Episode 244: Advertising vs Marketing - How to Tell the Difference

Julie South [00:00:07]: Over the last two weeks, we've talked about the recruitment cycle that keeps you stuck and why your consumer-facing content can't do the work of recruitment.

This week we're looking at another confusion that keeps clinics trapped: the difference between advertising and marketing.

Most clinic owners think they're building their employer brand when they post a job ad. They've written a detailed description, listed benefits, maybe mentioned their culture. They hit publish and wait for applications. Then nothing happens. Or they get a trickle of unsuitable applications.

Julie South [00:00:43]: So they rewrite the ad, add more platforms, spend more money. Still nothing.

Here's what's actually happening. They're advertising without marketing. And advertising without marketing is just shouting into a void where nobody's listening.

Welcome to Veterinary Voices, employer brand conversations that help veterinary clinics hire great people. I'm Julie South and this is episode 244.

Veterinary Voices is brought to you by Vet Clinic Jobs. Build your veterinary brand. Do your own recruitment better.

Today we're talking about why posting job ads, no matter how well-written, isn't employer brand marketing. And why most clinics are stuck in a false choice that keeps them starting from zero every single time they recruit.

Julie South [00:01:11]: Make sure you stay to the end because you'll get a simple yes/no question that instantly tells you whether you're doing marketing or just advertising.

Let's kick off with starting with definitions, because most people responsible for recruitment at their clinic are generally genuinely confused about what these terms actually mean in a recruitment context.

Advertising is announcing that you have something available. "We have an opening for a veterinary nurse." "Join our team as a small animal vet." It's transactional. It's episodic. It starts when you have a vacancy and it stops when you fill it.

Marketing is building ongoing awareness of who you are and why someone would want to work with you—whether you have a vacancy right now or not. It's strategic. It's continuous. It creates the conditions where your advertising actually works.

Julie South [00:02:38]: And here's the problem. Most vet clinics only do advertising.

They write a job ad when someone resigns. They post it on various platforms. They wait. When it doesn't work quickly enough, they rewrite the ad or add more platforms. Eventually, they fill the role, turn everything off and go back to doing nothing about recruitment until the next person resigns.

They think posting job ads is marketing, but advertising isn't marketing, no matter how good the ad is.

Julie South [00:03:14]: Here's where most clinics get trapped in what looks like a binary decision.

Option A is "on." You're actively advertising—someone's resigned. You need to fill the position so you're spending money on job ads across multiple platforms whilst managing all the recruitment yourself.

And then there's Option B, "off." You're fully staffed, nobody's resigned, so you're spending nothing on recruitment and doing nothing about your employer brand. Because spending money whilst not actively hiring seems illogical.

This makes Option B feel rational until someone resigns and you're back at Option A, starting from zero awareness again.

Most clinics bounce between these two options their entire existence. On, off, on, off. Start, stop, start. Crisis spending, then nothing. Crisis spending, then nothing. The pattern repeats because they genuinely don't see a third option.

But trust me, because there is one.

Julie South [00:04:35]: Let me show you why the on/off, start/stop pattern doesn't work by looking at what advertising actually requires to be effective.

First, it requires pre-existing awareness.

Think about consumer marketing for a moment. When you see an ad for Coca-Cola, it works because you already know what Coca-Cola is. The ad doesn't need to explain who they are or why you should trust them. It just needs to remind you that Coca-Cola exists.

Now imagine you see an ad for a soft drink you've never heard of. No brand recognition, no prior awareness, just an ad saying "buy a cola." Your first thought isn't "yes, I'll buy that"—it's "who are you?" followed by probably just scrolling past because you've got dozens of other things competing for your attention.

Julie South [00:05:23]: That's exactly what happens when you post a job ad without any prior employer brand marketing.

Veterinary professionals see your ad and think, "who are you?" You're asking them to make a massive career decision—maybe even relocating, definitely disrupting their life—based on zero prior awareness of your clinic.

If you want veterinary professionals to respond to your job ads, then you need pre-existing awareness of who you are and what you stand for. Because advertising without awareness is just noise in a sea of identical ads from clinics they've also never heard of.

Second, marketing builds trust over time and advertising demands immediate response.

Job ads are designed to get immediate action. "Apply now." "Join our team." "Send your CV." They're built for conversion. Turn a stranger into an applicant as quickly as possible.

Julie South [00:06:16]: But quality veterinary professionals don't make career decisions quickly based on ads from clinics they don't know. They need time to build trust. They need to see evidence of your culture over weeks or months. They need to hear from your actual team members. They need to believe you're genuinely who you claim to be.

Marketing does that work over time. Your ongoing content—team stories, operational evidence, professional development examples—builds trust gradually whilst people are still happily employed elsewhere.

So when they do start looking for their next role and you post a job ad, they already trust you. The ad doesn't need to do all the heavy lifting of building credibility from scratch.

If you want job seekers to trust your culture claims enough to apply, then you need ongoing evidence that proves those claims over time. Because without that foundation, your job ad is asking strangers to trust you immediately based on claims that sound identical to every other clinic's claims.

Julie South [00:07:46]: And then third, advertising is expensive repetition. Marketing is compounding investment.

Every time you post a job ad without prior marketing, you're starting from zero awareness. You pay for the ad placement, you manage the posting process, you wait—sometimes for months and months and months. Then you do it all again next time someone resigns. Starting from zero again. That's expensive repetition. You're paying repeatedly for the same starting position every single hiring time.

Whereas marketing compounds. The content you create this month builds awareness that still exists next month. The team stories you share this year are still working next year when someone starts job hunting. The professional profiles you build this quarter are still building trust with veterinary professionals in three years when you actually have a vacancy.

Julie South [00:08:23]: And here's what that means for your advertising. When you do post a job ad after consistent marketing, it works faster and more effectively. You skip the months-long waiting game. You're not spending hundreds across multiple platforms, hoping someone somewhere will notice you. You're advertising to an audience that already knows you exist and has been following your story.

If you want your job ads to actually convert into quality applications quickly, then you need continuous employer brand marketing working before you advertise. Because marketing is what makes advertising effective instead of expensive.

So if the false choice is "spend money advertising when desperate" or "spend nothing when fully staffed," what's the third option?

Julie South [00:09:16]: It's continuous employer brand marketing. It's building and maintaining your employer brand presence consistently, whether you're currently hiring or not.

This isn't about spending more money overall, it's about spending strategically and continuously. So every time you do need to advertise, you're starting with momentum instead of starting from scratch.

You may be thinking, "that's all well and good, Julie, but what does this actually look like?"

It's creating and sharing ongoing content that demonstrates your culture, showcases your team, proves your values through specific stories, and builds professional credibility with veterinary professionals who aren't looking for jobs right now, but might be in six months or a year or two years.

I know this works because I've created employer brand marketing content for clinics years ago that's still working today. Content I created three, four, five years ago is still building trust and still being discovered and still attracting veterinary professionals to those clinics who are excited about working there on Monday mornings.

Julie South [00:10:49]: I see it in action and witness it every single week. Content that keeps compounding long after it was created. That's the power of marketing versus advertising.

Advertising expires. Marketing compounds.

It's maintaining visibility and building relationships before you need them. So when you do advertise a role, people already know who you are and have reasons to trust you.

The best time to start this was last year. The second best time is now. Today. Even if—and even when—you're fully staffed. Because you can't build trust in the two weeks after someone resigns.

Look, if you're listening to this and thinking, "I've been stuck in the on/off, start/stop pattern for years and I don't know how to break it," you don't have to wait for this entire podcast series to play out.

Julie South [00:11:18]: If you want to start building continuous employer brand marketing now rather than waiting, then please email me julie@vetclinicjobs.com and let's have a chat about what that looks like for your clinic specifically.

I promised you a takeaway. Here it is—what I'd like you to do for this week. It's your takeaway action plan.

Look back at the last 12 months of everything you've done related to recruitment or employer brand—job ads, social media posts, website updates, anything, everything. For each piece of content, use the same simple test: Would this matter if we weren't hiring?

I'll say it again. Would this matter—this piece of whatever it is you're looking at—would it matter if we weren't hiring?

Julie South [00:12:59]: If the answer is no, it only matters when you have a vacancy—that's advertising.

If the answer is yes, it helps people understand your culture, trust your values and/or connect with your team regardless of whether you're hiring or not—that's marketing.

Run every piece of content you can find through this test.

If everything is "no, this only matters when we're hiring," you've identified why recruitment feels so difficult. You're trying to do everything with advertising alone, without the marketing foundation that makes advertising work.

Next week in episode 245, we're going deeper into exactly what this on/off, start/stop pattern is actually costing you. Because it's far more than just the subscription fees. We're talking about the hidden costs, the invisible costs, and why starting from zero every time is more expensive than you probably realise.

Julie South [00:13:51]: Thank you for listening. This is Julie South signing off, inviting you to go out there and be your most fantabulous self. Because once you've seen the on/off, start/stop pattern, you can't unsee it. And that awareness is what makes change possible.