I've been through a second offseason of recruiting and I've landed a top 10 class both times (though never a top-5 class, I've been 6 both times I think).
My lessons so far:
Recruit guys who are in your 5-rated pipeline almost exclusively (the purple tag indicator). I'm playing as UNC, which is a 4-star program, so I'm not playing as Temple, but I'm not playing as Ohio State, Alabama, or Clemson either. With UNC having a heavy recruiting footprint in NC, VA, and Maryland, and I think I chose my coach's pipeline as "Tidewater," (coastal Virginia area), I get the purple 5-level pipeline indicator from those areas - NC, VA, and Maryland. The higher your pipeline rating with a prospect, you get amplified results with your pitches, apparently. I usually will comb through my "Recommended," list, and then I go position-by-position sorting by overall recruit ranking, and I can usually find 20+ recruits who are level-5 pipeline that are interested in me. Those are the ones you focus on. I usually pick very few recruits to target who aren't in the top 200-250, and this still yields plenty of guys. Then sometimes I will add 4-6 guys who are lower ranked than that, if they are positions of need that I haven't otherwise targeted, usually in the 300s, 400s, and 500s.
Then, as the season progresses, I go back to the prospect list and I find high-ranking four star recruits who are being under-recruited, and I hit them hard.
I find I am landing about 60% of my targets this way, so if I end up with a list of 30-35, I will land 20-22 guys ultimately. I also usually sprinkle in 1-2 high end 5 star players who have zero interest in me and try to work 'em over, but so far, I haven't landed one of those types. I got two 5-stars who WERE in my level-5 pipeline (rated 9th overall and 16th overall), but I never managed to land a 5 star that didn't start out with high-interest. I chased the #3 overall player, an OT, my first year and I ended up leading with him all the way to the final week when Oklahoma swooped in and stole him, and then the same with the #1 overall player, a WR, my second year, I led all the way up to the end and Ol Miss jumped ahead of me the week he committed.
My coach prototype is also "Recruiter," and I've maxed out the entry-level categories for that prototype, so every position group is easier for me to recruit too.