Do You Use Email Marketing to Find Talent?

Recruiters often use email to reach out to job seekers and potential candidates. But with competition in every inbox, recruiters often find it hard to get the jobseekers attention, never mind apply for the positions.

How can recruiters send more interactive emails? Just take a look at marketers and how they use email to sell products and services to potential customers; they’re pros at creating compelling emails to do the job. The next time you write an email, think like a marketer. Put yourself in the recipient’s shoes. What message would get your attention? What would compel you to respond? What would prompt a busy professional to respond to you? Answering these questions will lead you to write effective, response-worthy emails.

We’ve put together a list of 5 lessons recruiters can learn from email marketing to increase their open rates and see more job applicants:

1. Keep it personal Chances are, you don’t have time to send out individual emails to every candidate you contact. The trick? Making it look like you do. Your emails need to seem personal, even if they’re not. Avoid sending out emails that look like impersonal mass spam by pulling in unique details about each candidate.

It’s fine to use a basic email template, but, if time permits, try to write an original sentence or two for each email.

An example? “Hi ______, I found your profile on LinkedIn (or met you at _______) and wanted to get in touch with you about _______.”

2. Write compelling copy Recruitment emails should be short, sweet, and to the point. Most people scan their emails rather than read them closely. This means you need to help candidates to get the gist of your message quickly, by keeping messages short and highlighting keywords or phrases with bolding or subheadings.

Most important is the call to action. Tell the candidate what you need or want from them, and make it as easy as possible for them to do it. Do you want them to visit your career page or submit a resume? Set up a phone call or apply online? A direct call to action highlighting exactly what they need to do will increase their chances of doing it.

3. Focus on the subject line Subject lines are a job candidate’s first impression of your message, and they’re what lead recipients to either open an email or hit “delete.” That makes them incredibly important.

What makes a good subject line? First and foremost, it should be something that asks a question or grabs attention. Try a question (“Looking for a new opportunity at ______?”) or a list (“5 reasons a position at ______ might be perfect for you”). Engage your recipients with your subject line, and they’ll be more likely to open – and respond to – your email.

4. Make it mobile-friendly Another trick of the trade when it comes to email marketing is ensuring that your emails are mobile-friendly. Many people use mobile devices to check their email – in fact, according to one recent study, 66% of all emails are opened on mobile devices.

What makes an email mobile-friendly? In a word, simplicity. Use large, readable fonts, and keep text concise. Switch to a single-column layout for easy scrolling. Make any buttons easy to find and click. Ensure that your emails look good with or without pictures since many email clients block images from unknown senders.

(Sound confusing? Email marketing programs can help with a lot of this). To test the mobile-friendliness of your emails, send test messages to a few friends who use different mobile devices, and have them give feedback on how they look and how readable they are.

5. Learn about spam filters More than 70% of all email is spam. And the vast majority of those emails are sent straight into the “Junk” folder, never to be seen again. Don’t let your recruitment emails become part of that statistic – learn about spam filters, and how to avoid them.

Spam filters judge each individual email on a number of criteria, and then add them up to determine a “spam score.” That spam score is used to determine whether or not an email should be delivered to a recipient’s inbox. There are some triggers you should watch out for: • Excessive exclamation points • Using all caps • Bright red or green fonts • Bad content • Sending to old or inactive email lists • Including too many URLs.

You don’t have to be a marketing guru to get potential candidates to open and respond to your recruiting emails. Follow these tips, and you’ll be able to reach a larger number of candidates, see better response rates, and fill your open positions with top talent faster.