You’re a proud “remote-first” business. But, how do you communicate that to your current and potential customers? More importantly, how do you attract the best talent as a remote employer?
It’s one of the biggest challenges for remote companies today, whether they started life as a “remote-first business” or transitioned into one post-COVID. Whichever category your venture falls into, it’s vital to understand how to brand yourself as a remote organization.
“Remote-First” Branding Done Right
Once you brand yourself as a “remote-first” company in the right way, it can make many things easier. This includes generating new leads for the business, expanding the customer base, growing the organization, and attracting the finest professionals for employment.
However, what exactly is a personal brand? A personal brand is your professional identity. It’s how you present yourself to the world, and it’s how you communicate with potential clients.
Your brand is the sum of how you interact with the world. It’s your digital footprint. It is on your website, social media profiles, and email signature.
Personal branding is the art of creating a consistent and coherent look that makes it easy for others to identify and remember you.
How to Brand Yourself as a “Remote-First” Business?
When you have a clear idea of who you are, what you want, and what you’re good at, you’ll be able to sell yourself to potential employers and clients. It’s also beneficial when it comes to negotiating salary or promotion opportunities.
Be Clear About Your Mission & Purpose
Debbie Goodman, Founder and CEO of the executive search firm Jack Hammer and author of The Living Room Leader: Leadership Lessons for a Hybrid Future, emphasized that the last year has been an “intensely introspective time” for many people, resulting in a reevaluation of priorities and greater clarity about how to spend the next phase of their work life.
“Many have concluded that a good salary is no longer enough of a consideration,” Goodman said. “Great talent is now more likely to seriously consider joining one company over another because of the potential to make a meaningful contribution.” Therefore, Goodman advised leaders of remote companies to get clear about their authentic mission and purpose if they want to become talent magnets.
Integrate Culture Into Your Branding
According to Mike Grossman, CEO of GoodHire, remote companies should brand themselves in a way that celebrates their workplace culture. “Understand that the vast majority of workers prioritize remote working practices,” Grossman said. “This is something you can use to your advantage in everything from your job descriptions to content on social media.”
Grossman explains that the best way to stand out in a branding sense is through painting a clear picture of what a day in the office might look like. “Involve your team in the process—you might even consider publishing employee testimonials that testify to the culture you’re showcasing,” he said. “As a result, you’ll improve your brand reputation and attract talented workers to your company.”
Own It, Expand It
Since a large number of people are looking for remote jobs, simply branding yourself as a remote company can go a long way, according to Daivat Dholakia, VP of operations at Essenvia. “Words like ‘flexibility,’ ‘freedom,’ and ‘independence’ can be used to describe what it is like to work for your company, and those are all factors that people are looking for,” Dholakia said.
Kyle Elliott, the founder of and career coach at CaffeinatedKyle.com, suggested taking the concept of flexibility beyond just working from home. “Employees crave flexibility beyond simply the location of where they are allowed to work,” Elliott said. “When branding your company, consider highlighting how your organization champions flexibility beyond work location, such as flexible schedules and the ability to set their own hours.”
Create Remote-First Branding and Strategy
As head of people operations at Polly—an employee engagement tool integrated on Slack, Teams, and Zoom for instant connection and feedback across teams that include hybrid and fully remote—Audra Aulabaugh suggests rethinking your careers page to be remote-first or hybrid. “This includes content that embodies where people work and highlights the culture you are creating to cultivate that,” Aulabaugh said.
She added that it’s important to invest in resources to focus on remote strategy in an intentional way. “Create a role that is focused on remote work success to constantly pay attention to all the things that will go by the wayside without focus, such as new and emerging best practices for remote culture, communication, and the redesign of things like perks and benefits,” Aulabaugh said.
Finally, she noted that when considering branding strategies, your company should also look at and adopt remote work policies as well. Aulabaugh concluded, “It’s a good idea to capture feedback from current employees of things you are doing really well regarding remote work to showcase ways you’re being thoughtful in the continued creation of remote work.”
Parting Thoughts: How to Integrate Your Brand Into the Company’s Culture?
Educate your new employees on the company’s mission, values and culture. Educate them on the core business activities, processes, and philosophies that characterize how your organization does work day-to-day. If they know what your organization stands for they will reflect this on their interactions whether it’s a blog or on social media.
Brand content shared by employees has a 561 percent further reach than content shared by the actual company, as reported by Forbes.
Reward on “brand behavior”. Tenet Partners explain those rewarding employees for exemplifying the brand values develop a culture in which “employees feel nurtured and inspired to act on-brand.”
Bonus strategy: Hold virtual events, summits, and career fairs to build personal connections with your potential candidates. It will give them a further look into your company.