1. The challenge of marketing in today’s
recruitment sector
A BlueSky PR Think Tank Report

2. INTRODUCTION
The recruitment sector is evolving. Employers have a choice of more routes to market
than ever before and so adding value – and being able to demonstrate that value - has
become business critical. But how can a recruitment company truly differentiate itself –
and is there really any such thing as a true USP?
The findings presented here are the results of a think tank which brought together a
number of senior managers and directors responsible for marketing to discuss whether
a USP can ever really exist and what the real challenges are for today’s marketers.
The Delegates:
 Beatriz Bailey – Marketing Manager – Huntress
 Jodie Finn - Associate Director - Venn
 Justin Firth – Marketing Manager – Just IT
 Nicola Gray – PR & Marketing Manager – Healy Hunt
 Simon Lythgoe- Former Head of Marketing - Cielo
 Alan McBride – Managing Director – Camino Partners
 Roger Tweedy – Head of Communications – APSCo
 Emily Varns – Marketing Manager – Aquent/VitaminT
 Robert Woodford – Marketing Consultant to the recruitment sector
The Facilitator:
 Tracey Barrett – Managing Director – BlueSky PR
The Key Themes
 In a marketplace where ostensibly we all do the same thing how do we begin to define what
really differentiates us?
 How is marketing really perceived in the recruitment sector?
 How can marketing departments demonstrate ROI?
 How are we managing the myriad of different routes to market – routes that simply didn’t
exist a decade ago?

3. Recruitment is a process – so what’s unique?
“I can be in one of our offices listening to marketing calls and even
within that office consultants will describe what we do – and what
we offer - in numerous different ways.”
All the delegates agreed that recruitment is a process and consequently there is very
little within that process that is actually unique. In reality, most recruitment websites
refer to USPs that simply aren’t unique, but rather say the same as everyone else
repackaged in a slightly different way. Perhaps then, it’s time we all stop talking about
USPs and begin to talk more about how the way we go about our business actually adds
value to our customers – because in essence – that’s all that really matters.
It is clear then that it is engagement, rather than selling which is key. One firm explained
how it uses sponsorships and events as ‘conversation starters’ and a way to engage with
clients and candidates to let them know about added value services on a one to one basis
rather than ‘pushing’ sales messages and that works well. Another delegate gave
examples of two firms that were really ‘stand out’ in terms of commanding their market
and adding value through engagement: Oasis HR a company which has built up a
network though its HR Think Tanks. Because the company is now in the middle of a hub
of senior HR professionals, recruitment happens! Differentiation comes about by the
value you add rather than the process you go through.
But how do you define what value you add – and what if your consultants are all saying
different things? The internal communications piece is crucial here in ensuring that
brand messages are both consistent – and appropriate. As one delegate pointed out: “I
can be in one of our offices listening to marketing calls and even within that office
consultants will describe what we do – and what we offer - in numerous different ways.”
However on the flip side of that, recruitment firms with a number of different regional
offices may well have to develop different brand messages. “A client in Birmingham will
look for a very different type of firm than one in the City – it’s a matter of setting the
guidelines – but not going so far as to dilute the value of the local brand”, explained one
of the attendees.
The recruitment and appraisal process should also reflect the brand values - it has to be
inward facing because if the messages are consistent then your value-add USP begins to
live rather than being something that’s just stated on a website.
Trust honesty and transparency, for example, are words that appear on many recruiters’
websites but the key is how they are demonstrated. One of our delegates shared their
strategy of asking every customer what was important to them from their recruitment
consultancy – and whether it was being delivered. The results were going to be
measured and published – including the negative comments. In fact there was general
agreement around the table that publishing a few complaints on a website – together
with the action taken to remedy it would say much more about the brand than all the
glowing testimonials.

4. What’s the business plan?
“Often I was trying to build a marketing strategy around the gut feel
of the MD as to the general direction in which the company was
going – it’s pretty difficult to build a marketing strategy without the
context.”
And it seems this can be rolled back even further. One marketing professional described
how with every marketing role he has had in recruitment, he has been asked to spend
the first week getting to grips with the business and the people and then to start work
on the marketing strategy. As he became more senior he started to ask whether he could
see the business strategy first – so that the marketing strategy could be aligned with the
business objectives. He has lost count of the number of times that a formal business
strategy didn’t exist. “Often I was trying to build a marketing strategy around the gut feel
of the MD as to the general direction in which the company was going – it’s pretty
difficult to build a marketing strategy without the context.”
The perception of marketing vs sales
One delegate felt that this was more about how marketing is perceived within an
organisation. Recruitment firms are sales driven and marketing has historically been
seen as an expense rather than as an investment. It seems though that this perception is
changing. Digital campaigns and the ability to measure metrics around reach and
engagement mean that return on investment is becoming easier to demonstrate – and
because marketing is becoming more technical, CEOs and MDs feel as though they need
to have an expert on board. As an example, a digital campaign for Blue Arrow’s catering
division was cited. While the firm was well known at the more junior end of the sector,
there was a need to engage with senior chefs. A campaign was created that comprised a
complete content plan including blogs and editorial comment as well as a Chef of the
Year award. This achieved a 40% uplift in engagement levels with senior chefs.
So targeting is key with content and brand messaging because if you blanket everyone
with the same thing then it simply has an adverse effect on your brand. It needs to look
considered – and also needs to provide a warm opportunity to pick up the phone.
Company brand or personal brand?
One question that sparked much debate was whether an employer or candidate engages
with a brand – or with a consultant. The general consensus was that it was both, but that
in itself can create challenges. Today’s consultants have huge personal branding tools at
their disposal and while a recruitment firm may want their customers to engage with
the corporate brand, a big biller with an equally big ego may well get in the way of that.
It then becomes about connecting that person – and their content – to the company
brand – arguably much easier today because of social media.

5. But what if the big biller only wants to promote their own personal brand – is a CEO
going to let that person – and that revenue go? This is obviously more a question of
culture and authority and that has to filter from the top down. While one delegate said
that they had never seen a top biller fired, another pointed out that in their organisation
it is dangerous for big billers to think that they are bigger than the company and that on
occasion they have let people go because of it. But is the answer engagement – and
nurturing - rather than firing? There was a feeling from some around the table that if
those personal brands are made to feel part of the corporate brand by asking for their
opinion and input, then there was a bigger likelihood of getting their buy in. However,
there were some that felt that as recruitment will always be sales led, there is a danger
that by empowering these personal brands, their egos will just be fuelled further.
“When I joined the company, we were making most of our
placements from Accountancy Age – which was strange given that
we hadn’t advertised with them for the past two years – it was
simply the first option on the drop down menu!”
The ROI of marketing
While metrics are becoming more important and many around the table felt it was
easier to demonstrate success factors around likes, shares, and engagement, there was
still a big challenge in terms of equating marketing and revenue. As one delegate said:
“As soon as a candidate lead hits the sales team it becomes their lead! Another shared
the story of a consultant who had earned a £17k fee from a client who had called in ‘out
of the blue’. Upon further investigation it appeared that the new client had visited the
website – and that the website traffic had come from Twitter!
Clearly then there is a need for a really robust measurement system for marketing
activity – but this obviously has to rely on the consultant accurately reporting the source
of candidates and clients. There were numerous stories from around the table of how
this just never happens. “When I joined the company, we were making most of our
placements from Accountancy Age – which was strange given that we hadn’t advertised
with them for the past two years – it was simply the first option on the drop down
menu!” Another said that the vast majority of their candidates were sourced though
‘headhunting’ – and yet there was an outcry when it was suggested that if this was true
then all job board advertising would be cut!
So while there are obvious improvements to be made in terms of measuring the revenue
gained from marketing efforts there are also more long term metrics that are harder to
measure such as the candidate and client experience – and whether that engenders
brand loyalty. A passive candidate for example is exactly that – they are unlikely to apply
for a job and are more interested in content which means a longer term engagement
strategy.

6. And what of the wider candidate experience? Response to candidates that aren’t the
right quality was a big issue. One delegate shared with us the example of a US RPO that
employed a candidate care team purely to deal with candidates who were rejected.
That’s a huge commitment, but showed how serious they were about the candidate
experience. While the consensus around the table was that it was very high touch there
was agreement that if you consider big brands like Virgin, they start from that high
touch customer experience – and that’s how big brands are made. While the investment
would be high – and in all likelihood vetoed by CEOs of what are very sales led
organisations – this could be a big differentiator in term of engaging with and building
up future talent pools.
The rise and rise of social media
Social media has enabled engagement to a level which would have been impossible a few
years ago and recruiters can have real conversations and so, rather than having a USP
proposition, you can create that conversation to bring real personality to a brand.
However, some delegates admitted that they do far more telling than asking and use
social media as push platforms rather than engagement channels. This was mainly due
to limited resources as there was an acknowledgement that to utilise social media to its
full advantage is a labour intensive exercise.
Listening was seen as an important facet of social media engagement and being able to
deal with complaints or concerns was highlighted as a real advantage – particularly on
Twitter. It reminds stakeholders that there are real people behind the brand and that
there is a human side. Dealing with complaints well gets real goodwill and one of the
delegates cited Domino Pizza as a brand that does this really well. If your pizza is
delivered more than ten minutes late then you get it free and apparently in many cases,
new customers get theirs delivered 11 minutes late on purpose. Domino then recruits a
real brand advocate and a customer for life.
Identify the Audience
There are still a lot of recruiters who will disseminate the same information to all
channels through a tool such as Hootsuite or Buffer when in fact it is obviously better to
target effectively. This appears to be particular prevalent on Google+ which, at least for
our delegates, doesn’t seem to have really taken off. It was felt that this was mainly due
to the fact that it is never anyone’s first choice of channel and so it just doesn’t get the
same momentum. There are the obvious SEO benefits, but it does seem that the
developers at Google have left the platform to lay fallow – we shall see.
The key theme that came out of the discussion was that recruiters who try and do all the
platforms will not do them all well and the crucial thing is to pick the ones where you
know your clients and candidates are. While this seems obvious there are still many
recruiters who suffer from a culture of presenteeism across as many platforms as
possible.

7. “The answer I get from some consultants is that we are targeted on
phone times – not tweets. You need to focus on the teams where
you do have buy in and pick your battles – that’s how you’ll build it
up.”
Facebook was seen as a good ‘social face of the company’ platform to both give some
personality and also to use as an employer of choice channel. One delegate shared that at
one of her previous employers Facebook was used purely as an internal
communications website and achieved huge engagement. Experiences were mixed,
however, with another delegate outlining how consultants were very reluctant to like
and share content on a company Facebook page from their personal Facebook accounts.
Engaging the staff
This reluctance to like and share also seems to extend to LinkedIn although the
consensus around the table was that this was more inertia than reluctance. Delegates
voiced frustration that when creating content designed to promote consultants’ business
areas or divisions, the consultant was often not ‘doing their bit’ to make it work.
So while the brand is important, it’s the person that needs to be the engagement tool.
Some delegates try to solve this problem by having brand ambassadors in the business
who can lead by example. As one delegate said: “The answer I get from some consultants
is that we are targeted on phone times – not tweets. You need to focus on the teams
where you do have buy in and pick your battles – that’s how you’ll build it up.”
Conclusions
The over-riding conclusion was that there is really no such thing as a USP – it’s about
engagement and experience – and the way in which you conduct your business because
the recruitment process is just that – a process.
The communication of consistent messages was seen as a massive challenge – especially
when the firm is a multi-branch operation with a real variety of regional and sector
based client and candidate needs.
Ensuring that the brand is more important than the individuals within it will remain a
key struggle – especially for smaller firms and unless that brand message comes from
the top so that the culture and values are driven by the brand, it is unlikely to be a
struggle that will be won.
The accurate measurement of what value the marketing department generates in terms of
revenue, brand loyalty and brand advocacy continues to evade many of us. This has to include
building brand identity, keeping your competition out of the spotlight and cultivating useful
relationships for the company – and that’s not always just a set of numbers to be crunched.
However, while recruitment remains a sales led sector, that’s unlikely to change any time soon.