Sending recruiting emails to passive candidates is one of the best ways to source top talent.
A well-crafted email can catch the attention of a highly qualified candidate and convince them to apply for your role. After all, emails are40 times more effective than Facebook or Twitter when it comes to engagement.
While recruiting emails are much more effective than ads on job sites or social media, writing them isn’t easy.
In this article, we’ll try to help you craft a strong recruiting email for reaching out to candidates.
Here’s what we‘ll cover…
How To Write A Strong Recruiting Email
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Do Some Background Research
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Focus On How They’re A Good Fit For The Job And Your Company
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Writing Your Recruiting Email
How To Personalize Email Templates
1. Do Some Background Research
Before crafting a recruiting email, you’ll need to do some research on your candidate.
Thebest recruiting emails are personalized ones - emails that don’t come across as generic and mass-produced.
So what’s the best way to personalize an email?
Highlighting some of the candidate’s unique traits and accomplishments in your email is an effective way to personalize emails.
Here’s how to find these unique highlights:
A) LinkedIn
This is the easiest way to find a few personalization elements to include in your email.
People often include projects they’ve worked on or any awards they’ve received on theirLinkedIn profiles.
Congratulating the candidate on these achievements in your email is a great way to demonstrate that you’re genuinely interested in them. It also shows that you’re not sending mass emails without knowing anything about them.
B) Personal Websites
Not every candidate has their own blog or website. However, most people in fields such as marketing, sales, or tech do.
You can go through their personal website and try to find an article or a point that you found interesting to include in your email.
Your candidate will appreciate the time you took checking out their personal blog - which shows the effort you put into researching them.
C) Social Media
Referencing social media work is another avenue, but it only works when done correctly.
Focus your emails on things they’ve shared that relate to their professional life such as published articles or tweets about their accomplishments.
It’s best not to reference personal matters such as pictures of them in social settings since you want to keep it professional.
2. Focus On How They’re A Good Fit For Your Company
After finding some personal highlights, focus on showing them why they should join your company.
You can search their LinkedIn profile to evaluate how their past roles relate to the job you’re recruiting for. It helps to look for overlaps between the skills they apply in their current role and the competencies of the role you’re hiring for.
LinkedIn is also a good way of determining how well a prospect suits your work culture. You can gauge what their aspirations are and whether your organization can help advance them.
3. Writing The Recruiting Email
Now that you’ve got your information, you can start crafting your email. Let’s break down each part.
A) Subject Line
This is the most important part of your email. It’ll determine whether a candidate opens your email or not.
Here are some tips on crafting one:
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Be Clear
The candidate should know your intentions right away. If they think the email is about something else but then realize it’s about recruiting, they might not continue reading the rest of the email since it could be off putting. -
Include their name
Using a recipient’s name can actuallyincrease email open rates by nearly 20%.
Adding the candidate’s name in the email no longer makes it a cookie-cutter email since you’ve made the effort to add a personal touch.
Here’s some good subject lines to use:
Example 1
Hey (candidate’s name), interested in joining (company name)?
Example 2
Hey (candidate’s name), how’s it going at (candidate’s current company)?
B) Greeting
Your greeting sets the tone for the rest of the email.
A good, safe approach is to start with - “Hi (candidate’s first name),”
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It’s not too formal - which can put off younger candidates
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It’s not overly casual - which ensures your email is still taken professionally
C) Introduction
You want your introduction to hook your candidate in.
Let them know how you found them and how you were impressed with their accomplishments (i.e. accomplishments you found on their LinkedIn profiles, websites, and so on.)
This a great way to let them know you’re genuinely interested and to show them this isn’t a generic email.
Here’s a few examples of a good introduction:
Example 1
Hi (candidate’s name),
I saw your (topic) article on (platform) and was really impressed with the research you did for it!
Example 2
Hi (candidate’s name),
I came across your (platform) and was really impressed with the projects you’ve done! I’d love to hear more about your recent work and the types of projects you’re interested in working on.
D) Main Body
This is the “pitch” section of your email.
It’s where you briefly discuss the job to the candidate. You can mention how their background and skills would be an asset to the job and how the job can provide them with opportunities to help them achieve their goals.
When it comes to describing the job - you don’t need to get too detailed. If they’re interested in your proposition, you can describe the role at length later.
Here’s a few examples you can use as templates for your emails:
Example 1
I’d like to speak with you about the (job title) at (company name). Your background in (field of expertise) and experience at (candidate’s current company) is very impressive. I would love to learn more about what you’re looking for in your next opportunity and what excites you at work.
Example 2
I would love to connect with you to discuss our search for a (job title) in more detail. I’m really invested in finding a strong candidate at this critical stage of (Company name)’s growth.
Example 3
I came across your LinkedIn profile and was impressed by your background. I’d like to learn more about you and your career interests since we have a great opportunity open for a (job title) that you would be a strong fit for.
E) Call To Action
A strong recruiting email should always include an avenue for the candidate to respond.
You can outline the next steps to take if they’re interested in your offer:
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Have them respond to your email with their CV
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Set up a time to chat using an appointment scheduler like Calendly
The key here is to leave the decision in their hands so they can choose to do all of this if they want to. It’s important to not appear pushy here.
Here’s a good and clear CTA to end with:
I’d love to tell you more about the position if you’re interested. Are you available sometime this week to chat? If so, I’d be happy to hop on a call with you.
F) Include Your Contact Details
Remember to leave a link to the job description page, your company’s website, and your contact info before wrapping up the email.
If the candidate is interested, they can find out more about the job you’re hiring for to make an informed choice. It also assures them that this is a legitimate recruiting email.
How To Personalize Email Templates
Email personalization is essential - especially when it comes to recruiting. The issue is that it can be time-consuming.
However, at the same time, copy-pasting an email template isone of the worst things you can do.
So how do you balance the two?
It’s best to settle on a flexible template so you can edit it slightly each time. You can change it up with unique highlights to personalize it, even though it’s still a template.
We have some great email templateshere if you need help getting started with crafting your recruiting emails.
Conclusion
While recruiting emails aren’t the easiest thing to master, it doesn’t mean they can’t be done.
All you need is some background research and personalization and you’ve got yourself a recruiting email that people will want to open and read.
Remember to keep recruiting emails about the candidate and tailor your message to appeal to them and their goals. Once you do that, you’ll see results.