In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Kelli Schutrop, VP of Sales at Parqa Digital Marketing Agency, where she helps staffing industry clients optimize and scale their organizations by implementing world-class marketing, technology, and automation strategies.

Listen in as Kelli discusses how Parqa works with staffing and recruiting agency leaders in growing their businesses by increasing brand credibility, online visibility, and lead generation.

Probably the most important step that these leaders can take is that of promoting transparency and collaboration within their organizations. In this new digital transformation area, a company cannot separate specialists into silos. While it still greatly helps to have distinct experts in different areas, there also needs to be oversight that leads to greater efficiency.

Kelli also explains how, through automation and branding, a firm can stand out and build a more authentic relationship and experience with clients, as well as how metrics-driven recruiters can cross the bridge to become a marketing-driven recruiter.

Among the strategies she recommends is creating a visual representation of the application process using a journey workflow. Through a strong personal brand combined with the use of the right automation tools, recruiters can easily make twice as many placements in half the time.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• [01:44] Executive search versus staffing common practices today
• [02:37] How Parqa frames is value proposition with new clients
• [05:27] Educating metrics-driven staffing professionals to take a longer-term view
• [08:42] Why revisit your tech stack
• [10:02] Communicating the most desirable outcome to staffing firms
• [11:48] Common objections by medium-to-large staffing firms
• [14:00] Improving brand credibility and visibility
• [16:55] Putting together a content strategy
• [20:20] Making sure your marketing and technology strategy aligns
• [22:35] What it really means to know your target audience
• [26:29] Building a personal brand as a recruiter
• [30:57] Elevating the candidate experience using marketing automation
• [45:04] The limits of automation
• [48:07] How smaller firms and independent recruiters can embrace automation tools
• [50:32] What recruiters can look forward to beyond 2022

Key quotes:

• “We move from strategy all the way through the implementation, because when you jump straight to implementation, you have a lot of good activities in the market, but they may not ultimately lead to what you’re trying to accomplish.”
• “It’s not having technology that makes you stand out anymore. It’s having a cohesive experience that gives everybody a high-touch approach while creating better efficiencies for the staffing firm.”
• “Everybody can look nice online, but if you sound like a generic robot, you’re not going to stand out.”