Employer Branding (EB) vs. Recruitment Marketing (RM)

There is a distinct difference between Employer Branding (EB) and Recruitment Marketing (RM). As an HR professional, it is essential that you understand the difference between these two terms so you can effectively utilize them together to attract top candidates.

Why is it important to know the difference between Employer Branding (EB) and Recruitment Marketing (RM)?

Employer Branding (EB) and Recruitment Marketing (RM) are two major buzzwords in modern recruitment.

The problem is that many HR and recruiting professionals often mix them up or use these two terms interchangeably.

However, there is a distinct difference in Employer Branding (EB) and Recruitment Marketing (RM).

As an HR professional, it is essential that you understand this difference. Only when you have a clear understanding of both of these term s, you can effectivel y utilize them together to attract top candidates.

What is Employer Branding (EB)

“ Employer Branding ” (also known as “Employment Branding”) is a term used for the process of creating and maintaining your company’s Employer Brand.

Employer Brand is your company's reputation as an employer.

The goal of Employer Branding is to present your company as a desirable employer in order to attract high-quality candidates.

Employer Branding should be based on your company’s values, vision and mission.

It should also provide precise and clear answers to the so-called “big 4” Employer Branding questions:

• Which positions do you need to fill (now and in the future)?
• Who is your ideal candidate?
• What makes you an exceptional employer?
• Why would your ideal candidate want to work for your company?

In short, your Employer Brand is the reflection of the 5 blocks of your Employee Value Proposition :

A strong Employer Brand communicates that your company is a good employer and a great place to work at. It will help you stand out and provide compelling reasons for joining your company.

If you're interested to learn more, check out our new blog post and learn how to build your employer branding strategy!

Importance of Employer Branding (EB)

There is ample evidence that a great Employer Branding strategy makes it easier to recruit.

Employer Branding is necessary to attract candidates

Employer Branding is necessary for attracting top talent and getting the best candidates to apply for your open positions.

According to the LinkedIn survey, 75% of candidates will research your company’s reputation before applying for your job opening.

And if they don’t like what they see, 69% of candidates won’t apply – even if they are unemployed!

Employer Branding improves time, cost and quality of hire

The importance of Employer Branding is further demonstrated by its ability to improve the three most important hiring metrics : time-to-hire, cost-per-hire and quality-of-hire, time-to-hire and cost-per-hire.

According to the LinkedIn survey, companies with strong Employer Brand see 50% more qualified applicants, take 1-2x faster to hire and reduce cost per hire by 50%.

Ways to promote your Employer Brand

What is Recruitment Marketing (RM)

“ Recruitment Marketing ” is the term used to explain the application of marketing methods and tactics to showcase your Employer Brand.

In other words, Recruitment Marketing is the process of promoting your Employer Brand on different channels such as Social Media, company’s career site, job boards, company’s career blog, current employees, job descriptions, talent networking events and many other.

The main goal of every Recruitment Marketing strategy is to deliver the right message in front of the right candidates at the right time and drive candidates your way!

We call this approach Inbound Recruiting.

Why?
Because, instead of chasing for the right candidates when a new position opens, Inbound Recruiting continuously drives interest in your company and builds a pool of high-quality job candidates.

Get our checklist of most productive Recruitment Marketing strategies!

Importance of Recruitment Marketing (RM)

Recruitment Marketing is focused on the pre-application stage of the hiring process.

Its goal is to attract talent and drive best candidates to apply for your open positions.

Focus on the candidates is bigger than ever before. We often talk about delivering the best Candidate Experience possible. That is because the best talent has many options to choose from. Consequently, we need to have a competitive advantage over companies who are looking for the same talent.

In order to differentiate their company from their competitors and attract top talent, clever recruiters have started using marketing methods and tactics.

That means that posting your job openings to the job boards and waiting for the talent to come to you is simply not enough anymore.

If you want to win the war for talent, you have to think long-term and be proactive in driving awareness and building relationships with potential candidates.

Have you ever tried answering questions such as:

• What type of content do my ideal candidates like?
• Are they ready to apply now or do I need to do more to trigger interest in them?
• What Social Media platforms they spend their time on?
• What kind of projects that we are working on would attract them?
• What is the description of their dream jobs?
• Would they be interested in free educational programs?
• Would we benefit from organizing a free career day to answer all the questions candidates may have?
• Are our job opening optimized and searchable on Google?
• Are our Glassdoor reviews optimized?
• Are our current employees engaged in job and brand promotion?
• Are our job openings easy to apply for?
• Are my emails to current and potential candidates personalized and engaging?
• Do I communicate with the candidates in a timely manner?
• Does our career site answer all the questions candidates may have?
• Would they be interested in reading current employees’ career success stories?
• Do they prefer employees’ or C-level executives’ testimonials?
• Does video engage them more?
• What do I have to offer that their current employer doesn’t?

All these are questions that every successful Recruitment Marketer knows the answers to.

If you are just starting with Recruitment Marketing, I strongly suggest you start by answering those questions.

Difference between Employer Branding (EB) and Recruitment Marketing (RM)

Employer Branding is the process of defining your company's Employer Brand
Recruitment Marketing is the process of promoting your company's Employer Brand.

While Employer Branding is used to:

• Define your Candidate Persona
• Define your Employer Brand
• Define your Employee Value Proposition,

Recruitment Marketing is used to:

• Write clear and engaging job descriptions
• Turn your job descriptions into attractive job postings
• Advertise your job openings
• Create and optimize your career site
• Create interesting and engaging recruiting content (using Inbound Recruiting )
• Promote your recruiting content on your career site, social media networks, etc.
• Define and execute your Social Recruiting strategy
• Create email campaigns
• Improve Candidate Experience
• Encourage Candidate Engagement
• Build and nurture the relationship with potential candidates (with Candidate Relationship Management )
• Measure the overall success of recruiting campaigns (by tracking the most important hiring metrics )

Learn more about Employer Branding (EB) and Recruitment Marketing (RM)

If you want to learn more about Recruitment Marketing, our Recruitment Marketing 101 guide will come in handy.

If you are looking for some new Employer Branding ideas, you can learn a lot from big brands like Hubspot and Facebook. Great examples of Employer Branding can also be found on our blog about promoting Employer Brand on social media.

Frequently asked questions

How do Employer Branding (EB) and Recruitment Marketing (RM) differ?

EB focuses on defining the company as a desirable employer, while RM promotes the Employer Brand to attract candidates.

Why is it important to distinguish between EB and RM?

Distinguishing allows HR professionals to effectively use both strategies together, maximizing the attraction of top candidates.

What is the main goal of Employer Branding?

The goal of EB is to present the company as a desirable employer to attract high-quality candidates.

How does Recruitment Marketing enhance recruitment?

RM drives awareness and builds relationships with potential candidates, attracting talent before a position opens.

What's the key to successful Recruitment Marketing?

Understanding the preferences and behaviors of ideal candidates and delivering compelling content to engage them effectively is key.