3 reasons why professional talent marketing is fast becoming relevant [podcast #50]

#50 The rise of professional talent marketing and professional talent marketer

Professional talent marketing is fast becoming relevant.

In this blog post I will give you three key reasons for the evident rise of talent marketing and talent marketers.

Scroll down for the podcast-episode expanding on this topic.

Read also: “What is a professional talent marketer?” >>

Three (3) key reasons why professional talent marketing is fast becoming relevant

#1 Digitalization and the consequent era of information overload

Digitalization created an information overflow and changed how talents behave and what they expect.  

Professional talent marketing is in demand because more and more companies are fighting for the attention of the talents they need. The war for talent is back on. This time it concerns the talents of the digital era.

A professional talent marketer makes sure they always have as updated information about their target audience as possible.

Digitalization is the single biggest reason why professional talent marketing is fast becoming extremely relevant.

  • The war for digital talent is real.
  • Constant information overload makes it extremely difficult to get the attention of the target audiences.
  • The force of digitalization rapidly changes how we behave and what is relevant to us.

A professional talent marketer constantly builds their understanding of their target audience behavior and needs, and the development of digital marketing and communication.

If you are unsure of what this means, let me summarize and simplify:

Roughly about a decade ago, digitalization entered both our personal lives and work life in a very noticeable manner. About then, social media became mainstream across the world and the development of software applications really hit off along the development of mobile devices.

When social media gave us voice, mobile applications shaped our consumer behavior

Social media gave us the voice and a platform; a media to express and share our thoughts, ideas and opinions. And furthermore, and a window to more personal information about people and companies.

Social media gave us the voice and a platform; a media to express and share our thoughts, ideas and opinions. And furthermore, and a window to more personal information about people and companies.

The development of apps further shaped consumer behavior: how we search and how we shop, how we connect with others and how we for example learn.

Digitalization threw us into what is called the information era. Never before have we had so much information available to us at the click of a button. 

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Information asymmetry was replaced by information parity making all the difference

Before the information era, there was a huge information asymmetry. This meant, not a lot of information or choices were widely available. As consumers and job seekers we had to trust what companies say and take what was there to offer.

Now we are living in information parity. We have access to almost any information and we use this privilege actively. We also have a lot more choices available, and many ways to talk back to our audiences and customers, or to employers, if we like.

Access to the truth of a workplace has a direct effect on our employer image

When our talent audiences have access directly or indirectly to the truth of how we are as a workplace, this has a direct effect on our employer image, employee experiences and how we treat for example our job applicants. People talk and very eagerly share their experiences with total strangers on social media. 

Understanding the behavior of your target audience is one of the core knowledge for any marketer. This is why “any marketer” will not be a professional talent marketer.

Professional talent marketers understand and keep taps on how consumer behavior continues to change because talents are consumers too.

The new behavior they adopt as consumers will become how they behave as talents.

Understanding the behavior of your target audience is one of the core knowledge for any marketer. This is why “any marketer” will not be a professional talent marketer.

#2 The Great Workplace has become a product and there is a lot of competition out there

When I started as a professional talent marketing entrepreneur in 2010, there were no competition in comparison to what exist today. Not to my professional skills and not to our clients as workplaces.

Great Workplace was a luxury item back then. Today it is a standard expectation for any top talent.

Great Workplace was a luxury item back then. Today it is a standard expectation for any top talent.

When a growth business fails to understand the importance of continuous development of the great workplace, they will not be able to win, or at least keep the talents their growth requires. No matter how much money they put into marketing and advertising.

The interest and devotion to foreseeing the development of a great workplace is elementary in professional talent marketing

A professional talent marketer foresees the development of a great workplace and uses their professional marketing and communication skills to brand it to stand the competition.

While this does not mean the talent marketer should be in charge of the actual development activities, part of being professional is advising and expecting your product to be worthy of your marketed words.

A professional is proud enough not to want to tarnish their own reputation being known as pending the truth for a buck.

A professional is proud enough not to want to tarnish their own reputation being known as pending the truth for a buck.

The DNA of the workplace greatly shapes employee and candidate experiences

Employee and candidate experiences are shaped by this “product” called great workplace. And what makes a workplace great is:

  • The customer promise (the mission, the purpose, the overriding problem they solve).
  • The leadership culture (the how we work here to deliver that customer promise)
  • The employee and candidate experiences (what we think about and how we feel about what we do here and how we are expected to get it done).

The workplace is the product the talent marketer works to create internal and external awareness of, to build internal and external affinity to and to find and convert prospects and leads to talent acquisition to take over. 

This requires professional know-how, skills, understanding, competence and time.

Learn more about what I call strategic company culture >>

#3 A Professional talent marketer keeps taps on how digitalization continues to shape consumer behavior and marketing

Unfortunately, this era is also known for things changing extremely fast. What worked in marketing last year maybe today be ancient history.  

A professional talent marketer is on the top of these changes all the time. They are not making decisions and suggesting actions that “we always did” if there are even the smallest reason to believe they no longer work.

To be able to keep taps on such rapid development, and learn about new options, tools, applications, skills takes time.

While the most passionate talent marketers spend a lot of their personal time to keep up with it all, suffice to say, real learning takes place when you apply, test and use data to learn what works and what doesn’t.

While the most passionate talent marketers spend a lot of their personal time to keep up with it all, suffice to say, real learning takes place when you apply, test and use data to learn what works and what doesn’t.

Unfortunately, this era is also known for things changing extremely fast. What worked in marketing last year maybe today be ancient history.  

A professional talent marketer stays on the top of these changes all the time. They are not making decisions and suggesting actions that “we always did” if there are even the smallest reason to believe they no longer work.

Listen to episode #50 of Building a Modern Employer Brand -podcast

In this episode of Building a Modern Employer Brand -podcast, I talk about the rapidly growing interest and importance of talent marketing as an area of expertise within marketing communication and as a profession as well as an extremely relevant practice for growth companie.

I go into explaining some of the trends behind as well as talk about why the role of a talent marketer will become so critical for a business expecting to run smoothly.

Episode-length: 37:29 min

JOIN the waitlist for Talent Marketing School here >>

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