Damage Control – How to Resuscitate Your Staffing Firm Brand
When you are asked to describe your brand, do you immediately think of the image on your business card? 
As part of any staffing firm marketing strategy, it is important to keep in mind that your brand is a multi-faceted identity that includes much more than just a logo. In order to successfully reinvent your brand, management must evaluate current business practices and identify areas in need of improvement. How are your customer relations with your current clients and candidates? What is your competition doing that is trendsetting and innovative? Are you using technology effectively, or are there recent advancements to help you enhance the relationship you have with your target audience? When preparing to resuscitate your staffing firm brand, it is important to assess your current services and incorporate this information into your brand reinvention.
Timing is Everything
Your staffing firm marketing strategy must address the timing of various initiatives. When do you implement key business development campaigns? Is it time to hire additional staff to grow your business? When are you going to open a second office? Has the landscape changed in your particular niche of the staffing industry? Are you noticing that your business is declining while your competitors seem to be thriving? Brand redevelopment is dependent on proper timing. Companies of all sizes need to periodically inject new life into their brand, but it is important to identify the proper timing and not wait too long to resuscitate your staffing firm brand. When designing your brand reinvention, build off of your loyal clients and candidates and involve your team of brand ambassadors in the planning process to ensure success.
Careful Planning
After you have completed your business plan, it is important to invest the time and resources necessary to conduct market research. Although you know your business inside and out, it is imperative that you thoroughly understand how your staffing firm is positioned within the market and what your brand promise means to your target audience. How is your brand interpreted by potential clients and candidates? Your brand makeover needs to be built on the positive characteristics that your business was founded on, while touching on those points that are going to take your staffing firm to the next level. Assess your company’s strengths and weaknesses as part of the planning process, and determine how to use that information to differentiate yourself from competition. It is important that your plans stay true to your business fundamentals and help to exude professional confidence to your followers.
Get Specific
Now that you have identified a timeline and have started to lay the proper groundwork, it is important to identify the specific areas you are going to address in your rebranding efforts. When attempting to resuscitate your staffing firm brand, you must ask yourself some key questions. Is your logo image tired and in need of an update? In the past, have you focused too much on the actual logo and not enough on building your brand? In order to attract new clients and candidates, you need to determine what benefit you want your target audience to receive from your staffing firm. What makes your team the best in the business? In what areas do they excel, and how are you going to capitalize on those strengths in your rebranding campaign? It is important to put yourself in your customer’s shoes and envision how they are going to interact with your brand.
Communication is Key
Effective communication is essential when working to rebrand your staffing firm. Involve your team in the planning and execution stages in order to get them on board and create brand ambassadors. Prior to marketing your rebranding campaign to the world, organize training sessions for your employees to communicate your goals and objectives. Teach them how to incorporate brief elevator pitches into their conversations and highlight what makes your brand so special. Provide your recruiters and sales managers with the necessary marketing tools to help them spread the word. Cheat sheets, updated business cards and screen savers for office computers are all great ways to reinforce the focus areas of your rebranding efforts. Solicit customer testimonials and communicate these through social media platforms and on your company website.
Market Your New Brand
In order to effectively market your new brand, you must craft a compelling story and communicate that vision to your target audience. A successful staffing firm marketing strategy includes building up your follower base by creating lots of relevant content. By distributing meaningful, informative collateral, you bolster your reputation within the industry and your new brand image becomes associated with knowledge and expertise. Be consistent in your messaging in order to maximize the relationship you have with your clients and candidates. Invest the time and money needed to market your new brand in order to ensure success.
Key Takeaways for How to Resuscitate Your Staffing Firm Brand:
- Proper timing is essential in your rebranding efforts
- Make strategic plans to ensure that every step has been laid out
- Identify specific areas to focus on as you resuscitate your staffing firm brand
- Provide your team with the tools required to communicate your new brand
- Incorporate marketing efforts into your rebranding process to ensure success
About S.J.Hemley Marketing
S.J.Hemley Marketing is a marketing and sales consulting firm focused on driving tangible results for professional services firms. Brand matters, but not without ROI. With over 20 years of sales and marketing experience within staffing and recruiting, we have helped to drive successful branding, sales training, lead generation activities as well as defining marketing strategy for top organizations.