2. Effectively Messaging Candidates 1
Every recruiter has been there.
You’re reaching out to dozens of candidates a day through LinkedIn and
email, yet can’t seem to garner the type of response you need to fill your
open positions.
What’s the solution? Send more of the same messages that make you
sound like a boring recruiting robot? Please tell us you answered no.
As you reach out to more talent, it’s common for messaging
to become less personalized, making you sound like a careless
drone and making your candidates feel like just another face in
the crowd.
Rubbing talent the wrong way is harmful not only to your
recruiting goals, but to your organization’s
brand as a whole.
3. Effectively Messaging Candidates 2
Effectively Messaging Candidates
A primer for rockstar recruiters on how to walk the walk and talk the talk.
It’s Proven: Email Rules.....................................................
Mindful Messaging Matters..............................................
Awesome Email Examples................................................
Make Outreach a Team Sport.........................................
What Candidates Truly Want...........................................
Now What?..............................................................................
5
6
7
9
10
13
Share this ebook
4. Effectively Messaging Candidates 3
We decided to find out once and for all the answer to the haunting,
age-old question that’s plagued recruiters:
How do we make a bona fide
connection with candidates?
Entelo did its homework and found the vast majority of candidates are
open to hearing about new job opportunities just as long as recruiters do
so in a manner the talent finds agreeable.
Here’s what we learned.
Email is king.
Specific projects and employee
development are paramount.
Involving hiring managers and
team members goes a long way.
5. Effectively Messaging Candidates 4
Getting top talent to respond to your reqs comes down to the
channel, timing, and content of your messaging.
Stale and overused messaging techniques are flawed at
best and at worst, counter-productive.
Nearly 80% of candidates are already employed, but are willing
to hear more about what your organization has to offer them.
Talent is out there, and ready to be recruited.
Are you ready to recruit them the way they want?
6. Effectively Messaging Candidates 5
It’s Proven: Email Rules
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for
the past 11 years, you are well aware that
recruiters live on LinkedIn.
This isn’t in and of itself a bad thing. Arguably, it’s the only
social media platform people take seriously. The problem
starts when hiring professionals come to rely solely on
InMails to connect with talent.
Entelo’s study found that not only is it rare for candidates to
regularly open InMails, it’s also even more unlikely for them
to respond to the messages they do read.
26.2% of job holders report never opening LinkedIn-based
messages from recruiters, meaning over a quarter of the
time, your efforts are falling on deaf ears. Professionals
also reported considerable distaste at the notion of being
contacted over the phone and through Facebook.
It’s best to stick with email when reaching out to
candidates. Use everything else as a supplement.
7. Effectively Messaging Candidates 6
Mindful Messaging Matters
It’s difficult to overstate the importance of your
email’s subject line.
You could be working for the most desirable company on
the planet and offer an amazing position (with handsome
compensation to match), but send an email with a poorly
written subject line and it’s likely your message will be sent
directly to “Mark as Read” purgatory or worse — the
circular file of the virtual world.
The first thing to keep in mind when writing your subject
line is length. There’s no standard for display width, as
candidates could be using a variety of different email clients
or mobile devices. As such, the more concise, the better.
Next, you’ll need something eye-catching to encourage your
candidate to click. Here, a description of the open position
is almost universally bad practice. Instead, comment on a
project, tweet, blog post, or other work of the candidate to
pique their interest.
Keep your message short and to the point.
Just like this tip.
8. Effectively Messaging Candidates 7
Increase your open rate with one of these types
of subject lines.
Which post? Who’s checking out my portfolio? What do they have to say about it?
These questions will rattle throughout the candidate’s brain and compel
them to open the email. Feel free to plug in any social media outlet, personal
website, or other work with the candidate’s name attached to it. Remember that
here, all posts are not created equal. Be sure to comment on a candidate’s post
that is relevant to their industry or skillset.
EXAMPLE
“Great blog post on upcoming trends for engineers in 2014”
TYPE
Just saw your insert social
media reference here.
How flattering. They like me. They really, really like me.
Getting a candidate to open an email can be as simple as mentioning solely
their company name. A variation on this one is to suggest some sort of
partnership or collaboration by including your company and a candidate’s
current company, for example “Entelo + Twitter.”
EXAMPLE
“Entelo + Twitter”
TYPE
Look at me.
Interesting. I wonder what Josh has been saying about me this time.
If you have a common contact with the candidate, get their name in the mix as
soon as possible. Alternatively, try “Referred from [mutual contact]” or simply
“Referral.”
EXAMPLE
“Josh Hayes referred you for a marketing position”
TYPE
Hey, looks like you’re buddies
with this guy I know!
9. Effectively Messaging Candidates 8
If you still need help crafting a winning email to a
candidate, try this one on for size.
Hey Christy,
I read your post last week, “How to Speak to Passive Candidates Without Being Creepy” —
great piece! I just came across your profile and noticed you have a few mutual connections
with our founder, Jon Bischke, and based on your customer success leadership experience
and B2B SaaS background, I think you might be a great asset to the Entelo team.
We’re a well-funded tech organization that is working on building a powerful search platform
incorporating over 300 million social profiles to improve the overall recruiting process, and
we’re building out our sales division. We currently have over 90 customers including ESPN,
Box, Yelp, Square, and Groupon. Our customer success team is in its infancy, so this is an
opportunity to come in at an early stage to lead and develop the customer success division
from the ground up.
Let me know if you’d be open to having a quick explanatory chat with our team.
P.S. We recently announced our Series A round of funding. Read it here on TechCrunch.
Best,
Loni Spratt
E: loni@entelo.com
P: 415-727-9003
T: @LoniSpratt/@entelo
To : Christy Goodapple
Personalized outreach beats
out generic text tenfold. Bring
up specifics about a candidate’s
projects or work experience and
you’ll add a human touch to
your message.
Give a little background on
your organization. A candidate
may not be familiar with who
you are, but a quick summary
about what your team does and
the position you’re recruiting for
makes your intention clear.
Be proactive and candid about
your interest in meeting with a
candidate so there’s no doubt
that you have an opportunity for
him or her.
Throw in some company
current affairs to show off
achievements, developments,
and the fact that your company
is Google News-worthy!
Subject : Awesome piece on techniques for messaging passive candidates!
10. Effectively Messaging Candidates 9
Make Outreach a Team Sport
Although the responsibilities lie with the recruiter to
coordinate early messaging and get the candidate’s
attention, bringing the hiring manager into the equation
as early as possible is a great way to get your candidate
interested and engaged with your company.
Our research indicates talent prefer to be in communication
with the hiring manager early in the hiring cycle, because a
hiring manager:
• Knows the role, projects, and
management style.
• Can answer specific technical questions
about the role.
• Has the ultimate say in whether the
candidate is offered the job.
While it may not always be practical to get your
organization’s hiring manager involved in the early stages
of messaging, you can always make it known that you’re
working in close coordination with them.
Try including examples of the projects they’ve completed
and links to their Github or LinkedIn profile. Also, working
in the phrase, “My hiring manager and I feel you would
be a good fit,” suggests a deeper understanding of the
candidate’s skills and value to the team.
Candidates prefer to be contacted by:
Hiring Manager 46%
In-house Recruiter 24%
Relevant Team Member 13%
Recruiting Agency 11%
CEO 6%
Engage a candidate with the person they care most
about — their future boss.
11. Effectively Messaging Candidates 10
What Candidates Truly Want
When it comes to pitching the open position
and your organization, there are several
different areas that are important to cover.
Although compensation and information about projects
were unsurprisingly high in candidates’ reported levels
of importance, there proved to be a lack of emphasis by
recruiters on other areas the candidates deemed important,
such as culture and employee development.
Candidates are generally averse to taking on a new role that
isn’t much different from their current position.
If they’re going to change organizations, the move
typically needs to represent a promotion, additional
compensation, or added responsibilities.
If your open req wouldn’t be a promotion for
your candidate, stress in your outreach what the
position offers above and beyond their current
job, whether it’s salary, close-knit culture, or the
opportunity to work on particularly interesting
problems, which tends to be the sweet spot for
engineers.
Highlight your company’s best of the
best: perks, potential for growth, and
company culture.
12. Effectively Messaging Candidates 11
Beyond promotions and pay, company culture proved to
be of crucial importance to professionals. We broke culture
down into several categories and had respondents rank
them in accordance with how highly they value each aspect.
Both the close-knit nature of the team and the sense of
mission rank as the most important items surrounding
company culture. Even though talent high values company
culture, many recruiters often forget to emphasize this
aspect of a new job opportunity, focusing more on nitty-gritty
details like daily tasks, projects, and compensation.
Providing examples of collaboration within your
organization, like a company video or an online photo
album of a team bonding event, is a great way to showcase
cohesiveness. Also, you can be sure your team radiates a
sense of mission by being on the same page when it comes
to illustrating company values, vision, and goals.
Many candidates also indicated location as a detail
understressed by recruiters surrounding new job
opportunities. Determining if a candidate would be open to
a big move, could save you a great deal of time.
No surprises: Poor company culture is a likely dealbreaker.
Importance of company culture
Not at all important 2%
Somewhat important 13%
Moderately important 19%
Very important 66%
13. Effectively Messaging Candidates 12
In addition, emphasis on employee development ranks
highly in the minds of potential candidates, so give
examples of upward movement amongst your current
team to demonstrate the potential for a future at your
organization.
When it comes to making the big decision of joining a
company, candidates said small conveniences like office
amenities and catered lunches aren’t all that important
either, although we do admit they are nice to have.
Candidates want to work for a company that has a plan.
Most Significant Aspect of Company Culture
Sense of mission 37%
Tight-knit team 33%
Emphasis on employee
development 25%
Office Amenities 4%
Catered meals 1%
14. Effectively Messaging Candidates 13
Now What?
The days of the Rolodex are long gone and if you’re still posting and
praying, you should probably catch up on what the rest of the recruiting
world is currently up to.
Reaching out to candidates is much like striking up a conversation with
someone new. In both cases the formula for success isn’t complicated:
Mind your manners and be genuine.
Don’t forget that candidates are, well, humans, and people inherently
enjoy interacting with others. (Remember Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?)
They’ll love you for your honesty and will be more likely to respond to
outreach.
Source top talent all while building your company’s foundation, brand,
and hiring strategy. It’s possible.
15. About Entelo
Entelo is an organization focused on solving modern recruiting’s
biggest challenges. Founded in 2011 and based in San Francisco,
Entelo’s technology organizes professional data from the social web
to help recruiters and hiring managers find top talent more quickly and
effectively, sourcing only the most relevant, qualified candidates.
To learn more about how Entelo can work for your team, visit us at
entelo.com or get in touch to schedule a personalized demo with one of
our industry professionals.
Share this ebook
