Most recruitment firms don’t have a marketing problem. They have a targeting problem.
They invest in LinkedIn ads, content, email campaigns and sometimes even a rebrand, and wonder why the pipeline doesn’t move. The creative looks good. The copy is solid. But the leads don’t come.
The reason is almost always the same: they started executing before they had clarity on who they were actually trying to reach.
THE TARGETING TRAP
Recruitment is a relationship business. Everyone knows that. But when it comes to marketing, firms often try to reach everyone — all sectors, all seniority levels, all geographies — with a single message. The result is a campaign that resonates with no one.
Effective marketing starts with a tightly defined Ideal Client Profile (ICP). Not just “mid-market businesses in the UK” but the specific job titles, company sizes, sectors, hiring triggers and pain points that characterise the clients most likely to convert and retain.
Without that foundation, every pound you spend on campaigns, content and paid media is working against you.
WHAT GOOD TARGETING LOOKS LIKE
A well-defined ICP for a recruitment firm typically answers:
- Who is buying? The specific decision-maker (HR Director, CFO, Operations Lead) and the contexts in which they buy.
- What triggers the purchase? A headcount increase, a failed internal hire, a business acquisition, a compliance deadline.
- What does success look like for them? Speed to hire, quality of shortlist, reduced agency dependency — whatever they’re actually trying to solve.
- Where do they spend their time? Which LinkedIn groups, industry events, trade publications and communities are they active in?
Once you can answer these questions, everything else — your messaging, your channels, your content topics, your paid targeting parameters — has a foundation to build on.
THE COST OF SKIPPING THIS STEP
We’ve seen recruitment firms spend £50,000 on a new website that doesn’t convert, because nobody defined who it was supposed to convert. We’ve seen LinkedIn ad campaigns run for six months with a sub-1% click-through rate, because the audience was too broad and the message too generic.
Fixing targeting isn’t glamorous work. It doesn’t produce an immediate asset or a launch moment. But it’s the difference between marketing that generates NFI and marketing that generates reports.
HOW THELEAP APPROACHES TARGETING
At theLEAP, targeting is the first stage of every engagement. Before we write a word of copy, build a campaign or plan a content calendar, we work with clients to define exactly who they’re selling to and why those people should care.
That means competitive analysis, audience research, ICP workshops and a clear articulation of your positioning in the market. It’s the work that makes everything that follows land harder and cost less.
If your marketing isn’t generating the pipeline you’d expect, the answer probably isn’t a new campaign. It’s going back to first principles.
Ready to fix your targeting? Get in touch with theLEAP.
