It takes a lot to stand out from the rest with your staffing agency marketing. It takes initiative, drive, creativity, and, most importantly, perceived authority. Those who are successful at standing out are known as thought leaders.

One of the challenges that exist with staffing agency marketing is that staffing and recruiting agencies exist to serve two masters: the hiring manager of the firm they are filling the job order for and, of course, the candidate. When developing an inbound marketing strategy or content marketing program designed to generate new business for a staffing agency, it’s important to keep these two distinct target personas in mind with everything you do.

In an incredibly competitive industry, staffing firms are constantly vying to distinguish themselves from the competition. You need to not only offer value to your clients, but also provide superb customer service and long term results.

Generating more long-term and successful job placements for your clients will affirm your company as an industry leader and solidify your agency as their number one choice. Here are five ways staffing firms can generate more job placements and make their clients happy.

The Time May be Right to Move (Way, Way, Way) Beyond Telemarketing and Cold Calling

Traditionally, when the term “account based marketing” was being discussed as a new business tactic by staffing agencies, it referred to cold calling or telemarketing to 50 or a hundred companies that the agency wanted as customers because the prospect fit a profile that ranged from size to the types of staff that they might use.

If you happen to be at the right place at the right time when that ideal prospect has a need you can fill, then this can be a pretty effective tactic.

But it’s “old school.”

It requires you to pound the phones or flood the prospect with emails or mailed sales collateral, and frankly, it’s not a particularly customer friendly way to build a long term relationship. 

Today, account based marketing is built on new approaches, thinking, and technology that are designed to build friendly, long term relationships that produce a win-win for both the staffing agency and the customer.

Applying Insights from the 2016-17 Marketing & Sales Survey of Recruiting & Staffing Firms

Knowing what clients are looking for from a staffing or recruiting firm, and having insights from the USSA/LeadG2 Marketing and Sales Survey on best practices is almost a perfect storm of opportunity for more visibility, leads and new business from employers for your staffing or recruiting firm.

Staffing agencies and recruiting firms are coming to the realization that content marketing needs to play an even more important and visible role in the mix of strategies and tactics used to grow their brand and generate leads from employers.

If you’re not quite sure what content marketing is all about, here’s a nice succinct definition from the Content Marketing Institute:

Are You Prepared to Close More Business Like Crazy in 2017? 

When you get a query from a prospect in 2017 about having your staffing agency or recruiting firm offer a candidate for consideration, how prepared are you to turn that phone call (or email) into a new account, and how fast can you make that happen?

Do your sales processes align with how prospects buy?

When it comes to securing new accounts, the Internet has turned the buyer-seller relationship on its head. Yesterday, buyers depended on sellers for information. Consequently, sellers had an upper hand in structuring and guiding the sales process.

Learning from High Growth / High Performance Firms

The lifeblood of any staffing agency or recruiting firm is acquiring new business while retaining current clients and referral relationships.

According to Staffing Industry Analysts, over the past 20 years, the staffing sector has more than doubled in size, reaching over $130B in gross revenues (in just the US). The American Staffing Association tells us that this growth is being served by about 20,000 staffing and recruiting companies—up from an estimated 14,000 in 2006—which all together operate around 39,000 offices. 

Yet, with all of this growth and opportunity, industry surveys like that conducted for LinkedIn tell us that securing new clients is priority #1. 

Marketing Insights for Staffing Agencies and Recruiting Firms

I was really looking forward to date night because Janice found a new “highly rated” restaurant that was the buzz of the town. It took us 3 weeks to get reservations, and I had to promise not to wear my black and white Converse sneakers.