This post was originally published on this site
We updated this post in March, 2025; it was originally published in September, 2020.
I love this question.
When I speak with staffing agency owners or executives, they often want to know “the right answer” for their marketing.
What’s the one thing that matters most?
What’s the silver bullet that will generate the most inbound sales leads or attract the most talent?
As you can guess, there is no one right answer.
The best marketing for your staffing company depends on a variety of factors:
- What are you looking to accomplish? Do you need marketing to generate inbound sales leads? Make your outbound sales efforts more productive? Get more people to apply to your jobs?
- What is the scope of your need? Are you looking to bring in two new clients or two hundred? How many candidates do you need to get those open jobs filled?
- What is the time frame for achieving your goals? Do you need to make an immediate impact to drive short-term results, or are you looking for more of a long-term strategy?
- What kind of staffing do you do? The best practices for an IT staffing company are different than those for a commercial staffing company. And marketing direct hire or executive recruiting tends to be quite different than marketing temporary staffing.
- Where do you work? Do you need marketing that is national or international in scope? Or are you focused on your hometown? And is that a big city or a small community? Geographic scope will help determine the best ways to market your staffing business.
- How do you sell? Do you rely mainly on face to face cold calling, pounding the phones, networking on LinkedIn? Do you regularly attend or exhibit at conferences? Do you currently leverage thought-leadership or other content in your sales approach?
- Who do you call on? Are you mainly calling on HR, department heads and other hiring managers, front line supervisors, purchasing or C-level executives? Your marketing will be very different depending on your target audience.
- What are you selling? Are you selling traditional staffing services (temp, temp-to-hire, direct hire and/or payrolling)? Strategic services like onsites, VMS, MSP or other workforce solutions? Do you sell statement of work or other project solutions?
- How strategic are your sales reps? Are your people comfortable talking with senior level decision makers? Can they effectively explain concepts and demonstrate the economic value of your services? Or are they stronger at building relationships and selling traditional staffing services?
- How competitive is your market? Are there a lot of strong staffing companies in your market? How are they selling? What are their strengths? Their weaknesses?
- How are your positioned (or do you want to be positioned)? Have you clearly defined how you want to be seen in the market? Does that message come through on your website, in your sales collateral, and in how you sell, recruit and service clients?
- What tools are you already using in your sales and marketing process? Is your website up to date? Do you have a strong presence on social media? Are you using email marketing to keep your company top-of-mind? Do you regularly produce content that supports your positioning? Are you active in industry or professional associations? Do you have a marketing automation platform?
- What is your business strategy for achieving your goals? Getting aggressive about sales and marketing is one strategy for growth, but it’s not the only one. Other growth strategies include:
- Product superiority. Offering something your competitors do not offer.
- Service superiority. Providing an exceptional experience for clients and/or candidates.
- Technology adoption. AI-driven recruiting tools, chatbots, and automation can enhance efficiency.
- Partnering. Working with other firms to offer a more complete service offering.
- Bundling. Creating new services where you bundle existing services into a package.
- Service-line extension. Getting into new skill disciplines.
- Geographic expansion. Offering services in new locations (can be remote).
- M&A. Buying or acquiring complimentary businesses or services.
- Moving up the value chain. Taking on higher-level responsibilities like project solutions.
- New service models. Finding new ways to deliver staffing such as online staffing.
- Pricing. Offering lower prices, better value or unique payment terms.
While there is no one-size-fits-all approach, there are key marketing strategies that staffing firms should focus on in 2025:
Strategy 1: Integrated Direct Marketing
Integrated direct marketing aligns marketing with sales efforts, using multiple channels (email, social, paid ads, cold outreach) to generate leads and build brand awareness.
A structured campaign includes a sequence of activities to ensure multiple touchpoints with targeted prospects. It should guide sales reps on when to reach out and what messaging to use.
To maximize response, provide multiple ways for prospects to engage—scheduling a call, attending a webinar, or downloading valuable content. The easier it is for people to respond, the greater the engagement.
Strategy 2: Account-Based Marketing
ABM is a hyper-targeted approach where your firm markets directly to key accounts with personalized messaging. This strategy:
- Aligns sales and marketing efforts to engage high-value prospects.
- Targets multiple stakeholders within an organization.
- Delivers customized content to drive meaningful conversations.
ABM is particularly effective for staffing firms focusing on enterprise clients or specialized industries.
Strategy 3: Event Marketing
Conferences, job fairs, and industry networking events remain powerful marketing tools, but their execution has changed in 2025. Hybrid events (virtual + in-person) are the norm, and leveraging AI-powered networking and follow-up strategies can drive better ROI.
- Pre-event marketing: Promote your participation through targeted LinkedIn campaigns, email outreach, and content marketing.
- At-event marketing: Invest in high-impact booth experiences, interactive presentations, and real-time social media engagement.
- Post-event marketing: Have a follow-up strategy that includes personalized outreach, content recaps, and post-event webinars.
Strategy 4: Content & Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing remains a top-performing strategy, but the focus in 2025 is on AI-powered personalization and video content.
Key Trends:
- AI-driven content personalization: Use AI tools to create customized content experiences for different audience segments.
- Short-form video marketing: Platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and LinkedIn Video are highly effective for engaging talent and clients.
- Conversational marketing: Chatbots, AI-driven FAQs, and interactive assessments improve lead conversion.
- Voice search optimization: More staffing firms are optimizing their content for voice searches.
- Employer branding content: Showcase company culture through employee stories and behind-the-scenes videos.
Conversion-focused Content
Create high-value resources (e.g., salary guides, industry reports) that drive lead generation. Use landing pages, pop-ups, and gated content to convert traffic into leads.
For many staffing agencies, 30-40% of sales can come from content and inbound marketing—especially for firms targeting smaller businesses that may not be covered by ABM or direct marketing efforts.
Want to STAND OUT in your market?
Let us show you our branded content solutions.
Putting it all together
As you can see, there is a lot that goes into creating the “best” marketing strategy for a staffing agency. The process starts with asking the right questions to really understand where you want to go.
From there, you can then choose the marketing strategies that make the most sense to accomplishing your goals and getting you to your desired destination.
And once you’ve picked the strategies, you can then get to the specific marketing tactics like creating content, updating websites, SEO, PPC and social media.
If you need help, we offer lots of resources:
Smart Marketing Checklist. More than 150 questions to help you evaluate your marketing.
Smart Recruiting Checklist. 190 more questions just on recruitment marketing.
Smart Automation Checklist. 50+ ideas to accelerate your marketing automations.
Want Haley Marketing to create a “roadmap” for your marketing?
We’d be happy to schedule a call to discuss your goals and then outline our recommendations for the best marketing your staffing company!
Send us a message, or call us at 1.888.696.2900 for your marketing roadmap!
The post What Is the Best Marketing for a Staffing Agency? appeared first on Haley Marketing Group.
