Branding Archives - Superfast Recruitment

[Excuse any strange typing errors; this is a direct transcription for your benefit.] 

Today’s topic is branding. While we will talk about logos and imagery, branding is something different. It is even more important for smaller recruitment and staffing companies and exec search firms to think about as you move forward in today’s marketplace. 

Before I talk about branding, I want to mention a useful free video series of ours. 

Many people come to us because they want consistent lead flow. They want to be able to nurture clients and candidates, and so they ask a lot of questions about creating that framework for bringing in the leads they want.  

We’ve created a video series that will help around this, where we share a couple of our frameworks that we use with our clients with great success. These are free videos that will give you a taste of us. No cost is involved apart from your email address.  

If you want to know the frameworks that you should be using to pull in the right type of candidates and clients, then head over to superfastrecruitment.co.uk/clf.

Whenever you talk about branding, people always think about logos, email footers, colours, fonts, etc. That is part of branding, but building your business brand is a much bigger conversation. 

We tend to work with micro recruitment staffing companies and the smaller SME end of the market. And with this size of company, I’ve noticed a huge difference between having a real brand focus on how you interact with the market, and the value you give can make a massive difference because the market is shifting.  

Let’s talk about these five areas to consider.  

Don’t rush and skip the pre-work. Apple didn’t launch the iPhone on a whim without planning around how it provided solutions for its customers and how it wanted to be perceived in the market. 

Think about you and your recruiting service. When a candidate or client has finished working with you, how do you want them to feel about the experience?  

People talk to their friends about their experience with you, and if people have a great experience, then obviously, referrals occur. They talk about it, and the word of mouth element of marketing happens. 

If you are the organisation that puts candidates first, what do you want your candidates to be saying?  

If Jane had gone through an experience with you, maybe she didn’t get the job, but your recruiter James was amazing. He kept conversations going. That is part of your brand.  

For instance, when I work with Acme Recruitment, I know that the recruiters are really good; I get a great service, and they help me in many different ways.  

It’s that experience you want to create. 

Are you an edgy brand, or are you a friendly, personable brand that looks after people?

Plan your business and brand around your promise. For instance, you want to be perceived as an organisation that works closely with candidates and really supports them. Your marketing needs to communicate this; you need to demonstrate that this is what you do. 

There are different ways of doing this. We work with a company that has a candidate success representative. That person’s job is to interact with candidates, do market mapping and be close to them. They even have a whole training program for candidates and a dedicated Facebook group.  

What are some of the elements that you need to add to your brand? How do you differentiate yourself compared to other people in the market? 

Recruitment is a relationship business where people want to know what they need to do about their career and building their talent pipeline. We create a lot of content for our Superfast Circle members because it helps that individual recognise them and their service as knowledgeable, friendly, professional, and somebody that gets the job done.

You need to communicate what you do and your promise in your marketing. Let’s say that you are friendly, honest, and interactive; how will you communicate that?  

This is where you can get into the bit around logos and branding. Think about the colours of your logo and the fonts on your website. You can even Google different colour palettes. 

Different brands have different colours and fonts. You can Google what colours represent whatever element or values you have as a brand. You’ll find lots and lots of information about that online. 

We’ve launched a new coaching brand for Sharon, a qualified coach. We’ve just been setting up her new brand and her new website, and we’ve been looking at different colours and how they work because it’s important that people get a consistent experience so they know they’re in the right place.  

If you’ve got a logo and specific colours you use, that needs to go through all of your social channels so that if people find you on LinkedIn and they go to your website, it needs to be the same brand and colour that they’re experiencing. It’s the same if they go to your Facebook page and the same when communicating.  

This can be a challenge for some recruiters because they get very excited. They’re all over social media, or they’re all over email, and then suddenly they stop. That is because they haven’t implemented a system.  

One of the things we talk about is having a marketing system that’s always in place and working. That way, they are communicating; they’re the recruiter who always comes back to you, who always follows up.  

Also, be consistent about your service. Many of you will have heard me talk about Prof Robert Cialdini, who has six key strategies in his work on the Psychology of Influence. 

One is consistency because we need to see communication points multiple times, in various ways, in different areas before the message lands for us. If you’re not doing that with your brand, you’re missing that consistency piece, which does help.

That leads me on to the final part, which is constantly iterating. Why do I say that? Well, the market is always growing. People always have different things going on in their life.  

We only need to look at what happened at the pandemic’s start. People started working remotely and wanted to be more collaborative. They wanted to do things differently. Suddenly people were using products like Hinterview for their video interviews and Zoom. It’s thinking about how you can make your product and service better? 

A recruiter we are working with is currently signed up for Hinterview – he’d never even been on video before – and it’s going down a storm. It’s transformed his business because he’s starting to be able to communicate differently, and people see his expertise. 

Your brand always needs to move forward and iterate. We’ve just refreshed our branding. You’ll also see how we communicate solutions to our client’s problems. We do that in the way we communicate our brand. People see a consistent approach. 

We want to be recognised as the marketing training company for recruiters who holds your hand every step of the way. You’re not just given a training course and then left. You are given a training course, your hand is held through it, and that’s what we’re communicating in our brand, images, and colours. 

There are so many ways looking at your branding can make a massive difference to the revenues that you can achieve.  

We have many clients who are on for their best quarter because they implement what we teach and utilise the content and campaigns we provide.  

Book your call and demonstration here if you want a quick chat to see how Superfast Circle can work for you too. 

Thanks,  

Denise 

P.S. If you want to join Superfast Circle and would like to find out more, speak to us here. 

The post Building Your Recruitment Brand appeared first on Superfast Recruitment.

Yesterday we talked about crisis and handling the facts of where we are now. Next, it’s about the recovery phase. What should you be doing and is there hope on the horizon?

The answer is yes especially if you read this latest post about how China is turning things around from a post on Harvard Busines Review.

Thanks and Keep Safe

Denise and Sharon

The post Handling What Is Happening Part 4 appeared first on Superfast Recruitment.

[This is a direct transcription, please excuse any typing errors.]

The recruitment market is changing and with growth comes competition. At a recent Greg Savage workshop, he made the appropriate quote that if Recruitment Companies want to be successful, they will need to excel at digital marketing too.

Nothing new…. though we would say that wouldn’t we!

People buy products and services when they have a need from people they know like and trust who add value to them. Period.

Therefore, how can you start this process?

Enter the white paper. Also referred to as a lead magnet, eBook or ethical bribe.

Confused? Don’t be.

In this post and podcast, we want to share three ways that a white paper can help promote your recruitment brand.

Last year there was an increase in the number of recruitment and staffing organisations globally. Competition is at an all-time high and if you want to stand out as a ‘go to’ (I know I hate that word too, only its appropriate here) recruiting partner you need to ‘do it’ differently.

People work with people whom they perceive can solve their problems whether that is helping them structure their recruiting process or develop their career.

Writing a white paper is the first step in the process. The thing is people in today’s market have a choice. Therefore it’s important that your potential candidates and clients are influenced to work with you as you meet their criteria. Adding value is one of them.

A white paper does this.

Here at Superfast Towers, we visit a lot of recruitment websites, and less than 20% of them provide a resource like this. A huge missed opportunity.

Though it isn’t nice to hear people don’t really care about you. What is essential to them is how you can provide a solution to their immediate problem. Your white paper is the first step in the process.

It answers a challenge they have and…. Starts them down the buyer’s cycle to working with you.

Not everyone is ready to take advantage of your recruiting service straight away. That is normal. I am sure when any of us is approached in a store we utter, “just looking” to the eager salesperson who engages us in conversation if we aren’t yet ready to buy.

We buy when we are ready and when we have considered our options.

Imagine being a client who is potentially in the market to use a new recruitment supplier. Let’s say one company provides a range of reports, helpful guides useful emails and blog posts and the other rings up every other Wednesday asking if you are recruiting; which might you choose ???

In the UK we will soon be in a situation where we need to ask ‘permission’ to market to our client and candidate database. Cold emailing will never be the same again.

Enter the white paper…..

It’s straightforward to give away a white paper of value in return for an email address, and it’s a strategy we teach our Superfast Circle members.

So, when you ask your database if they still want to hear from you and they have been receiving useful content and links to blog posts what do you think they will say ?…. I rest my case.

Ready to start up levelling your recruitment brand ? Creating a marketing plan with a focus on dominating your sector is a must do.

You might be there already, or you might be like many recruitment owners we talk to who are either totally confused about what to do… or they have a mish-mash of strategies all unconnected; sound familiar? Want some help to start getting it right next year. Then book a call here, and let’s get the ball rolling.

The post 3 Reasons Why A White Paper Can Scale Your Recruitment Brand appeared first on Superfast Recruitment.