The Challenge
In 2024, Jobs-in-Marketing faced a critical challenge common to specialist recruitment agencies: how to effectively engage hiring managers across diverse industries with vastly different recruitment needs, timelines, and pain points.
Strategic Approach
Phase 1: Industry Segmentation & Persona Research
I began with deep-dive research into each industry’s unique recruitment landscape:
Research Activities:
- Conducted surveys with hiring managers across all five sectors
- Analysed 18 months of CRM data to identify patterns in job requisition timing, role types, and decision-maker behaviour
- Mapped industry-specific recruitment pain points (e.g., FMCG’s high-volume seasonal hiring vs. Legal’s slow, consensus-driven partner recruitment)
- Identified distinct buying committee structures for each sector
Key Insights:
- FMCG hiring managers prioritised speed-to-hire and cultural fit over niche expertise
- Legal sector required extensive candidate vetting credentials and regulatory compliance knowledge
- Technology sector valued passive candidate sourcing and competitive intelligence
- Financial Services demanded discretion, regulatory awareness, and senior-level networks
- Healthcare focused on accreditation verification and urgency for critical roles
Phase 2: Journey Mapping & Automation Architecture
Working with the Senior recruiters, I designed five parallel, industry-specific nurture journeys
Phase 3: Content Creation & Personalisation Engine
I developed a comprehensive content matrix—25 unique email assets across five industries
Phase 4: Technical Implementation & Testing
Platform: HubSpot Marketing Hub Professional
Email Automation Journey Map
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ LEAD ENTERS SYSTEM │
│ (Form fill, LinkedIn, Event) │
└────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────┘
│
┌────────▼─────────┐
│ Industry Tag? │
└─┬──┬───┬───┬───┬─┘
┌────────────┘ │ │ │ └──────────────┐
│ │ │ │ │
┌────▼────┐ ┌───────▼┐ ┌▼───▼──┐ ┌──────────▼─┐
│ FMCG │ │ LEGAL │ │ TECH/ │ │ HEALTHCARE │
│ │ │ │ │ FIN │ │ │
└────┬────┘ └───┬────┘ └───┬───┘ └──────┬─────┘
│ │ │ │
│ STAGE 1: AWARENESS (Days 1-14) │
│ │ │ │
┌────▼───────────▼──────────▼─────────────▼─────┐
│ • Welcome email (Day 0) │
│ • Industry insight #1 (Day 3) │
│ • Customer success story (Day 7) │
│ • Sector hiring trends report (Day 12) │
└────────────────────┬───────────────────────────┘
│
┌──────────▼───────────┐
│ Engagement Score │
│ < 20 pts? │
└──┬────────────────┬──┘
YES │ │ NO
┌───────▼──┐ ┌───▼────────┐
│ SLOW │ │ ENGAGED │
│ NURTURE │ │ FAST-TRACK│
│ PATH │ │ PATH │
└────┬─────┘ └─────┬──────┘
│ │
STAGE 2: CONSIDERATION │
(Days 15-35) │
│ │
┌─────────▼─────────────────────▼──────────┐
│ • Webinar invitation (Day 16) │
│ • Deep-dive case study (Day 22) │
│ • Salary benchmarking tool (Day 28) │
│ • Recruitment challenge quiz (Day 33) │
└───────────────────┬───────────────────────┘
│
┌──────────▼────────────┐
│ Downloaded Content │
│ or Attended Event? │
└──┬─────────────────┬──┘
YES │ │ NO
┌───────▼───┐ ┌──────▼────────┐
│ STAGE 3 │ │ RE-ENGAGEMENT │
│ EVALUATION│ │ SEQUENCE │
│(Days 36-60)│ │ (Quarterly) │
└─────┬─────┘ └───────────────┘
│
┌─────────▼──────────────────────────────┐
│ • Personalised consultation offer │
│ • ROI calculator (Day 40) │
│ • Competitor comparison (Day 48) │
│ • Executive testimonial (Day 55) │
└────────────────┬───────────────────────┘
│
┌──────────▼───────────┐
│ Engagement Score │
│ > 75 pts? │
└──┬────────────────┬──┘
YES │ │ NO
┌───────▼──┐ ┌──────▼────────┐
│ SALES │ │ CONTINUE │
│ HANDOFF │ │ NURTURE │
│ + ALERT │ │ STAGE 4 │
└──────────┘ └───────┬───────┘
│
STAGE 4: DECISION
(Days 61-90)
│
┌─────────────▼──────────────┐
│ • Custom proposal invite │
│ • Meet the team (Day 68) │
│ • Limited-time offer │
│ • Executive call request │
└────────────────────────────┘
Key Results: FY24 Performance
Email Engagement Metrics
Overall Performance:
- 42% average open rate across all industries (vs. 15% benchmark)
- 8.7% average click-through rate (vs. 2.1% industry standard)
- 0.08% unsubscribe rate (maintained list health)
- 98.3% deliverability rate
Lead Nurturing & Conversion
Journey Progression:
- 73% of leads progressed from Awareness to Consideration stage
- 41% of leads reached Evaluation stage
- 22% of leads triggered sales handoff at Decision stage
- Average journey time to handoff: 47 days (vs. 89 days pre-automation)
Sales Pipeline Impact:
- 156% increase in marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) to sales team
- 89% increase in sales-accepted leads (SALs)
- 34% increase in opportunity creation from email-nurtured leads
Conversion & Revenue Results
Sales Efficiency Gains:
- 62% reduction in time spent on manual follow-ups
- Account managers reallocated 18 hours/week to strategic client conversations
- 47% faster sales cycle for email-nurtured leads vs. cold outreach
“…highly recommend her digital expertise, diligence and organisational skills”
-Peter Rapaport (Director)
Key Takeaways
- Segmentation is non-negotiable—five industries required five distinct strategies, not one-size-fits-all
- Automation enables personalisation at scale—1,200+ contacts with relevant, timely touchpoints
- Measure what matters—pipeline contribution and sales cycle velocity, not vanity metrics like open rates
- Content must solve problems—every email answered “what’s in it for me?” for hiring managers
- Educate before you sell—hiring managers want insights and benchmarks, not sales pitches
- Timing is everything—automated triggers delivered messages when managers were actively hiring
- Sales enablement is marketing’s job—context-rich lead handoffs transformed prospect conversations
- Start with the data—18 months of CRM analysis revealed patterns intuition would miss
- Collaboration drives adoption—working with Sales and recruiters ensured buy-in and usability
This case study demonstrates how research-led digital strategy, cross-functional collaboration, user-centric content, and relentless optimization can transform industry-wide challenges into market-leading performance—achieving 69% online conversion and establishing best practices for regulatory change management in telecoms.
Intro 