For a recruitment niche using AI lead gen (email/LinkedIn), I don't understand the outreach process — do recruitment agencies reach out to companies or to candidates? What would effective copy look like for each?
Actually both. To companies: 'Hey, noticed you're hiring for XYZ role — I already have three qualified candidates for that, we work with companies like Netflix and Meta to place top engineers, here they are attached, no cost for the first placement if you like them.' To candidates: 'Hey, we're a recruitment company working with Meta and Netflix looking for high-quality talent, your name came up, would you fill out a brief application?' — that gets their info into your system. Then you sell the candidates to the companies and the companies to the candidates. A bit sneaky when you think about it, but really you're just acting as a market maker between the two sides.
Recruitment agencies are currently the best niche because they operate heavily on LinkedIn and email outreach, so a lead‑gen system feeds both candidate sourcing and employer sourcing. Digital‑marketing agencies, coaches, consultants, and service providers also work, but recruitment agencies give the highest ROI right now.
Start by targeting the right level of people in a company – ideally founders, co‑founders, or senior executives. Map out the organization: owners/founders at the top, then C‑suite (CEO, CTO, CFO, etc.), followed by directors and senior staff. Skip sales reps and lower‑level staff. Build a list of companies in your niche and source leads using tools like Apollo or LinkedIn. You can also use affordable lead‑generation services (around $45/month or $1.50 per 10,000 leads). Once you have a list, email multiple people at each company (e.g., three contacts). Mention that you’ve reached out to the others so each recipient knows there’s internal awareness, which improves open and reply rates. Use a brief, personalized approach and follow up with the highest‑ROI contact, whether that’s a founder, a director, or a DM, depending on the response.
You're thinking way too much. Stop thinking and start doing — you've been stuck asking this same kind of question for the better part of three or four weeks. This isn't a problem you need to be struggling with; you can answer it yourself in the next week just by putting your services in front of people. Don't worry about whether your service is valuable to them — that's an opinion you're generating in your own head, and it's usually wrong. Instead, go ask a bunch of people and let the market tell you.
I think marketing agencies are great; I niche down with them and make more money than most with an equivalent service. Whether you need to differentiate depends on your goals—if you aim to be the Uber of automation agencies selling to marketing agencies at $100M/year, you'll need more differentiation than just 'marketing agency'; if you want a tiny niche, you can target whatever you want, especially if you have experience to stand out. As for assets to send to marketing or creative agencies that aren't just AI‑generated: you can build them whole HTML websites (customized with context) and host them; generate newsletters from templates; create PPC ad creatives based on trending ad‑library content; produce high‑quality proposal templates; make slide decks; essentially any day‑to‑day marketing agency deliverable can be generated with AI, but the biggest impact is the customized HTML template because clients are impressed by receiving a full website.