Marketing consultancy for recruitment agencies in London, Kent and the UK.
A recruitment agency is two businesses sharing one brand. One sells to employers, the other sells to candidates, and the two audiences want to hear almost nothing in common.
Most agencies market to whichever one is scarcer that quarter, then switch when the balance shifts. It works, after a fashion. What it doesn’t do is build anything, because neither audience ever hears a consistent story about who you are.
What’s different about marketing a recruitment agency?
You’re marketing to two audiences with opposite interests, using one brand and one budget. Your consultants are your marketing function and they’ve got billing targets. Your service is widely seen as interchangeable, so differentiation has to be specific rather than claimed. And the market moves with hiring confidence, which nobody controls.
The challenges recruitment agencies face
Two audiences, one brand, one budget. Clients want to know you can find people they can’t. Candidates want to know you’ll treat them properly and actually call back. Both need to be true and they need different things said to them.
“All recruiters are the same.” It’s what your clients believe before you’ve spoken, and most agency websites do nothing to change it. Trusted partner, consultative approach, we take time to understand your business. Every competitor says it.
Consultants are the marketing function. The people with the relationships are on billing targets, so business development happens between placements and then stops for a fortnight when someone’s busy.
Total dependence on LinkedIn. For a lot of agencies it’s the entire channel strategy. It works until costs rise, the algorithm shifts, or every competitor is doing precisely the same thing in the same feed.
Candidate experience is your marketing, and it’s usually the weak point. Nothing damages a recruitment brand faster than people who were ghosted after a second interview. No campaign outruns that.
Hiring freezes. When the market turns, roles disappear and marketing gets cut at the moment relationships matter most.
Clients building in-house talent teams. Your buyer has an alternative that didn’t exist ten years ago, and “we’re cheaper than an internal hire” isn’t an argument you want to be making.
Moving from contingent to retained. It’s the growth move for most agencies, and it needs a different kind of credibility. Nobody pays a retainer to an agency indistinguishable from three others on the PSL.
How I can help
If you’re a founder, CEO or leadership team
- Build a marketing plan that handles both audiences deliberately rather than by whichever is scarcer this quarter.
- Get your positioning specific enough that a client can say why you rather than the agency down the road.
- Support the shift from contingent to retained, which is as much a marketing problem as a sales one.
- Work out what marketing resource you need, in what order, and help you recruit it.
If you’ve got a junior or small marketing team
- Give them a plan with priorities and senior direction.
- Mentor and upskill them so their judgement and confidence grow.
- Provide senior oversight without the cost of a full-time hire.
If you’re a head of marketing
- Extra senior capacity on campaigns, a rebrand or a new specialism launch.
- A second experienced view on strategy, and someone who’ll constructively challenge it.
- Support making the case to a leadership team that measures everything in placements.
Services I offer for recruitment agencies in London, Kent and the UK
Marketing strategy and planning
A written plan covering positioning, both audiences, channels and messaging, with priorities and owners attached. Built around consultants who are carrying billing targets.
Marketing Reviews and Audits
An independent look at what you’re doing, what it costs in consultant time as well as money, and what’s actually generating clients and candidates.
Rebrands, websites and marketing projects
A defined piece of work with a start, an end and a fixed fee. I’ve led agency brand refreshes and website launches, working alongside design agencies and in-house teams to keep everything to time and budget.
Fractional marketing director and CMO services
Senior marketing leadership one or two days a week, for agencies that need someone owning marketing at board level without a full-time salary.
Why work with me?
I’ve been running Helen Cox Marketing since 2016 and have worked withclients across professional services and B2B. Part of my corporate career was at Capita Resourcing, and I’ve worked with boutique agencies since, including some highly specialist ones: barrister recruitment, corporate governance appointments and CEO placement in banking.
That mix matters. Marketing a volume agency and marketing an executive search boutique are different jobs, and I’ve done both.
I’m a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (FCIM) with Chartered Marketer status.
Who I work with in recruitment
Agencies: growing agencies from ten employees upwards, established agencies, boutique and specialist consultancies, and executive search firms.
People: founders, CEOs and managing directors, leadership teams, heads of marketing, marketing managers, and marketing executives and assistants.
Who this isn’t for
I’m not the right person if what you need is someone to write job adverts, run your social channels day to day or manage your job board spend. There are specialists who do that well and they’ll cost you less than I will.
I’m brought in to work out what the agency should be doing and why, to build the plans, and to lead the pieces that need senior ownership like a rebrand or a website.
Let’s talk
If your marketing swings between chasing clients and chasing candidates depending on which is scarcer this month, that’s worth a conversation. Both audiences can be served properly. It just needs deciding rather than reacting.
Book a discovery call and tell me where your agency is.
I work with B2B businesses, law and solicitors firms, accountants and consultancies in London, the UK, Europe and the USA.
FAQs
By treating them as two audiences with one underlying brand, rather than alternating between them. The brand stays consistent, the messages don’t: clients want evidence you can find people they can’t, candidates want evidence you’ll treat them decently. Most agencies have never written down what they’re saying to each, which is why the marketing reads as though it’s addressed to nobody in particular.
By being specific about something a client can verify before they hire you. A sector you genuinely know, a type of role you’ve filled forty times, a market where you know everyone worth knowing. “Consultative approach” is unverifiable and every competitor claims it, so it does no work at all.
Build credibility before the conversation rather than during it. Retained work goes to agencies clients already regard as the expert in something, which usually means visible market knowledge: insight on salaries, hiring patterns, what’s actually happening in a specialism. It takes time, and it’s the most valuable marketing investment most agencies can make.
It’s necessary and rarely sufficient. The problem isn’t LinkedIn, it’s that everyone you’re competing with is in the same feed doing the same thing. Agencies that stand out usually have something LinkedIn distributes rather than just a LinkedIn presence: proper market insight, data, a point of view.
Keep talking to clients, and change what you’re talking about. In a hiring freeze your buyers still have problems worth discussing, they’re just retention and workforce planning problems rather than vacancies. Agencies that stay useful through a downturn are the ones called first when budgets return.
It depends on the volume of work and how much needs deciding rather than doing. If you need marketing done, a good marketing executive or an agency covers it. If you need someone to decide what marketing to do, that’s a more senior gap and it’s what fractional support exists for. I’ll give you a straight answer on the call, including if the answer is that you don’t need me.
No. Plenty of the agencies I work with have one marketing person or nobody at all.
It’s a free 30 minutes for me to understand what you’re dealing with and work out whether I’m the right person to help. If I’m not, I’ll tell you and point you somewhere better.
Happy clients
Transformed our marketing efforts
Helen transformed our recruitment agency’s marketing efforts. She created a clear, comprehensive strategy that covered both online and offline activities. Her first project was to manage our brand refresh and new website launch. Helen collaborated seamlessly with our team and the design agency, ensuring everything was completed on time, within budget, and with invaluable advice throughout.
Fiona Boxall, Managing Director, BWW Recruitment
A more professional presence
I needed an experienced external marketing resource who understood what I wanted and wouldn’t laugh at my silly questions. Helen was and continues to be that and has helped me shape our online presence, rebrand and generally take a more professional approach to marketing, the results are excellent. Helen is extremely personable, knowledgeable and deals with matters quickly and to budget.
Nick Rees, Managing Director, GRL Legal LLP
Recruitment agencies I’ve worked with
Case study highlight
Refreshing a recruitment consultancy through strategic marketing
Learn how I partnered with a top-tier specialist recruitment consultancy to create a tailored marketing plan designed for growth. The owner approached me to enhance their market presence and develop a strategy that would set the foundation for long-term success.
Let’s talk…
For more information on any of my services, get in touch and let’s talk.