Recruiters face a difficult task on a daily basis – writing attention-grabbing recruiting emails. This may sound simple, but recruiters are reaching out to people they don’t know well or at all and need to grab their interest quickly.
This recruiting tool can be performed efficiently and effectively by following these steps:
Personalize the subject line
Recruiters must create individual, personal subject lines. Candidates may not know the recruiter and will therefore be receiving an email from an unknown address. If the email isn’t automatically sent to their spam folder, recruiters have to hope their subject line is enough to stop candidates from simply hitting the delete button. To grab the person’s attention, use his or her name. For example: “Claire – a great job opportunity has opened up near you.” Your goal should be for the candidate to know instantly your email isn’t spam.
Introduce yourself
After you’ve caught the candidate’s attention, provide a brief introduction of who you are and why you’re contacting him or her. Be sure to include how you found this person’s name. You want to keep your email concise so this should be no more than a few sentences.
Describe the position
You need to avoid being vague. If you’ve caught the candidate’s attention and he or she is taking a minute to read your email, don’t waste his or her time. Provide as much detail as you can about the position, including the job description, its location, the main qualities the company is looking for and the compensation.
Connect the candidate to the job
You should now be able to address why you’re contacting this specific individual for this particular job.
If the person you’re emailing is a passive candidate, don’t assume he or she is interested in leaving their current job. In fact, unless you have accurate information this is the type of position the person is actively seeking – never assume he or she will be interested. Offer information to the person as you would to any job seeker, active or passive, but state you’re aware he or she might not be looking. Also reassure the candidate that if he or she isn’t interested in the current position, you’re available to help them any time in the future.
Wrap it up
You don’t want to force a person to spend five minutes reading an email that could take two. End your email on a positive note. Remind candidates you think they would be a great fit for the position then ask them to get back to you as soon as they can. Be sure to include your contact information here, even if it’s part of your signature. If the person is interested, you don’t want him or her to need to search for your number.
Recruiters can complete a difficult task with efficiency if they remember to grab the candidate’s attention with a personal subject line. Once they have the candidate’s attention, they can provide him or her with details about the open position and why he or she would be a great fit.
