How Small Businesses Can Win Top Marketing Talent

Brand awareness is absolutely essential when you’re a local or growing business, so how you get the word out – and who is delivering that message – makes a huge difference.

You’ll need to stand out if you want to attract the best marketing professionals. So what can small businesses do to ensure that they are employers of choice? Here are just a few strategies to implement.

Own Your Employer Branding

Having a high-performance team can make or break your reputation as a marketing leader. The top performers in marketing can have their pick of agency or in-house work, and are naturally pretty selective about where they want to work. To gain their attention, you need be brand your company accordingly.

Employer branding, when done well and consistently, can help you stand out and give a clear image of who you are and what you stand for. This can make hiring top talent much easier. If you actively promote your brand and its values, candidates that are compatible with that brand are more likely to flock to your business.

The first place a savvy marketing candidate will go once they become aware of your brand is your company website. This site needs to be fully functioning and mobile friendly. Otherwise, you will immediately leave a bad taste in a top candidate’s mouth.

Your social media presence also has to be impressive. Utilize Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to give your senior employees a voice. Allow them to share blogs and industry news on LinkedIn, while Facebook can be a little more human and personal. Include images and human interest stories when possible, delivering an accurate picture of company culture.

Excellent marketers know the value of clear branding and will respect your company more if they can recognize it in your work. Make sure your content is consistent across channels and that your brand voice is omnipresent. Your brand should be recognizable and unique in order to attract the best talent.

Be Open-Minded

Don’t disqualify that amazing candidate who has experience primarily marketing financial firms even though you’re in construction. It often turns out that marketing candidates with experience in other sectors can bring extremely fresh and creative ideas to the table. Businesses who do hire across these industry lines often reap the rewards.

This also opens up your candidate pool immensely and increases your chances of bringing on top talent. It can add diversity of culture, background, and experience to a team which is a proven step toward innovation. And it can help you find the personality fit that is absolutely pivotal to the success of a team.

Recruit More Effectively

A clean, efficient recruitment process can help to seal the deal with a top candidate. The quicker you can connect and educate a candidate about your small business, the more likely you are to get an offer to them – and get an answer back – before a competitor can do so. This process involves a few key components.

First, your job descriptions should be crystal clear. They should be as specific, but as concise, as possible. The key skills and attributes you are looking for should be easy to understand. Your business culture should also be discussed briefly.

When you contact a candidate about your opening, you should ensure that they have a clear understanding about the role they are being considered for, and perhaps why they are being considered. Any pertinent questions they have should be answered, and you should set up an interview.

Once you reach the interview stage, put your best face forward. An interview goes two ways, and you can be sure that the candidate will be deciding whether they want to work for you as soon as they walk through the doors of your small business. Communicate to them why they should work for you by telling them more about your brand and culture. Try to connect on a personal level, finding common ground and ensuring that they are a good culture fit. That sort of conversation could sway a candidate drastically and make them want to work with you.

If you’re looking for top talent to join your team, reach out to the expert recruitment consultants at Michael Page today.