Cold recruiting emails can be a great tool for hiring prospective candidates – assuming you know how to use this tool right. This definitely isn’t always easy: basically, you’re asking a candidate to join your company and you have to do your best to spark their interest.
However, while it isn’t easy, it’s still possible. Here are 7 writing tricks that could help make your cold recruiting emails more appealing to the potential candidates.
1. Do your research well
One of the trickiest parts of writing a cold email is that you actually don’t know the person you’re writing to. You never talked to them, you have no idea who they are and what are they looking for – however, you still need to make your email appealing to them.
This could be achieved if you organize your approach carefully. Always keep in mind that you don’t have many shots to grab their attention – so you need to make the most out of the first one. Therefore, invest time in the research process, trying to find as much information about the candidate as you can. After that, try tailoring your email according to that research, identifying the benefits you can offer to that person and listing them all.
For example, this emails clearly shows that you did your research – and are willing to demonstrate that to a candidate.
2. Pay attention to the subject line
Even if your email is great, it won’t work unless the recipient opens it – and they won’t do so if they won’t find the subject line appealing. Always keep this in mind – just like the fact that the subject line is your first thing to hook the candidate.
Of course, crafting an impressive subject line is no easy thing to achieve. You need to be careful here and to test the effectiveness of your headlines if you have an opportunity to do so. You can also look for detailed guides on how to craft great subject lines for your emails – you can find plenty of them online.
3. Don’t be afraid to reach out repeatedly
Some candidates don’t accept your offer immediately – but this still doesn’t mean they aren’t interested at all: some just need more time to make their decision. That’s why consider writing some follow-up emails to generate more responses.
How does it work? When you follow up a couple of times, the candidates become more interested in your messages. But don’t just send multiple emails to the candidates – always think about how you can adjust them to deliver your message better.
4. Be careful not to annoy
It’s easy to overdo when it comes to follow-ups, so be careful here. For example, if a person answered your first email but didn’t reply to the second one, you can write one or two more emails – but keep in mind that you’ll probably need to stop soon enough.
There’s a thin line between being persistent and annoying, so do your best not to cross it. If you exaggerate with the emails, you can easily annoy the candidate you’re trying to reach – and also affect your company’s reputation negatively.
5. Try adjusting your touch points
Here’s the thing: most candidates need to feel sure that they will be able to succeed in a given role before they reply to you and decide to apply for a job. And sometimes your requirements aren’t enough to help them make their decision.
That’s why if you decide to follow up, be sure to modify your touch points, changing them with each email and adjusting to each candidate. The number of these touch points and their description will depend on different factors, such as candidate’s age, gender, nationality, profession, and so on.
6. Avoid information dumping
Many hiring professionals do the following: they dump all the information that might matter (such as responsibilities, salaries, etc.) right away. And that’s actually a big mistake.
Why so? Because many candidates would consider such approach rude. They don’t even know whether they’re interested in the position or not – and you’re overwhelming them with information already.
When you do it the smart way and give the information in chunks, you keep the candidates more interested and intrigued by your offer. You’re also doing something more than that – you’re building relationships with them and winning their trust.
Be sure to keep it short and simple at first. This way you’ll make your email more accessible and easy to understand for everyone. Remember: your goal here is to help them develop a basic understanding of your product and make them interested in working for you.
Take a look at this example. While it does mention a certain reference, it is well-personalized and also not very specific. It covers the main points but doesn’t give the full information right away.
7. End your emails with questions
Finished writing your recruiting email and don’t know how to close it nicely? Consider asking the candidate a question. This would make them feel more obliged to respond.
The question doesn’t have to be too serious or specific – simple and brief is enough. This way, you’ll still be able to increase the response rate. When you don’t end your email with a question, however, the conversation ends sooner or later.
As you see, these tricks on recruiting email writing are quite simple. At the same time, they are effective as they allow you to focus on your candidates more, to learn more about them, and to reach them out effectively and at a more comfortable pace.
Of course, there are plenty of other things you can do to maximize the reply rate. One of the most important and basic things is strengthening your own brand. If you earn a good reputation and make sure to reach your target audience, it would be much easier for you to hire the right candidates for different positions.
Another important thing that could improve the process of writing and sending your recruiting emails is measuring the results. There are plenty of ways to do so: you can use metrics or compare the reply rate, you can conduct surveys, etc. The most important thing here is not to pick one specific tool to do so – it’s the measuring itself. As long as you’ll monitor the process, analyzing the results, you’ll be able to raise the effectiveness of your emails. So don’t skip that part.
Writing cold recruiting emails that do turn out to be effective is no easy thing, especially if you are a new recruiter. But as long as you do your research right, try to understand what the candidates might want, and how can you reach them in the best way possible, it’ll slowly become easier for you. So don’t give up. Keep trying, implementing these tips, and measuring your progress – and you will definitely succeed.
Author
Conor McMahon
Conor McMahon is a writer for Zippia, with previous experience in the nonprofit, customer service, and technical support industries. He has a degree in Music Industry from Northeastern University and in his free time he plays guitar with his friends. Conor enjoys creative writing between his work doing professional content creation and technical documentation.
