3 Email Marketing Strategies for Recruitment Success

Last Updated: December 16, 2021

Recruitment email marketing can help find qualified leads for your hiring campaign. However, with click-through rates traditionally low and confusion around messaging approach, recruiters aren’t always sure about investing. We discuss how recruitment email marketing works and share three strategies for error-free implementation, with exclusive insights from Fetcher.aiOpens a new window CEO, Andres Blank.

Email is the preferred medium for communication for professionals across the world. In fact, by some estimates, over half of the global population are active email users, making it an attractive audience for recruitment email marketers. By using recruitment email marketing, you can engage with new candidates, follow up on the existing talent pool, and ensure hiring rates are at an optimum.

What is Recruitment Email Marketing?

Taken from the marketing playbook, this technique has proved extremely beneficial for recruitersOpens a new window . Essentially, it refers to how you position your ‘product’ (in this case, the employer brand or a particular job’s value proposition), develop relationships with new/existing applicants, and encourage action. This action could be a simple click which redirects to your career page or even submissions of resumes/other documents through the email client.

For HR teams, recruitment email marketing is invaluable when trying to build a robust candidate database.

Also read: 3 Ways Technology Can Augment Your Employer BrandOpens a new window

Types of Recruitment Email Marketing Content

When sending emails, recruiters should categorize content into one of the following three types:

  • Cold emails – Recruiters can use this type of content to reach individuals who were previously unaware of their brand/latency. These emails need to be carefully articulated, as this is the first point-of-contact, leaving an indelible impression.
  • Follow-Ups – At regular intervals, it is important to touch base with your audience, especially the ones who have shown interest by clicking on past emails. Candidates rejected for a particular role could also be included, keeping them engaged for future needs.
  • Cross-selling – Again, this is an idea borrowed from marketing – A candidate may not be aligned to the particular role you’re looking for but could have their skillsets your organization might find useful. Here, recruiters could establish a line of communication, educating the candidate about possible opportunities.

Also read: The Top 4 Recruitment Marketing Tools for SMBsOpens a new window

Tips for Outlining a Recruitment Email Marketing Plan

A major risk for any email marketing campaign is low click-through rates. To avoid candidates sending your emails to the spam box or just skimming over the content without taking any action, it is necessary to keep these tips in mind:

Ensure the subject line is relevant and impactful

One of the main reasons why recipients ignore marketing emails (even candidates who are actively looking for a job) is weak subject lines. If this content resembles spam in any way, the entire campaign is nipped in the bud, leading to effort waste. HubSpot even has an exhaustive list of “spam triggers” which should be avoided by any recruitment email marketing professional. Andres Blank, co-founder, and CEO at recruitment automationOpens a new window company Fetcher.aiOpens a new window , shared his views on avoiding spam: “As with advertising, the more targeted the recruitment email (meaning, the right role for the right candidate), the more likely the outreach will feel like a unique opportunity rather than spam.” Generally, it is recommended to make the subject line interesting, actionable, and directly speaking to the candidate at hand.

Personalize emails and double check the results

In this competitive hiring climate, candidates want to feel valued by an organization and recruiters must bring this personal touch even when sending emails in bulk. Fortunately, the personalization feature available in most recruitment email marketing platforms makes this very simple. Remember to check the final results in a preview format before sending out the campaign – without this step, any issues in implementation will prevent the desired outcomes and candidates will only see a placeholder instead of their names.

“You have to strike the right balance with personalization.  With executive hiring, for example, you’re usually targeting a very small pool of qualified applicants so both your messages and outreach must be highly personalized and considered. In other searches where the population of prospective candidates is quite large, a customized yet templated approach will drive the most responses,” Andres recommends.

Think strategically before outlining your messaging

While marketing automation has made email marketing far easier, there’s more to it than just technology. “With the power and scale of AI and automation, hiring managers and recruiters will instead spend their time crafting thoughtful messaging and properly calibrating their searches to ensure they are targeting the right candidates” believes Andres.

On one hand, your email shouldn’t look like the standard advertorial, urging candidates to buy a product. On the other hand, a plain text format means that the reader could soon lose interest and not initiate an action. That’s why recruiters must be brief, include multiple actionables for various candidate scenarios, and most importantly, avoid focusing only on the brand’s value proposition without considering what the candidate could bring to the table.

Also read: 

What is Full Cycle Recruiting? Definition, Process with ExamplesOpens a new window

Conclusion

With so many recruitment marketing solutions out there, it is now possible to build a reliable candidate pool and increase your hiring metrics without heavy investments. Andres told us how Fetcher does it: “We have a team of email template writers that help our customers communicate: 1) a compelling company mission statement,  2) fun facts about the culture of the organization, 3) the impact the role will have within the organization, and, 4) the reasons a specific candidate was selected as a possible fit for the role.  We then monitor response rates on their behalf to ensure the messaging is resonating.” All it takes from HR teams, is a clear focus on campaign goals, combined with a concrete employer brand and a genuine understanding of the best-fit candidate.

Is recruitment email marketing part of your HR plan for 2019? Visit us on TwitterOpens a new window , LinkedInOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window to share your thoughts.

Chiradeep BasuMallick
Chiradeep is a content marketing professional, a startup incubator, and a tech journalism specialist. He has over 11 years of experience in mainline advertising, marketing communications, corporate communications, and content marketing. He has worked with a number of global majors and Indian MNCs, and currently manages his content marketing startup based out of Kolkata, India. He writes extensively on areas such as IT, BFSI, healthcare, manufacturing, hospitality, and financial analysis & stock markets. He studied literature, has a degree in public relations and is an independent contributor for several leading publications.
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