There is a common misconception that employer branding and recruitment marketing are synonymous with each other. The truth of the matter is, although strikingly similar to one another, there are differences that actually exist between these two terms. Failure to know what exactly it is that differentiates the two from one another can lead to an extremely poor employer branding strategy which, in turn, leads to less qualified candidates, limiting your potential to grow as a business.
The moment in which organizations realize that there is a difference and once they are able to understand the difference and how to properly strategize, only then will they see successful employer branding initiatives.
The importance of successful employer branding initiatives? Companies with positive employer branding get twice as many applications as companies with negative brand perceptions as 94% of candidates will be likely to apply if your employer brand is managed correctly.
What Is Employer Branding?
Employer branding consists of strategies designed to ultimately attract the highest-quality candidates to your company. Your employer brand falls under the Employee Value Proposition, or EVP, which is the talent that a company needs to exist in order to support its Corporate Value Proposition.
The Employee Value Proposition represents the balance of rewards and benefits an employee will receive from the company in return for their workplace performance, skills, assets, and experience. These assets are incorporated into a company’s balance sheet. Some well-known employer branding tactics include asking employees for honest feedback on your organization through surveys, employee referral programs, encouraging employees to advocate brand to their professional audiences, and taking a look at customer reviews left about your company and professionally addressing criticism.
What is Recruitment Marketing?
Recruitment marketing, also look at as the pre-applicant phase of recruiting, consists of strategies that are geared towards locating, attracting, and engaging talent in the job market before they actually apply to a role. Recruitment marketing lives within talent acquisition through social media strategy, analytics, omni-channel communication, automation, targeted messaging, and targeted advertising campaigns. With effective recruitment marketing strategies, organizations’ talent acquisition staff find success in landing job placements as this creates and allows them to build pipelines of high-quality candidates.
The Similarities
Both employer branding and recruitment marketing are integral to the entire talent acquisition process. They both are geared towards targeting applicants by striking an emotional response and presenting the organization as a desirable place to work.
The Difference Between Employer Branding and Recruitment Marketing
The major difference between employer branding and recruitment marketing is recruitment marketing focuses more on trackable marketing initiatives and conversions whereas employer branding serves as the engine that drives recruitment marketing. Without great employer branding, there is no effective recruitment marketing strategy.
In attracting the best of the best, employer branding needs to be at the top of an organization’s efforts in order to bring in the people that are necessary for business growth. With the rise of social media, diversity & inclusion initiatives, technology and automated marketing tactics, many companies find success in investing in employer branding, digital marketing, and growth strategies firms to thoroughly assess their initiatives, identify where the employer brand can be improved, and implement a strategy to drive business growth.