Niche media can be a highly effective way to reach potential candidates, but whether you're hiring or simply hoping to fill your candidate pipelines, they can also be a useful part of your ongoing branding efforts.

Print is effective for overall brand recognition and as a distribution strategy to get people to go to a destination site--like a company Web site. Jim Lanzalotto, Principal with Scanlon.Louis, a Newtown Square, PA, company that advises organizations on digital recruiting, explained. Include information so the ad sells the company, the employer brand and the opportunities they have--not just the job. 

Target
Niche publications and Web sites can be used to achieve different goals, Lanzalotto added, but the utilization is the same--you're going to a place where your audience spends time. Marketing and branding your company is the same, whether you're targeting potential employees or customers. You have to think the same way; you can't think it's different. "As far as how you advertise, I'd do that differently. On a niche job site, I'd focus more on open positions while in a publication I'd focus more on company branding."

A benefit for hiring managers is that they can target specific communities by buying advertising in media that reaches that group. "It's a dramatic change," Lanzalotto said, adding that while candidates used to be found via referral, now they're being found through interesting opportunities on the Web. "If you know where these candidates are, you can put together some great ways to target them."

Focus
Steve McKee, president of McKee Wallwork Cleveland Advertising, discussed niches. "There are lots of ways to define niches, such as by geography or type of practice; when publications and Web sites position themselves that way they often don't think about it as serving a niche, but they really are."

While a horizontal job board like Monster is good at what it does, a niche publication or Web site offers tighter focus and reader trust. From an impact perspective, narrower is better. McKee said that the most successful niche publications are building their online presence as well as their print presence. As a result, as more people migrate to the Web, these businesses aren't losing much ground. "There's still a place for print but the industry has been thinned. Conceivably a publication can be even more specialized online and generate even more trust."

The focus can be different between print and Web branding when it comes to niche media, said Chicago-based Perry Perez, Account Executive with Sky Advertising.  Because print advertising pays for the space, there is a difference. "In print, I'd still encourage companies to market on a concise basis, to brand themselves as an organization that is great to work for and that would value their services and encourage them to expand their experiences."

He contrasted this with online options. "On the Web side you can have an effective message while expanding more on the expectations, requirements and options to respond." Take advantage of the fact that you have more room online than you would in a display or inline ad.

Another component to using niche media is balance. Look at your budget. You still need to get your brand out there and you still need to be strategic in who you're targeting and how you're going to reach them, stressed Ramona Alpizar, RN, BSN, nurse recruiter, Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, CA. "Doing more niche advertising is less expensive and might get better outcomes than advertising in some of the broader, more general publications."

"My philosophy and the reality I see, is that candidates are touched in multiple ways," Alpizar said. Candidates will gain exposure to your recruitment message through online searches and in niche publications-that's how you get your message out there. "If they see you multiple times, that's what branding really is--they see and recognize you. If they're looking at the niche publication or Web site, that's one more element to solidify your branding."