What Employer Branding Is And How To Build It For Your Business

John Jantsch (00:00): This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by Nudge, hosted by Phil Agnew. It’s brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. You can learn the science behind great marketing with bite size 20 minute episodes, packed with practical advice from world-class marketers and behavioral scientists. And it’s not always about marketing. Great episode. Recently you learned the surprising truths about and tips for beating, stress and anxiety. Sounds like a great program, doesn’t it? Listen to Nudge wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. This is John Jantsch. My guest today is James Ellis. He’s a principal of Employer Brand Labs in Chicago, is a born employer branding nerd whose mission is to create a million employer brand thinkers. He’s an author of keynote speaker, practitioner, and podcaster with a wealth of experience across multiple industries for almost a decade. We’re gonna talk about, you guessed it, employee branding, employer branding. James, welcome to the show.

James Ellis (01:18): Thanks so much for having me, John. I’m thrilled to be here. So

John Jantsch (01:21): This is one of those topics that we probably shouldn’t have to, but we better start with what is in fact employer branding, and then we can go into why it matters.

James Ellis (01:29): No, I honestly, the employer brand has been long run long enough, but it’s still vaguely understood that I watched lots of people try and sell it. And I’m like, until you define it, that’s why I feel like you’re just grabbing me by the ankles and trying to shake the change outta my pocket. Classic if such a thing could be said, the classic definition employer brand is it is the individual perception, meaning it’s in your head. It’s in my head. But they’re different of what is it like to work at Company X based on touchpoints and experiences, some of which happened before the recruiting and job search process. Some of happens during and some happens after. So it is that individual perceptions. So what I think it’s like to work at Nike and what you think it’s like to work at Nike are, can be different, but they can both be. Right. And so influencing those perceptions is the job of employer brand

John Jantsch (02:15): In, let’s just go right into marketing, cuz that’s all I know. the, you know, when you think about it, uh, people wrestle to differentiate themselves with a marketing message, right? And quite often it’s about our thing does this, or, you know, here are the benefits. But would you go as far as saying that as a primary marketing message, talking about what a great team you have, what great people , how great people like to work. There is really not a bad attraction message for customers either, is it?

James Ellis (02:44): I don’t know. So if I go to a, if I pick a flight, they’re all Boeing through air buses. They’re all working the same routes. They’re all working. I mean, they’re all flying outta O’Hare. So what’s the difference? Well, gosh, the only difference is the people working there. So the difference between a delta and a, a frontier and a united is the almost exclusively a function of the people working there. So if you choose a certain kind of person they embody, they are owning that sense of what it’s like to work here. And that creates the experience of what it’s like to be a customer on that side. Now, airlines are an obvious example, but it’s true. The, any company you work at or any company you’re a consumer at, it’s good to know who works there. It’s good to know that they’re friendly faces, that they’re happy, that they’re, you think they do better work, you think they’re delivering a better product, right?

(03:29): Right. There is an inter intersection for the longest time employer brand has lived over in this, what I will lovingly refer to as the recruiting and talent acquisition ghetto. It’s the way of saying, Hey, let’s write a better job posting, or, Hey, let’s make some Glassdoor scores better. What employer brand is, when you really get down to it, it’s the human face of the marketing side. Marketing’s gonna talk about products, it’s gonna talk about features, it’s gonna talk about position, you know, your classic five Ps, four Ps, however you learned it, right? But nobody talks about the people. That’s the sixth p. And if employer brand can kind of own and drive that message and say, look, yes, it’s a great product. Yes, it’s gonna solve your problems and aren’t these wonderful people who make it, it just further reinforces why someone should

John Jantsch (04:09): Buy it. I tell people it’s, it’s how people actually, it’s how customers and prospects are experiencing your brand or company. Yeah. Because that’s, it’s, you know, the person answers the phone, greets ’em at the door, you know, sells ’em something. I mean, that’s their perception of the company.

James Ellis (04:24): Yeah. Target thinks that what it sells is products at a low price. What it really sells is a decent experience of that where I don’t feel bad about myself because those people seem like they’re happy wearing those red shirts and they’re doing their thing. Like, okay, great. I feel better about it than I would and say another company where it just feels like everybody’s, oh, this is the drudgery job.

John Jantsch (04:42): Yeah. All right. So now we’ve brought complete clarity to what it is. So let’s talk about how somebody, like what are the components of, what are the mechanics? Like, how does somebody need to start thinking about creating, but then also communicating in a positive employer brand?

James Ellis (04:58): Yeah. Employer brand has two sides of the same coin. It is that definition, that distillation of what is this brand? What is the message we’re going to market with? But it’s also the ongoing seemingly perpetual means of activating and localizing that brand. So to build a brand, my model is there are four kind of legs of the stool. There is what is the stand or the actual experience of a employee working there, right? Mm-hmm. Scroll back to top