Today’s recruitment market is hugely competitive and overpoweringly passive, with candidates researching extensively on a company before applying. Therefore, to source, engage, and convince these individuals, the modern-day HR professionals must leverage the reliable strategies of marketers such as email marketing while meeting the standard recruiting responsibilities.
Email is the preferred medium for communication among people across the world. In fact, according to reports, over half of the global population are using email actively, making it an attractive tool for recruiters. By utilizing recruitment email marketing, one can easily follow up on the existing job aspirants, engage with the new talent pool, and make sure hiring rates are at best.
In simple terms, recruitment email marketing is valuable for HR teams when trying to build a robust candidate database. So, are you ready to leap forward and execute the effective email campaigns to acquire the right talent?
Below are the five tips to help you with email marketing for HR.
1. Include Relevant Subject Line
The weak subject line is the primary reason why candidates ignore your marketing emails, even if they are actively looking for a job. So, we recommend you to make your subject line attention-grabbing, actionable, and openly speaking to the recipient at hand. Also, do not forget to keep this line short and crisp.
If you’re wondering how many words will be ‘perfect’ for your recruiting email campaign, take a look at the data from Litmus which highlights the subject line lengths and their corresponding open as well as click rates:
Image Source: Litmus
Some common examples of exciting subject lines for HR professionals:
- Greetings from [Your Company Name]! – [Job Title] Openings
- Amazing Career at your dream company
- Software Engineer Opportunities – Salaried in Canada!
2. Keep Your Content Scannable
In this competitive hiring space, rarely do recipients read your message from beginning to end. Maybe it’s because of their busy schedule, or perhaps it’s because millions of other emails are striving for their attention. Whatever the reason may be, it’s necessary to take the right approach when composing your email. That means it’s vital to:
- Follow the proper structure.
- Break long paragraphs into short.
- Include only a single idea per paragraph.
- Use subheadings and images to guide readers
Consider this email by Freshbooks:
Image Source: Campaign Monitor
The company uses the inverted pyramid pattern to make the content scannable. Also, it uses whitespaces to make the email look easy while providing all the essential information in it.
“51 seconds is the average time allocated to a newsletter once opened.” ~ Nielsen Norman Group
3. Personalize the Message
Recruiters must bring in a personal touch to their messages, even if they are sending it in bulk. Individuals want to feel valued by a firm they are applying for. Hence it’s essential to segment the existing list, target the messages, and position yourself favorably towards the right individuals.
If you did not know, check the performance of segmented email campaigns reported by MailChimp.
Image Source: MailChimp
Most of us think of personalization as mentioning the recipient’s name in the greeting of the email. Although this is an aspect of customization, it is just a single element of many that one can leverage to connect with the people. You will need more other elements such as behavior, applicant type, location, resume match rate, preferences, and many more to truly get their attention.
Please Note: It’s also a good practice to use your name, rather than your recruitment agency or company. It adds a personal touch, and implants trust in the minds of the candidate, often leading to better open rates.
4. Introduce Yourself
Introductory emails extend the fabric of your company’s reputation. It introduces future bosses to potential new employees. That’s why it’s essential to introduce yourself, along with mentioning your hierarchy in the organization. It sounds professional, and also implies gratitude and a sense of earnestness.
For instance, getting approached by top-level professionals in an organization makes the candidate being approached feel valuable. Imagine discovering the Chief Executive Officer of a company emailing you to welcome to their team!
The goal of your introduction must be to create value for all the job aspirants. It’s not merely to brag about all the cool stuff you do at the office.
Image Source: LinkedIn
The above email was sent out to 75 HR leaders in the Midwest, and it received a significantly positive response.
5. Use Casual/Friendly Tone
The tone of your message is often undervalued, although it’s the vital aspect of email marketing. So, stick to a particular tone, and the style you choose usually depends on your company type or job role. We have seen traditional companies using formats like ‘Good evening, John,’ while the recent ones prefer formats like, ‘Hi, John!’, ‘Hey there!’ etc.
We recommend you to choose the casual tone which is most widely used by the companies in the 21st century. As inboxes are piled up with a large number of emails, candidates generally exhibit interests on those messages that sound human. An overly formal voice might seem out of place.
A recent study by the consulting firm, Software Advice, sheds some light on the same. It reveals that out of the 2K+ recipients surveyed, 65% across all ages and genders preferred a casual tone in an email over a formal one.
Image Source: Software Advice
“Email is not just about transmitting the information. It is also about building a relationship.”
6. Set Time to Outline the Email
The power of AI and automation has eased the task of hiring managers and recruiters. These tools do all the tedious tasks by itself while letting the HR experts spend their time crafting thoughtful messages. So, this leaves ample time for companies to think strategically before outlining the email content.
Here are a few points that recruiters should make a note of while outlining an email:
- Make sure your message does not look like the standard advertisement, urging candidates to buy any of your products.
- It should not merely be a plain text where the recipient could soon lose interest and not apply for your organization.
- The content should be brief and must consist of multiple actionable buttons for various scenarios.
- Don’t focus on the brand’s value proposition without considering what the applicant could bring to the table.
And when in doubt about your email outline, perform A/B test. It helps you figure out whether the existing structure works for your recruitment process or not.
Image Source: Optimizely
It could be the CTA copy, its color, and placement, or email content and subject line, A/B testing will help you identify the right way to bring maximum click-through for your message. According to Optimizely report, A/B testing increased conversion rate by 228%.
Conclusion
The above-mentioned email marketing tips for an HR Consultant works no matter what stage of the recruitment cycle your company is in. It is proven to remain as a relatively easy and exceptionally effective way to nurture relationships with the interested candidates, inform them of job openings, and share your brand story.