Strategic Marketing Alignment for Recruitment and Consultancy

Aligning Recruitment and Consultancy Brands for Strategic Growth

When an established cyber recruiter extended their business into consultancy, Thrive created the alignment and business generation to support their ongoing and future success. 

The Background

Thrive’s partnership with Barclay Simpson Associates (BSA), a recruitment firm specialising in senior-level appointments across professional services, began as an outsourced marketing solution. Initially, Thrive provided BSA with strategic marketing direction, including fCMO services, lead generation, content development, social media management, SEO, and the redesign of their website. As the relationship grew, we were introduced to BSA’s consulting arm, Barclay Simpson Solutions (BSS). Our objective was to develop brand alignment and core messaging for both entities, ensuring they could leverage their unique strengths while presenting a unified front to their shared target audiences.

 

The Challenge

BSA and BSS operated under separate identities, with distinct services—recruitment for BSA and consulting for BSS—yet they shared common business goals and client bases. This dual-brand structure presented challenges in terms of messaging, marketing, and operational efficiency. BSS was underrepresented on BSA’s existing website, and there was a clear opportunity to strengthen the relationship between both brands, particularly in their cross-selling strategies and resulting marketing communications. 

Furthermore, while BSA had an established reputation in recruitment, BSS needed to carve out a more visible and compelling presence in the consulting market. The marketing and website assets for BSS were limited, and the lack of integrated marketing materials created missed opportunities for cross-promotion and co-marketing.

 

The Solution

  1. Brand Alignment and Core Messaging
    To address these challenges, Thrive initiated a comprehensive review of both BSA and BSS brands. We facilitated workshops to define a cohesive narrative that clearly differentiated the two businesses while highlighting their complementary services. The outcome was a refined value proposition and messaging strategy that enabled both BSA and BSS to appeal to their shared target market, businesses in need of both recruitment and consultancy services.
  2. Website Development
    The next step involved a complete overhaul of BSS’s online presence. While BSS was mentioned on the BSA website, it lacked a dedicated space to fully communicate its service offerings. Thrive built a bespoke, standalone website for BSS (in addition to a new website for BSA), that clearly articulated their consulting services, showcased case studies, and provided optimised content for SEO. The new site also included specific landing pages designed to increase conversions for key services.
  3. Co-Branded Campaigns and Cross-Leveraging Assets
    With a strong brand identity and improved web presence, the next challenge was creating opportunities for BSA and BSS to cross-leverage their existing assets. Thrive developed co-branded campaigns that allowed both entities to tap into BSA’s large database while promoting the unique offerings of BSS. One such initiative was the Cyber Vault Campaign, which targeted the cyber security community. This campaign combined BSS’s consulting expertise with BSA’s recruitment capabilities, offering a comprehensive solution to a pressing industry need.

    The Cyber Vault Campaign showcased the synergies between the two brands, using a combination of email marketing, social media, and content creation. Thrive worked to ensure that both brands were represented equally in all communications, ensuring that the value of both recruitment and consulting services was clear. The campaign generated substantial engagement, attracting new clients and mandates, and enhancing the visibility of both brands.
  4. Ongoing Support and Growth
    As the relationship progressed, Thrive continued to support both BSA and BSS through targeted content creation, SEO optimisation, and strategic marketing initiatives. By providing ongoing support with sales enablement materials such as brochures, pitch templates, and case studies, Thrive ensured that both brands maintained consistent messaging across all touchpoints.

 

The Outcome

The strategic alignment of BSA and BSS’s brands has led to increased market visibility, better cross-selling opportunities, and a more unified marketing approach. The Cyber Vault Campaign, in particular, was a resounding success, demonstrating the potential for leveraging both BSA’s recruitment expertise and BSS’s consulting services in a single, compelling offer. Through our partnership, BSA and BSS are now better positioned to engage their audiences, deliver value, and accelerate growth. 

To learn more about how Thrive partnered with Barclay Simpson, and drove more than 15,000 leads over the course of the engagement, read our other case study on our end-to-end recruitment marketing strategies.