All recruiters should read this.

When I first set up shop for BrandMeBetter, I’d often get asked by other recruiters, “Come on then, tell me … Which recruiters do you think brand themselves well?”

Truth be told, it wasn’t an easy one to answer - because there were so few.

Sure, I could have given the names of industry heavyweights who were once recruiters, but I wanted to talk about recruiters whose primary job was to recruit.

Down under there were two or three names that always popped into my head …  one of those happened to be Mark Pearce.

Mark has passionately advocated for recruiters to focus more on their own marketing. He is also no wallflower when it comes to shining a light back on the industry in areas where he believes it needs to raise its game.

I caught up with Mark and posed four questions. His responses were as eloquent and as thought-provoking as ever.

Why did you start writing a blog five years ago?

That’s a good question to start with, David. There’s a bit of context to this, so I’ll quickly jump back five years before that.

After the global financial crisis in 2009, the UK recruitment market was slow to recover. Employers were sceptical of hiring people. Good people were hesitant to move. So, as a recruiter, you had to almost reinvent yourself.

The days of taking on jobs against five other recruiters, copying/pasting job descriptions on Reed and rapid-firing CVs to employers were finished.

If you were going to make it, back then, you had to work more closely with people (exclusively or on a retained basis). You had to think differently. You had to put yourself in the shoes of the people you were dealing with. You had to be different, or you’d disappear.

And that’s always stuck with me.

Roll on five years to Western Australia and it was like the UK prior to 2009. Still is. However, the big difference was, no one was really trying to be different. I found it hard to understand why nearly every recruiter wanted to race each other or argue the toss with employers over banging a CV into their inbox first.

This attitude was having a massive impact on applicants, candidates and people looking for work. I wondered how it must have felt having your CV bandied about the Perth market by three or four different recruiters. Screw that. So, I decided to look at ways I could stand out and help these people.

At the time, blogging in recruitment wasn’t a big thing. Ross Clennett and Greg Savage were two names I’d heard about, so I started reading their blogs. I could write a bit, however, I didn’t really understand how to publish blogs, so I bought a book called, ’The New Rules of Marketing and PR’ by David Meerman Scott.

And that was that. I started blogging on Blogger and LinkedIn with a bias towards helping people understand a few things about recruitment, along with a few pieces of advice on how they could improve things such as CVs, interviews and the like.

What’s been its impact and how has your marketing evolved?

There wasn’t much of an impact to begin with. Like everything marketing or recruitment related, it takes a while for people to start noticing you. After about 18 months, I started receiving positive feedback from people encouraging me to set up my own independent blog. So I did.

I ran the website for two years, before deciding to take it down. Sadly, while there was a lot of positive feedback, there was also a lot of negative feedback, mainly from recruiters. They weren’t best pleased I was sharing ‘secrets’ about the industry or I was ‘recruiter-bashing’ because I had a different view from them.

I’ve still got the hate mails. Two have been framed. They still bring a smile to the face. Looking back, I should have kept the website running, but the time involved, the maintenance, the costs and shifting through repetitive sh*t-blasts were replaced with reading books and copywriting for a few clients.

My writing significantly improved. The more I read, the more I tried different techniques. I also mixed things up by writing eBooks, guides and making short videos. Basically, anything that was different - and anything that people would find helpful.

Anything I write now puts people at the heart of it. It’s all about them. Using that approach has helped my thinking, marketing and writing improve, but I know I’ve a long way to go.

What advice would you give to other recruiters when it comes to personal branding?

Be different – vanilla is a killer. Going back to what I said before, it’s too easy to copy other recruiters and blend in. At some stage, the market will shift like the UK did and employers will be looking for recruiters who can market their brand differently.

They’ll want to work with recruiters who can think past the recruiting laziness that’s destroying employer, candidate and personal brands.

Very few recruiters I’ve worked with read books. That’s the first piece of advice I’d start with. Get stuck into a load of recruitment, marketing and writing books. Grab yourself books on thinking, on philosophy, on creativity. The more you read, the more you get ideas, the more you try them out – and it’s those ideas that form your DNA.

The second piece of advice I’d offer is to get closer to employers and applicants/candidates. Show them why you’re different. Show them the value you can bring and why it’s beneficial to them. Think from their perspective and you’re on your way. 

Be kind, be helpful and be genuine in all your marketing. You’ll build trust, you’ll stand out and your brand will grow.

What are you working on to improve your marketing?

How long have you got? I’m doing a few things. I’m coming to the end of a diploma in digital marketing. It has been a challenging qualification with some tough assignments, but I think I’ve got the hang of it now.

I still read a lot of books. I’m coming to the end of Andy Maslen’s, ’Persuasive Copywriting’. It’s a great read, packed with ideas and tips.

I’m writing a ton of TA content for my employer. That’s blogs, eBooks and videos. That’ll be released over the next few months.

I’m also writing a bit for businesses. A couple of UK companies and a small business in Sydney. I’d like to open my own recruitment marketing business one day and help smaller, boutique agencies with their marketing. 

And I’ve just completed Mitch Sullivan and Jackie Barrie’s ‘Copywriting for Recruiters’ course. I thought I knew a thing or two about writing ads until I did the course. It’s certainly sharpened my ad writing.

The thing with continuous improvement is keeping yourself immersed in your work. It’s about investing time and money into making yourself a continually better version. It’s also about critiquing your work and taking more risks.

And if we’re ending this Q&A session on being bold, check out the stuff Dan Kelsall does with his marketing. The lad’s a genius. His stuff is helping me improve my marketing, no doubt.

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Thank you, Mark, for your priceless advice. There are plenty of messages in here that all recruiters can take something from.

Next week's article features a Melbournian GM, a mindset master who just loves to challenge himself and others to never feel comfortable.