As a recruitment agency, sourcing high quality candidates is a tricky task in itself, not to mention the challenge of attracting and retaining the right clients in today’s competitive market.  

Throw in a lack of social media presence, sporadic marketing campaigns, poor site optimisation, and an over-reliance on traditional, interruptive marketing techniques, and things become even more challenging.  

This was exactly the situation our client found themselves in before they came to us for help with their recruitment marketing. They weren’t hitting their business goals, and their website traffic wasn’t as high as most of their competitors’ were.  

Basically, they needed a marketing plan for a recruitment agency that would boost candidate acquisition - and they needed it fast. 

Background 

Our client specialises in recruitment within the marketing, creative, and research industries. Since its conception in 2001, the company has continued to expand and thrive, and currently produces £700K in yearly revenue, with a particularly strong presence in the South of England. 

Over the past two decades, they’ve successfully placed hundreds of candidates into marketing agencies across the UK and Europe. Not only that, but they’ve also provided tailored recruitment solutions for businesses of all sizes, helping them to find the right talent for their team.  

The problem 

However, despite their success to date, our client was up against some pretty serious competition, and the pressure to outperform them was ever-increasing.  

Prior to working with Angelfish Marketing, they had limited help from other marketing agencies and freelancers, who had assisted them with some basic social media and the creation of their website.  

However, their current marketing plan was ineffective thanks to a combination of poor site optimisation, ineffective content campaigns, and irregular social media posting - and as a result, it was still holding them back quite significantly.  

Not only that, but the agency was also reliant on using traditional outbound marketing techniques such as cold calling, which was preventing them reaching their full potential.  

Their goals centred around acquiring more candidates, but their current methods needed to change in order to achieve this. So, they made the decision to hire Angelfish Marketing to help transform their marketing. 

The challenge, for us, was inheriting a weak marketing programme and a content-deprived website; it was essentially a blank canvas. As well as this, the recruitment company had a limited budget, meaning that we needed to be as resourceful and effective as possible. 

However, here at Angelfish, there’s nothing we love more than a good challenge…  

The solution 

We wasted no time in producing our marketing plan. This is something we do for all our inbound marketing clients to give both parties a clear understanding of their marketing goals, and how we intend to achieve them. 

We held a series of workshops with the client, from which we created detailed buyer personas, analytical competitor reviews, an in-depth content strategy, and achievable goals. 

As a part of our work, we: 

• Wrote and published 2 blog posts per month, using a topic cluster model 
• Wrote and published 3 eBooks and downloadable guides 
• Created between 1-5 emails per month, including a mix of both candidate- and client-focused emails
• Posted content regularly across all social media channels, including their consultants’ personal accounts 
• Ran successful social media ads, specifically on Facebook and LinkedIn
• Optimised their website for search using the relevant keywords identified in our research
• Carried out technical SEO reports to improve and fix website error

The results 

We were pretty proud of this one! We measured the results of our inbound marketing methods using HubSpot and Google Analytics, and after just 9 months, we saw: 

• A 441% increase in website traffic  

• 188 new speculative candidates and CVs via the website, representing a 100% increase 

• 130 candidate conversions generated by our series of eBooks and offers 

• 76% of website applications were coming from organic search traffic 

All of this resulted in the client’s website outperforming 9 of 13 core job boards for applications  

The results in more detail... 

Traffic analytics 

Before enlisting the help of Angelfish, our client’s website was showing traffic of 793 website sessions. However, after implementing our specialist recruitment marketing plan, it hit its peak at 4,295 sessions less than a year later.  

Organic traffic results 

The month before our inbound campaign started, the site was registering at 484 organic sessions. By month nine, though, the website had 756 organic sessions representing a 56% increase in traffic to the website - which meant that 75% of job applications via our client’s website were now coming from organic traffic. 

This increase in organic traffic was due to our on-page SEO, technical SEO, and content marketing programme, which led to a significant rise in search visibility within the identified set of keywords.  

In fact, prior to working with us, our client was ranking for just six of these keywords. Now, they rank for over 80, including new targeted keywords. 

Search visibility 

Social media results 

The month before our inbound campaign started, the site was registering 7 sessions from social media. By month nine, the website had 1,905 sessions representing a truly astounding 27,114% increase in traffic to the website! 

PPC results 

Before our recruitment marketing plan was implemented, our client didn’t have any PPC campaigns in place. However, after applying our ad strategy, they received 188 candidate conversions at an 11% conversion rate and a cost-per-lead of just £9.80: 

Job applications 

Once we started generating these new leads, we started to focus attention on converting them from candidates to applications. 

Prior to engagement, no tracking was in place for job applications on the website; it was the poorest performing route to job applications compared to other job boards that were in use. 

However, we’re super happy to report that following our work, 206 applications were tracked with 2.44% of site visitors converting to a job application within the first 5 months of tracking implementation: 

Once we implemented our marketing plan for the recruitment agency, which included an effective inbound strategy, our client began to see really positive results - from a large increase in website traffic, to more CV applications.  

Ready to embrace the power of inbound? 

Inbound and digital marketing is the future for the recruitment industry and will help any agency to get ahead of the competition in a fiercely competitive marketplace.   

So, if you’d like to find out more about our services, including how we can help you, click here to request a free digital marketing report and a one-hour consultation with a member of our expert team.  

Your report will review your website’s: 

• Links and authority 
• Technical fix recommendations 
• Search rankings 
• Local listings 
• On-site SEO 
• Social channels 

So, if you want to stand out from the crowd, cut through the noise, attract high-quality candidates, and build lasting relationships with your clients - well, you’ve come to the right place! 

Simply click here to request your free report and learn more about how effective, results-focussed digital marketing can increase your leads and help you reach your recruitment goals.