In this panel‑style conversation hosted by Hishem Azzouz, recruitment experts Jess (founder of Fink Select) and an additional speaker discuss how marketing can be turned into a competitive advantage for recruiters and recruitment firms. Jess explains how she built an authentic brand identity and tone of voice for her company, emphasizing kindness, care and industry expertise rather than the stereotypical "hard‑selling" recruiter persona. She describes the shift from personal LinkedIn posts to a strategic, audience‑centric content approach that focuses on solving candidate and client pain points, sharing insider knowledge (e.g., LinkedIn recruiter tools) and positioning the firm as a trusted consultant in financial crime recruitment. The discussion also covers how leaders can embed marketing into their teams through simple workshops that surface individual strengths and align personal positioning with the firm’s voice. The panel introduces the "100 True Fans" concept as a framework for creating highly targeted, problem‑focused content that resonates deeply with a small, engaged audience rather than chasing mass followers. Finally, they address recruiter concerns about attending industry events and being perceived as outsiders, arguing that visible, authentic participation builds credibility and becomes a strategic differentiator. Throughout, practical examples, anecdotes, and actionable steps are shared for recruiters looking to integrate marketing into their go‑to‑market strategy.
Chapters
Let's talk about marketing. Jess, I'm going to come to you first on this. Again, a big part of our go-to-market strategy. I'm a huge believer in that. I think you're leaving a lot of money on the table if you don't invest marketing or at least have a bit of a plan. Jess, talk to me about your journey in this. Obviously, this is a big part of your game. I mean, you know, resulting in— there's loads of things, but like you said, 90% of your business comes inbound. But I've got here turning recruiters into— oh no, that was Ollie, sorry, take that back. Brand building and marketing. So like How do you think about that? Because like you've been really committed to that for a long time, haven't you? Even when you was employed for the larger companies or even has that gone to the new level since you started your entrepreneurial journey, do you think?
Oh, definitely. And I think that's the seismic shift from being a top biller to owning your own company is you think less about like just LinkedIn content and stuff. And I thought really deeply about what's our tone of voice? What do we want to be known for? I want Fink Select, our company, to be thought of as a personality. Like, oh, that's a Fink Select post without even seeing our branding on it and the type of way that we engage with our audience. Me and Ian sit and have made a really intentional marketing strategy of sitting deeply within our industry. So we sit beside you and alongside you, not externally. So we speak on a lot of panels, like industry panels. We go to a lot of events. We are recommended across the market and consultancies, so the management consultancy that you speak to, they go into their clients when the problem is and they name us as the sole supplier to banks and problems. Like that is, you can't pay for it. And that's come from the tone of voice. Like we, our company motto is we want to prove that recruitment can be done with kindness and care and a passion for results because we don't want to be seen as asshole recruiters. And if you're thinking about starting your own company, because some some people are thinking about it. Think about who you are and authentically interacting with that candidate one-on-one. How would they describe you to someone? And that's your tone of voice. Because if you try and, if I try, if I tried to be like a posh English person or something, it just, people wouldn't buy it. And it's the authenticity in our brand that has been our success, I think.
How do you think, how much was you like investing in your own brand when you worked like Investigo, for example, like in the big brand? Was you doing much?
Because I almost got fired for it.
Oh, really? So you're doing it a lot?
I was like too like, I love my job. I love fin crime recruitment, all this kind of stuff. And they were like pulling it back being like, no, you went from this to go. And I'm like, shut up. And like, because you have, and I'm sure you guys have your hands tied a little bit. You must use your company. You know, when you're posting ads on LinkedIn, they've got those stock standard pictures you must write on your job ads. And that's the way you frame it. And I'd make mine pink. Because I'm like, I want to stand out in the crowd. So I knew it and intrinsically believed it, but it wasn't something I could deeply invest in at the time.
My question was going to be like for the leaders here, how can they, how do you feel like they can get their team more bought into it and doing it more? Because I do think that can be a bit of a challenge like you just said.
Super easy ways to workshop it. Like you get your team in a room and describe their good traits of how candidates would describe them. And that's their positioning on LinkedIn. That's how you want them to interact with their clients and their candidates and everything. You know, you've got The really detailed orientated person who is really deep into the knowledge and the tech skill of what they do. Lean into that in your branding and your marketing and your posting. And, you know, posting on LinkedIn, you very, very rarely see me posting anything about like my personal life. Like I know a lot of people post like, I took my dog for a walk today and as I was walking, the sun came up and I thought about how much I love financial crime. Like it's just, it's not for me, but that's because my audience audience just would not tolerate it. Okay. So I try and make it relevant and it's always about adding a value to your audience. So thinking about the pain points for your audience, I truly believe marketing should be less about what you want to tell people and about what they want to hear. Yeah. And you weave in the knowledge there. So I'll write, I screenshot, you know, like the LinkedIn recruiter dropdowns and stuff. I screenshotted that and I said, I don't think anyone even sees how we search for you. This is how we search. This is how to optimize if you are looking at these things. Blew up. So it's not always about you as a person, personal branding. A lot of people think about that. It's more about the tone of voice and positioning of the messaging, I think.
Yeah, I think I've got on my notes written down like with for my content ideas like be the best resource for your ideal client. I think that's a good way to frame it. Like, I want to be a go-to resource.
Yeah, like you're talking about, Ollie was talking about consultant. Like I truly believe I'm a consultant. Like I am an expert in recruitment, but I'm an expert in what good financial crime and regulatory compliance looks like. And we get, I build financial crime teams. Like they come and ask us about organizational structures and stuff because of that credibility. But that comes from adding value that isn't just a, here's a CV. Yeah.
Just final thing. Sorry, just about this.
I've got a really good how-to, like just the most basic thing. Because you said this is about how, right? I'd say this is like, out of all of the things I would have liked to speak about, it probably is marketing recruitment. God, I shouldn't have teed myself up like that. Drum roll. The easiest way to write content that's going to resonate with your audience— has anyone read the book 100 True Fans? 100 True Fans? Okay, great. No one.
Raven Fans, you mean? No, no, no, no.
Oh, it's different. That's another thing. That's football. So the 100 True Fans philosophy is you would rather have 100 true fans than 100,000 random people following you because you talk about your dog. How do you get 100 people reacting, engaging, loving, and seeing value in what you've created? You spend some time in a room or whatever, literally imagining the ideal person that you want to write to, your ideal client profile, and you don't stop writing about them and their problems until you run out. So like, list problem— what are they experiencing? What's their hell right now? Like, what challenges in their life are they going through? Get so into the human being that you want to write to to. And what we started to teach the team at Unknown was like, literally write, dear head of design, I know how you're feeling right now. You're stuck at this place. Your boss is at the— you have no autonomy. You have no clearness in your role. You list all these things they're going through. And people were messaging us going, this is about me. This is exactly how I'm feeling. And if you have specialists in markets and different disciplines, their 100 true fans will be slightly different to the other 100. So it won't just be generic things that are flying out the whole time. It will be targeted to the humans that are going through exactly because you know them and you know their problems because you're speaking to 20 of them a week. So by just having those deeper conversations with them and writing out whatever their problems are, their problems are your marketing because you're just back. It's like a perfect wheel problem here. A problem, write about it. Write about it. And the audience you're creating becomes more and more real and authentic. And it's true rather than generic shit that nobody wants to read. So I would just focus on the problem.
Yes, again, training. I think all I was going to ask you just before we moved on was sometimes I'll speak to recruiters where they do want to get involved in the industry, they do want to go to events, but then they're just very aware that if they were to go to an event, how would they be perceived? I'm a recruiter, can I be really embedded in my industry? I know sometimes people will have that challenge. I've said to so many people now, in today's world, I think it's become such a competitive advantage to go out there attend things, meet people face to face. I don't know if you ever run into that with people in your team or whatever, but how would you talk to people about that where maybe they're a bit conscious of, I'm a recruiter, I don't know. Sometimes people do struggle with that.
Yeah, and it's your perception's reality, right? I don't really go to events truthfully. I see events as brand development, not BD. Don't go on BD because you'll be a Dick. No one will want to talk to you. They'll run away from you. And if you just go in with an open mind, like whenever me and Ian go to events, we genuinely want to learn about the topic. So we go as an attendee and we have conversations with people and we follow up with people. If you're perhaps a little more junior or, you know, you don't necessarily know people going to the event, go and message people you've placed and say, I'm going to this event. I've got a ticket. Do you want to come with me? Get yourself a buddy, like pay for a buddy, pay for a friend because they'll know people in the industry and suddenly you've got that credibility by association. And if people ask why you're here, just say, I'm just here to learn. I'm really keen to learn. I have an interest in what you're doing and I really want to be alongside you. And it's incredibly flattering to people that you want to learn about their day-to-day job and the challenges that they're facing.
