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Advertise like the Big Dogs (on a Chihuahua budget)

By Kathy Barton, April 12, 2007

Most of the employment advertising we see is pretty bad. It's boring; it's uninspired; it's not engaging. In fact, it's often no more than a paid placement of a company or job description that's weak and overly long.

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There are a few large companies that hire agencies to do their employment advertising and, in general, this advertising is better. Sometimes companies come up with great ideas and execute them well: For example, the Google billboards with nothing but a math problem on them - and the message "If you know the answer to this problem, call this number". This ad campaign isn't aimed at filling a particular job - it's aimed at getting people's attention. However, this campaign is an exception. We rarely see employment advertising at the level of consumer advertising for products and services.

In many ways, this makes sense. Companies spend millions of dollars on a Super Bowl ad and in putting together an advertising campaign for a new product because these investments are paid back many times over. Fortunately, this advertising does double duty: a company's product advertising also communicates the corporate brand and builds company awareness - something that spills over into employer awareness. People become familiar with a company based on the tone and positioning of all their product advertising, not just employment advertising.

Smart marketing builds on company and product advertising and, also, with good employment advertising. Employment advertising should communicate both the employment brand and the Employer Value Proposition (EVP). The employment brand communicates information about the company as an employer and what it's like to work there. What are the values of the organization? What is the culture like? Why do people come to work there? Why do they stay? What's the real opportunity? What is the work environment like? The EVP communicates how the company is different (and better) than other employers. Reviewing the employment branding of your competitors is important. Even a strong employment brand won't help candidate engagement if it is identical to that of your primary competitors.

The difficulties in creating good employment advertising are the same as those for any kind of advertising: segmenting the target audience and developing the right message. Product companies do everything they can to research the demographics of the target buyer for their product; they hold focus groups to make sure the message is right; and then place their advertising where they know their buyer will see it.

The same principles apply to employment advertising. You need to know who the target candidates are, where to find them and what message will appeal to them. If you aren't a big company - or don't have a budget for employment advertising - you can still borrow some of the techniques of your big budget brothers. With a little creativity and a lot of hard work, you can come up with a compelling employment brand and attention-getting ads.

Here's how:

1. Make sure you know your corporate brand. In the classic marketing sense, a brand is a promise. A brand should tell you what to expect when you deal with a company. (Do you expect reasonable quality at a great price - great quality and superior customer service at a premium price - quick service and clean restrooms?) A brand should also be based on predictability: Every time you interact with that company or their products, you expect the experience to be similar to the last time you dealt with them. Consumers will tolerate an occasional problem, but fail to provide that predictable level of service and both your revenue and your brand will suffer. It's important to understand the corporate brand so your employment brand can align with it.

2. An employment brand should communicate what it's like to work at a company. Will you work insanely hard, but be compensated very well? Will your pay be on the low end, but the work extremely rewarding? What type of behavior is rewarded? Is it all about results, or are even top performers penalized for bad behavior? I've worked at start-ups where it didn't matter how you got things done as long as they got done and at Fortune 100 companies where sheer size required consistent processes. Both had their positives and negatives, as do all company cultures. Play up the positive!

3. To get started, schedule a lunch meeting, invite a variety of employees, and bribe them with pizza to help you brainstorm. Ask them what it's like to work at your company, what they like best about it, how it's different from other companies. Don't argue with them, just record it all. Almost always, there will be themes that show up multiple times. By the end of the hour, you should have two or three concepts that you can use to build your employment brand. At one company I worked for, the concepts were smart and committed people, visionary leadership, and flexible work hours. Work/life balance was definitely not on the list; everyone worked at least 60 hours, so it wasn't part of our brand. Make sure you can deliver whatever you promise in your employment brand - or turnover will increase and your brand will suffer.

4. Know your company's target candidates, based on your employment brand. Obviously the job itself has a great impact on this, but you can still come up with target candidates for a class of jobs - such as call center employees or internship programs. Once you have a good sense of the type of candidate you are looking for, create a candidate profile. (We teach how to do this in Recruiter Boot Camp.) The candidate profile will tell you where to find your target candidates. Then make sure you've asked the question, "Why would a top candidate from this pool want this job?" If the answer is they wouldn't, then redefine your candidate pool. Maybe you should be looking for people with less experience or people from a functional area instead of a direct competitor.

5. Then make sure you have the right message to engage your target candidates. Remember, the ad should be about them, not about you. You want them to see themselves in the ad. Direct the ad right at your key target audience: Attention Desperate Housewives! Not Ready to Retire? Start Your Career with Us! Ready to Re-enter the Workforce? (Welcome back, we missed you!) The ad title should NOT be the job title, unless it happens to perfectly describe your target candidate. Above all, the ad should NOT be the job description, or even the performance profile.

Just like a product ad, marketing for your target candidate should entice them to go to your career page - or even better, your talent hub. Make it short, compelling, and full of "what's in it for them" if they come to work for your company. Get creative! Use humor! Test the ad on people currently in the job and see what they think. Then use your candidate profile to figure out where to place the ad. There are a ton of tools and web-based information that you can use to figure out the best placement for your ad, but that's a whole other topic in itself!