Blog

Employer brand

6 questions to ask before you launch an employee attraction campaign

Papirfly
4 minutes read

Everything you put out to promote your employer brand is telling the world this is who we are, this is the type of talent we want to recruit and this is where we’re heading. When you have a strong strategy to follow and deliver against, there’s no stopping you. But just because your strategy has been delivering so far, you should still question any big move before committing time, money and effort to it.

It’s not about second-guessing decisions; it’s about never becoming complacent. The attitudes of candidates are continually evolving based on each generation and the societal circumstances we all find ourselves in. Likewise, what worked yesterday may have seemed successful, but who is to say it couldn’t have been even more so? The attitudes of candidates are constantly evolving, so it’s important to keep your team on their toes.

We’ve put together a short checklist that will help you weed out flawed strategies and concepts, and guarantee you stay aligned with your employer brand strategy.

Ask yourself…

1. What do we want this creative content to convey about us? Does the idea do the job effectively? Are we telling a story?

A very simple notion, and one you will likely know instinctively. But it’s always worth referring back to the basic messaging strands to ensure everything is kept aligned. This is particularly useful to ensure that new recruits are kept on brand.

5 second checklist

  • Appropriate tone of voice
  • Relevant to candidate
  • Tells a story

2. Does this message align with our values?

When trying to attract the right candidate, it can be tempting to do something very clever and off-the-wall when a bright idea or topical event arises. But if this is very far removed from your original values, take a moment to consider whether the short-term exposure could cause long-term confusion.

5 second checklist

  • Re-visit values
  • Ensure it’s not controversial
  • True to purpose

3. Have the candidate’s priorities changed post-COVID?

If you’re adapting an old campaign or continuing with an ongoing strategy, it’s worth taking a step back to consider how much has changed since this was initially developed. For the most part, candidate priorities had been pretty consistent over the last few years, but in the wake of COVID, brand purpose and values have catapulted from a marginal priority, to a more critical decision-clincher.

How big brands have treated their employees and communicated with their audience during the crisis has helped to cement the great qualities portrayed by some, and highlighted previously hidden flaws in others.

5 second checklist

  • Candidate priorities identified
  • Candidate priorities addressed
  • Accurate reflection of career offering

4. How is this campaign going to translate into other markets? Are there any cultural nuances that need to be identified?

When a head office benefits from a generous budget, often the core campaign creatives stem from this team or the associated agency. Sometimes this means that by the time the creative reaches teams in other countries, the creative feels misaligned, misunderstood or not entirely relevant for the market. 

As part of any campaign brief, how the creative will be adapted for other key markets is crucial, particularly when it comes to employer branding or more general awareness pieces. More than this, being able to deliver the strategy effectively for each location without compromising on quality or too much budget is integral.

The BAM by Papirfly™ creation platform gives teams access to relevant content, imagery, logos, translations and more, allowing them to change up campaign creatives and make them totally tailored to their markets. All on-brand and with cultural nuances considered.

5 second checklist

  • Understands cultural nuance
  • Obtained visually relevant resources
  • Plan of action for delivery

5. Is there anything on this creative that will encourage candidates to deselect themselves if they’re not right for the role?

While an influx of applications is often a good sign as the role is deemed attractive, getting too many unsuitable applications for the role could mean your communications or messaging is misdirected in some way. This is why it’s important that the campaign and all supporting career materials convey the tone of voice, EVP and brand purpose in a way that fitting candidates can relate to.

To give a tangible example, if you work for a cutting-edge tech brand and your brief is to recruit new developers, focusing on outdated channels or including old-fashioned imagery could send the completely wrong message about the role.

Likewise, if your employer brand has an emphasis on in-office culture and team spirit, and you receive mainly remote working or freelance applications, this messaging was likely not strong enough for the candidates to realise they were unsuitable.

5 second checklist

  • True to tone of voice
  • Strong persona established
  • Creative tailored to persona

6. Is the call-to-action clear and does the candidate have more than one way to apply?

Whether you are exhibiting at a physical career fair or recruiting candidates digitally, the stages they go through to apply will be make-or-break for their application. Too many barriers or hoops to jump through may cause them to disengage, but too little and you may attract a lower quality candidate. Giving people multiple ways to submit their CV, covering letters and/or portfolio will ensure you give a fair chance to as many potential recruits as possible.

Once the submission is made, what happens next? Do they get confirmation, and will they be contacted regardless of whether they are successful or not? If your candidate management portal is automated, ensure you craft emails to sound human-like, not cold and robotic.

5 second checklist

  • Call-to-action is clear
  • Multiple ways to apply
  • Communication is consistent

Ready to go to market?

Now you are certain you’re on the right track, ensure you can deliver all the assets you need to support your global teams. BAM by Papirfly™ is used by employer branding teams across the globe, with licenses held by the likes of Coca-Cola, IBM, Vodafone and many more. Over 500,000 users worldwide are empowered to create their own digital and print marketing materials, on-brand, on-time and with no additional budget needed.

Learn more about the power of BAM here or speak to one of our team and book a demo. 

Table of contents:

  1. Ask yourself…
  2. Ready to go to market?
Branding templates, Template Technology

How to automate document creation and stay brand consistent

Papirfly
3 minutes read

Did you know that 77% of companies deal with off-brand content? That is a high number! Especially when we are told repeatedly what it takes to accomplish brand consistency. What are we doing wrong? And in what end of the scale are you? In the successful 23% or is there room for improvement?

One of the challenges of staying consistent is upholding the speed of brand deliveries, both through the channels and platforms that marketers are in control of, but also by supporting colleagues with their brand needs.

Don’t drown in brand assets

For marketers, document creation is part of the daily work. Supporting colleagues with branded marketing collateral and brand assets for a variety of reasons is a big part of this. If you’re lucky, you’re also supporting different languages, and you have your work cut out for you. Not to mention all the different formats and filetypes you must deal with. By 2025, the world will have to store 200 zettabytes of data. Rest assured, you and the company you work for will be part of these statistics.

Continue reading “How to automate document creation and stay brand consistent”

Did you know that 77% of companies deal with off-brand content? That is a high number! Especially when we are told repeatedly what it takes to accomplish brand consistency. What are we doing wrong? And in what end of the scale are you? In the successful 23% or is there room for improvement?

One of the challenges of staying consistent is upholding the speed of brand deliveries, both through the channels and platforms that marketers are in control of, but also by supporting colleagues with their brand needs.

Don’t drown in brand assets

For marketers, document creation is part of the daily work. Supporting colleagues with branded marketing collateral and brand assets for a variety of reasons is a big part of this. If you’re lucky, you’re also supporting different languages, and you have your work cut out for you. Not to mention all the different formats and filetypes you must deal with. By 2025, the world will have to store 200 zettabytes of data. Rest assured, you and the company you work for will be part of these statistics.

Continue reading “How to automate document creation and stay brand consistent”

Did you know that 77% of companies deal with off-brand content? That is a high number! Especially when we are told repeatedly what it takes to accomplish brand consistency. What are we doing wrong? And in what end of the scale are you? In the successful 23% or is there room for improvement?

One of the challenges of staying consistent is upholding the speed of brand deliveries, both through the channels and platforms that marketers are in control of, but also by supporting colleagues with their brand needs.

Don’t drown in brand assets

For marketers, document creation is part of the daily work. Supporting colleagues with branded marketing collateral and brand assets for a variety of reasons is a big part of this. If you’re lucky, you’re also supporting different languages, and you have your work cut out for you. Not to mention all the different formats and filetypes you must deal with. By 2025, the world will have to store 200 zettabytes of data. Rest assured, you and the company you work for will be part of these statistics.

Continue reading “How to automate document creation and stay brand consistent”

Brand identity, Branding templates, Marketing Tools

This is how Brand Hub streamlines your day

Papirfly
3 minutes read

A major challenge for many companies is to not only keep track of all the materials associated with the brand, but also ensure seamless work processes. Without a system that ensures increased control throughout the entire value chain of the brand, the day in the marketing department will not be particularly effective.

Brand HUB is the solution that allows you to sleep well at night – because you do not have to worry about these issues.

 

The control your marketing department needs

Marketing and branding have never moved at a faster pace than now. The technology and developments in the market ensure that marketers have to deliver faster than before.

Our solution, Brand Hub, is designed to meet precisely this need. The result is a complete brand management solution. With a powerful CMS technology at the bottom, Brand Hub is a platform that collects everything that concerns the brand – all digital files, guidelines and design templates.

By gathering everything in one system, you make sure that the necessary files are found in an efficient and easy way, while you ensure that there are no ambiguities around the brand guidelines.

You can manage your time well with long-term strategies and value-creating activities, while at the same time having control of your brand at all times. And the best part, your business’s goals for growth and value are within reach.

One Hub to rule them all

To ensure that your brand realises its full potential in different channels, you need to have an underlying strategy. With Brand Hub, you get a competitive advantage when it comes to brand management. The solution provides seamless processes that bring your strategies to life.

This way, you will always be sure that you can maintain quality and consistency across all channels in a more efficient way – always in line with the brand’s guidelines.

Also read: This is how easy brand management is with Papirfly

Protect and empower your brand identity

The brand identity is the engine that keeps the brand going – until the guidelines are not followed. With a solution that provides accessibility and increased control, you can always ensure that the guidelines that define your brand are followed. This will ensure a recognizable brand identity and strengthen their position in the market.

When complete control leads to increased efficiency

Order ensures that your employees do not mess up your brand message. Brand HUB minimizes the risk of inconsistency because everything is accessible from a single platform. In other words, everyone has one place to refer to when accessing your brand – where files, templates and guidelines are linked and accessible.

Not only does Brand Hub provide employees with easy access to files. With the template technology, materials can also be created without the brand being compressed – all in an efficient and controlled way.

Also read: This is why investing in Papirfly is a good thing

An automated tomorrow?

For the marketing department, having an efficient and automated working day will reflect positively on the company’s profitability.

Brand Hub automates the workflows in the marketing department, which will reduce the use of resources and increase efficiency. This allows the wise minds to spend the time saved on long-term marketing and branding, in a more efficient way than before.

Table of contents:

  1. The control your marketing department needs
  2. One HUB to rule them all
  3. Protect and empower your brand identity
  4. When complete control leads to increased efficiency
  5. An automated tomorrow?
Brand management

You know you need a brand management platform when…

Papirfly
3 minutes read

Securing a good market position requires a strong brand. Repeatedly, we see companies striving to keep up with their brand while maintaining full control. The common denominator is often the lack of systems that streamline workflows and simultaneously secure a consistent brand.

Are you working with, or even responsible for your company’s brand? How many of the following statements can you relate to?

Continue reading “You know you need a brand management platform when…”

Securing a good market position requires a strong brand. Repeatedly, we see companies striving to keep up with their brand while maintaining full control. The common denominator is often the lack of systems that streamline workflows and simultaneously secure a consistent brand.

Are you working with, or even responsible for your company’s brand? How many of the following statements can you relate to?

Continue reading “You know you need a brand management platform when…”

Securing a good market position requires a strong brand. Repeatedly, we see companies striving to keep up with their brand while maintaining full control. The common denominator is often the lack of systems that streamline workflows and simultaneously secure a consistent brand.

Are you working with, or even responsible for your company’s brand? How many of the following statements can you relate to?

Continue reading “You know you need a brand management platform when…”

Marketing

Adapting your social media assets: a channel-by-channel breakdown

Papirfly
8 minutes read

There’s no denying the power of social media in connecting brands to their customers worldwide. It should be a vital component in practically any organisation’s marketing toolkit, giving brands access to an audience of billions across the globe.

However, that ocean of opportunity coincides with a wave of content that is pumped into people’s feeds on a daily basis. As this continues to grow year-on-year, there is now more pressure on brands than ever before to optimise their content to capture the imagination of their audiences in an increasingly crowded field.

Here, we break down how you can help your posts gain the maximum amount of attention and engagement on three of the most prevalent social media platforms – Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Facebook

  • Facebook is popular among adults and middle-aged people, with over 73% of all users aged between 18 and 55 (Source Statista)
  • The average UK user spends 23 minutes per day on Facebook (Source Social Firms)
  • Over 79% of people access Facebook only using their mobile phone (Source Statista)
  • 56% of global Facebook users are male and 44% are female (Source Statista)

What types of content does Facebook allow you to post?

Facebook offers a variety of different types of posts that you can use to engage your followers, including:

  • Plain text posts or status updates
  • Single or multiple photo posts
  • Video posts
  • Link posts (i.e. posts linking to content outside of Facebook)
  • Carousels
  • Live video posts
  • Polls
  • Facebook Stories

Quick tip: while Facebook allows you to write a significant amount of text within each post, it is recommended to keep it concise where possible. After 400 characters, your post will be truncated, so readers would need to click a “see more” button to reveal the rest of the text. This means you should make sure all your important info is contained within those limits, especially if you have a link to share.

When is the best time to post on Facebook?

Great timing is crucial to capturing interest on Facebook organically, particularly as their algorithm is heavily weighted on feeds towards users’ Facebook friends and paid content.

Due to the volume of content Facebook is inundated with day-to-day, there is no universal “best time” to post on the platform:

  • Buffer says the best time to post is 1pm-3pm on weekdays and Saturdays
  • HubSpot says the best time to post is 1pm-3pm on Thursdays
  • CoSchedule says the best time to post is 1pm-4pm late in the week and at weekends
  • SproutSocial says the best time to post is Wednesdays at 11am and 1pm-2pm

This can help to guide how you schedule posts moving forward to capture the majority of your audience while they’re online.

What posts stand out best on Facebook?

While Facebook presents a variety of options to brands looking to connect with their audience, some approaches are more effective than others.

For instance, video content has quickly become the king of content on Facebook, receiving 59% more engagement than any other form of social post. The platform caters to this by having videos autoplay as people scroll down their feeds, so this is an effective way to catch the eye of your audience if you’re not doing so already.

To boost the impact of your video content, consider the following:

  • Film and upload videos in HD, as this has become the norm for online videos in recent years
  • Try to post videos that are over 3 minutes in length – while conciseness is key for written content, Facebook prioritises longer videos in people’s feeds, meaning there’s a better chance your videos will be seen by your audience
  • Use relevant tags alongside your videos that people might search for so they can find your videos even if they don’t follow your brand’s page
  • Be sure to add subtitles as 85% of all video content on Facebook is watched without sound
  • Make sure the first 10 seconds of your video is as eye-catching as possible. Research says one-fifth of viewers will click away from a video within 10 seconds or less if they’re not interested in the content so it is crucial to make sure you start your video with some really engaging content.

Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, try to keep your written posts as brief as possible. Research by Buzzsumo revealed that posts of 50 characters or less will typically get the most engagement on Facebook. 

Instagram

This should encourage you to let your photos, videos and other media do most of the talking for your audiences, or if you do have more to write, break it up into easy-to-digest segments.

  • Over 63% of Instagram users are aged between 18 and 34 (Source Statista)
  • Instagram users spend on average 28 minutes per day on the platform (Source TechJury)
  • 72% of teenagers globally use Instagram (Source PewInternet)
  • 51% of users are female, while 49% are male (Source Statista)

What types of content does Instagram allow you to post?

As a visually-powered platform, all Instagram posts must lead with an image or video. However, the platform offers a number of locations to house that content, including:

  • Standard Instagram photo/video posts
  • Instagram Stories (photos and videos that disappear after 24hrs)
  • IGTV (a dedicated video app introduced in 2018)
  • Instagram Live (streaming videos in real-time)
  • Instagram Reel (a video creating and editing app akin to TikTok)

 

Instagram Feed

  • Photos can either be landscape (1080px x 608px), square (1080px x 1080px) or vertical (1080px x 1350px)
  • Videos can be square (1080px x 1080px), landscape (1080px x 608px) or vertical (1080px x 1350px) – in addition, videos posted to Instagram Feeds or Instagram Stories can’t be any longer than 1 minute long

Instagram Stories

  • Photos and videos on Instagram Stories are far more flexible in terms of sizing, and can accommodate anything from 1080px x 608px to 1080px x 1920px

IGTV

  • Videos on IGTV can last up to an hour, rather than the minute allowed on traditional Instagram posts, and can be viewed either vertically or horizontally – this means you should aim for dimensions of either 1080px x 1920px or 1920px x 1080px

Instagram Live & Instagram Reels

  • As Instagram Live videos can only be shot vertically, the optimal dimensions are 1080px x 1920px – also, keep in mind that Instagram Reels will only give you a maximum of 15 seconds, so make sure you make them count!

When is the best time to post on Instagram?

While it is again recommended to experiment with the timing of your posts to see if any patterns emerge among your audience as to how many likes or shares a post receives, here is a day-by-day breakdown of the most popular times to post on Instagram:

Sunday: 10am-2pm

Monday: 11am-5pm

Tuesday: 5am, 9am-6pm

Wednesday: 5am, 11am and 3pm

Thursday: 5am, 11am and 3pm-4pm

Friday: 5am, 9am-4pm

Saturday: 11am

In terms of the most popular days, posts in the middle of the week (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) appear to attract the most amount of user engagement.

What posts stand out best on Instagram?

With its complete focus on imagery and video content, Instagram is a great platform for posts such as:

  • User-generated content
  • Product demos and displays
  • Behind the scenes features
  • How-to guides or videos
  • Motivational posters
  • Inspirational quotes
  • Seasonal/holiday images

Include relevant hashtags

Incorporating trending hashtags built around your products/services (e.g. #handbags or #massagetherapy), niche hashtags for your industry (e.g. #foodblogger) and special events (e.g. #BankHolidayWeekend) can help capture attention from audiences beyond your circle of followers. However, it’s key to keep within Instagram’s limits – you can include up to 30 hashtags on a standard post, and only 10 on a Story.

Emphasise your CTAs

As Instagram doesn’t allow you to add hyperlinks within your posts that people can just directly click-through, make sure you’re clear about any next step you want audiences to take. This can be through a #LinkInBio approach in your post caption, encouraging users to follow the link in your bio for a campaign, competition or page of your website, or incorporate the CTA into the design or content of your image so it’s can’t-miss.

Focus on high-quality images where possible

Instagram is all about visuals, and the platform encourages users to focus on dynamic, engaging images. But what does “high-quality” mean on Instagram? Well, according to research conducted by Curalate:

  • Lighter images receive 24% more likes than darker ones
  • Displaying more background in the image boosts engagement by 29%
  • Bluish or colder images are favoured over warm, reddish ones
  • Images with low saturation are preferred by viewers

LinkedIn

  • 44% of 25-30 year olds use LinkedIn (Source SproutSocial)
  • The average income of a LinkedIn users is £35,423 per year (Source OmniCore)
  • 15% of all LinkedIn users are considered senior-level influencers (Source Statista)
  • 57% of LinkedIn user are male, while 43% are female (Source Statista)

What types of content does LinkedIn allow you to post?

When compared with the previous two social media platforms, LinkedIn presents a more diverse range of post types than Instagram, but is slightly more restricted than Facebook. The options available include:

Text-based posts:

Similar to Facebook, this is where a post is driven by written copy alone. Within this type of post are several subcategories, enabling companies to:

  • Celebrate an occasion, such as a new hire, work anniversary or project completion
  • Share a job listing or employee’s profile
  • Create a poll
  • Offer help to followers, particularly relevant in response to events like COVID-19

Image posts:

The optimal size for an image post on LinkedIn is 1200px x 627px, and can accommodate both static images and GIFs. You can also add multiple images to a single post, although only the first 5 will be immediately displayed

Video posts:

When uploading videos to LinkedIn, native posts are typically the way to go, as this ensures that videos autoplay while a user is scrolling down the page, making the clip more likely to capture their attention.

Document posts:

This segment allows you to share bulkier content like a Word Document or PDF, which users can then view and download for themselves.

When is the best time to post on LinkedIn?

Based on the research conducted by several social media engagement companies into LinkedIn posting times, it’s generally agreed that posting between work hours in the traditional working week (particularly Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) and during “commute hours” (i.e. 7am-9am and 6pm-8pm) are the best times to capture engagement.

Conversely, posting at weekends or outside of working hours is to be avoided, as these are the times where users are typically less active on the platform.

What posts stand out best on LinkedIn?

In order to maximise the potential of your LinkedIn posts, it’s critical to understand LinkedIn’s algorithm, which seeks to do the following:

  • Prioritise relevant content (on LinkedIn, relevancy trumps recency)
  • Promote engagement

With this in mind, it is essential that the posts you promote on LinkedIn are aligned to your brand and the interests of your audience. This will involve creating unique personas of your target market and conducting research into their specific behaviours. However, there are some universal steps you can take to help your posts stand out among users:

  • On average, LinkedIn videos secure three times the engagement of text-based posts – while variety is good, prioritising video content on this platform is highly encouraged
  • Space out the text within your posts for ease of digestion by your followers by incorporating emojis or bullet points – furthermore, make sure to have an attention-grabbing first couple of lines, as these will be the only lines displayed immediately to users before the post is truncated
  • Incorporate relevant hashtags that connect your posts to your industry or the topic you are referencing, as this will help users discover it when searching for that content
  • Tag relevant companies or members to immediately notify them of posts – this can help encourage them to share your post further, making it more relevant
  • Encourage engagement by using your posts to promote audience feedback and comments, such as by posing questions or creating polls

Standing out on your social media channels

Hopefully these outlines of the type of content that performs well on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn will help you with your own posts on these popular platforms. 

With so many brands vying for attention across the social media landscape, taking steps to optimise your posts for each specific channel is essential in extending your reach. As we’ve discussed, the nuances and potential options that each social media platform offers means a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t cut it. But, that doesn’t mean that adapting your content for each channel needs to be time-consuming.

With BAM by Papirfly™, you can seamlessly create branded, visually stunning assets to be used across your entire social media spectrum. Our intelligent, pre-defined templates for each platform makes it straightforward to adapt and perfect your images for each channel, covering a range of static, carousel and video assets.

For more on the potential that BAM can offer your brand, contact us today or book a demo to see our software in action.

Table of contents:

  1. Facebook
  2. Instagram
  3. LinkedIn
  4. Standing out on your social media channels
Brand management

Why you need to invest in brand management

Papirfly
4 minutes read

CMO’s report that they will spend 44% of their budget on marketing processes and ways of working in 2021. What is your marketing budget spent on? Managing brand and marketing processes is demanding, that we know. Along with strategic brand management, building your brand for the long term, you also have to manage the daily operations supporting your colleagues with brand assets, campaign material, maintaining a presence in digital platforms, and so on. 

Maintaining a recognizable brand identity is an essential part of brand building. By upholding the brand experience through strategic brand management, you establish a successful brand, increase brand value, and attract loyal customers. In other words, branding is important to any business aiming for growth.

Continue reading “Why you need to invest in brand management”

CMO’s report that they will spend 44% of their budget on marketing processes and ways of working in 2021. What is your marketing budget spent on? Managing brand and marketing processes is demanding, that we know. Along with strategic brand management, building your brand for the long term, you also have to manage the daily operations supporting your colleagues with brand assets, campaign material, maintaining a presence in digital platforms, and so on. 

Maintaining a recognizable brand identity is an essential part of brand building. By upholding the brand experience through strategic brand management, you establish a successful brand, increase brand value, and attract loyal customers. In other words, branding is important to any business aiming for growth.

Continue reading “Why you need to invest in brand management”

CMO’s report that they will spend 44% of their budget on marketing processes and ways of working in 2021. What is your marketing budget spent on? Managing brand and marketing processes is demanding, that we know. Along with strategic brand management, building your brand for the long term, you also have to manage the daily operations supporting your colleagues with brand assets, campaign material, maintaining a presence in digital platforms, and so on. 

Maintaining a recognizable brand identity is an essential part of brand building. By upholding the brand experience through strategic brand management, you establish a successful brand, increase brand value, and attract loyal customers. In other words, branding is important to any business aiming for growth.

Continue reading “Why you need to invest in brand management”

Brand Activation Management

How to leave no stone unturned in your brand audit

Papirfly
6 minutes read

Scratch beneath the surface of any global brand, and you will find that the logo really is only the tip of a vast, ever-deepening iceberg.

When a brand’s elements span online, offline and they have been around for several years, it can be difficult to get on top of all the assets and marketing collateral that has been created globally. Whether it’s Janet in accounts sending invoices on outdated letterheads, or a branch across the pond sending out marketing emails without the latest footer revision, there are many overlooked elements of brand consistency that can start to compromise your wider brand image when they’re not nipped in the bud sooner rather than later.

It can be overwhelming to think of the sheer volume of assets being created every day, particularly if you are a Brand Manager. 

We’ve put together a comprehensive checklist that will give your team a base to take stock of what they have, what’s missing and identify any assistance they may need to be brought in line with your brand. 

There is a lot to cover, but every brand needs to start somewhere. 

It doesn’t matter whether you tackle the necessities straight away or look at a staggered plan of attack. Keep your focus on those that are critical to the brand and the business.

Get each team to evaluate the pros and cons of all applications and align yourselves on what the priorities are. 

Let’s start right at the beginning… 

Strategy fundamentals 

Make strategy insights available globally

Does each of your teams have access to the marketing insight relevant to their locations and verticals? Workshop write-ups and reports, audits, audience segmentation and other areas of insight could prove invaluable to teams.

And though many of them are likely to have it somewhere, is it documented in a unified way? And is it easily accessible to be updated on an ongoing basis?

Ensure communication strategies are documented

This extends beyond just core marketing activity. Every layer of interaction with your brand will have some sort of strategy in place, whether or not it’s documented consistently will be another story altogether. There’s internal communications, employer brand marketing, customer engagement and sales strategies, content marketing, brand ambassadors and more. Even down to your sustainability and purpose strategies which may run alongside other core campaigns.

All these strategies need to be documented in an accessible folder for everyone to view, edit and read. Without this, employees will lose sight of your employer brand, internal communications, sales strategies and more. 

Building a bigger brand picture  

Do employees and customers understand your brand hierarchy? While internally this is of more importance, if you are part of a wider umbrella brand, it’s important this is recognised within your external branding (where required). Each team should understand the structure of the business and how the brand they represent and associated product sub-brands fit in.

This will give them greater clarity on the position of the brand globally and help them speak confidently should a client question it in the future. 

Know who you are as a brand 

If you asked an employee from each office to explain your brand’s mission statement, would they all be aligned? Likewise, ensuring your brand positioning (including competitor differentiation), values, and vision is consistently communicated to your target audience can’t be understated.

This is the very crux of building brand equity – the success of your brand in direct relation to the attitudes of your customers towards it. If this isn’t embedded into your teams, it’s highly unlikely the marketing that’s being produced is in line with what you want to communicate. 

Understand your brand voice 

It’s not just what you communicate, it’s how you communicate. While cultural nuance will dictate differences in key messaging and products/services, the top-line tone and voice style should mostly be reflective of the type of brand you are. Quirky, corporate, technical, friendly – languages are no barrier to helping this shine through. 

Visual identity fundamentals 

Back to basics 

Your visual language isn’t just the way you present your brand, products and service from a design point of view, but also the words and formatting you use to do so. If your offerings are supposed to be distinct then you may have wildly different product names, sub-brands, URLs and social handles, but if they all fit under one category or are part of the same product or service family, then having some kind of unification will help strengthen your brand further. 

Think about the formatting, but also the way these are presented visually through logos and icons. Is there any opportunity to make things more integrated? 

Creating extensive guidelines 

From photography, video, logos and iconography through to colour palettes, fonts and their usage, having strict guidelines in place for each marketing team across the globe should help restrict brand inconsistencies and errors. Ideally, you would have a centrally managed digital space for this (like with Papirfly’s ‘educate’ section of the portal), so teams always have access to the latest information, a single source of truth for their particular country or region.  

Likewise, the way that teams give briefs, deliver print or digital work, use certain elements in certain applications should all be part of a uniform set of processes. 

Brand experience fundamentals  

Every touchpoint a user or customer has with your brand will influence their perception and serve to either strengthen or shatter. Consider the header on their LinkedIn profile or the email footers they use at the end of a communication. A small, seemingly insignificant nod to your brand on the surface, but incredibly important for a positive, joined-up brand experience.

Are the letterheads that clients receive invoices on correct? Are all pitches and reports produced using the same templates? There’s a plethora of documentation to consider, and once you have the basic templates and elements down, it will be much easier to execute everything else.  

Digital and print application

Brands need a common thread between their digital and marketing assets, and ensuring visuals are well-thought-out and planned respective of their applications is paramount. The website is the cornerstone piece of collateral and both this and your brand guidelines should dictate the way your email templates, social media posts, videos and more should look. Likewise, translating digital-first design into a way that works for print is also vital. 

Wider employee brand adoption 

Outside of your marketing, there will be many other strands of the business that interact with and act as advocates for the brand. Whether this is an end-of-year report produced by the CFO, the scripts used by the sales team on email, social media and over the phone, right through to internal newsletters. There are many people that will have some sort of brand influence with both internal and external stakeholders. Ensure the message gets carried across correctly and in line with both your TOV and visual style guidelines.  

Company-wide environments 

Even if your office is one that clients and customers never visit, if you want your employees to buy into your brand you should make sure signage and interior design is reflective of the values you are trying to instil. From the imagery you use on your windows to the wrapping of company vehicles – if it’s part of your business, it needs to look the part. 

Digital Asset Management fundamentals 

Having a central repository of imagery, assets guidelines and more will enable your teams to keep up-to-date with the latest marketing materials and rules. Having a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system will keep all of your brand guidelines, campaign assets and more categorised and prioritised for each region. You can also specify who can make edits to what. They can then edit on-brand templates to create new digital and print assets without any design skills needed.    

Likewise, all photography, illustrations, brand guides and dedicated templates will only be visible to the teams they are relevant to.

Where to go next with your brand audit

Depending on your brand’s industry, budgets and demand for marketing materials, will ultimately depend on which areas of the above list you tackle first. To make the brand audit count, success with your target audience in any changes you make will be defined by how you showcase and educate your teams on your brand.

Embracing a brand portal will not only give teams the freedom to know what content to use or create based on your new, refreshed or rearticulated brand identity. As part of a Digital Asset Management solution, you will also gain essential brand governance to ensure brand consistency is guaranteed  – with many other key features to look out for, depending on your goals.

Brand management, Branding templates

How to ensure brand consistency with digital design templates

Papirfly
3 minutes read

Regardless of the size of your company, having a clear voice behind your brand is essential. To stand out from your competitors in a fierce market, brand building is more important than ever.  

For that reason, having a tool that can strengthen your brand management and grow your brand is crucial. With a system based on templates it becomes easy for your company to work with your brand, always aligned with brand identity guidelines. Let’s take a look at why digital templates are essential for your business going forward. 

Continue reading “How to ensure brand consistency with digital design templates”

Regardless of the size of your company, having a clear voice behind your brand is essential. To stand out from your competitors in a fierce market, brand building is more important than ever.  

For that reason, having a tool that can strengthen your brand management and grow your brand is crucial. With a system based on templates it becomes easy for your company to work with your brand, always aligned with brand identity guidelines. Let’s take a look at why digital templates are essential for your business going forward. 

Continue reading “How to ensure brand consistency with digital design templates”

Regardless of the size of your company, having a clear voice behind your brand is essential. To stand out from your competitors in a fierce market, brand building is more important than ever.  

For that reason, having a tool that can strengthen your brand management and grow your brand is crucial. With a system based on templates it becomes easy for your company to work with your brand, always aligned with brand identity guidelines. Let’s take a look at why digital templates are essential for your business going forward. 

Continue reading “How to ensure brand consistency with digital design templates”

Brand management

Four reasons why you need to invest in brand management

Papirfly
4 minutes read

CMO’s report that they will spend 44% of their budget on marketing processes and ways of working in 2021. What is your marketing budget spent on? Managing brand and marketing processes is demanding, that we know. Along with strategic brand management, building your brand for the long term, you also have to manage the daily operations supporting your colleagues with brand assets, campaign material, maintaining a presence in digital platforms, and so on. 

Maintaining a recognizable brand identity is an essential part of brand building. By upholding the brand experience through strategic brand management, you establish a successful brand, increase brand value, and attract loyal customers. In other words, branding is important to any business aiming for growth.

Continue reading “Four reasons why you need to invest in brand management”

CMO’s report that they will spend 44% of their budget on marketing processes and ways of working in 2021. What is your marketing budget spent on? Managing brand and marketing processes is demanding, that we know. Along with strategic brand management, building your brand for the long term, you also have to manage the daily operations supporting your colleagues with brand assets, campaign material, maintaining a presence in digital platforms, and so on. 

Maintaining a recognizable brand identity is an essential part of brand building. By upholding the brand experience through strategic brand management, you establish a successful brand, increase brand value, and attract loyal customers. In other words, branding is important to any business aiming for growth.

Continue reading “Four reasons why you need to invest in brand management”

CMO’s report that they will spend 44% of their budget on marketing processes and ways of working in 2021. What is your marketing budget spent on? Managing brand and marketing processes is demanding, that we know. Along with strategic brand management, building your brand for the long term, you also have to manage the daily operations supporting your colleagues with brand assets, campaign material, maintaining a presence in digital platforms, and so on. 

Maintaining a recognizable brand identity is an essential part of brand building. By upholding the brand experience through strategic brand management, you establish a successful brand, increase brand value, and attract loyal customers. In other words, branding is important to any business aiming for growth.

Continue reading “Four reasons why you need to invest in brand management”

Employer brand

The journey to becoming an employer of choice

Luis Cupertino
6 minutes read

We spend over a third of our lives working so it’s no wonder that when we go in search of a career, we want to make sure the company we work for is the right fit. Not just in terms of the career itself, but also what they stand for, the employer benefits, reputation, and work-life balance – amongst other considerations.

We have compiled the most common factors when deciding whether a brand is an employer of choice. 

Salary, compensation and benefits

While money isn’t everything to everyone, it is usually the first and most important consideration for most candidates. If the salary doesn’t meet or exceed the industry standard or the candidate’s personal expectations, they may deselect themselves without investigating any further. It’s important to stay competitive to attract the right people, but also remain realistic.

On top of salary, candidates are attracted to other financial incentives. This could be anything from discounts at particular retailers, right through to a structured bonus scheme or shadow shares. If your company isn’t able to offer a great candidate the salary they want, having a clear path to progression and a pay review in place after a set number of months could be enough to entice them on board – coupled with other areas that make you an employer of choice.

Creating a strong culture and working environment

The ‘culture’ of a company is often something that’s formed and solidified over time. It’s usually made up of the types of behaviours and values that are expected to be upheld by employees.

For example, a branding agency in London may have a more relaxed approach to work, encourage flexible hours, have regular extended lunches and frequent social events. They may promote an open, informal environment. A more corporate culture may be found at a financial firm, looking to keep hours fixed, only encourage social outings at set times of the year such as Christmas, and require all issues to be raised formally.    

These are very broad generalisations, but no matter what type of company and brand you are, expectations on culture are changing across the board. High-pressure, stressful and formal environments are having a largely negative impact on employer reputation.

Striking the right cultural balance isn’t just about this though – while the best talent does often want to have a sense of autonomy and agility in their everyday life, they also require a level of structure for their progression. The lighter, fluffier stuff is what attracts people in the first place; having a clear path to success is a benefit to retain employees.

Reputation, values and employer brand

No matter how great the perks are, there are very few people who would be willing to work for a company with an abysmal reputation. While word of mouth is powerful, you can’t always trust what you hear second-hand, so many candidates will either still continue with their interview to make an informed decision for themselves or explore what people are saying online.

Review sites such as Glassdoor or those shared on Indeed are a digital window into what current and ex-employees really think about an organisation. While these sites are monitored, some unfair depictions of a workplace may still make it through the net.

Having some bad reviews isn’t the be-all and end-all for candidates; they will understand that different people have different needs and each company will have varied employer attractiveness to different types of people. However, how a company reacts to these reviews will help them form their opinion further.

Becoming an employer of choice isn’t something that happens overnight. There are many learning curves to endure, and unfortunately, negative reviews come part and parcel of this.

What you should do is:

  • Respond calmly and constructively while keeping a cool head
  • Ensure points raised on bad reviews are recorded and discussed
  • Investigate any recurring themes and take the appropriate action
  • Accept that some people will hold negative opinions and only report the reviews that go against the site guidelines

Building a positive reputation that puts you on the path to becoming an employer of choice is achieved through having a strong employer brand. While many companies complete work piecemeal on their employer brand, others dedicate entire teams and departments to this incredibly important marketing strand.

Having a global presence is all very well and good, but for any growing company, talent is at the heart of everything. Attracting and retaining good people is critical to any brand’s ongoing success. Having a dedicated team creating localised campaigns to attract the right type of talent across the globe is an invaluable resource. 

Creating a positive candidate experience

While this will form part of your wider employer brand strategy, it’s important to give special consideration to the overall candidate experience – whether they are offered the job or not. Your company’s reputation is important and during the recruiting and onboarding stage is when first impressions will count and opinions will be formed.

Here are some things you can do to ensure a smooth candidate experience:

Communication leading up to the interview

Ensure you provide information to the individual on what to expect. While it’s important for them to show they can think on their feet, intentionally withholding information could jeopardise what would have been an otherwise successful interview. Being purposely ambiguous could cause unnecessary nerves and give them a bad first perception.

Perfecting the interview 

If the interview doesn’t take place virtually, it’s important to use a space that’s representative of the working environment. Offer the candidate a drink upon arrival, introduce yourself and any accompanying interviewers and, if the interview room is not yet ready, find a comfortable spot for them to wait in.

Post-interview, ensure you follow-up, even if they were unsuccessful. Not hearing from a company after the interview can leave a sour taste in the mouths of candidates and cause them to vent their frustrations online.

First day and welcome pack

There’s nothing worse than being ‘left to it’ on your first day. If the team is too busy to complete a comprehensive induction, make sure you assign the new recruit a ‘buddy’ to have lunch with and who can answer any questions throughout the day.

Many companies that have a strong employer brand ensure new recruits have some kind of branded welcome pack. This usually consists of a notebook and mug or similar. This helps to instil employee brand advocacy from day one. 

Learning and development for employees 

One-to-ones and development plans come in many different forms but, however you choose to progress your employees, it’s important they have access to consistent communication in regards to their development.

Staff can become complacent or unsettled if they feel they aren’t moving forward. Likewise, making tools available within your perk package can provide a much-needed boost. For example, you may install a physical book library, or allow a training budget each year.

Becoming an employer of choice in your industry

While you can’t always become the best employer of choice overnight, there are many strategies you can implement both right away and in the longer term to make great strides. Having an all-in-one brand management tool like the Papirfly Platform puts you in great stead for becoming an employer of choice. With access to a suite of creation tools for quick, on-brand marketing assets, your team can deliver on time, every time regardless of skill level. With a dedicated education section, your team has access to all the guidelines, documentation and assets they need to understand your employer brand and offering. Users can also manage campaigns with a range of tools and store and share assets within their dedicated DAM. Tailor access for files to countries, regions, subdivisions and sub-brands. Discover the power of a an all-in-one brand management platform and start your journey to becoming an employer of choice.

Table of contents:

  1. Salary, compensation and benefits
  2. Creating a strong culture and working environment
  3. Reputation, values and employer brand
  4. Creating a positive candidate experience
  5. Communication leading up to the interview
  6. Perfecting the interview 
  7. First day and welcome pack
  8. Learning and development for employees
  9. Becoming an employer of choice in your industry