How to Position your Recruitment Agency as the Industry Expert

Clients want to feel confident that their recruitment agency knows their industry inside out. By taking the following actions your agency can become known as the qualified expert in an industry.

Knowledge

Keep up to date with industry changes and growth, challenges, competition and government regulatory changes. Read widely by setting up a number of listening tools such as Google Alerts, Hootsuite for Twitter, LinkedIn groups and Google+ circles.

Newsletter

Provide high quality content to clients and prospects via an newsletter. If you’re positioning the agency as experts in multiple industries, create separate newsletters for each. Use text and graphics in the header to target the industry and segment your subscribers to receive the relevant newsletter. One or two articles could relate to the specialist industry and the rest of the content could be general.

Write an eBook or White Paper

It doesn’t need to be a printed best seller but if you can write a book, eBook or White Paper on your specialist industry, you can gain instant credibility. Your book or eBook can be listed on Amazon (distributed for free or paid), be sent to clients or used as an incentive for joining your mailing list.

Pitch the Media

Pitch articles and features to industry publications, both printed and electronic. If there is an upcoming launch, event or regulatory change in your industry that you feel you can comment on, pitch to journalists offering your expert commentary. Keep a media contact list and send media releases. Register for SourceBottle, a free enewsletter listing callouts from journalists for spokespeople on different topics. Make sure you have a professional photograph of yourself ready in case a journalist requests it. When you are published, promote it on your social media, website and enewsletter.

Pitch Event Organisers

Know the industry events that are held on a state and national level and pitch the organisers to speak at the event and provide quality information to attendees. Write a speaker profile that includes details of your career, topics you can speak on, any previous public speaking engagements or media coverage you’ve had. If you’re named a speaker, promote it on your social media and website in the lead-up to the event.

Add Value through Workshops

Invite clients and prospects to paid or free workshops where you educate them on staff related topics such as incentives, interview techniques, staff performance and morale. Part of the workshops can be filmed and the content shared on YouTube. Promote your workshops in client proposals, media and speaking pitches.

Social Media

Stay active on social media channels that are relevant to your organisation. Use the listening tools you set up to develop a calendar of posts and schedule these in advance to save yourself time. Posts can be recycled particularly on Twitter so you aren’t always thinking of new content ideas. Make a habit of commenting on clients and other organisation’s social media channels to increase recognition of your name and following.

Blogging

In the recruitment industry there is plenty of content you can blog about. Make it easy on yourself by developing an editorial calendar so you aren’t struggling to think of an idea on the day you want to write your blog. Set aside some time each week to write your blog post and meet your deadline for scheduling your post. Clients will soon realise that you’re adding valuable content on a regular basis and will visit your website regularly.

Help establish yourself as an expert in your field by writing case studies that illustrate how your knowledge and area of expertise has helped a client. If your work is confidential you don’t need to name people or organisations, a general case study is fine. Curating newsworthy content and providing your opinion can build your reputation as an expert. You can also increase traffic to your site by using keywords that are trending. Share some of your blog posts on LinkedIn and of course your blog provides more material for your social media accounts.

Guest Blogging

Pitch blog post ideas to a range of organisations that would be interested in the valuable content you have to offer. Make sure your profile appears at the bottom of the post and invite readers to follow you on social media or join your enewsletter list for more insights from you.

Sponsoring

Raise the profile of the agency through sponsorship of events, sporting teams and fundraising. Ensure you have pull-up banners, outdoor flags and other promotional material to maximise the benefits of each sponsorship commitment.

Networking

Remember the recruitment industry is all about getting out and meeting people. While much of the agency profile raising can be completed from behind a computer screen, it’s important for people to put faces to names and to meet you in person. Make sure you attend networking events, expos, trade shows and have regular coffee dates with people who can assist with your profile building efforts.

Candidates

While improving your profile amongst clients is important so is keeping in contact with candidates to make life easier to fill all the job requests you receive from clients. Send a separate candidate newsletter with hints and tips about job seeking and career building so they see value in your content. Make personal contact with candidates you have placed in the past so they are more likely to call you when considering a career move. And remember today’s candidates may be tomorrow’s clients so look after them.

Spending time and effort building a high profile in an industry pays dividends later when clients are willing to pay a premium for your expertise.