How Copy & Branding Affect Your Marketing Company (From the Perspective of HR)

CV

The first essential step when hiring prospective candidates is looking at their CVs, which, in the employment world, is actually quite similar to the dating world. We’re faced with several various options, unsure of which choice may be the best choice. Candidates browse a few job descriptions, “swiping” left and right between potential “matches”;  some of them meticulously pick apart a job profile to check all the boxes on their perfect occupation checklist before sending their CV. And then there are those just trying to shoot their shot and get lucky without so much as a second glance at the company’s name. Regardless of their intention, the recruiter and/or HR will be the ones to receive their CV, which will be all the more telling of who gets to be Mr. (or Mrs.) Right. 

At the very least, a CV should include contact information, education, experience, and skills. Deviating from this comes at a risk (good or bad), and it all comes down to your copy and how it is ultimately presented. While there are so many things that will affect how your CV is viewed, these are some dos and don’ts of the CV world.

CV Dos

• Make your CV appealing. We’re in the 2020s at the age of high-tech and start-ups, not a pencil-pushing company from the 60s; go ahead and add a touch of color, a photo, and personalizations so we can get a hint of who you are in addition to your work skills.
• Check for spelling and typographical errors. This is basic CV 101, if you don’t take the few minutes to do this, you’ll likely be overlooked.
• Be mindful of “trendy buzzwords”. Sometimes they’re to your benefit, and sometimes, we’re just tired of reading “rockstar”, “go-getter”, and “outside-the-box”.

CV Don’ts

• Don’t include overly personal information. The following things are unnecessary: age, ethnic identity, political affiliation, religious preference, hobbies, marital status, sexual orientation, place of birth, photographs, height, weight, and health.
• Don’t pad your CV.  Listing excessive information to fill out your CV is a waste of time on both ends. Titles and brief summaries will do the trick.
• Don’t include humorous information. You are applying to the workforce, after all, and your CV is not the place to try and be funny or “cute.”

Company Branding

Corporate branding refers to the identity of a company or the practice of promoting the brand name (or corporate entity). Corporate branding is vital as it allows you to define the business’s personality, characteristics, values, and purpose. These are the 3 main things that can affect company branding.

1.    Linkedin

LinkedIn is more of a professional branding “playground”. The whole professional world gets to make their own impression and have their perception about a company based on what is presented on their Linkedin page. And it’s not always what is presented that’s important, it’s how it is presented. 

For example, as a company, we can choose to focus only on the available positions page; alternatively, we can provide a glimpse of the employee experience and show parts of our organization’s culture. We can even glamorize the workplace and highlight things like happy hours, company retreats, and other superfluous goodies. To make job descriptions stand out to prospective applicants on our Linkedin page, we must think creatively to bring in the best and the brightest. This means emphasizing the way we phrase the title of the job, the description, and other elements we want people to know about. 

2.    Hiring & Recruitment 

To earn the intrigue of our audience, we must do a couple of things when trying to hire or recruit new workers.

• Know workforce trends. Be aware of what competitors are offering in the market. An example in today’s world is being able to offer a “Hybrid Working Model”. If most companies suggest two work-from-home days, you might suggest one additional work-from-home day.
• Speak the applicant’s language. Instead of “We’re Hiring: Copy Writer”, try “HIRING: Looking for our next Ccpy Writer with such great attention to detail, they’ll notice ‘copy writer’ was spelled wrong”

3.    “Swag”

The way a company can demonstrate its values has to do a lot with company merch. Your employees should get excited about branded items that represent the company and it’s ideals, whether they get to rep a sweater, water bottle, backpack, etc. 

Branded merchandise reminds employees about company values. A good example of that here at Adcore, one of our core values is that “we can do serious things and wear flip flops”. We do believe in effective hard work but don’t think that it comes at the cost of wearing formal work attire or adhering to a dress code. To match that sentiment, in our annual company retreat, we brought our employees flip flops designed with that value written out “we can do serious things wearing flip flops.”

By doing this you get a cost-effective market strategy, brand recognition, and gives employees emotional attachment to the company which contributes to employee loyalty.