Eight Killer Marketing Ideas for Your Recruitment Agency in 2024

Last updated: May 24, 2024

Marketing your agency in an industry as crowded as recruitment can be a huge challenge. Good recruiters know how to hustle so standing out by working hard will only get you so far. Committing yourself to content marketing will get you a leg up on some of your competitors but it will remain difficult to get ahead if you are using the same tactics as everyone else. You can hire a recruitment marketing agency (like us!) but we recognize that it’s not in the budget for some.

What you want to do is separate yourself from the field. In other words, you need to think about what recruitment marketing tips you can implement that nobody else is already trying in order to stand out in a crowded market.

With that in mind, here are eight legitimately killer digital marketing ideas that will help your recruitment or staffing agency get noticed in 2024 (plus a bonus one in our PDF version of the guide to help round out your marketing plan).

1. Just in time marketing

In the manufacturing world, there is a concept called just in time inventory. It refers to the strategy of receiving goods that are part of your production process just as they are needed, thereby reducing inventory costs.

Much like manufacturing, finding a position to fill as a recruiter is often about timing. You can pitch a prospective client until you are blue in the face but if they don’t have an open role, they’re not going to hire you. Many recruiters try to work around this problem by scouring job boards looking for new openings but that’s a pretty inefficient process.

What if I told you that there was a better way?

Here’s what you need to do.

1. Collect the Indeed pages for your target businesses.

Almost every business worth targeting can be found on Indeed.

Go to indeed.com and enter your target company name in the “what” field.

Click the Find Jobs button to view the list of open jobs.

When you arrive on the jobs page, look at the left sidebar and make sure to a) sort by “date” and b) add any parameters (location, job type, experience level) you think will be important in narrowing down the list of jobs to those that you would like to try and fill.

Recruitment Marketing Tip: If your list of target businesses includes large companies that might be mentioned in other companies job listings (for example, a company that implements Microsoft software would likely mention Microsoft in their job listing), make sure to also select the company name from the list of parameters in the left sidebar under the heading Company.

If you want to only see jobs offered by Dell and not all jobs that mention Dell, you’d want to select Dell from this list.

After you’ve selected the appropriate parameters, copy the URL that you’ve created and paste it into your spreadsheet.

This would be a reasonable starting point for a tech recruiter hiring in Seattle and LA.

2. Build an automated job checking tool

If you go to Upwork and search for “automation”, you’ll find hundreds of developers who can help you with this next step.

You will need to build a tool that will check your list of target URLs for a new job and add them to an online spreadsheet like Google Sheets.

Recruitment Marketing Tip: Make sure that the tool checks the pages frequently enough that your list of newly posted jobs is timely but not so frequently that you get banned from Indeed for scraping their data. Once per day is probably a good balance.

3. Gather the right email addresses

Now that you have a list of recently posted jobs, it’s time to get in touch with the hiring manager and make your pitch. But how do you do that without the right contact info? That’s where virtual assistants come in.

Go back to Upwork and find yourself a virtual assistant. Once you hire someone reliable, you can pay them to go through the list of new jobs on a daily basis and find the email address for the appropriate hiring manager. Instruct your virtual assistant to utilize an email finder tool to gather the necessary contact information efficiently.

Recruitment Marketing Tip: Given the difficulty of finding the exact person who is hiring for a job, it will often be a better idea to find a bunch of people who might be the hiring manager and email each one. Even if none of the people on your list is the correct person, you’ll often find that someone will reply and want to help you get in touch with the right person.

4. Make your pitch

At this point, you have a company with an open role and the contact info for the person in charge of hiring. All that is left is making your pitch.

To reach out, make sure you use a marketing platform that will allow you to seamlessly insert the job title, a relevant competitor you’ve worked with and a mini case study into your pitch email so that it looks like it is coming from a real person rather than an automated solution.

Ummm… this sounds complicated

There’s definitely some complexity to implementing this idea properly so if you think it’s a bit over your head, check our done-for-you email marketing program and then book a call to learn more. On the call, we’ll walk you through the program in detail and provide pricing for our automated tool that takes care of every step in this process.

2. Fix your recruitment agency’s branding by niching way down

Any small recruitment agency who has given even a moment’s thought to their branding knows that you can’t be everything to everyone. While a large firm can have a set of practice areas that looks like this, it is not credible for your two person company to claim that you can fill every job under the sun.

Now, as I said at the start, you probably already know this, which is why you’ve niched down to something a bit more manageable.

You may have decided that since you are good at filling technical roles, you would call yourself an IT staffing agency. Or perhaps you have a Bachelor of Science degree so you decided that life sciences would be an appropriate niche for your recruiting firm.

Here’s why that is probably not good enough.

Let’s say that you’re running that IT staffing agency with yourself and a partner. You do the usual lead gen tactics and present yourself to your clients as the most knowledgeable IT staffing agency on the market.

Not gonna work! You have an immediate credibility problem as you are too small to make that claim.

You make a quick pivot and decide to call yourself a boutique IT staffing agency and market your personalized touch.

I doubt that’s going to go over much better. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of small recruiting firms making the exact same claim so you are not going to stand out.

But what if you could go a lot more niche? What might that look like?

As an example, let’s say you brand your recruiting agency as the leading Python experts and only fill Python jobs.

The benefits are numerous.

1. You are immediately going to be taken more seriously by clients since you are making a believable claim.
2. As you work exclusively on Python roles, you will learn the ins and outs of the roles that most recruiters can never understand, especially for technical roles.
3. You will build yourself a network of candidates that you can actually get to know and who will trust you to help them with their own job search.
4. You will rank on Google for searches like “python recruiter” with a lot less effort than is required for “IT recruiter”.

The upside is huge and if you’re running a small recruiting firm, you may want to re-think your branding using this philosophy as soon as possible.

3. Next-level content marketing

If I have to read one more 300 word blog post called “10 Buzzwords You Should Delete from Your LinkedIn Profile” or “DON’T Overlook The Importance of Soft Skills”, I’m going to puke.

Why? Because they are pointless. Your blog post touches on whatever issue you are discussing at such a surface level that it has no value to anyone. Even if you disagree with that assertion, you cannot disagree that there are probably thousands of other blog posts that have already been written on the exact same topic. There is no point in re-hashing the subject.

So what can you do instead? You can create what I call next-level content marketing. Next-level content marketing consists of content that is so good that there is simply no way it will not be widely shared among your target audience.

Here are three ways to get this done.

A. Dig deep

When we published 130+ Recruiting Software Tools, which took over 50 hours to research, write and edit, we made sure to include a comprehensive overview of every tool that the modern recruiter needs and a custom-coded filter to assist the reader in finding precisely what they’re looking for.

This post took a ton of time to compile but you know what? The post drove thousands of new visitors to the blog (some of which we hope will turn into customers down the road) and got us many new links back to the site, which will help improve our search engine rankings. There is no question that this was a productive use of our time.

So if you’re not a recruitment marketing agency, how can you do something similar?

Brainstorm areas where you think you can add the most value to your clients and candidates and do not be afraid to dig deep into the topic.

This means putting in the necessary time to do the following:

• research your topic comprehensively (this may take you 10 hours or more!),
• find a writer/editor to help distill your ideas into the most engaging text possible,
• hire a designer to create images that will enhance your content,
• engage a developer if you need custom functionality that your blog software doesn’t support out-of-the-box.

Even if it takes you 40+ hours, if you create an awesome post and promote it effectively (a topic for another time), you will see a return on your investment.

Recruitment Marketing Tip: It is much more valuable to write a single awesome article that attracts likes and shares on social media, and links from other sites than 20 posts that nobody ever reads since they offer nothing of value.

B. Get interactive

As I said before, the same old rehashed blog posts are boring and nobody wants to read them. Instead, think about how you can create an interactive tool that both looks great and provides immense value to your reader.

The number of possible tools a developer could build for you is only limited by your imagination but if you’ve never thought about doing this before, it can be tough to know where to get started.

Let’s look at one existing idea and think about how we can build off of it with something that is feasible for a recruiting company.

The NY Times creates amazing interactive maps on a regular basis. Here is one called “Where Are The Hardest Places to Live in the US?” that visually illustrates the most difficult counties in which to live in the US.

Notice how it looks great and provides the reader with tons of interesting information.

If you wanted to try something similar, here’s what you could do:

Hire a polling company to survey employers in your state (or region if you’re not in the US) about topics that are relevant to your target audience. Take the data and turn it into an interactive county-level map. Simplemaps is a site that already has the basic code for these types of maps completed.

Here’s what one from NY state looks like.

If you execute this idea properly, you will attract attention from people in your target audience and get coverage from local press for providing an original story, helping build brand awareness and improve search engine rankings (when the press links to your story).

Without question, producing this type of content will take time but if you do it right, you can be certain it will be worth it.

C. Use the Skyscraper Technique

If you can’t find the imaginative spark you need to get started on any big projects, you can simply use other people’s work as your starting point with what is called the Skyscraper Technique.

This technique, which is covered in great detail in The Recruiter’s Guide to Online Marketing, shows you how to find content that other people have created that has been widely shared (on blogs and social media), and then turn that content into something far better and more valuable for your audience. By starting with something you know people liked before, you are more likely to produce something that has a broad appeal.

4. Reddit ads

Most ad markets, such as Google AdWords and LinkedIn, are incredibly saturated, which means that most staffing/recruitment advertising ideas you can think of are expensive and tough to justify on a small budget. However, there is one area where you can still find very cheap advertising – Reddit.

For those who don’t know, Reddit is a site that allows people with similar interests to share and view links on a “site within a site” called a subreddit. For example, people who like “things that make you go AWW!” (think puppies and kittens) tend to frequent the r/aww subreddit. Many of these subreddits have tens of thousands of daily users and will accept ads at reasonable prices.

If you want to learn more, head over to Reddit’s advertising page and walk through their simple advertising setup.

When you get to page 2, you’ll want to focus the majority of your attention on the targeting section. While interests and collections are reasonable targeting options, I’d recommend targeting the specific subreddits where you know the people you’re looking for are hanging out.

For example, if you’re desperate to find a developer for a hard-to-fill role, you can enter “programming” and your ad will be displayed in the r/programming subreddit and reach over 700,000 readers.

5. Free online software as lead gen

This one is definitely going to be the trickiest staffing/recruitment marketing tip to pull off but if you can do it successfully, you could have new leads pouring into your business.

The best way to attract new customers is to offer them immense value upfront. A company who does this very well is Hubpsot. They have a tool called Website Grader that lets you enter your website URL to see how well it scores on a number of metrics such as speed, SEO, mobile-readiness and security.

Every time someone uses the tool, Hubspot gets two huge benefits.

1. You provide them with your e-mail address, allowing them to begin an e-mail campaign to win your business.

2. They have the opportunity to demonstrate value to you. By offering value early in the sales cycle, they dramatically increase the odds that you will choose them for your sales and digital marketing efforts down the road.

A recruiting firm that doesn’t operate in the online space like Hubspot may have a more difficult time creating an online tool. However, just because it is hard doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.

One idea that comes to mind would be a resume grader that allows candidates to upload their resumes and receive instant feedback based on an algorithm that you create that reviews the resume and recognizes common problems. In this case, there would be multiple benefits. You build a database of potential candidates and the candidate gets instant feedback on their resume. Furthermore, potential clients will see a tool like this and understand how dedicated you are to sourcing the best candidates, improving their overall view of your business.

LiveCareer, a resume building site, offers this type of tool so clearly it is something that can be done.

Another idea would be to create a similar tool but for analyzing job postings. A quick Google search shows no results for this type of tool so if you want to commit some resources, you could be first to market and you would have no trouble at all promoting yourself widely throughout the recruiting industry.

6. Create interactive educational content

A 2023 study from Search Engine Journal found that more than half (54%) of B2B professionals watch a webinar on a weekly basis. This aligns with findings from a GoToWebinar report which show that webinars are the most effective B2B lead generation approach, with 70% of marketers viewing them as a productive lead generation strategy.

Similar to the software and next-level content marketing discussed earlier, interactive educational content captures the attention of potential clients because it provides them with tangible value at the same time it establishes your firm as an authority.

The direct interaction in a webinar is its main advantage over things like online tools or blog posts. Attendees can ask questions and be more actively engaged with the speaker. At the same time, you get to show a bit of your personality and communication style, which can help to establish a more personal relationship and, in doing so, win a client’s business.

Hosting in-person seminars, either as stand-alone events or at industry conferences, can accomplish this, too. Online versions have some distinct advantages, though. For one thing, they have a much wider potential reach. They also have a longer shelf life because you can keep a recording on your website to keep attracting customers even after the live event is over.

There are other types of interactive online content that fall in a similar category. These include masterclasses, panel discussions, workshops, and online courses. Like with webinars, you can do the live version one time, then post recordings for future visitors to the site to download and learn from, extending their value beyond the day of.

Successful webinars, and similar interactive content, share a few key traits:

• They have a defined, specific topic and keep the focus on that point throughout the webinar
• They address the interests and pain points of your target audience
• They provide insider information, unique research, or personalized advice that the audience can’t get elsewhere
• They last around 60-90 minutes–long enough to do a deep dive into the chosen topic, but not so long that you lose your audience’s attention

Now, to generate leads from a webinar, you need people to attend it, and that means effectively marketing and publicizing it. That might seem like a contradiction–after all, this is supposed to be the marketing tool, not add marketing responsibilities to your plate.

The thing is, for many recruiters, the issue isn’t that they lack potential leads. The challenge is converting those leads into paying customers, and that is where interactive content is especially effective.

It’s much easier to get someone to commit to a free 1-2 hour online event than to convince them to sign with your recruiting firm as a client. And, once they’ve learned something by attending your webinar and seen your expertise in action, they’ll be more likely to trust your capability to recruit the right people for their roles.

Choosing the right topic for a webinar, workshop, or masterclass is often the biggest hurdle to implementing this approach effectively. My advice is going to be one many recruiters won’t want to hear: you’ll get the most buy-in by spilling your secrets.

I know what you’re thinking: if I explain how I recruit to potential clients, won’t they just do it themselves instead of hiring me?

And yes, some of them might. For the most part, though, the issue isn’t that companies don’t know how to find and hire employees. More often, it’s that they don’t have the time, reach, and resources to do it as well as you do.

Just sharing the tricks of your trade won’t get potential clients the whole way there. They still won’t have access to your networks, or the relationships with candidates you’ve put time into building.

In fact, by showing part of your recruiting strategy in depth, that can convince more people that they need your services because many of the people watching will recognize they simply don’t have the time or skills to replicate your process.

7. Be your industry’s news source

One of the many knocks on recruiters is that they don’t have the specialized knowledge that is required to identify the top talent in their industry.

For example, a tech recruiter who is not a programmer could be accused of not being able to separate the all-star developers from the rest of the pack.

What if I told you there was a way to rebut this argument before you even spoke to your potential client and market your business at the same time?

Does it sound too good to be true? It’s not!

Here’s what you need to do.

Let’s say you’re an automotive recruiter. Your clients are immersed in the world of cars and trucks on a daily basis and likely read publications like Automotive News and Auto123.

So you might think that they know everything there is to know about the latest industry gossip. But you would be wrong.

Why? Because in 2023, every industry is moving so quickly that it’s impossible to stay up to date on the latest news, even when you live and breathe your job.

And this gives you your dead simple digital marketing and credibility-building opportunity.

Here’s the plan.

1. Create a set of Google News Alerts about relevant topics in your industry.

Here is an alert for electric cars

2. At the end of each week, go through your alerts and pick the most interesting article of the week.

This seems like it could be a game-changer for the auto industry

3. Pull out an interesting quote from the article.

This quote sums up the topic quite nicely

4. Take the image from the article, the headline, the quote and a link to the article and put it all together in a newsletter and a separate news page on your website.

And you now have a newsletter with 10 minutes of work

5. Send it out on a weekly basis to your leads and existing clients.

See what we did here? With just a small amount of effort each week, you’ve managed to create an ongoing marketing campaign to your marketing plan that gets eyeballs on your brand each week while simultaneously building your credibility as an industry expert.

It seems almost too good to be true but if you do it right, there’s no reason you can’t dramatically increase your authority while marketing your business.

8. Get involved in your local community

I’ll start with the caveat that this tip won’t necessarily apply to all recruiting firms. If you have a national or international focus, getting involved with local events likely isn’t the best use of your time and energy.

However, many smaller recruiting agencies do have a defined geographic region where they devote most of their attention. For these firms, the ability to go hyper-local can give you a competitive edge over larger companies that don’t have the same expertise and knowledge about the job market in your specific region.

The first step to this approach is to identify the events or places that your ideal clients are likely to be. For example, if you’re an IT recruiter, you can look up nearby tech trade fairs or events like codeathons that are hosted by universities or professional organizations in your city.

Essentially, you’re looking for the programs that your target companies will likely already know about. If your clients would look at an event as a potential opportunity to connect with customers or talent, it’s likely an ideal place for you to do the same thing.

Once you identify these programs, figure out the best way to get involved. This could mean signing on as a sponsor, contributing to the program with a workshop or panel, or organizing a team of volunteers to help at the event, just to name some ideas.

The best options will be ones that get your company name in front of all or most attendees. For instance, conferences and trade fairs often give “swag bags” to attendees that include branded items from sponsors. Getting something of yours into that bag means that every attendee will take home an item with your name on it, expanding your reach beyond the people you talk to at the event.

Volunteer and philanthropic events have an extra advantage in that they help your firm build goodwill. Potential clients will see you as someone who gives back to the community, giving them a positive impression of you before they even check out your services.

Want to chime in?

Do you have any great new content tips that you want to talk about in more depth? Add your comment below and let’s discuss.

If you want to find recruitment tips to find your next candidates, we’ve got the right post for you here.

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