Recruitment Business Development: Your Roadmap to Agency Growth in the UK

Let’s face it the UK recruitment market is tough right now, probably the toughest it’s been in around 15 years. The pursuit of company & personal growth in recruitment is a constant endeavour but at the moment the focus simply seems to be to stay stagnant revenue wise - that would be a win around now. Whether you're a newly established, start-up agency seeking to gain traction in a competitive market or a seasoned firm aiming to scale by entering new markets or regions, mastering the art of business development in recruitment is integral to sustained success. It's about more than just filling vacancies; it's about strategically positioning your agency for long-term prosperity through stable and secure partnerships with your clients.

I’ve been out of the game for a while now but I have a little authority in this area - I used to work in a boiler room where you had to earn the right to sit down by making a sale & where you’d often pitch under your desk as the sales floor was so noisy, I worked in commission only recruitment in 2009 and I launched my own recruitment agency in 2012, which I ran for 6 years. In this pretty comprehensive guide, we'll unveil actionable tactics and insights that will empower you to attract quality clients, nurture enduring relationships & partnerships, and amplify your brand's presence through a variety of channels, including your website. 

Quality Over Quantity: Building Relationships That Matter for Long-Term Growth

It's easy to fall into the trap of chasing every lead that comes your way and even after a couple of decades I still fall into this trap. I’m a firm believer that you should go after every lead you come across but you need to qualify that lead early on. The cornerstone of successful recruitment business development lies in cultivating meaningful relationships with clients whose values align with your own. It’s been said a million times but transactional recruitment isn’t going to work right now and you should steer clear of this, even in good markets. You should ideally focus on partnerships that flourish beyond a single placement, leading to repeat business, referrals, and a reputation for excellence. I understand this isn’t always easy, especially for niches filled with small firms or limited requirements in those companies for the staff you provide. 

By prioritising quality over quantity, you'll free up valuable time and resources to invest in understanding your clients' unique needs, challenges, and aspirations. It’s time consuming winning new business and I’d always say focus on keeping your current clients but obviously do both if you can. This deeper level of engagement enables you to tailor your services to their specific requirements, positioning your recruitment agency as a trusted advisor and a partner in their success.

As a digital design agency specialising in recruitment websites combined with my background in recruitment advertising sales, internal talent acquisition and recruitment, I've witnessed firsthand the transformative power of strong client relationships. By designing intuitive, user-friendly platforms that showcase your agency's values and expertise, we can help you attract and retain the right clients.

The Power of Websites & SEO for Recruiters: Attracting Organic Leads That Convert

Your website and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a powerful tool in the recruitment agency owner’s and recruitment marketer’s arsenal! SEO isn’t just for tech companies, e-commerce firms or larger recruitment organisations, it’s for small recruitment firms too, especially so for small firms in many instances! A well-optimised website and a strategic content plan can propel your agency to the top of search engine results pages (SERPs), putting you directly in front of potential clients actively seeking your services. Let’s face it you’re not going to land those big juicy keywords like “engineering recruitment firm” straight off the bat but there are hundreds of relevant keywords that are a lot easier to rank for and still see hundreds of monthly searches. Ranking top for one of these keywords could literally bring in hundreds of potential clients & candidates every single month! 

By conducting thorough keyword research and incorporating relevant terms (like "recruitment agency," "executive search,", “recruitment firm”, “staffing agency” or industry-specific keywords) into your website content, you can increase your visibility and attract organic traffic. Additionally, creating informative blog posts, articles, and guides on topics relevant to your target audience establishes your agency as a thought leader in the recruitment industry.

Partnering with a digital design agency experienced in SEO for recruitment websites can significantly enhance your online presence and generate a steady stream of qualified leads. There are a lot of charlatans in the market but we can help you optimise your site's structure, content, and technical aspects to maximise your visibility in search engine results and I’m happy to back this up with data! 

Your Success Stories: The Most Persuasive Recruitment Business Development Tool

Numbers tell a compelling story and stories can look like real hard data. I’m a huge believer that all recruitment websites should have dedicated pages to testimonials and case studies. By showcasing case studies, client & candidate testimonials, and data-driven success metrics on your website and social media channels, you provide tangible evidence of your agency's capabilities. These real-world examples demonstrate your ability to deliver results and build trust with potential clients.

Don't be shy about highlighting your achievements! Share statistics on candidate placement rates, client satisfaction ratings, NPS scores and the impact your placements have had on your clients' businesses. A well-crafted case study can delve deeper into your process, showcasing your expertise and the unique value you bring to the table.

If a client is on your website then they probably want to buy and they’re looking for reasons to use your services - don’t make it hard for them to find these reasons. Have dedicated pages but also litter your site with testimonials, stories, statistics. They want to see that their competitors have used your services and you solved their problems. 

Incentivise, Don't Just Ask: Referral Programs That Deliver Results

Word-of-mouth marketing remains one of the most powerful tools in business development. Satisfied clients and candidates are your biggest advocates. By implementing a well-structured referral program, you incentivise them to spread the word about your agency.

Consider offering rewards such as referral bonuses, discounts on future services, or exclusive access to industry events. The key is to choose incentives that resonate with your target audience and make the referral process as seamless as possible. A simple online form or a dedicated email address can make it easy for clients and candidates to refer others. Do you recruit for the fashion industry? Then maybe high end retailer vouchers could be a great option. Recruiting for the construction industry? Then maybe tickets to sporting events or the races could be a potential. 

And your consultants shouldn’t be afraid to ask for referrals - the best consultants are doing this in every conversation! Anytime they speak with a hiring manager they should be asking about other stakeholders in the business or asking who else is hiring or who they should speak to in future. 

Discreetly and subtly ask candidates where they are currently interviewing and where they have interviewed. Asked about any role specs they turned down. Is their current employer hiring? 

Does anyone on your direct team or wider team know anyone who could be relevant for live vacancies or know anyone hiring? Anyone you could contact within a particular organisation for roles. Don’t be afraid to ask for help or recommendations.

Positioning Your Agency as an Industry Authority: The Role of PR

I haven’t personally worked in PR myself but I did recruit for the sector for a while. A good friend of mine still runs his own PR agency so I keep tabs on the market and understand its power. PR plays a crucial role in establishing your agency as a thought leader in the recruitment industry. By securing media coverage in relevant publications, speaking at industry events, and participating in webinars or podcasts, you can amplify your brand's reach and credibility. And these are things you can do with a PR agency or by yourself. It’s easy to draw up a list of major B2B magazines and websites in your sector and reach out to their editorial teams. Invite their editorial teams to your company client events and use tools like Connectively to search for stories you can contribute to, in exchange for a company mention of course. 

Sharing your insights on industry trends, challenges, and best practices not only positions you as an expert but also attracts potential clients who are seeking knowledgeable and reliable recruitment partners.

Social Media Beyond the Basics: Strategic Approaches for Recruitment Professionals

There are a tonne of social media experts out there who specialise in the recruitment sector and I’m sure they’d have more input in this area but I’ll throw my opinion in too as it’s my blog and I can! 

First and foremost, work out what you want from your social media channels. This shouldn’t be about chasing likes - you should view your social media channels as a customer acquisition funnel. Your content should be driving interested clients and candidates to engage in productive & fruitful conversations with you. 

While most recruitment agencies have a presence on social media platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter, it's essential to go beyond the basics. Develop a strategic approach that focuses on engaging your target audience with valuable content. Share industry news, insights, and thought-provoking articles. Participate in relevant discussions and groups. Showcase your company culture and employee testimonials.

Remember, social media is a two-way street. Engage with your followers, respond to comments and messages promptly, and build relationships with key influencers in your industry.

Measure what works well in your sector with your audience. Are there specific times when you get the better engagement? Is there specific content that seems to work well? If so then focus on these areas so get the best results. 

Email Marketing That Works: Nurturing Leads with Automated Campaigns

Email marketing remains a highly effective tool for nurturing leads and keeping your agency top-of-mind for potential clients. By creating targeted email campaigns that deliver valuable content and insights, you can build trust and credibility over time.

Consider segmenting your email list based on client interests or industry sectors. This allows you to send personalised messages that resonate with each recipient. Leverage marketing automation tools to streamline your email marketing efforts and track engagement metrics.

There are some brilliant lead generation tools out there currently such as Outscraper, Apollo, Cognism, Kaspr, etc. Combine these with tools such as SendGrid, MailChimp, etc. 

Just remember you need to protect your domain’s reputation. You don;t want to get a rep as a spammer! Remember to clean your data first, verify all emails and segment the list. Use targeted emails to get the most out of your campaigns. 

Podcasting for Thought Leadership: Amplify Your Voice in the Recruitment Industry

Podcasting is a rapidly growing medium that offers a unique opportunity for recruitment agencies to establish themselves as thought leaders. By hosting or participating in podcasts that focus on recruitment trends, challenges, and best practices, you can reach a wider audience and showcase your expertise.

Consider inviting industry experts, clients, or successful candidates as guests on your podcast. This not only adds credibility to your content but also provides valuable networking opportunities.

Also reach out to podcasts in the recruitment industry in general but also your niche, offering your senior leadership team as potential guests, sharing their insights on the economy and current market. 

There are so many tools that make creating, editing and hosting your podcast super easy such as Riverside and StreamYard along with so many podcast agencies that can help you launch your own podcast. 

Remarketing for Recruitment: Stay Top-of-Mind for Potential Clients

Remarketing, also known as retargeting, is a powerful advertising strategy that allows you to reach individuals who have previously visited your website. By displaying targeted ads to these warm leads as they browse other websites or social media platforms, you can keep your agency at the forefront of their minds.

Retargeting in the ecommerce sector has been around since 2010 but it’s still in its early days in recruitment. Remarketing campaigns can be tailored to specific actions taken by website visitors. For example, you could target individuals who viewed a particular job posting or downloaded a whitepaper. This personalised approach increases the likelihood of converting leads into clients, although campaigns can see huge wastage as well.

Strategic Partnerships: Collaborate for Mutual Success

Building strategic partnerships with businesses that share your target audience can be a game-changer for recruitment business development. By collaborating with complimentary service providers, industry associations, or even other recruitment agencies with different specialisations, you can expand your reach and tap into new client networks. When I first launched my recruitment business in 2012, I partnered with 2-3 recruitment agencies who specialised in my sector. We shared live vacancies and candidates and I generated around £10k in revenue from split fees in my first year alone! I also currently partner up with several recruitment industry suppliers passing business and leads to each other. 

Consider co-hosting events, creating joint marketing campaigns, or offering bundled services to save on costs and expand reach. These collaborations can benefit both parties by increasing brand visibility, generating leads, and providing added value to clients.

Lead Generation Tools

There are so many tools out there in the market currently and I’m still relatively new to this area as it’s only a small part of my business. It’s astounding what these tools can do and to be frank you’ll be left behind if you’re not at least looking into them. Look up tools such as Outscraper, Cognism, Apollo, Kaspr and get ready to go down the rabbit hole. Basically these are all tools where you can scrape an absolute tonne of client contact data, enrich it with client names, titles, emails and phone numbers and then set up automated email campaigns. They’re real game changers for sales & recruitment. 

Call, Don’t Email

I realise the recruitment landscape has changed since 2020 and people prefer different forms of communication in many instances but I always prefer the telephone over email or LinkedIn messages. 

I’d always recommend persuading your consultants to use the telephone wherever possible. It’s easier to build relationships over the telephone (as opposed to text, WhatsApp, email, etc.), it’s easier to glean more information from your clients and so much easier to sell to them! 

Cold Calling 

Personally I’m a big fan of cold calling and I like to speak with my clients and potential clients over the telephone and video calls. I find that you can gain so much more from each conversation, share more useful knowledge and build better relationships.

Use tools such as Outscraper, Apollo, Cognism, Lusha, Kaspr, Rocket Reach to easily source contact details. Consistently call target clients and don’t give up after just a few attempts - it normally takes 6 times before you finally get a “no, thanks”, a ”maybe” or a “yes, let’s set up a call”!

Call potential clients on a regular basis, don’t just add contacts and then forget about them after that first “no”. Add a reminder to get back in touch in 3 months over the telephone. If you’re able then it’s also great to add reminders to comment on their LinkedIn posts in the interim so you end up using a multi-channel approach. 

And the most important part. Think about, what do you want from this call? What is the purpose? Names? A meeting? Company information? A simple introduction? To share knowledge?

Speculative CVs

Showing proof that you have someone suitable for a live vacancy is one of the best ways to make initial inroads, introductions and prove you understand their business but balance this with not assuming what they need.

The Power Of Three

Always look to get three pieces of information from every conversation. No conversation should be a one thing transactional conversation. Phoning a candidate to confirm an adjusted time for an interview? Then ask about other roles they’re applying for and if they know anyone who could be suitable for a junior role you’re recruiting for. Calling for some interview feedback from a client? Then ask about other stakeholders in their department or other agencies that have approached them. 

Your Team 

I’ve always been lucky enough to have a brilliant team around me at the agencies I worked at and I think it’s been a big contributing factor to my success. Speak with your direct and wider team, sharing knowledge, ideas, contacts, lead sources, introductions. Celebrate everyone’s win, no matter the size - it really helps with motivation and the mood of the sales floor.

Work In Partnership With Marketing

Working in partnership with other teams in the company often separates good consultants from the best in my opinion. Look to work closely with your marketing team, reposting their content, sharing ideas and knowledge and looking for leads. Ask for help and resources from the marketing team when targeting new clients, see if you can get your target clients invited to client events, get them on company podcast interviews, inclusion in email marketing and so much more. 

Recruitment Trainers

Regular training for your consultants is essential in my opinion. It’s great to train your new staff through internal trainers, colleagues and the senior leadership team but I’d also recommend using external trainers to bring in fresh ideas and revitalise the team. There are some brilliant freelance trainers in the recruitment industry currently! And don’t just focus on sales & recruitment training for your consultants but also expand this to refresher CRM training, training in DEI, along with generally expanding their abilities in areas such as job advert writing, social media and marketing. 

Blogs, Podcast & YouTube Content 

There’s so much great content on recruitment out there, recruitment blogs, recruitment industry news sites, podcasts, YouTube channels dedicated to recruitment, sales interviewing top billers and so on. Keep on top of the game but keeping up with what everyone else is doing.  

Industry News

B2B industry news websites and magazines can be great sources for leads, conversation topics with clients and opportunities to keep abreast of what’s happening in your niche. Compile a list of the top 5 B2B titles in your niche and make sure you put a little time aside each week to have a flick through their sites, looking for any relevant features. They’re great ways to start conversations with new and existing clients, sending them relevant news stories. 

Company Websites & Socials 

Keep an eye on the websites & socials of your existing, lapsed and target clients. They’re normally a treasure trove of useful information, stakeholder contact details, live vacancies and so on. 

Existing Clients

Just because they’re your client today, it doesn’t mean they’ll still be your client tomorrow. Everyone is hungry and there will likely be 20 recruiters trying to speak with your existing clients. Cement those relationships now! Keep in contact with them, service their vacancies, take them out for dinners, drinks and coffees. Explore your current clients - map them out - who else can you speak with in the company? 

Lapsed Clients

Lapsed clients are a great avenue when it comes to bringing in new roles. You’ll likely have terms of business signed, notes on the company, previous hires already in the organisation who you can refer to and rely on for testimonials, referrals and leads, interviewees who maybe got to final previously but were just beaten, known stakeholders, etc.

Utilise your CRM to look for clients that haven’t been spoken with over the past 12 months and directly reach out to them over the telephone and email, looking to set up a video or face to face meeting to reconnect.  

Job Alerts

Setting up job alerts can be a little time consuming initially but they only need a small amount of maintenance every 3 months thereafter and provide us with a steady stream of leads. Register as a “candidate” on all the major job boards and niche job boards within your sector. There are probably lots of small job boards you haven’t even heard of so do a little research. Spend time on your boolean string too, get this right the first time around and you’ll save lots of time and have a tonne of leads being delivered to you on day one! Once you have the leads get in touch straight away but be patient and relaxed with the pitch - the first outreach is just a “hi”, no selling at all, just let them know that you saw they are looking for a person with “x” skills. Then every 2 weeks get back in touch for an update to see how the applications and interview process is progressing. 

LinkedIn

A great tool when it comes to business development, mapping out companies, identifying stakeholders, engaging with contacts, etc. I won’t teach you how to suck eggs but follow relevant company pages and regularly look through their posts for advertised vacancies and company information you can use in conversation with stakeholders. Add candidates & clients on a daily basis, building up your “network” (in my opinion a network is more than connections on LinkedIn - invest time and effort in the relationships). Comment on the posts of targets. Sharing your content and live vaccines. 

Events 

This one is two fold, hosting your own client (& candidate) events and attending industry events such as meetups, conferences, exhibitions, drinks, dinners, award shows, etc. 

If you’re selective with the events you attend, research ahead of time, formulate a plan, proactively network while there and follow up with everyone afterwards then events can be a great business development tool. However if you use them to just get out of the office for a jolly and have no real plan then it’s just going to waste a day and set you back. A selfie at an expo isn’t really worth much. 

There are so many award shows these days and I’m sure I could easily find a dozen in your particular niche in less than half an hour. Compile a list of all the major awards ceremonies and when shortlists and winners are announced. When the shortlist and winners are announced, reach out to key stakeholders to congratulate them. And of course if you have the budget then look to sponsor or attend the ceremonies. 

Once again I could easily find a dozen Meetup groups in your particular niche. Now as an “outsider” to the industry you may not be able to simply attend the meetups, however these are often organised by people in the industry and they’re always looking for a venue for their meetup. Offer to host one in your office, put on some pizza and drinks and you’ve got 50-100 clients & candidates milling around your office for 3 hours! 

Does your agency ever put on industry events? It’s a great way to network with a select group of clients. Maybe arrange a breakfast seminar, roundtable, dinner & drinks or whatever it may be. Invite all relevant, current and prospective contacts to your company arranged events.

Advertising 

Advertising is a brilliant way to reach clients and is massively under utilised by recruitment agencies. I’m not talking about job ads - that’s been around for 40 odd years. Look to other channels. 

What about print & digital display advertising? Reach out to publishers of well-known B2B titles and look to take full page adverts in their magazines or banners or their websites where you can directly measure CPC, CPM, etc., 

What about outdoor advertising? Is there a billboard near the office of a target client? Maybe you recruit for the financial services sector and most of your clients are based around Bank, Liverpool Street and Canary Wharf. Why not look at some advertising panels in tube stations? 

What about guerilla advertising? How about setting up a coffee stand outside the office of your target client with a big board saying we want to recruit for you and giving out free coffee to hiring managers? Or maybe some clean graffiti? 

Are you a recruiter that targets a specific geographic area? Then what about local radio advertising? Everyone listening lives in your local area and could either be a candidate / client or knows someone who could be. 

And of course Google & Microsoft Advertising are great options to get you to the top of search results. Use the Google Keyword Planner to compile a list of highly relevant keywords that see a good portion of traffic and assign relevant pages to each of your campaigns through Google Ads. There’s loads of tutorials on YouTube if you’re interested. 

Conclusion

Successful recruitment business development requires a multifaceted approach that encompasses relationship building, marketing, and a deep understanding of your target market. By implementing the strategies outlined in this guide, you can position your agency for sustained growth in the competitive UK recruitment landscape.

Remember, recruitment business development is an ongoing process that requires continuous adaptation and refinement. As the industry evolves, so too must your strategies. Stay informed about the latest trends, embrace new technologies, and never stop learning.

By focusing on quality over quantity, building genuine relationships, and showcasing your expertise, you'll create a solid foundation for your agency's success. And with a little creativity and a commitment to excellence, your recruitment business will thrive.