Thu, 15 May 2014 | By Colin CottellRecruiters should adopt the principles of brand marketing if they want to engage successfully with candidates, members of The Forum for In-house Recruitment Managers (The FIRM) heard today (15 May).

Tom Chesterton, managing director of brand consultancy Tonic Agency, told attendees at the innovation and insight conference in London that the fundamental issue that faced all marketers was that “people don’t care”.

He said that the same could be applied to recruiters trying to get their message out to candidates. “Life gets in the way of what we want to tell people about,” he said.

Chesterton went on to outline how recruiters could apply principles from the world of marketing to communicate and build better relationships with candidates. They were:

• Engage with them as individuals; grab their interest, not their attention. “It’s about engaging with them about things in which they’re interested, not telling them stuff,” he said.

• Fragment the market and tailor your message to different groups. For instance, the executive population is going to be more interested in your company ethos than manual workers. “It’s about building relationships with people who are aligned with you so that when you close the deal, it’s because they know they like you,” he said.

The event continues today.