The Best Way to Reduce Marketing Recruitment Costs?

There are plenty of ways to reduce marketing recruitment costs. You can negotiate fees, advertise directly or spend hours searching LinkedIn yourself. Yet the cheapest way to recruit is not to recruit at all!

Of course, people will always move on. Careers develop, circumstances change and occasionally somebody receives an offer they simply cannot turn down – no business will retain every employee forever. However, the State of Marketers Report 2026 from The Marketing Meetup suggests that plenty of marketing teams may be rather less settled than their employers realise. The research found that 26% of marketers are actively looking for a new role while another 37% are open to moving. That means almost two-thirds of marketers could potentially be tempted by the right opportunity. Just 37% described themselves as settled – so take a look around your team and imagine what it would be like to lose two out of every three of them. The world of marketing jobs has been unsettled over the past few years, yet once the dust settles are some of your key players about to head for the door?

How to retain your talent – a marketing recruiter’s view

So, how do businesses reduce that risk? The obvious starting point is management and culture. People want to feel valued, supported and trusted. They want to understand how their work contributes to something bigger and to feel that good performance is recognised. That does not necessarily require beanbags, free lunches or an office dog. From our conversations with thousands of marketers looking for a new role over the past twenty years, it generally comes down to some more fundamental things:

• Good leadership and clear communication
• Realistic workloads
• Opportunities to learn and progress
• Flexibility and trust
• Recognition for good work

Remuneration matters too. A brilliant culture will not completely compensate for somebody being significantly underpaid. Equally, a large salary will not keep people indefinitely if the culture is dreadful. The important thing is getting the overall package right. Salary, bonus, benefits, flexibility and progression all contribute to how somebody values their role. Employers should not assume that a package which was competitive two years ago still reflects today’s market: regular marketing salary and talent benchmarking can help identify gaps or shortfalls before they end up turning into resignation letters. It gives businesses a clearer view of what similar roles are paying, which benefits candidates now value and where they may be vulnerable to competitors… with one of the key factors in that currently being how hybrid working looks.

Recruiting a replacement costs more than just a recruitment fee. There is management time, lost knowledge, reduced productivity and the pressure placed on the rest of the team while the vacancy remains open, as well as the time and resources that need to be diverted to onboard and train the new arrival.

Brand Recruitment has supported businesses with marketing recruitment since 2005. Our Talent Benchmarking service uses our experience gained over the past twenty years along with live market insight to assess salaries, benefits, role scope and candidate availability. Sometimes recruitment is unavoidable. Yet before worrying about how cheaply you can replace somebody, it is worth asking what you could do to keep them. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch to set up a discovery call so you can learn more about our benchmarking service.