Knowing then that your reputation is a solid contributor to your staffing or recruiting firms' bottom line, how do you build it up? Your reputation is based on signals or message you send to your stakeholders. So, building your RQ can be approached as a three-step process to identify, build, and manage your message:

Determine your message. In their landmark book "Positioning", Jack Trout and Al Reis make unassailable point that success is first and foremost dependent on knowing who you are and what you (want to) do that's different from anybody else. Unearth your unique promise of value. Learn what separates you from your peers and is compelling to those who need to know about you so that you can expand your success. Construct your message. Build a communications plan to express your brand -- a brand position that everyone within your company and every stakeholder outside your company can and will buy into. Identify tools that you will use to communicate your unique promise of value so that you will become consistently and constantly visible to those around you. Orchestrate your message. Manage your brand environment. From your desk to your advertising and public relations to your products and services to your employee benefits and community service programs to office party if you have one, you must ensure that everything that surrounds you sends same on-brand message. As demonstrated by companies whose sinking fortunes are due to poor ethics and poor reputations, a high RQ is highly desirable -- especially for staffing and recruiting companies whose business is built on relationships with clients, candidates, and employees. It takes serious time and effort to build it, yet it can be trashed quickly due to carelessness. And it is not quickly regained. In short, a good reputation is a profitable one, and should be a key component of your business strategy.

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About the Author

Try to expand marketing actions that are working.

What’s Not Working At All?

Pretty obvious what we should do with these, right? Quit doing them. Don’t live on false hope that someday these tactics will surprise you. You don’t have time for that luxury. Concentrate on what’s working now and what can be improved.

What’s Not Working As Well At It Should & How Can It Be Improved?

Many of your marketing tactics may be yielding results, just not to level you would like. It’s time to assess these and determine ways to improve them. Maybe a lot of traffic is coming to your website but your conversion to sales is small. Then you need to redesign website. What would make your site more attractive to potential customers? Don’t know? Ask them! Add a survey form to your site. Ask your customer what they would like to find on your site. Be as ruthless as you can in assessing your site. Ask others to give you candid advice about your website and LISTEN TO THEM!

In this same way, you will look at every marketing tactic which is yielding results but could do better. As you do this, you will be well on your way to improving results of your marketing efforts and freeing up time from those actions that are failing you now.

The hardest part of tuning up your marketing efforts is getting started. The time is NOW! Ready?