The Playbook · Strawberry Studios
Marketing
that actually
sits there.
Three plays for turning your agency's marketing into a revenue stream. From Strawberry Studios.
Three plays.Marketing
that actually
bills.
From Strawberry Studios
Most recruitment marketing doesn't bill. The agencies pulling ahead treat it differently.
It sits there as a cost, soaking up budget, impossible to tie to a single placement. The agencies winning right now don't treat marketing as a brand exercise - they treat it as a direct line to revenue.
Three plays. That's it. Each one turns activity you're probably already paying for into something that wins clients, lands retainers, or opens doors you couldn't get through before.
Play one · The commercial case
Stop paying for marketing.
Start billing it.
Most agencies treat marketing as overhead. Money out, results vague, hope for the best. The agencies making real money have flipped it: same activity, sold back to clients as a service. The moment marketing becomes a profit centre instead of a cost, your whole P&L changes.
Money out the door.
Reach, impressions, brand health. Useful, impossible to defend in a quiet quarter.
Revenue billed, attached to clients.
It pays for itself. Now the question is what you sell next quarter.
Asset ledger
What you
already own.
Not channels. Media. Price them like media. Sell them like media.
- 01Audience
Company LinkedIn page
The 5,000–10,000+ followers your agency already sits on. Other firms pay agencies to build this.
- 02Direct
Newsletter list
A direct line into hundreds of decision-makers in your niche.
- 03Reach
Company page distribution
Organic reach your clients can't replicate quickly.
- 04Attention
Your podcast, if you have one
A captive audience of buyers, listening for 30+ minutes.
Two ways to sell it
Standalone collab content.
Paid placement. Your client features in your newsletter, on your LinkedIn, on your podcast. Priced and invoiced like media. Most agencies massively under-charge - media buyers pay these rates every day for the audiences you've built for free.
Bundled into retainers.
Use audience access to push contingent clients onto retained terms. "We'll feature you across our channels as part of the package." It justifies the retainer without dropping your fee.
The objection that costs you money
"We're a recruiter, not a marketing agency."
That thinking is exactly why you're leaving money on the table. You're already producing this content. Charging for it doesn't make you a marketing agency. It makes you an agency that gets paid twice for the same work.
Pick your three biggest clients. For each, find one asset they'd pay to access: a newsletter feature, a LinkedIn post, a podcast guest spot. Put a price on it. Pitch it on your next call.
You're not selling something new. You're charging for something you do anyway.
Play two · The field guide
Video isn't a brand exercise.
It's a BD weapon.
Recruitment is a trust business. Video is the fastest way to build trust. Every recruiter sounds the same on paper. Nobody sounds the same on camera. The agencies winning use video to close deals, not to look good.
Lives on a channel.
Polished, slow, hard to attribute. Rarely moves a live deal.
Lives in conversations.
Short, named, sent in DMs and follow-ups. Tied to a real opportunity, measured in replies.
Three videos every agency should have
Record once.
Send forever.
Three reusable assets that do the work of a hundred follow-up emails.
- 01Pre-call
Send trust before the meeting starts.
A 60-second video the day before a discovery call: what we'll cover, what I want to understand, looking forward to it.
Where it goes - Before discovery calls · After intro emails · When a prospect goes quiet
- 02Objection
Record the answers your team repeats every week.
60–90 seconds each: why you're more expensive, contingent vs retained, how you source.
Where it goes - In replies · In proposals · In nurture · In LinkedIn DMs
- 03Case study
Let the client say the valuable bit.
A two-minute clip of the client explaining the problem, what changed, why it mattered. Their words beat yours.
Where it goes - After the first call · In retainer pitches · When credibility is the blocker
Why agencies don't do this
And why it's easy money.
Most owners think video means a production budget and a film crew. It doesn't. Phone, decent mic, good window light, a four-line script. If it takes ten minutes to record, your team will do it.
And the agencies cutting through aren't the ones with cinematic showreels. They're the ones who hit record on a Tuesday morning.
Ugly authentic video closes deals. Polished video builds brand. They're not the same thing.
Your first shoot
Four steps · One afternoon- Step 01
Pick the recruiter who's most comfortable on camera.
- Step 02
Write three four-line scripts.
- Step 03
Record one intro, one objection answer, one follow-up.
- Step 04
Send them in live sales conversations and track replies.
Record those three 60-second videos. Send them in real conversations. Watch what happens, then roll it out across the team using what worked.
Play three · The pipeline map
Your podcast doesn't need listeners.
The guest list is the product.
The show isn't a media play, it's a prospecting machine. The value sits in who you put in the chair, not who's in the audience. Pick your guests like you'd pick a target list, because that's exactly what it is.
Closed door.
Low reply rate, defensive 15 minutes, pitch obvious before it starts.
Open door.
High accept rate, 45 honest minutes, you leave understanding their business better than most of their team.
From cold name to warm meeting
Four moves · One relationship- 01
Pre-call
Learn their world.
Research before the call. Understand the guest, their journey, not just the company. Show up knowing what makes them, them.
- 02
Recording
Let them talk.
Make the guest sound great by asking the right questions. This is your chance to surface real expertise that's valuable to others in their world.
- 03
Clips
Give value back.
Send them clips they can post. Free content for them, distribution and credibility for you. Everyone wins.
- 04
Follow-up
Make the warm ask.
Be subtle, leave it as long as it's worth. You've made them look and sound great. Repeat with the best people in your markets and you become the go-to recruiter, the one with all the right connections.
The bit that bills
The interview opens the door.
The follow-up walks through it.
This is where most agencies fluff it. They run the podcast, get the guest, never follow up. Build the follow-up into the workflow. Without it you've made content. With it, you've made pipeline.
- The perfect podcast name
- Intro music
- A huge audience
- Everything to feel ready
Start with three conversations, not a launch plan.
Pick the top three names on your dream client list. Invite each onto a recorded conversation about a topic they actually care about. Record those three episodes. Worry about the name, the artwork, and the audience later.
Recruitment marketing can be a chew.Here's why it doesn't have to be.
You've probably tried marketing before and watched it disappear into a black hole. Budget out, nothing clearly back. The problem was never marketing itself. It's that most agencies use it to look busy instead of to bill.
The three plays above are the start. There are plenty more ways to turn marketing into revenue, but they all share one principle: marketing should make you money, win you clients, or save you time. If it isn't doing one of those three, it isn't working.
That's what we help recruitment agencies fix.
Want to make your marketingactually bill?
We help recruitment agencies turn marketing from a cost they defend into a tool that drives revenue, wins clients, and builds the kind of reputation that makes deals easier.
Book a free call. No pitch. Just practical ideas for your agency.
15-minute call
With Strawberry Studios.
- Length
- 15 minutes
- Format
- Video, no deck
- Cost
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