Marketing strategies for recruitment business Archives - Superfast Recruitment

You have done it before. You did not mean to. But there it is. Two months have slipped by and you have not sent an email to your database. Your LinkedIn has gone quiet. The blog post you were going to write is still sitting in drafts.

You only realised when a competitor’s content popped up in your feed and you thought, oh. They have been busy.

If you are running a small recruitment business and your marketing has been stop-start over the last twelve months, this article is for you.

We have spent the last week reading through the most recent research from the LinkedIn B2B Institute, the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, Bain and Company, Gartner, and Forrester.

The numbers are striking. And the implications for small recruitment businesses are bigger than most owners realise.

What You Will Learn

The 95-5 Rule

Let us start with the single most important concept in B2B marketing right now. The 95-5 Rule.

This comes from Professor John Dawes at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute. The research was conducted for the LinkedIn B2B Institute.

Here is what it says. At any given time, only 5% of your potential B2B buyers are actively in the market. The other 95% are not buying. They might not buy for months. They might not buy for years.

Now think about that in your world.

Most companies hire once a year at most. In specialist sectors it is even less frequent.

So when we market to recruitment clients, we are mostly speaking to people who are not going to need us this week, this month, or even this quarter.

That does not mean the marketing is wasted. It means the opposite. Your marketing has one job above all others.

To make sure that when those people do eventually move from out-of-market to in-market, your business is the first one they think of.

And here is the catch. You cannot predict when that moment will be. So the only logical response is to always be present.

The research goes further. It found that 96% of B2B marketers expect to see results from a campaign within two weeks.

But 95% of buyers will not even be considering a purchase for months. We are measuring the wrong thing on the wrong timescale, and then drawing the wrong conclusions when results do not appear.

The second concept that matters here is the Rule of 7.

This says that a prospect needs to encounter your brand at least seven times before they have the confidence to make a purchase decision.

Some researchers now think the number is closer to 10 to 20 in our current crowded environment.

Why does this matter for recruitment business owners?

Because trust is not built in a campaign. Trust is built through repetition.

Every piece of content, every email, every LinkedIn post is one more brick in the wall. When you stop posting for three months, the wall does not stay where you left it. It starts to weather.

Cognitive scientists call this the mere exposure effect. People develop preferences for things simply because they are familiar.

Each exposure moves information from short-term to long-term memory. And long-term memory is what drives buying decisions.

When you go quiet, you do not just lose new prospects. You also lose ground with the people who were partway through trusting you.

This is where it gets really interesting. There are costs to stopping that most business owners never see.

Now we want to give you the number that should make every business owner stop and think.

A Marketing Mix Modelling study compared two scenarios. Same business. Same product. Same market. Same total annual budget of 14 million euros.

In the stop-start scenario, with monthly campaign pauses, the business generated 163 million euros of revenue.

In the continuous scenario, with the same total spend distributed across the year, the business generated 208 million euros of revenue.

That is a 27% revenue uplift on identical spend. The only variable was consistency.

Bain and Company’s 2025 global research found something similar. The companies achieving the strongest growth, what they call the winners, all share one characteristic.

They invest in marketing consistently. The winners delivered twice the average revenue growth of their industries. They did not outspend everyone. They outlasted them.

Now let us bring this home to your world, because recruitment has its own version of this problem.

We work with recruitment businesses every week, and the pattern is consistent. The businesses with the weakest pipelines are rarely the ones with the worst service. They are the ones with the most inconsistent marketing.

There are four reasons recruitment is especially vulnerable to stop-start marketing.

Here is the pattern we see in the clients we work with. The ones who commit to consistency, even when the market is difficult, even when they are busy with placements, even when it feels like nothing is happening.

Six months in, the inbound enquiries start to shift. The conversations get warmer.

Clients say things like, I have been seeing your content for a while. Or, we have been meaning to talk to you.

That is not luck. That is the 95-5 rule playing out in real time. Those clients were the 95% who were not ready yet. The marketing kept the door open until they were.

The businesses that stop and start, who go all-in for six weeks and then disappear for three months, never see that compounding effect.

They keep starting over. The flywheel never gets up to speed.

We know what some of you are thinking. We cannot afford to market continuously.

The data actually says the opposite. Businesses that maintained marketing presence through downturns recovered faster and stronger than the ones who cut spend.

During the 2008 financial crisis, the businesses that kept going averaged 3.5% growth. The ones that paused averaged a 7.2% decline.

You do not need a bigger budget. You need a sustainable system. Always-on is not about maximal spend. It is about consistent presence at whatever level you can maintain.

Others say, we will run marketing when we need leads.

The problem is the time lag. The B2B buying cycle is six to twelve months. Content marketing takes six to eighteen months to compound. Platform algorithms need weeks to optimise.

By the time your campaign builds awareness, the need has often become urgent. You cannot market on demand when the buying cycle is that long.

So what does this actually mean for you, running a small recruitment business?

It means three things.

One Final Thought

If you take one thing away from this article, let it be this.

The cost of stopping is invisible. It does not show up on your invoice. It shows up six months later as a thin pipeline.

As warmer competitor brands winning your prospects. As referrals going elsewhere. As inbound enquiries that do not quite happen.

Always-on does not mean always selling. It means always showing up. Consistently. Predictably. Reliably.

Because that is what builds the trust, the mental availability, and the flywheel that produces sustainable growth.

Thanks,

Denise and Sharon

At Superfast Recruitment we work exclusively with recruitment business owners with teams of 1 to 20 people. For over 18 years we have helped owners build marketing systems that run while they bill, so the always-on rhythm we have talked about above is not an aspiration. It is a working reality.

Inside Superfast Circle, our membership programme, you get the strategy, the content resources, and the weekly coaching support to make consistent marketing achievable, even when you are busy placing candidates.

If you would like to talk through where your marketing is now and what an always-on system could look like for your business, we would be very happy to have that conversation.

The post The Marketing You Stop Doing Is Costing You Most appeared first on Superfast Recruitment.

If you’re a recruitment business owner listening to this in late 2025, you’re probably thinking about finishing the year strong and setting yourself up for a brilliant 2026.

Here’s the thing – the recruitment market is more competitive than ever, and standing out requires more than just being good at what you do.

Today, I’m going to share four practical marketing strategies you can implement right now – before the year ends to create more demand for your services. These aren’t complex, expensive campaigns. They’re simple, actionable steps that can make a real difference to your pipeline.

Let’s start with the most important exercise you can do right now, it will take less than an hour.

I want you to grab a spreadsheet or even a piece of paper and list every client you’ve won in the past 12 months.

Next to each name, write down exactly how they found you.

Was it a referral?

LinkedIn?

Your website?

A networking event?

Cold Outreach?

Be honest. According to McKinsey, 87% of companies are experiencing skills gaps in key areas this year, which means there’s massive demand for good recruitment services. The question is: How are your best clients finding you?

When most recruitment business owners do this exercise, I see that 60-70% of their business comes from just one or two sources. Maybe it’s all referrals from existing clients, or perhaps it’s all from cold outreach.

Once you’ve mapped this out, ask yourself: “How can I do more of what’s already working?”

If LinkedIn brings in business, are you consistent with your activity there?

The mistake most people make is trying to be everywhere at once. Instead, double down on what’s already working. If 40% of your clients came from referrals this year, your goal should be to make that 60% next year by getting better at asking for and facilitating introductions.

Here’s your action step: by the end of this week, identify your top two client sources and create a plan to increase activity in those areas by 50% over the next 60 days.

Now, let’s talk about the goldmine under your nose – your existing database.

Think about it. Your company spends millions of dollars attracting candidates through job boards, paid ads, events and sourcing efforts. All of those candidates end up in your talent database, yet most companies consistently fail to engage and nurture talent in their community. The same applies to your client database.

When did you last properly connect with everyone in your database? I’m talking about proper, value-driven outreach not just a “checking in” message.

Here’s what I want you to do over the next few months.

First, the email campaign. Create a simple email sequence – just three emails sent over two weeks. The subject line could be something like “Quick thought before year-end” or “Planning for 2026 hiring?”

Email one should provide value – maybe share a trend you’re seeing in your sector or offer a free resource like a salary guide or market update. Email two could be a case study of a recent successful placement. Email three is your soft call-to-action – perhaps inviting them to a coffee in the new year to discuss their hiring plans.

Did you know 70% of top candidates are passive job seekers who don’t respond to traditional job ads? Your database is full of these people, and the same principle applies to clients.

Now, LinkedIn. Go through your LinkedIn connections and identify the key connections you want as your clients. Spend 15 minutes a day engaging with their posts. Like, comment meaningfully, and share their content. Don’t pitch anything, just be genuinely interested in their business.

After a week of this engagement, you can start reaching out with personalised messages. LinkedIn messages can achieve response rates around 10%, roughly double the 5% typical of cold emails. Reference something specific from their recent posts or company news.

Here’s a template that works: “Hi [Name], I saw your post about [specific topic] it resonated with what we’re seeing in the market, too. I would love to catch up properly before the end of the year to share some insights on [their sector/challenge]. Are you free for a quick virtual coffee?”

Right, let’s talk about cold outreach, specifically on LinkedIn, because that’s where your potential clients spend their time.

The biggest mistake I see recruitment business owners make is being sporadic with their outreach. They’ll do a big push for a week, get busy with current clients, then do nothing for a month. That doesn’t work.

Instead, I want you to commit to what I call the “Rule of Five” – five new, targeted outreach messages every single working day. That’s just 25 a week, but it compounds quickly.

Here’s your systematic approach:

Step 1: Build your target list. Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator or even a basic LinkedIn search to find decision-makers in companies that fit your ideal client profile.

Step 2: Research before you reach out. Check their recent posts, company news, and mutual connections. Personalisation is Key: Generic messages are the fastest way to get ignored. Examine your prospect’s profile, recent posts, or company news. Find something unique to comment on or relate to.

Step 3: Your message structure. Keep it under 100 words. Open with something specific about them or their company. Mention a mutual connection if you have one. Share one piece of value or insight. End with a soft question about their hiring challenges or an offer to share a relevant case study.

Here’s an example: “Hi Sarah, I noticed you’ve recently expanded your Leeds office, congratulations! We’ve helped several fintech companies navigate similar growth phases, particularly finding senior developers in competitive markets.

I’m curious: What’s your biggest hiring challenge right now? I’m happy to share some insights on what’s working for similar companies.”

Step 4: The follow-up sequence. Follow-Up: Don’t be afraid to follow up, but do it smartly. Each follow-up should add value—share a relevant article, comment on their recent post, or offer new insight related to their business. If they don’t respond to your first message, wait a week, then send a follow-up that adds new value.

Step 4: Post More and Make More Offers

Finally, let’s talk about visibility and making offers. Employee engagement has reached concerning lows, and the same applies to how often recruitment business owners are putting themselves out there.

Posting consistently: You should be posting on LinkedIn daily. Not about how busy you are or how much you love recruitment – that’s not valuable to your audience. Instead, share insights about the market, trends you’re seeing, advice for hiring managers, or case studies of successful placements.

Here’s the formula: Problem + Insight + Action. For example: “Seeing a lot of companies struggle to attract senior developers right now (Problem). The key isn’t just salary, it’s flexibility and growth opportunities (Insight). Try highlighting your learning budget and remote work options in job descriptions (Action).”

Thought leadership content, such as white papers, industry reports, and expert articles, positions brands as trusted authorities and builds credibility. You’re building your reputation as someone who understands the market.

Making offers: Here’s the big one – when did you last make a specific offer to your network? I don’t mean “give me a call if you need anything.” I mean a specific, time-bound, valuable offer.

Before the year ends, make at least three specific offers to your network:

Put these offers in your posts, emails, and LinkedIn messages. The most successful B2B content marketers take a strategic approach, aligning content with business objectives and measuring performance to demonstrate ROI.

Make it easy for people to say yes. Give them a clear next step – book a call, reply to your email, or download a resource.

The key is specificity and value. “Let me know if you need help with hiring” is vague and forgettable. “Free review of your recruitment process to identify bottlenecks” is specific and valuable.

The recruitment market is challenging, but that creates an opportunity for those who market consistently and strategically. While your competitors wait for the phone to ring, you’ll be out there building relationships and creating demand for your services.

Don’t try to do everything at once. Pick one strategy from today’s episode and commit to it for the next four weeks. Small, consistent actions compound into significant results.

Thanks,

Denise

Ready to implement these four end-of-year marketing strategies? We help recruitment business owners analyse their client sources, reactivate databases, build cold outreach systems, and create consistent visibility.

Take our free 3-minute scorecard to identify your marketing gaps and get your personalised action plan.

Get Your Free Marketing Scorecard →

Finish 2025 strong and set yourself up for a brilliant 2026.

The post Your End-of-Year Marketing Push: Practical Strategies for Recruitment Business Owners appeared first on Superfast Recruitment.

This week’s post and podcast is about building effective marketing systems for recruitment businesses. I’m continuing our series on systems because I believe it’s the perfect time of year to get everything in place and prepare ahead of time. Last week, I covered why systems are so important – their beauty and the key ones you need in your business. Today, I want to provide you with specific examples of setting up systems and outline some actions you can take now to get them in place.

If you’re new here, welcome! It’s great to have you. If you have a recruiter friend or colleague who would appreciate listening to this podcast, please share the link with them. Please share it with them on iTunes or Spotify or give us a shoutout on LinkedIn.

I appreciate it.

This podcast isn’t sponsored. Nobody pays for this. We do it because we want to help people, and we’re doing what we teach others to do because it works. We’re providing value upfront. If you could give us a shout out, we would love it. Please consider giving us a review as well if you find it useful – that would be greatly appreciated.

Here’s what I love about building marketing systems: you don’t need to do everything at once. When our clients start working with us as a Superfast Circle member, we provide them with a straightforward, step-by-step approach that outlines the initial steps they need to take. Over the years, many of you will know that we’ve been content marketers for approximately 18-19 years in the industry. We know what works and what yields the best return on investment the fastest.

There’s a system around this, and that’s something I always want you to remember. When people often ask where to start, I advise them to start with one thing. It’s easy to get confused and think you’re being proactive by doing all these things. It’s much better to start with one thing – I like to call it the “pick one philosophy.”

Pick one system, build it out properly, then you can move on to automation. However, I think it’s much better to get something working first. Let’s see how it performs, then we automate it. Let’s test it and work out all the glitches.

Why pick just one system? Because if you don’t, you end up trying to implement everything simultaneously. This is literally where people get overwhelmed and end up implementing nothing at all. That isn’t necessary. Start with one system, build it from there, and your momentum will start to build.

Now let’s talk about which one you should pick, and I’m going to say it depends. It depends on your biggest pain point at the moment. Most of the people we work with suggest that they start with building out their client attraction system, particularly in the current market.

For the majority of recruiters we work with, LinkedIn is their primary platform for finding new clients. This is where their business contacts are now. Starting with your LinkedIn content system is the fastest way to demonstrate your expertise and attract client attention.

Here’s a framework for working with LinkedIn effectively. The first thing is to have different types of posts. I’m going to give a shout-out to us at Superfast Circle because we provide you with all these tools you can utilise, saving you time.

However, for those of you in larger companies who wish to initiate this effort independently, here are the key considerations to keep in mind.

You want market insight posts – what you’re seeing in hiring trends. You want educational posts on how to solve common hiring problems. You want social proof-style posts, such as story posts about candidate journeys, what’s happened, how you’ve helped people, different clients, and successful placements. Then there are the classic question posts – the polls people use on LinkedIn to engage with their network.

You write them, you batch them, you write them in advance. Let’s say in your industry that March is a key time for people recruiting or hiring, when decisions are being made. Then you can build your content around how that might work.

The next step is to create a publishing system. Many people, when they first come to us, might post once a week if we’re lucky. Unfortunately, that won’t move the needle. You need to post multiple times a week, in fact, numerous times a day. But let’s start with something easy.

These aren’t just job ads you’re posting, by the way. This is content to nurture people in your market, including those you’re already connected to, as well as those you will be connected to in the future. How about posting Monday, Wednesday, and Friday? LinkedIn has a scheduling tool that’s not hard to utilise. There are several marketing automation tools you can use. Some people use Buffer. A favourite of mine recently is SmarterQueue – go and check it out.

You can start posting and engaging with your client’s content. Allocate 15 minutes a day in your diary. I remember years ago – probably ten years ago, before personal branding became a thing – we suggested everyone take 15 minutes a day. I ran a webinar on it back then, and it still works.

Just allocate 15 minutes. Sometimes I even set a timer. I’m on LinkedIn, interacting and engaging with people I want to engage with. Our posts are scheduled ahead of time, so they’re all ready, and I know they’ll appear. Setting up that system alone will put you ahead of so many recruiters and make a massive difference.

One area where there’s often a disconnect for many recruiters is that they publish content but fail to connect it by making more connections and engaging in outreach. Everyone has a set number of LinkedIn connection requests they can send out, and this is something to do daily. It’s just like any system you create – the more you can do daily, the better it gets.

One of the girls was talking about her “dailies” – she had daily tasks to complete. This isn’t necessarily around KPIs, but her dailies were what she had to do every day. When she did this, she knew it made a difference. I encourage you to create your dailies – however many connection requests you send out. Remember that momentum builds, but you must start it by being consistent.

You send out a connection request. Once that person has accepted, share a piece of valuable content or an insight – no sales pitch, just value.

You’re doing that with your LinkedIn connections.

When it comes to what to do after that, you rinse and repeat. You continue because this is about building a process and people seeing you everywhere. I know that sometimes, if I see an ad on TV, then hear a radio ad, and then pick up a magazine, I suddenly think I should take a look at it. When I’ve seen it two or three times, there must be something about it.

This is where building that system works for you.

You’ve created the content, you’re now a publishing machine, and you’re connecting and doing outreach with people. The next step is to get clients on your email database or encourage them to join it.

Here’s a hint: when you’re publishing things and doing connections and outreach, you can say, “I’ve got some great content and ideas for you. Would you like to join our email system?” Most people will say yes, or you send a link where they put their name and email address. You can see how all these systems build on one another.

If you need more candidates, it’s a similar system. Consider the content – you want to create a similar process that shares valuable content with them. When we talked about the client acquisition system, we mentioned market insights.

It’s the same thing, only it comes from a candidate’s lens.

We’re examining market insights because candidates are intelligent individuals. They want to know what’s going on in the market. You want to tell them about not just hiring trends, but career trends and career progression – what they need to be thinking about. You want educational posts, story posts, and those question posts. Do a survey, ask a LinkedIn poll – all these things you can use.

That’s the system you set up with candidates exactly the same. You’re reaching out to candidates. You could do a certain number of LinkedIn connection requests for clients and a certain number for candidates. Add these candidates to your email system as well.

Straight away, you’ve got very simple, straightforward systems that work for client attraction and candidate attraction. You take those to the next level by getting these people on the phone. You send them more messages, leave them a voice note, send them a video – all different things that make a difference.

On LinkedIn, there’s Sales Navigator – a great piece of software where you can build lists of clients and candidates. This can be a systematised process. We receive emails stating that there are X number of leads in your LinkedIn list, so you can log in because you’ve set up the criteria. You can incorporate those systems into your process. When conducting outreach within LinkedIn Sales Navigator, review all new connections and people who’ve appeared on your list that meet your criteria. Then set the process to start reaching out to them.

Most problems that occur for recruiters around systems are that their systems are so sporadic. If you have a specific process that’s dialled in and you’re doing it regularly, it’s going to make a difference. We’ve all received random cold emails in our inbox that aren’t particularly relevant, and we end up blocking people. That’s where having your systems organised makes a difference.

Think about your client system and your CRM. If that’s sorted by industry, sector, experience level, hiring history, or company size—whatever it is—you can compile lists of people you need to contact.

Once you’ve done that, you can create that systematic approach with your touchpoints.

Perhaps you could send a monthly update to them, establish an immediate follow-up system when someone joins your list, or conduct a quarterly check-in. Your business priorities will dictate this. If you do those systematic touchpoints built into a system, you have a very productive nurture campaign.

Let’s say that automated nurturing you could do with candidates: you could have a new registration sequence, a post-interview follow-up sequence, a placement preparation sequence, or a post-placement sequence. All these things – if you need predictability, set up the system, and you’ll see a huge difference.

Sometimes it’s painful to go into that detail. And it’s incredibly useful. I’ll cover SOPs a bit more in next week’s podcast, when I delve into that topic. We’re all about systems, and my goal is for you to review the systems you have, refine them, clean things up, and put everything in place over the summer.

If you’ve kicked off some systems, then your September will be very different. The key is to start with one system, build it properly, and then expand from there. Remember, momentum builds when you’re consistent, and consistency comes from having clear, systematic processes in place.

Thanks

Denise

At Superfast Circle, we provide the complete framework and content you need to build these marketing systems effectively. Our members gain access to ready-made content templates, detailed implementation guides, and a paint-by-numbers approach that eliminates the guesswork from building your recruitment marketing systems.

We’ve spent nearly two decades perfecting what works, so you don’t have to figure it out through trial and error.

The post Systems-Based Recruitment: Building Your Marketing Framework appeared first on Superfast Recruitment.

Welcome to another episode of our Recruitment Marketing podcast. I’m Denise, and today, I want to discuss something that can really transform your recruitment, search, or staffing business in 2025.

We’ve been working with recruitment business owners for nearly two decades and consistently seen that marketing can be a real challenge for many of them.

In a sector as competitive as recruitment, where differentiation is vital, effective marketing isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s essential. Yet many recruitment business owners we meet are struggling to create consistent client and candidate flow.

That’s why we’re excited to introduce our brand-new Client and Candidate Attraction Scorecard. This assessment clarifies exactly where recruitment business owners stand with their marketing and what they need to focus on to improve their results.

Before we dive into the details of the scorecard, let me share a bit about our journey and why we’re so passionate about this.

We started our careers in corporate settings as sales and marketing professionals in the pharmaceutical industry. We’ve launched several brands and products, generating more than £400 million in revenue.

About 19 years ago, we launched our marketing company focused specifically on the recruitment and staffing sector. We saw that while recruitment business owners were experts at matching candidates with clients, marketing was often their blind spot.

Initially, we provided marketing services to recruitment companies, creating campaigns, writing content, and developing strategies. While this worked well, we realised that many smaller recruitment businesses couldn’t afford full marketing services but needed guidance.

This led us to develop Superfast Circle, our comprehensive marketing program and community specifically for recruitment, search, and staffing owners. Rather than just doing the marketing for them, we provide the tools, training, resources, and strategies they need to implement effective marketing themselves.

Our approach has always been based on practical, actionable advice. A few years ago, we created a Marketing Checklist that helped recruitment business owners identify gaps in their marketing approach.

While the checklist was helpful, we found that recruitment owners needed something more comprehensive—a tool that would not only identify gaps but also provide direction on how to close them.

That’s how our new Client and Candidate Attraction Scorecard was born. It’s much more than a simple checklist. It’s a diagnostic tool that evaluates your marketing across five critical areas:

Each of these areas is crucial to marketing success in the recruitment sector.

The assessment consists of 15 questions that dig deep into these five key areas of your marketing. It takes about 10 minutes to complete, but those 10 minutes could transform your understanding of where your marketing stands.

Let’s break down each area:

This examines whether you have clear financial targets, defined ideal clients and candidates, and a structured marketing plan. Without these foundations, your marketing efforts risk being scattered and ineffective.

This looks at how effectively you communicate what makes your business special and your specific services. In today’s market, a strong value proposition is essential for standing out among competitors.

Here, we assess your brand consistency, social media presence, and thought leadership. A distinctive, consistent brand builds trust and memorability with clients and candidates.

This evaluates your email marketing, cold outreach processes, and content offers. Lead generation is truly the lifeblood of any recruitment business, especially in the current market.

Finally, we examine how consistently you implement marketing activities and measure their effectiveness—the bridge between strategy and success.

After completing the questions, you’ll receive a score for each area: Low, Medium, or High. But the real value comes in the personalised recommendations we provide based on your results.

So why should you take the time to complete this assessment? Let us share some of the benefits our clients have experienced:

First, clarity. Many recruitment business owners tell us they feel overwhelmed by marketing—there are so many channels, tactics, and strategies. The scorecard cuts through the noise and shows you exactly where to focus your efforts for the biggest impact.

Second, a starting point. Whether you’re new to marketing or have been doing it for years, the scorecard gives you a benchmark against what’s working for successful recruitment businesses in 2025.

Third, actionable recommendations. This isn’t just about identifying problems—it’s about providing solutions. For each area, you’ll receive specific, practical steps you can take to improve, tailored to whether your score is Low, Medium, or High.

Fourth, it saves time and money. By focusing on the right marketing activities for your business, you avoid wasting resources on tactics that won’t deliver results.

And finally, confidence. Marketing can feel like guesswork, especially if you do not see the desired results. The scorecard gives you confidence that you’re moving in the right direction.

If you’re ready to get clarity on your marketing and create a roadmap for success, we encourage you to take the Client and Candidate Attraction Scorecard today.

It’s free, takes just 10 minutes, and could catalyse significant growth in your recruitment business. We also offer a complimentary 45-minute Marketing Strategy Consultation to review your detailed results.

Thanks

Denise

To access the scorecard, click here or visit Superfast Recruitment using the link below.

www.superfastrecruitment.co.uk/scorecard

Remember, effective marketing isn’t optional in today’s competitive recruitment landscape—it’s essential. The first step to improving is understanding where you stand.

The post Transform The Way You Market Your Recruitment or Search Company With This Scorecard appeared first on Superfast Recruitment.

In today’s competitive recruitment landscape, effectively promoting your brand is essential for growth and sustainability. While many recruitment business owners excel at delivering exceptional service, they often struggle with showcasing their expertise to the wider market. This comprehensive guide explores six proven strategies for promoting your recruitment brand that balance value-added content and strategic self-promotion.

Drawing from years of experience working with successful recruitment firms, I’ll share practical approaches that will help position your company as the logical choice for both clients and candidates. Whether you want to enhance your social media presence, leverage testimonials more effectively, or articulate your unique advantages, these actionable tactics will help you create a compelling brand narrative that resonates with your target audience.

Read on to discover how these straightforward yet powerful promotional strategies can transform your recruitment brand’s visibility and impact in the marketplace.

The foundation of effective brand promotion starts with positioning yourself as a solution provider for both clients and candidates. This approach requires identifying your target audience’s key problems and demonstrating how your recruitment service offers the ideal solution.

Begin by creating a comprehensive list of common challenges your clients and candidates encounter. For clients, this might include difficulties finding qualified specialists in niche sectors or maintaining consistent talent pipelines for growth. For candidates, it could involve interview confidence issues or career progression barriers.

Once you’ve identified these problems, develop content specifically addressing how your recruitment service solves them. Share concrete examples of how you’ve helped similar individuals or organisations overcome these challenges.

For instance, create social media posts highlighting your interview preparation services if candidates struggle with interview confidence. Include brief success stories showing how your guidance helped candidates secure desirable positions.

Remember that people can’t work with you if they don’t know who you are and what problems you solve. Make your promotional content clear about your specific solutions and include straightforward calls to action that invite engagement.

The classic Features, Advantages, and Benefits (FAB) document is an essential yet often overlooked promotional tool. This structured approach helps translate your service offerings into meaningful value propositions for your audience.

Start by listing all the features of your recruitment service—what you do and offer. This might include your specialised sector knowledge, candidate screening processes, or extended guarantee periods. Be thorough, and don’t overlook any aspect of your service.

Next, identify each feature’s advantage and why it matters. For example, if your team comprises former industry professionals, the advantage is their insider understanding of role requirements and cultural fit considerations.

Finally, articulate the benefit—the “so what” factor that explains how this advantages your clients or candidates. Using the same example, the benefit might be more accurate candidate matching, reduced time-to-hire, and lower turnover rates.

Once you’ve created your comprehensive FAB document, use it as a content goldmine for your promotional activities. Create social media posts, email content, and website copy that rotately highlight different elements from your FAB document.

This approach ensures you’re regularly communicating your value proposition rather than assuming your audience already understands what makes your recruitment service distinctive and beneficial.

In uncertain markets, people gravitate toward certainty. Quantifying your experience and results through concrete data and numbers is one of the most compelling ways to promote your recruitment brand.

Share specifics about your time in the industry, the number of successful placements you’ve made, retention rates of placed candidates, or the average time-to-hire metrics you achieve. These tangible indicators of success provide reassurance and credibility.

For example, if your firm has 15 years of specialisation in the engineering sector, over 500 successful placements, and a 95% candidate retention rate after one year, these statistics tell a powerful story about your expertise and effectiveness.

Don’t be hesitant about highlighting your longevity in the market. Many recruiters mistakenly believe that emphasising their years of experience might make them seem outdated, but the opposite is often true—especially when you pair this experience with evidence of your contemporary approach and cutting-edge methods.

Create regular posts that combine your established track record with insights into your modern methodologies. This combination of experience and innovation presents a compelling case for working with your recruitment firm over less established competitors.

Every question, concern, or objection clients and candidates raise represents a golden opportunity for promotional content. These real-world inquiries reveal exactly what information your target audience needs before making decisions.

Implement a system for collecting questions that arise during client and candidate interactions. Ask your recruitment team to document the specific questions, considerations, and objections encountered during conversations.

Transform these questions into content that pre-emptively addresses concerns before they become barriers. For example, if candidates frequently ask about your process for negotiating salary packages, create content that outlines your approach to securing competitive compensation.

This strategy positions you as transparent and service-oriented while promoting your recruitment expertise. Each piece of content should include a clear call to action that invites further engagement from those with similar questions.

The beauty of this approach is that it allows you to address objections proactively rather than reactively. By acknowledging common concerns upfront and demonstrating how you address them, you build trust while showcasing your recruitment methodology.

While company branding remains essential, personal branding is increasingly critical in recruitment business promotion—particularly for smaller firms. You are your company brand in many ways, especially as the business leader.

Potential clients and candidates want to know who they’ll be working with. They assess compatibility based on your values, expertise, communication style, and personality, which heavily influence their decision to engage with your recruitment service.

Share your industry perspectives, insights, and professional journey across your social platforms. Create content that reveals your approach to recruitment challenges and your philosophy on building effective talent partnerships.

Interestingly, many large organisations seek smaller recruitment partners because they value personalised service and direct access to leadership. Your personal brand can be the differentiating factor that attracts these valuable corporate clients.

Remember that authenticity matters. Your personal brand should genuinely reflect your professional identity rather than present an idealised version. Share both successes and lessons learned to create a rounded, relatable brand persona.

Nothing promotes your recruitment brand more effectively than having others speak on your behalf. Case studies and testimonials—what I call “the horse’s mouth”—provide social proof that significantly influences potential clients and candidates.

Develop a systematic approach to collecting testimonials and creating case studies. Make this a standard part of your process after successful placements or project completions. Designate responsibility for gathering this valuable content to ensure consistency.

For testimonials, seek specific feedback about the experience of working with your firm rather than generic praise. The most persuasive testimonials highlight particular aspects of your service that made a difference to the client or candidate.

Case studies should follow a structured format that outlines the initial situation, the challenges faced, your recruitment approach, and the measurable results achieved. This narrative demonstrates your problem-solving capabilities in real-world scenarios.

Share these testimonials and case studies consistently across your website, social media platforms, and marketing materials. Our experience shows that case study and testimonial pages are among the most visited sections of recruitment websites, as potential clients actively seek this validation.

When developing your promotional strategy, consider the frequency and balance of your content. Television advertisers have perfected this approach through extensive testing—typically featuring advertising breaks every 15 minutes during hour-long programmes.

Apply this ratio to your content strategy. For every four emails you send, make one explicitly promotional. This balanced approach ensures you’re providing value while regularly reminding your audience of your services.

A more frequent promotional cadence is appropriate for social media, particularly for smaller recruitment firms looking to build visibility. Posting one promotional message daily is entirely reasonable when balanced with value-added content.

Use high-quality visuals to enhance your promotional content. Modern smartphones combined with user-friendly design tools like Canva make it simple to create professional-looking branded materials without significant investment or design expertise.

Create templates for consistency across your promotional content, incorporating your brand colours, fonts, and visual style. This visual cohesion strengthens brand recognition and presents your audience with a polished, professional image.

Thanks

Denise

How We Can Help You

Ready to elevate your recruitment brand and implement these six proven promotional strategies? Let’s discuss how we can help you develop a tailored approach that showcases your unique strengths and connects with your ideal clients and candidates. Book a call with our team today to explore how our proven marketing systems can transform your recruitment brand’s visibility and impact in the marketplace. We’ll work together to create a promotional strategy that drives genuine business growth while maintaining your authentic voice.

The post How to Make Your Recruitment Brand Stand Out appeared first on Superfast Recruitment.

Here is a summary of the podcast I recorded on the successful marketing strategies working for recruitment and search companies now.

In today’s competitive recruitment landscape, staying ahead of the curve with effective marketing strategies is crucial. This post and podcast explore approaches currently working well for recruitment and search companies, helping you attract clients and candidates while building a strong brand presence.

Before we discuss the strategies that are working now, you must consider two key things: your offer and your messaging.

Before exploring specific marketing tactics, it’s essential to focus on your business’s foundation —your offer. A compelling offer is the cornerstone of any successful marketing strategy in the recruitment and search industry.

Your offer to clients should demonstrate how you can bring the best talent to their company. Consider what sets your recruitment service apart from competitors. Are you leveraging cutting-edge technology? Do you have a unique approach to candidate screening? Perhaps you offer exceptional post-placement support?

Think about how you can enhance your current offering. For example, you might:

Remember, candidates are also your customers. Your offer to them should focus on how you can support their career development and help them secure positions with better pay and conditions. Consider offering:

By creating truly compelling offers for both clients and candidates, you set a strong foundation for all your marketing efforts. No amount of clever marketing can compensate for a weak offer, so invest time in refining and improving what you offer.

Once you’ve honed your offers, the next step is to ensure your messaging accurately reflects them and resonates with your target audience. This is where many recruitment companies fall short, using generic language that fails to connect with their clients and candidates’ specific needs and pain points.

Consider the challenges your clients face. Are they struggling to find specialised talent? Dealing with high turnover rates? Trying to build diverse teams? Your messaging should directly address these issues and position your service as the solution.

For example, instead of simply stating, “We’re a recruitment company specialising in the engineering sector,” you might say:

“We help innovative engineering firms overcome talent shortages and build high-performing teams, even in the most competitive markets.”

Think about what motivates candidates to seek new opportunities. Is it career progression? Better work-life balance? More challenging projects? Tailor your messaging to speak to these aspirations.

For instance, rather than just saying, “We help candidates find new jobs,” you could say:

“We empower tech professionals to take control of their careers, connecting them with opportunities that offer higher salaries and meaningful work and growth potential.”

Remember, effective messaging goes beyond describing what you do. It should tap into your audience’s emotions and desires, painting a picture of how working with you could improve their professional lives.

Now, let’s examine what is working now regarding marketing strategies in 2024; the first might surprise you, and it starts with your employer brand.

In today’s digital age, your employer brand is often the first impression potential clients and candidates have of your company. It’s not just about having a polished website or a clever logo – it’s about communicating who you are, what you stand for, and why someone should choose to work with you.

Key elements of a strong employer brand include:

Social media has become an indispensable tool for recruitment and search companies in the digital age. It’s not just about having a presence – it’s about leveraging these platforms effectively to increase visibility, engage with your audience, and drive business growth.

LinkedIn should be the centre of your social media strategy as the premier professional networking platform. Here are some tips for maximising its potential:

While often overlooked in B2B contexts, Facebook can be valuable for recruitment and search companies, especially for reaching passive candidates:

Instagram offers a great platform for promoting and communicating your company culture and building a more personal connection with your audience:

Remember, consistency is key across all platforms. Develop a content calendar to ensure regular posting, and always aim to provide value to your followers rather than just promoting your services.

While your company brand is crucial, don’t underestimate the power of personal branding, especially for founders and senior team members. In the relationship-driven world of recruitment, people often want to know who they’re working with.

Here are some strategies for developing a strong personal brand:

Remember, your personal brand can significantly enhance your company’s credibility and reach. It puts a face to the business and can help build trust with potential clients and candidates.

Content marketing is a powerful way to demonstrate your expertise, provide value to your audience, and improve your visibility in search engines. Here are some content types to use consistently.

Regular blog posts for candidates and clients on your website will:

Aim for a mix of evergreen content (always relevant) and timely pieces (responding to current events or trends).

Longer-form content allows you to dive deep into topics and provide substantial value. Consider creating:

These can serve as lead magnets, encouraging website visitors to provide their contact information in exchange for the download.

[Important: As a member of Superfast Circle, we provide all the content resources you need as part of your low monthly fee.]

Regular newsletters help you stay top-of-mind with your audience. They could include:

Remember, the key to effective content marketing is consistency and quality. Develop a content calendar to ensure regular publication, and always focus on providing genuine value to your readers.

Inbound marketing is all about attracting potential clients and candidates to you. It’s based on the principle of providing value upfront, which builds trust and positions you as a go-to expert in your field.

Here’s how to implement an effective inbound marketing strategy:

Develop resources that address common pain points or questions in your industry. These could include:

Ensure your website is set up to capture and nurture leads:

Improve your visibility in search engine results:

Once you’ve captured a lead’s contact information, nurture the relationship:

Email marketing continues to be one of the most effective strategies for return on investment. Here’s how to make the most of this powerful tool:

Focus on growing a high-quality email list:

Not all subscribers are the same. Segment your list based on factors like:

This allows you to send more targeted, relevant content.

Develop automated email sequences for different segments:

Every email should offer something of value to the recipient:

Remember, in the B2B sector where recruitment and search sit, the key to successful email marketing is prioritising your candidate and client needs first and then promoting your services.

In today’s candidate-driven market, providing an exceptional candidate experience can set you apart from competitors and help you attract top talent. Here’s how to enhance your candidate experience:

Map the Candidate Journey:

Create a detailed flow diagram of your candidate process, from initial contact to placement and beyond. This helps identify areas for improvement and ensures consistency.

Keep candidates informed at every stage:

Treat candidates as individuals, not just CVs and resumes:

Balancing client acquisition with retention is crucial for sustainable growth in the recruitment industry. Here are strategies for both:

Remember, retaining existing clients is generally more cost-effective than constantly acquiring new ones. However, a healthy business requires a mix of both to account for natural attrition and to fuel growth.

In today’s digital age, data should drive your marketing decisions. Here’s how to implement data-driven marketing in your recruitment business:

Define Key Metrics:

Identify the metrics that matter most to your business, such as:

As I mentioned in the podcast, consider tracking metrics in sets of 100:

This gives you a good sample size to analyse effectiveness.

Use Data to inform your decisions and let it guide your strategy.

Remember, while data is crucial, it shouldn’t be the only factor in your decision-making. Combine data insights with your industry knowledge and intuition for the best results.

In today’s interconnected world, physical location is becoming less of a barrier in recruitment. Here’s how to expand your geographic reach:

Use digital tools to connect with clients and candidates anywhere:

Before expanding, thoroughly research potential new markets:

So many strategies are working now as long as you work them. Remember, your candidates and clients have more choices, so standing out in the market as an expert and consistently being in front of them is key.

Until next time

Denise

In this post and podcast, we have shared exactly how we support our Superfast Circle clients by helping them design the marketing plan that will work for them to provide the resources they need.

If you want a quick conversation about how we can help you, book a call here. Or call us on +44(0)1524 920700

The post The Most Successful Marketing Strategies Working For Recruitment and Search Companies in 2024 appeared first on Superfast Recruitment.

Today, I want to share several key takeaways from the recent May NPA Conference in Salt Lake City.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see all the speakers, and those I did had so many insights. It’s taken me a couple of weeks to condense them into five key areas I want to share today.

The first area is around candidates or applicant attraction.

Steven Smith, the founder of ApplicantPro, presented. His company processes millions of applications every week, works with over 1,000 companies, and has phenomenal access to data.

Several things about candidate and applicant attraction hit home here from this particular session. The first thing is the challenge around candidate attraction is real.

Yes, it is sector-dependent, and the data shows two times fewer candidates in the market applying for roles today than pre-Covid, which is staggering.

There are several reasons for that. Yes, there are people in their early 50s who have retired early. Interestingly, there seems to be some indication that some of those individuals are returning to the marketplace, whether for full or part-time roles.

The whole experience of the pandemic and remote working got candidates to realize they could work effectively from home, and they didn’t need to travel for several hours to an office before they started work and back again at the end of the day.

They’re not as willing to put themselves into the marketplace and look for the next role if what they’ve got is satisfying them, and they can fulfil their desire to work from home.

While many employers want to get people back into the office five days a week, that preference harms many companies when it comes to attracting the talent they are looking for.

In addition, if we look at some broader societal changes, women are spending more time launching their careers, making significant progress, and delaying their decision to start a family.

If we go back 25 years, and I’m going to quote some US data here, the average age at which a woman would start a family was 22; today, it’s 31.

The reality is that it is impacting the population growth.

Steve highlighted that our population and demographics are changing, affecting the candidates available in the marketplace to fill jobs today and in the coming years.

In combination with other research, there was a prediction that the current marketplace lacking candidates isn’t going to be a short-term issue, that if we look over the next 10, 20, 30, potentially up to 40 years, that there is going to be a significant impact on the volume of candidates in the market. Of course, that then has a knock-on effect in terms of, as recruitment and search companies, what can we do to place ourselves in the best possible position to attract the candidates in the market?

Candidate attraction and candidate marketing are vital in the short and long term.

Even as the market changes and we’re looking for more clients, we need strategies to build new businesses and attract clients. We also need to consistently build talent pools and consider all the different methods to attract and nurture talent.

The reality is we will continue to face a very competitive market. Regarding candidate attraction, think about the candidate’s journey right from this point when someone decides to look for a new opportunity in a new organization.

People make all those decisions at an early stage, and then they embark on a journey. You can create useful content to help people through all the stages of that recruitment journey, from onboarding to building their careers within a new organization.

You can nurture these relationships over time so that when a candidate decides it’s time for them to move, you are front of mind because you’ve been encouraging them.

Of course, we can look at a whole variety of basic marketing principles for keeping in contact with that person on that journey using a variety of channels available today, from messaging to phones, email, video, and content.

There are so many opportunities to have touchpoints with these individuals.

Steven’s presentation revealed something about which he was passionate, and he encouraged companies to stop posting job descriptions as ads.

This is something we talk about with our Superfast Circle clients. Last year, we had a guest speaker, the amazing Cheryl Wing, an award-winning rec2rec with over 20 years of experience. She was talking about how to write compelling job ads. It is a skill, and probably, as recruitment and talent acquisition, individuals need to get better at it as candidates’ proprieties change.

As I’ve mentioned job ads, I want to add a couple of suggestions Steven mentioned by looking at all the data he does.

To reiterate, I’m sure many of us realize that the job title in your ad is key. He was a huge advocate of ensuring you research the right job title. Use six words maximum in that title to encourage people to click on the ad.

Avoid clickbait strategies, ensure your ad has quality content, and answer the questions that the person reading the ad will have in mind.

This is about the individual’s impact within the role and the organization.

The final point was to write multiple ads, a minimum of three, where you can rotate those ads to maintain rankings on the job boards you use.

My second key takeaway was about sourcing.

I was blown away by this particular session by a guy called Mike “Batman” Cohen. There’s a story about why he calls himself Batman; he fell in love with Batman in his late teens!

Mike specializes in sourcing and is an expert speaker on this topic. What I loved about his session was he mentioned so many different pieces of software you could use.

There were two things I took away from his presentation.

One was about productivity and how using different sourcing tools and technological pieces can make you much more productive. The second part, again, sticking with productivity, is how some very simple tools can make some mundane, frustrating tasks so much easier and also enhance your clients’ and candidates’ experience of your service.

Let me give you an example.

Mike referred to a piece of software as Honeit. Some of you may be using it already.

Honeit can do many things; one function is the ability to record interviews with your candidates.

“Zoom and MS Teams do that, and Otter.ai does, too. What’s special about Honeit, Sharon?”

What is different is that you can take that recording, and the software will extract sections from that candidate interview.

You can then send snippets from that interview directly to your client via the platform. These are short audio recording snippets, say 30-90 seconds, which you can share with multiple stakeholders participating in the interview process. If you can share a candidate’s answer to a question, that is their version, not yours, as the recruitment individual is editing that and

Some of you will be using video software that does this. If you’re not, then Honeit allows your client to have a different experience. This is only one tiny element of what Honeit can do, but it certainly opened people’s eyes in his session. Mike’s always on the lookout for software, and I know there is so much available that it can be difficult to keep track, never mind thinking about getting ahead of the game.

One piece of software that he talked about was something called Betterleap. This software is an alternative to SeekOut, and, dare I even say this, it was on his slide, LinkedIn Recruiter.

Betterleap is an AI-sourcing software for candidates. From his brief demo, it certainly looked like something worth checking out. I won’t go into detail about that because this is auditory. You’re much better looking at that from a visual perspective, but it would be something that, if I were in your shoes, I would be looking at as well.

The other piece of software that caught my eye was Exact Buyer. What I loved about this software was that it allows you to find out what jobs are available in what organizations.

From a BD perspective, this sounds like a great opportunity.

I know other pieces of software can do that, but what I like about Mike Cohen is he’s out there all the time recruiting, just like you, day to day, and he’s testing all these different pieces of kit individually and then how they work with the other piece of software that he uses. As a coach, consultant, and trainer, I like to examine the complex and consider how we can simplify everything.

Two pieces of software seemed logical from a productivity point of view to use.

Now, the first one is something called Highlight This. Again, you might have got your version of this. You might have heard of Highlight This yet didn’t know what it did.

Highlight: This is a free Chrome extension. You can use it to create a list of words and assign colours to those words you want your computer to highlight while scanning documents.

I imagine you are looking and filtering through many CVs and Resumes if you have lists of keywords you want to highlight when you’re running through all those CVs to filter out individuals, even when you’ve shortlisted people. You’re still looking for certain nuances or skills or, if it’s tech, a certain coding language that tech people use.

Then, of course, the other one, and I know some people use this software, is one called Textexpander and then one called Text Blaze which Mike recommended. He has used both, and his reason for recommending Text Blaze was more about accuracy.

Text Blaze, again, is a Chrome extension. You can take common phrases and sentences or even short paragraphs that you might use repeatedly in emails and communication. You can assign an abbreviation so that when you are typing out a follow-up email for a client or a candidate, you know the phrases you use, then you can type in that abbreviation and up pops that whole sentence or that short paragraph.

Again, when you think about batching out follow-up emails, etc., how amazing is that simple software?

While I realize that we’re doing audio here, as I say, we’re not doing visual. I can’t demonstrate any of those pieces of software; check out the names, go and look, and if you are not using a tool that could help you do what some of these pieces of software do, then it might be something you want to consider.

Now, my third big takeaway concerns a topic we often discuss, and I’m repeatedly asked, “How can I stand out, Sharon?”

As we all know, and I’ve mentioned previously, it is an incredibly competitive market. Stephen David Patterson, a speaker, discussed cold calling.

Now, the reality is, and bear with me here, cold calling is one of the most underutilized strategies. So many people do not want to cold call. They believe cold calling doesn’t work, and so they avoid it. Yet, if you get good at it, you don’t have to be a master but be good at it; boy, can you make a massive difference, and you will stand out.

Now, the reality is that many people are put off by cold calling. Let’s think about it. Stephen talked about how our lovely mums and dads bring us up, and we’re taught not to talk to strangers. “Just don’t talk to strangers. Don’t engage in conversations. You don’t grill people that you don’t know by asking them lots and lots of questions.

That’s almost rude,” I can hear my mum saying. Now, if you think about that and people say, “I don’t like scripts, I don’t want to use a script. I sound scripted if I use a script, and it’s so obvious.”

Now, on the script, let’s think about it and be honest. Maybe not all of us, but many of us can get lost on holiday at weekends, down a good old Netflix binge, or perhaps it’s Apple or Prime that you love watching. We can get engrossed in a fantastic series, whatever that is for us.

The reality is that those actors we’re engrossed by and love watching use scripts! Now, watching them on our favourite program, we wouldn’t know they’re scripted. They don’t sound scripted, do they? How amazing that it all started with a script, and they learned the lines. They learn how to use intonation in it. They understand the body language. They know how to act those lines.

A cold call will generally be on the phone; we only use auditory. How we learn to use our body language, voice, and tonality will make a massive difference to the kind of conversation we have on whether that script comes across as like I’m reading from a script or whether it comes across as a conversation.

Practice always makes perfect.

If we can develop a script that works for us, we learn that script; we know what kind of tonality to use, what questions to ask, where to push back, and where to ask different types of questions. The more we rehearse and practice, the better we will get, the more confident we will be, and the more we’ll be able to handle whatever comes up from the other side of that phone.

Cold calling is worth investing time, energy, and resources in building your cold calling muscle and helping your teams build that muscle.

I won’t go into much more detail because we got into scripts, specific questions, and how to handle objections. Hopefully, I will give you some insight and inspiration to explore how you could upskill your team from a cold-calling perspective. It works and will help you stand out.

My fourth key takeaway was about the power of networking. This was my first international conference since pre-pandemic, and most of the audience had been together multiple times.

People in this network have been part of the NPA Worldwide Network for 10, 15, 20, and 30 years. Over time, amazing relationships have been built, including professional relationships and individuals within the NPA.

The key was that even though there were people who had been there many times and were new members, there was a strong sense of making this networking opportunity work for you.

People were being incredibly planned and proactive about that, which I found inspiring.

I’d gone knowing what my outcome for that event was, the people that I wanted to have conversations with, I’d been talking to on LinkedIn with, people that I’d had calls with, so lots of different people that I wanted to meet for a whole variety of reasons. I

It made me think about how many times, perhaps in years gone by, I would turn up at a networking event, and it’s not necessarily, in the past, been my most comfortable thing to do.

I’ve worked on it over time, but I didn’t know who was in the room, what businesses would be turning up, or who the main contact point in that organization might be.

Networking can be much more organized today, but if you’re going to a networking event, check out who is attending and who you want to speak to. If you don’t know them, we can check people out. Hopefully, they’ll have a good picture on LinkedIn so we can get a sense of who we’re looking for. If we don’t know that, find somebody who knows them and get some introductions. Make networking work for you.

That does link in quite nicely to my last point, which is point 5. It’s about collaboration because the other thing that struck me about this network, now a key philosophy of the NPA Worldwide Network, as is with The TEAM Network in the UK, is this idea of partnering and sharing jobs.

We will have clients who say to us, “I am struggling to find the right kind of candidate for this role.”

Imagine the power of having strong relationships with other companies where you could say, “I’m struggling with this role; I could do with some extra help,” and you have a partner who has a network that can support you, and they can put their candidates forward for your role, and you agree on a split fee.

For some people listening and certain sizes of businesses, that might not be a strategy you want to pursue. I understand that. Small companies, solos, micros, and small SME organizations value having an additional income stream of whatever size results from partnering with other organizations.

Listening to a series of success stories of people who collaborated across US states and internationally was fantastic. That was from America into the UK, Mexico into America, and Korea into Australia. There were many different examples of recruitment and talent and search companies being able to come together to deliver an enhanced service to somebody’s client and how the client valued that. Some of the people I met were in a position where they didn’t have to say no to the level of roles they were working on because they always knew that they could partner with someone to meet the needs of their clients.

This whole idea of collaboration went to a completely new level for me. What was fascinating was when I came home, and that first week I was back, one of our clients reached out and said, “Sharon, we have a client. Our client has a sister company in the US that needs help. I can’t help them directly. Do we have anybody in Superfast Circle based in the US who could help?”

We’ve made that introduction. How amazing it was that it happened, and how coincidental it was with what I had just experienced. I just found that inspiring. If anybody wants to email me about that and wants more details about either the NPA Worldwide Network or The TEAM organisation, please email me or message me on LinkedIn. I am happy to make some introductions there.

There you have my five big key takeaways.

I hope that’s given you some food for thought. Hopefully, you’ll be checking out different pieces of software that can help you in multiple ways.

I probably will do a similar thing because I’m heading off shortly to the team conference in the UK. Before that, I’m heading out to Marbella for another NPA conference.

Lots more learning will be happening over the next month. I’ll be sharing more insights.

Until then, bye for now.

Thanks,

Sharon

The post 5 Key Learnings From The NPA Conference in Salt Lake City May 2024 appeared first on Superfast Recruitment.

Productivity and getting consistent results are incredibly topical at the moment. We are all looking at how we can achieve more in the current market, and who knew that setting ourselves some personal KPIs might work?

KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) have been around for a long time. The concept of KPIs dates back to the early 20th century when Frederick Taylor, a pioneer in scientific management, introduced the idea of using data and measurement to improve productivity and efficiency in industrial settings.

KPIs are a good thing.

There is a clue in the title that if you have some indicators of your performance that you want to measure that are critical to your business, you must have KPIs.

Any recruitment or search company that wants to do well needs KPIs in their business.

Depending on your market, it could be as a recruiter; how many jobs do we have on the board each month?

We were talking to one of our clients recently about this. How many of those jobs do we fill? Do we fill 100%? You’re an amazing recruiter if you do.

What else happens? Is it 50%, or is it 60%? What’s your ratio around that? These are considered key performance indicators for you and your business. It might be the number of candidate registrations you have, and we all have these elements that we monitor and measure.

Now, the thing is, key performance indicators for me on a personal level are all about inputs. What inputs could I measure for myself that will make a difference to this business?

Now, I have personal KPIs that I measure daily, weekly, and monthly. Do I always hit them? Not always, but a lot of the time, I do, and when we’re doing well, that’s normally when I’ve been very focused on my KPIs.

I was brought up on KPIs from the pharmaceutical industry. I had a KPI around my call rate.

I had to see so many GPs, hospital doctors, pharmacists, and people in the pharmaceutical industry daily. I love or hate that they knew their numbers from an input versus output ratio.

I knew that hitting my numbers would impact how much money I made and whether I hit my sales target; it wasn’t rocket science!

Sometimes, in today’s market, we forget that we need to measure our inputs. If you are having a rocky time or whatever’s happening for you in your market, it’s like going back to that process that you know works.

What input do I need to be doing daily to start filling this pipeline again?

For business owners and leaders, when you lead from the front and demonstrate that you have KPIs, too, it makes a huge difference to the team.

I will admit I get distracted very easily. I’m a writer, and I’ve got to sit down and do some writing, or I’m planning out a training session with Superfast Circle members; whatever it might be, I can occasionally start procrastinating; “Oh, let me just do this first, let me do that.”

However, I like to hit my goal when I write down my KPIs for the day, week, or month.

I’m the sort of person who likes to tick things off and know the benefits it will bring to commit and do what I said.

Think for yourself: how can I use this process to make a difference?

There is a well-known business leader and management consultant called Peter Drucker; you may have seen or read some of his books from the past. There is a famous quote by him that is so useful for business owners to remember for their teams AND critically for themselves.

Think about it; it’s one of those writer-downer moments!

If you think about it, okay, so if I start measuring what I’m doing, I’m going to manage it better, and obviously, I’m working things, and then it will begin to shift the needle.

A question to ask yourself as you set personal KPIs is, what is your desired outcome?

We work with several micro-businesses, and they want more clients, so it’s like, okay, so how many outreaches am I doing daily or weekly?

How many follow-up calls, and how many emails am I sending? The data will give us everything we need because getting more business is a numbers game.

We’ve worked with several of our clients on this recently who wanted to kick up what was happening for them and their business.

They went back to basics based on their key business driver; the more people they speak to, the more clients will say yes.

Their tasks were as follows: How many connection requests do I make (keeping on the right side of the LinkedIn police, of course)?

How many calls and conversations can I book?

How many pieces of content do I write? I have all of these in my list of KPIs, and I follow them. I know I am following a process that works when I follow them.

Start thinking about your KPIs. It can be as simple as how many private emails I send daily, how many people I reach out to on LinkedIn a day, how many candidates I want to register, or how many calls I make per day.

As you build this process, it will make a huge difference to you over time.

Thanks

Denise

As a member of Superfast Circle, we work with you to identify the key drivers for your business and how you can create more demand through your marketing if you want to know more, book a call with us here.

The post The Power of Setting Personal KPIs appeared first on Superfast Recruitment.

I hope you had an amazing Christmas and a happy New Year. We decided to take a week off from the podcast and had an amazing time in Scotland.

Some people like to know what we get up to, so we had a Christmas alone. The family was ticked off, not in that context, but ticked off before Christmas, and then we went up to Scotland.

Ironic that we’re talking about cold outreach and campaigns; I saw an ad on Facebook a few months ago. We’d discussed going away for a break between Christmas and New Year.

For various reasons, it hasn’t happened over the last few years, and then in August, this ad shot past me on Facebook, and I thought; this is exactly what I want- the power of targeting.”

Do you know that Facebook has fifty thousand pieces of data on you and me and what we like? They’d obviously found that Denise liked expensive hotels with at least a four-star rating in rural settings!

My behaviour highlighted what I wanted, and a company got their ‘cold’ offer in front of me, which is part of our topic today.

Let’s talk about client and candidate leads for your recruitment and search business this year.

The truth is you need both inbound and outbound strategies as a recruitment or search company; Any company that wants to grow must have multiple marketing strategies.

The world is a competitive and uncertain place for many business owners and you will have to do more than you have in the past to keep pace, especially if you want to grow as we move into a brand-new year.

Let’s clarify inbound versus outbound recruitment marketing. You’ll hear people talk about demand generation marketing inbound leads, and you’ll hear about cold outreach.

If you have not accessed our lead generation triad webinar, there is a link below. It’s an on-demand masterclass, and it explains why inbound and cold are two areas you need to consider.

[Important: Here is the link to our Lead Generation Masterclass. Access it Here.]

At the end of last year, we answered key questions that people ask us all the time about marketing their company.

Cold outreach comes up all the time. Everyone wants an easy way because most people don’t want to do it.

Why do they have to do it? Is there a magic pill or strategy they can use?

Unfortunately, there isn’t. However, getting your different recruitment marketing strategies working together will make a big difference for you.

Step one when it comes to lead generation is, what are you doing with the people that you have? Now, I think the last recording that I did, the previous podcast, talked about email marketing and re-engaging the people you already have on your database.

Now, you may be sitting on a database of leads that need a bit more nurture, so if you haven’t listened to that podcast, go and listen to it here.

Re-engaging contacts already on your database because, to be quite frank, it is a gold mine that many of you don’t tap into.

Now, when it comes to inbound leads, these people will have heard about you from a referral or seen your content online or in person.

[Key Fact: This is why content works.]

They will have had an experience with you before they start to work with you. They will often have an experience because you might have answered one of their questions, maybe online on social media. They’ll have seen some of the content that you are posting online. They might have seen a video, blog post, image, or case study.

The general theme here is they have had an experience with you, so their understanding and knowledge about who you are and what you can do for them has created an interest.

That interest means they will come to you, so they are inbound, not outbound.

This is one of the marketing premises that most people forget and don’t utilise as they can.

Particularly, recruiters who have a lot of experience don’t demonstrate or tell people about how good they are, and because they don’t tell people about how good they are, they don’t get a lot of inbound leads, or they don’t get people coming to them, and that is one of the many benefits of using content marketing as a lead gen strategy.

Now, the other recruitment marketing strategy to use this year is cold outreach.

Fact: Cold outreach works.

At some point in your business life, in your business growth, you have to reach out to people who don’t know you.

They will be your next clients and candidates because you cannot keep fishing in the same pond. With the best will in the world, we cannot keep our clients forever. You know, there are seasons. There are seasons in our life; there are seasons in our business.

Clients will come and go. Sometimes, a client might leave you; they might come back; however, you have to factor that in. That’s why you have to go out and get more business.

The great thing about cold outreach that is available to us now, that wasn’t always available for smaller organisations like us, e.g., micro-businesses and small SMEs, is that we can access data.

We can get access to lists of people that we can contact, and we can reach out to them in multiple ways.

Go to your LinkedIn account. Depending on your country and sector, you will have thousands of potential connections you can make.

If you don’t use Sales Navigator, a brilliant BD tool, or if you’re not using Boolean search from the amazing team at Tooled-Up Raccoons, then consider that next year because then you can be targeted, and of course, you can use paid advertising, too.

I shared the story about our hotel booking earlier, putting cold outreach into perspective.

The hotel in question got my attention as a cold prospect from an advert.

I then clicked through to their website. I read their content and offer and then read their reviews before picking up the phone.

I’m sharing this story for you to think about the company out there that is a real target client for you. You know that you can help them, so it’s your duty to get through all that uncomfortableness and reach out to them because you could be that person who can make a huge difference to their hiring process this year.

This year, add cold outreach that happens consistently to your marketing plan.

Come at it from the premise that I am here and am good at what I do. I need to be out there helping and serving people, so it’s down to me to make that connection request or that uncomfortable phone call.

Cold outreach, let it be your focus for 2024. You will be the boy or girl that nails cold this year, and what a difference that will make for you.

Thanks

Denise

There are multiple cold strategies and messages you could send; there are multiple pieces of software.

We share everything you need to know in our membership program, Superfast Circle. In fact, in November, we did an event about lead generation.

When you join us, we will give you access to all the recordings and the resources we provided.

To find out what you need to do next, book a quick call with us here.

The post Cold Versus Inbound Recruitment Marketing This Year appeared first on Superfast Recruitment.

How to differentiate yourself in a crowded Recruitment market is an interesting topic to cover in the current competitive market many of us inhabit.

There are several ways that you can do this or minimize the challenge of differentiation and start to stand out to candidates because the truth is differentiation is hard in a market that is so competitive.

The outcome of your service is similar; you match candidates with clients. Some of you are doing it better than others.

So, rather than traditionally differentiating yourself, you can focus on becoming distinctive so that you stand out from your competitors.

You do that by demonstrating you are someone who can help them because you know what you are doing; you are an expert.

Here is the thing: You can stand out as someone who can help people by actually helping them through the value and insights you have.

One of the things that I want to talk about when it comes to differentiation is that many good, experienced recruiters don’t communicate well when creating demand for their service. Fundamentally, they don’t share how good they are.

They don’t communicate all the things that are part of their service.

We feel very blessed here at Superfast Recruitment because we work with some amazing people. We tend to work with experienced recruiters who have an issue standing out in their market when they come to us.

So, what we have designed and developed as part of Superfast Circle, our marketing programme, is a specific process to help people stand out.

It is called the “edge.” I’m not going into all the details because it’s part of being a member of Superfast Circle, where we work with people to help them hone their edge.

What we do there is help people pull out all the unique things about them that they can share with people to put across the experience and results they will have when they work with them.

The next area to help with differentiation is specialization and niche because I know that people don’t have a niche in many markets.

For example, if you know that you have all the experience there is to know about the engineering sector, then, logically, a company will come to you rather than to Hays or Adecco where engineering is just part of something they do.

Make sure you highlight your knowledge and understanding by being a niche expert.

The thing is, when you’re a specialist in a market, then you can demonstrate the in-depth knowledge and understanding that your clients and the candidates want.

This leads to something else.

Something else is having a strong brand, marketing, and messaging that matches your market. Again, I will say that because there was a lot of alliteration there, you might have missed it.

Develop messaging that matches your market.

I’m talking about messaging that helps connect with your clients and candidates so they know you understand them.

Often, you’ll hear us talk about the fact that we work with very experienced recruiters. They’ve often been around for a long time. They tend to be micro and small.

All our messaging and everything we share on social media shout out that that is who we are. When they come to us, people know the type of individual we work with, which makes us quite distinctive.

I wonder if your messaging is bland and not helping you stand out.

As a recruitment marketer, I visit many recruiting websites, and most of the time, when I visit a site, it takes me quite a while to find out, “What sector are these people working in?”

So many people use that classic line that we provide recruitment solutions

Everyone provides recruitment solutions, but who do you provide them for, and how do you

Remember, when people first land on your website, they have three unconscious questions. We’ve shared this in other posts as well.

It’s about what you are communicating.

This is who we are, who we help, and how we can help you.

Of course, this is not only for your website. This is to be communicated in your emails. That place that I will be talking about next week is social media and your social media channels because often, remember, many of your prospective candidates and clients will be on social media.

They will be on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and other places. They will see you there, so you need to ensure that your brand communicates your key messages there as well.

What next? The next thing is candidate and client experience.

Many of you will hold your hand and say, “Yes, I know I do, Denise. I do need to work on my candidate experience. It’s not the best. I could get better at that.” That’s good.

However, some of you may not be working particularly well with the client experience you deliver either.

Are you offering additional support and help to your clients? Are you providing different assessment tools and different ways of working that will support their talent acquisition process?

There are so many different things that often recruiters aren’t doing in the way they could.

Remember those dark days a few years ago of COVID, when I suddenly thought it hit people that, “Hey, I’ve got all my eggs in one basket, and I’ve just lost several clients. Maybe I need to start looking at how I work with clients and having a better handle on how we work together and how I support them.”

I think that is one of the key things to help you stand out, and You can do this easily by sharing content.

Here’s a hot tip for you.

Sharing content on social media that people read gives them insights and value, leading to people questioning their actions.

And when they question what they’re doing, they wonder who will help them. The person who’s probably given them that insight is the person they will reach out to.

Make sure that you stand out to candidates because I think one of the key things about candidates, and for many of you as well, is that candidates become clients, and clients become candidates.

If you have a unique experience, people enjoy the experience. They talk to one another. Candidates will speak to one another. They will give you testimonials. They will give you shout-outs about how good you are. Do that, and you will stand out as being distinctive.

I was reading a post this morning on LinkedIn. It was a little bit self-promotable, but that was fine. This particular recruiter was talking about how she was in a car park in south England.

She was walking with this big box near another woman with a big box!

They’re both looking at one another and trying to determine how they will get these boxes in the car.

Then, suddenly, this individual on LinkedIn saw the woman in question that she was looking at and suddenly realized that she knew her.

This other woman came up to her and started talking to her. She thanked her because a recruiter met a candidate she had placed some time ago who lacked confidence.

This particular recruiter had helped her get a new job in a place where she’d always wanted to work.

You can imagine how the story goes on.

Now, I read these stories all the time. That story touched me, thinking, “How good is that?” I’m just wondering, how many stories have you got like this that you could share?

You share that, making you stand out in your market. It will differentiate you as a recruiter who works in a very different way.

The other thing I want to discuss is technology and using different technology you have, maybe additional software, but also communicating that you do that.

Many of you have very fancy CRM systems. You’ve got different ways to communicate with people. I know you use some of it for marketing, but do your clients and candidates realize you have access to technology that can help them now?

Everyone’s talking about AI now and matching candidates and everything else. For many of you, you’ve got these advanced CRM systems. You can make a difference for people. Do you communicate that?

You may say, “Well, clients and candidates aren’t interested in that, but hasn’t everyone got that?” No, they haven’t. Because if somebody’s interested in you, they are looking for more ticks.

The more ticks they see, the more they say, “Yes, this is the person we need to talk to.”

Think about investing in technology in the first instance, but also communicating to people that you do that.

I remember one of our clients at an event we ran a couple of years ago admitted he hadn’t been sharing a specialist service he provided for his clients.

Sharon was asking him questions, and it came out!

“Hang on a minute. What was that you just said?

Do you use this piece of assessment technology?” “Oh, yes, I do.”

The recruiter, who still works with us, admitted that he wasn’t on his website. He completely forgot to start adding that into what he did.

It was just something he did ordinarily, yet he wasn’t communicating that that’s what he did.

I’m wondering, for you guys, is there anything like that that you are not communicating?

Which leads me to the final one. That is talking about your customized recruitment solutions.

It may be that you can supply contractors. You can provide everything from the CEO to a team leader. You can supply everyone in that value chain for them once you start working with them.

Do you communicate that?

Do you communicate that you offer a retained service?

If they’re working on a very time-sensitive role or a key business-critical hire, do your clients appreciate you have another level of service?

Think about how you communicate that to your market.

Several things to reflect on as you want to stand out next year.

Thanks,

Denise

As a member of Superfast Circle, we help you in multiple ways, from working with you to develop your marketing plan to helping you hone and communicate your edge to the market (and yes, you do have one!), as well as providing the marketing collateral and community to help you create the demand you want.

Want to find out more? Then book a call here.

The post How To Differentiate Yourself In a Crowded Recruitment Market appeared first on Superfast Recruitment.