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Playbook: Loyalty Marketing for Recruitment Agencies
Loyalty marketing, when implemented properly, can transform your recruitment agency and boost profits without draining your resources.
We surveyed agency leaders at the end of 2023 and a clear trend emerged – a growing number of agencies are focussing on organic sourcing and nurturing techniques to attract and keep candidates. With the cost of using job boards steadily increasing, more and more agencies are recognising the value of the candidates in their database and are focussing their marketing efforts on nurturing them to maximise the data they've already captured.
In this article, we examine why loyalty marketing will benefit your agency, look at some real-world examples from Firefish clients, and outline 5 steps to implement a successful loyalty marketing strategy that works.
Explore real-world recruitment examples
Understand loyalty marketing and its benefits
Implement a successful loyalty marketing strategy
What is loyalty marketing?
Loyalty marketing is a strategy that focuses on maximising the return on investment from your existing candidate database. Instead of spending time and money acquiring new candidates for every job, loyalty marketing focusses on nurturing high-value candidates so that they think of your agency first when they are in market to change role. At any given time only 25% of the workforce are active candidates. Loyalty marketing is the strategy that makes sure the 75% come to you when they are ready to change role.
The potential savings that can be made by increasing the output of your recruitment CRM and reducing your reliance on external marketing are huge. In 2023 job board costs increased by 30-40% for some agencies, driving the cost to acquire candidates up dramatically.
In 2023 over one-third (35%) of applications sent to recruitment agencies using the Firefish CRM came from nurtured candidates who were already in the CRM. Loyalty marketing seeks to take the high-value candidates in your database and transform them into hot candidates ready to place.
Making sure that your candidates feel valued not only when you need them but on a daily basis establishes loyalty.
One agency that understands this is Wote Street People, who send personalised texts, emails, and even cards in the post for their candidates birthdays, Christmas, or other celebrations. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to set these up as personalised automations within your CRM, but it has a huge impact on the long-term relationships you can build.
“We use SMS a lot – because people actually respond to it.We make sure to send something for birthdays, for example. We send them a card as well, but we get far more thank yous for the text. It ensures loyalty, and we all know there’s not a lot of it at the moment.”
Maxine Hart
Managing Director
Wote Street People
It's not all about work
Giving something for free – especially something that deomstrates your expertise in the field – is a great way to welcome a new candidate.
One agency that knows the value of a warm welcome is IntaPeople, who make sure each new potential candidate within their database is sent a personalised and valuable sequence of nurturing communications that vary from CV writing tips to interviewing advice.
"If candidates regularly see our name and branding it keeps us at the back of their mind at all times. So when it comes to looking for their next job, candidates tend to come to us and say ‘I have received this email’, or ‘thanks for the CV tips/interview advice’, here's my up-to-date CV. The value that we add to the candidate’s experience make such a difference and helps us build long term relationships.”
Rob Samuel
IT Manager
IntaPeople
A warm welcome
Recruitment demands more than transactional interactions —it requires an in-depth understanding of candidate profiles.
Loyalty marketing stands as the foundation of your engagement strategy, using the data in your CRM to equip recruiters with the information to build lasting connections, accelerate agency growth, and win faster in a competitive market.
The 5 benefits of loyalty marketing
Reduce marketing costs
Agency differentiation
Data-driven insights
Word of mouth
Repeat business
But what's in it for your agency? Hover over a tile to learn more...
5 steps to successfully implement loyalty marketing
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Understanding candidate profiles
Nailing your personalisation
Generating social proof content
Going the extra mile
Investing in long-term success
Examples of impactful (yet simple) loyalty marketing
Putting data at the heart of your
recruitment agency.
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That's the theory, now it's time to put loyalty marketing into practice for your agency! Follow these key strategies to maximise your agency's output and get the results you want.
5 Steps to implement a loyalty marketing strategy that works
Driving repeat business
For agencies dealing with temporary placements, loyalty marketing proves instrumental in candidate retention.
By prioritising personalised engagement, and ongoing communication, you can nurture relationships with temporary candidates. The very nature of loyalty marketing focuses on making the experience great for the candidate, meaning they'll keep coming back to you.
Did you know?
Increasing retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% or more.
Data-driven insights
Loyalty marketing relies on understanding who you are talking to - this unlocks a wealth of data when done right. By laser-focussing your messaging, you can learn what really works and benefit from data intelligence that enables you to accurately qualify leads and execute your strategy.
Loyalty marketing goes hand in hand with data-driven decision-making - as the deeper your understanding, the more your agency growth with accelerate.
Did you know?
Companies that adopt data-driven marketing are 6 times more likely to be profitable.
Accelerating word of mouth
Loyalty marketing unlocks the oldest marketing strategy of the world – word of mouth. By focusing on nurturing loyalty you will build brand ambassadors for your agency.
With 92% of customers trusting positive reviews from friends and family more than any advertising, the power of an effective loyalty marketing strategy will continue to pay dividends for years to come.
Did you know?
An improved candidate experience can increase company revenue by 10-15%.
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Reduced marketing costs
Imagine a world where a role can be filled by dipping into a database filled with rich, engaged, and nurtured candidates...
Instead of investing in new marketing campaigns, pay-per-click, targeted ads, and external promotion, loyalty marketing enriches your database with engaged and qualified leads ready to be placed when the time is right.
Did you know?
It costs 5 to 7 times more to acquire new candidates than to retain existing ones.
Differentiation
The reality is that as a result of the post-COVID recruitment boom, it has become harder to secure visibility as the sheer volume of recruitment communications has increased.
Loyalty marketing seeks to reduce an agency's reliance on adverts so they don't have to fight through all the noise. By consistently delivering personalised experiences you can make your agency a reliable choice in a crowded recruitment landscape.
Did you know?
There has been a 67% increase in demand for recruiters since 2016, saturating the market.