Blog Content
Recruitment marketers who want to make a real difference to the sales and recruiting process of their businesses need to read these recruitment marketing insights.
Recruitment leaders who are looking to generate more from their marketing function can use Lisa's insights to help them drive marketing ROI.
Vanity v Sanity
Recruitment marketing can often stray into "vanity" world. It's never been easier to "spray and pray" with marketing due to automation and AI. The sheer volume of platforms you can use for recruitment marketing, and the communities you can access and attract, can keep even the most well-intended marketer too busy to generate ROI.
But with 69% of online content never even being read, and the vast majority of emails never being responded to, it's never been more important to be targeted with your recruitment marketing and focus on the sanity!
Lisa has done a lot of work with recruiters over the years helping them shape their recruitment marketing strategies, so I made her a rare coffee and asked her 9 questions about recruitment marketing ROI.
9 Questions I Asked Lisa About Recruitment Marketing ROI
1. What is the Function of Recruitment Marketing?
Crucially to attract, engage, convert, and retain your 3Cs – candidates, clients, colleagues.
And to help your sales and recruiting teams turn them into the 4th C – cash!
2. What is the Number 1 Benefit of Recruitment Marketing?
Leads (candidate and client) are key...
But often the expectations of what recruitment marketing can do are too low and KPIs are mistakenly around followers, impressions, blogging… The benefits of recruitment marketing need to be SANE not VANE.
3. How Should You Measure ROI on Recruitment Marketing?
Stick to “sanity stats”: Leads generated. Relevant subscribers signed up. Automation click throughs. Don’t not be fooled by people telling you that it’s difficult to measure ROI in recruitment marketing.
4. What is the Difference Between Outbound and Inbound Recruiting?
It is the difference between the more traditional approaches to marketing (email marketing / events) and digital (social / web). Push and pull!
It’s all about whether you’re interrupting someone’s day with your messages or whether they perceive that they initiate the contact.
The key to successful recruitment marketing, whether it be in or out bound, is that the candidate / client feels that they are the initiator... But actually the marketer has stealthily exposed the candidate's / client’s and drove them to click / call you.
5. Is Recruitment Marketing Only for Large Companies?
All recruitment companies need recruitment marketing.
And every recruiter needs to be a recruitment marketer in some way. (Another blog for another day...)
Recruitment HIIT has some cool hacks to help recruitment consultants market themselves, their brand, and their services, too!
6. What’s the Number 1 Pitfall in Recruitment Marketing?
Too much content, not enough marketing! And too much marketing, not enough sales!
7. What's Your Number 1 Hack for Content in Recruitment Marketing?
69% of content is never even seen, so wasting time creating new content, especially in the current market, is nuts!
Repurpose old content. Repurpose other people's content.
Create blogs out of blogs eg. "3 Insights We Found Online That Every Accountant Needs to Read this Week"
And if you really need to create your own content, ask your recruiters to ask the right questions on their screening and sales calls and then craft insightful blogs to attract and engage your community. eg...
What 's the best tech every teacher uses to create lesson plans?
How do you think AI will affect your job in the next 5 years?
How has your legal firm been affected by WFH?
My Recruitment Training platform, Recruitment HIIT has some cool hacks to try, too!
8. What is the Recruitment Marketer’s Essential Tech Stack?
You can get lost in the tech, but as a starter I'd suggest:
Trello for planning.
Google Analytics for website ROI.
Bullhorn Automation (if you have Bullhorn).
An SEO toolkit like SEMRush/AHRefs to turbo boost content – and Keywords Everywhere is flipping awesome!
Speedy video and image software such as Canva to "stretch" content – remember, “less content, more marketing!”
I mentioned other tech in
My Recruitment Training platform, Recruitment HIIT.
9. How Can Focus Your Time and Attention and Not Stray into Vanity Territory?
Plus, I say to my clients who are looking to hire / get more from marketing and need focused revenue-generating outputs.
“Imagine if your recruitment marketer had only 1 hour a day to make a real difference, what should they do? Then times that by 7 and that’s the job spec”.
Often recruitment marketers spend too long doing things that people have asked them to do that offer no real value to recruitment and sales. Stay focussed on the WIIFMB - what's in it for my business?
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Lisa Jones
Blog
Stop Sourcing, Start Selling: Is Your Data Working or Just Sitting There?
Recruiters, let’s be honest: 80% of your day is likely spent on the wrong tasks. Even more staggering? 72% of the candidates you place were already on your system before you spent hours sourcing them elsewhere.You are sitting on a goldmine (eg. Bullhorn), but you're still digging in the woods and mining data from countless other sources like LinkedIn, Job Boards etc...How do you stop the procrastination loop and start weaponising your data to drive ROI?Here are the three most common questions I get from recruitment leaders on using data to dominate the market.1️⃣How can recruiters use data to drive the sales process?📌Clean data = Data Health = Data Wealth.This is the backbone of a successful desk. The best recruiters don't just "find people"; they provide a service that sets them apart through market intelligence.Market Intelligence builds credibility. Sharing real-time trends like salary shifts, candidate flow, or niche skills gaps positions you as a trusted partner rather than just another CV flinger.Master the "Trigger Event". Don’t call cold; call when it’s hot. Use data to track funding rounds, senior leadership changes, or office expansions.Example: If a startup hits Series B funding, they aren't just "busy"—they are scaling. If your tech alerts you the moment that deal closes, you can be the first to engage and have candidates ready to spec in.2️⃣Business Development vs. Account Management: Where is the leak?📌Reconverting existing clients is critical.It is significantly cheaper than winning new ones, yet many recruiters let these relationships go cold.Spot the weak links. Use analytics to identify accounts with declining activity. If your star client hasn't logged a job in 60 days, you shouldn't find out by accident.Map the client. Use automation to map out your clients’ entire org charts. Ensure you are seeing all of their jobs so you aren’t losing deals to competitors simply because you were only talking to one person in the department.3️⃣How do we kill procrastination and find focus in recruitment?📌Recruitment is one of the most complex roles out there.We ask consultants to be researchers, data entry clerks, negotiators, and marketers all at once. It is no wonder procrastination is rife.Automate the busy work. Automate data health checks, initial searching, and basic BD outreach.Cure message paralysis. Use AI to draft the first version of your outreach. Don’t stare at a blank screen; let the tech give you the bulk of the work, then you add the human flair.Analyse the data, tasks, and time: Use Analytics to drive meaningful and mindful activities.The phone is king. By automating the data drudgery, you clear the headspace to do what you do best: get on the phone and build relationships.💪Conclusion: Data is Your Competitive EdgeThe "post and pray" era of recruitment is over.In a crowded market, the recruiters who win are those who treat their database as a living, breathing sales tool rather than a digital filing cabinet. By embracing AI, Analytics, and Automation, you aren't replacing the human element. You are freeing your team up to finally be more human.📌Stop searching for what you already have. Start using your data to win.Bullhorn ATS / Analytics / Automation / AI RoIWe are Bullhorn experts set on helping ambitious recruitment businesses to increase speed and sales.We help you weaponise your people, data, time, and tech, so you can recruit and sell!Our Bullhorn Vision and Buddy service helps generate best-in-class processes, adoption, head space, and ROI.BOOK A FREE BULLHORN ROI CONSULTATION
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Wayne Barclay
Blog
Why Your Bullhorn Stack is the Secret to Rehumanising Recruitment
In the high-stakes world of UK recruitment, there’s a nagging anxiety that sits like a ghost in the machine: the "roboticisation" of the industry.Many recruitment agency owners I speak with worry that leaning too heavily into their tech stack (specifically a powerhouse like Bullhorn) risks turning their recruiters and resourcers into data-entry admins and their candidates and clients into mere serial numbers.There's a distinct lack of picking up the phone, at a time when it's never been more important.But if you’re viewing recruitment technology as a barrier to human connection, you’re looking at it through the wrong end of the telescope.RehumanisationThe primary goal for almost every high-performing recruitment and staffing agency I partner with isn't to automate people out of the business.It is to use technology to rehumanise the process.Here are 3 ways how we move beyond the theory of tech driving stronger relationships and rehumanising the recruitment process.1️⃣The Paradox of Manual LabourThe irony of modern recruitment is that the "human touch" is often killed by "robotic" manual tasks. When a consultant spends three hours a day manually parsing CVs, dragging files into folders, and sending "just checking in" emails, they aren't being human. They are acting like a slow, expensive algorithm.And they are likely missing the point of recruitment:Managing relationships.Spotting opportunities.Protecting pipelines.By the time they actually get a candidate or client on the phone, they’re drained and distracted.When we optimise Bullhorn by Bullhorn Automation, Analytics and AI, we aren't replacing the recruiter. We are stripping away the administrative "noise" that prevents them from being present. True automation handles the repetitive, low-value chores so your team can focus on the high-value, high-emotion conversations that actually land placements.Great analytics helps create meaningful time management and tasks to drive targets!AI creates space for mindful recruitment!📌These 3 As lead to a crucial 4th A - adoption! What's often missing from a recruiter's day is a great adoption of process.2️⃣Restoring the Candidate (and Client) ExperienceMany candidates have been on the receiving end of "robotic" recruitment: weeks of radio silence followed by a generic rejection email. Plus, clients often feel under managed and engaged with, and go elsewhere.That isn't the fault of the tech; it’s a failure to use it.📌A rehumanised process uses the ecosystem to ensure no one feels ignored.In a sophisticated Bullhorn setup:Speed is Empathy: Candidates and clients receive updates the moment a status changes because your workflow is triggered by their journey, not by a recruiter’s busy diary.Personalisation at Scale: You can reference a candidate's / client's specific niche, need, or career aspirations automatically, proving you’ve actually engaged with their profile.Consistency: Every contact receives a gold-standard experience, regardless of how many roles a consultant is juggling that week.3️⃣Data: The Compass for ConnectionData isn't cold; it’s context.When your Bullhorn data is clean and your tech is configured correctly, you gain a massive competitive advantage in relationship building. And your recruiters and resourcers value it, want to use it - RoI is achieved!Automations don't feel automatedAnalytics tell the right truth and drive brilliant activityAI releases procrastinationCandidates and clients are managed - everyone wins!Imagine a consultant calling a client and knowing exactly when they last spoke, the specific pain points mentioned six months ago, and exactly which candidate profiles resonated most. That isn't tech "taking over". Tech provides the insights needed to be a true consultant rather than just a CV chaser.💸💸The Bottom LineTechnology shouldn't be a wall between you and your market; it should be the bridge.My mission is to help you move past the "human vs. machine" debate and start seeing Bullhorn as the ultimate tool for liberation.When you automate the mundane, you empower your people to do what only humans can do: negotiate, empathise, and consult.I been in recruitment since 2000. This year, more than any other year, means that your human-connected-tech strategy has never been more important.Bullhorn ATS / Analytics / Automation / AI RoIWe are Bullhorn experts set on helping ambitious recruitment businesses to increase speed and sales.We help you weaponise your people, data, time, and tech, so you can recruit and sell!Our Bullhorn Vision and Buddy service helps generate best-in-class processes, adoption, head space, and ROI.BOOK A FREE BULLHORN ROI CONSULTATION
