are already in the industry, but looking for new opportunities.
On these pages, we employed the company’s brand voice to showcase their award-winning culture, appeal to these two unique audiences, and provide information about the employee experience. How did we achieve all of this? By letting their people speak for them.
An important component of our strategy was sending our in-house video team to interview their people in the field and ask about their experiences with the company. Always keep in mind that your people are your best brand advocates.
“Building trust in your brand through storytelling is key to effective marketing videos. Your team has the expertise to address potential candidates with authority from their own experiences.” – Casey Dean, Video Producer, KWSM
By interviewing everyone from the president to new trainees, we captured the essence of our client’s company by letting their people speak for them.
After editing these videos, we embedded them onto the career landing pages, so candidates would hear about the culture, benefits, and unique opportunities straight from current employees. Putting a face to these experiences is far more relatable to candidates.
The next phase of our employer branding strategy was blogging. I write weekly SEO-powered blogs for this company highlighting what makes their culture and work environment unique.
My blogs have covered moments that showcased their family culture, different initiatives and benefits they offer, ways they have celebrated their employees, essential information about the job, and more.
We started writing blogs in October 2022 and began with 372 clicks and 5,953 impressions on the website monthly. Six months later, monthly clicks increased by 65% to 612, and impressions nearly doubled, reaching 11,820.
The final component of our strategy is creating engaging social media content across Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn that complements the blogs I write.
For example, when I quote an interview we captured on video, Miranda pairs the footage with my blog on social media for a more complete experience. By working in tandem, we can put a face to every piece of content.
On top of that, she regularly shares pictures and reels to highlight the work environment and employee awards and accomplishments and to showcase the family-oriented company culture our client prides themselves on.
When she shares content celebrating employees, the employees are thrilled to share it on their own profiles and act as advocates. This strategy has helped move top talent down the hiring funnel who, ultimately, apply for open positions.
Before we began our employer branding efforts, our client received an average of 86 applications per month. Within 6 months, we’ve boosted this number by 56%, resulting in 134 applications monthly from what they have described as ‘high-quality candidates.’
“Any company can say they have an amazing culture, but it means more when it comes from someone who works there. We’ve built our social media strategy around this, and letting the employees tell the story has given us engaging and effective content that drives results.” – Miranda Vazquez, Junior Content Creator, KWSM
Employer Branding Services for Effective Hiring
The Internet has proven to be an equalizer when it comes to hiring. Prospective candidates now have a window into your culture and work environment before ever having contact with your company. When searching for a job, the top talent always does their homework. An inconsistent brand that fails to showcase a great culture will not cut it anymore, which is why employer branding is essential.
Your reputation can be your biggest asset when hiring. Fill out the contact form below to schedule a consultation with the KWSM team and start leveraging your employer brand to attract top talent.
