Employer Branding
Your company’s brand should be consistent across the entire spectrum of your operation. It should underpin every facet of your day to day, from how your staff answer the phone, to the wallpaper on their computer. Customers are drawn towards well established brands. They evoke reliability and confidence in your product and service, and define a culture that is key in representing your aims and values.
It begins with people. If you invest in your staff, they will invest in your company. Take care of your team first, and the team will take care of your customers.
When asked, 73% of employers said a defined and clearly articulated culture is an important element for their brand. 51% said that a strong brand helps attract qualified candidates.
When employees consider their career prospects, they tend to have a clear idea of the companies they would like to work for. Ask someone who works in social media and they may tell you they aspire to work for Facebook. Engineers may have Apple or Tesla in their sights.
These companies are world leading because they have created a microcosm. Their culture is so established that securing a position on their payroll is highly competitive.
Define your company’s brand and you’ll attract top talent.
Mission Statement
Mission statements are a fantastic tool to create unity in your business. Most companies have them, and they typically outline the direction the business intends to take. You can learn a lot about the values and the focus of a company through their mission statement, and they are a great first step in creating a culture.
The most effective mission statements consider everyone involved in the company. From the shareholders to the office cleaner, it’s important to make each and every person in the company believe they play an important role.
However, it’s common for mission statements and company values to be written by management. If you’re the owner of your company or in a high-level position, ask yourself the following question,
‘Does the company vision reflect each and every one of my employees? And if not, how valued do those who are not represented feel?’
Businesses who have a high turnover of staff tend to neglect those they employ. Attitude towards staff is part of the fabric of your brand. Remember, the way you treat your people is reflected in how you’re perceived by your customers.
So, how do you get everyone involved?
A good place to start is by asking your employees to share their opinion about the company. Encourage them to define,
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1. Who you are
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2. What you do
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3. And why the company is important to them.
It’s advisable to get answers from everyone who works for you. If you’re office based, send out an email with the above questions and a clearly stated deadline. If you outsource tasks to freelancers, get their opinion. See the same window cleaner each month? Their response matters, too.
The answers you pull together will be the data you use to write an inclusive mission statement.
Take your data and highlight similar answers or trends. Use these similarities to build your mission statement. Present the draft to your employees and make changes based on feedback.
When the team is happy with the result, ask them to agree to what is outlined in the statement. This confirms you’re all moving in the same direction.
Follow these steps and you’re well on your way to creating an environment of trust, transparency and integrity.
Semantic Brand Score
Simply put, your Semantic Brand Score is based on three areas; prevalence, connectivity, and diversity.
It uses a semantic scale to measure brand importance across products, markets and words. It can be applied to forecast a company’s stock price or to assess brand importance with respect to competitors. Data can be collected across social networks and other areas of your online footprint, to help position your brand against your rivals.
Everything from SEO, to the steps your audience takes to connect with your company, work for or against the message you’re hoping to portray. Paying attention to the areas where your brand can improve, will make you more approachable as well as give you that extra edge.
Prevalence
This is linked to brand awareness and measures how often your brand is referred to. A successful brand is governed by the brands frequency or use, and the number of times the brand is mentioned, and recalled.
Connectivity
This refers to how ‘imbedded’ you brand is across networks. Words are vital when it comes to connectivity. Synonyms, antonyms, specific search terms, and topics, link your brand together and bridge associations. The more refined and consistent your connectivity is, the more efficient you reach will become.
Diversity
Diversity measures the textual associations within your brand. The words used to describe the brand and how closely those words represent brand identity. The more distinctive the language, the greater the brands strength and importance.
If you plan to aim big, you have to start small
You’ve written an inclusive mission statement, and the teams on board. You’ve defined your prevalence, connectivity, and diversity. At this stage, you should have a clear idea of how your brand differs to your competitors.
How do you use this data to market your business, and become a household name?
With words!
The most powerful strategy to leverage your position in the digital world is to put together a list of 10 to 20 words and phrases.
This list should be specific to your business, and consider the language your customers use when referring or searching for your product or service. Imbed specific search terms into your SEO, social media, PPC and email campaigns, and when users search ‘barbers in south London’ you’ll be top of the search results.
These words should be evident across your digital footprint, and make up the foundation of your business. When a customer searches Google and clicks the link to your website, there should be a natural transition.
Your website needs to be tailored to reflect their click, meet their search criteria, and be consistently branded. Every element of your website needs to complement the vision of your company.
The following guidelines will prove useful when streamlining your identity:
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1. Does the design of our website and how we present our products and services, align with our vision?
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2. Does the brand impact the company in a positive way? How do customers respond to this?
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3. Do we understand the ideas behind the brand design? Why these colours? Why this logo? Why this layout, etc?
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4. How does our brand help us stand out?
Unlock the potential of your brand
Still not sure where to start? Branding your company can be challenging, as there are a lot of parts to balance. Synergy across your online presence requires time and expertise, but when achieved it will create an environment that your customers and staff will feel welcome in.
Wallop have helped a diverse range of small to medium-size businesses fine-tune their identity and take care of their customers. It all starts with understanding your vision and a clearly defined outcome.
Now is the time to revisit your brand guidelines, and make changes to ensure your business remains competitive into the new year, and beyond.
For more information about how branding can elevate your business, get in contact with one of our marketing managers.
Call 0203 988 2111, email hello@wallop.io or visit www.wallop.io to find out more and book your FREE Digital Dive.
It’s time for Wallop to take care of your marketing, so you can take care of your business.