9 candidate outreach tips that’ll get you responses

Not receiving good response rates for their cold emails is the only villain that scares recruiters.

Does that mean email is losing its power? Absolutely not! 

Sometimes, your applicants need a little bit more than a generic message in their inbox.

Email outreach strategies can help you capture your candidates' attention. These include personalizing your emails, editing their subject lines and lengths, segmenting your candidate lists, sending your emails at an appropriate time, and following up.

What are the top candidate outreach strategies?

1. Write subject lines that spark curiosity

You can make this happen by keeping your subject line short and specific. This helps your candidates understand what the email is about and helps them decide whether to open it. 

It also enhances your candidate experience, as shorter subject lines do not get cut off on smaller screens.

These tricks leave your candidate with no choice but to open the email to learn more about the job posting.

Here are just a few subject line examples that you can use for your email outreach campaigns to spark curiosity without overselling your opportunities:

2. Personalize your outreach beyond the name

Including your target’s name in the email body and the subject line is the most basic form of personalization that can help you increase your candidate engagement.

Cold email outreach can be further enhanced by mentioning a recent project or a particular skill from your candidate's profile that makes them the perfect person for your role, or by engaging them in a discussion of their interests to encourage a reply.

This level of depth and detail immediately separates your campaign from generic recruiting spam and elevates your approach. 

3. Keep your outreach short and scannable

Use this short checklist to ensure your candidate outreach message attracts top talent while remaining relevant. 

• Draft a concise, scannable email of 100-150 words or fewer.
• Provide just enough job description so the candidate can quickly decide whether they are interested.
• Include a clear CTA for the candidate. 
• Draft a long candidate outreach email only if it's required by the role/industry. 

(Image Source: SeekOut(opens in a new tab))

4. Segment your candidate list for relevance

A segmented InMail strategy can help you pull more candidate responses than a generic recruiter message in many different ways. If you’re unsure how to segment your candidate pool, you can follow these tips to begin:

• Separate recent graduates and senior professionals/executives
• Use free email marketing platforms(opens in a new tab) like Hostinger Reach(opens in a new tab) to collect leads and segment candidates 
• Identify your hiring needs based on local or remote preferences 
• Group candidates who are ready for a job interview, and those who are still potential leads. 
• Conduct background checks and create groups based on different reasons for candidate rejection. 

5. Warm up your email domain

To warm up your email outreach domain, follow these few simple steps to avoid getting ignored or flagged by email service providers like Google or Outlook:

• Step 1: Select platforms that provide built-in warmup tools like Smartlead and Lemlist
• Step 2: Create a custom email domain for your company to look credible and professional.
• Step 3: Send out only a handful (5-10) emails per day in the initial weeks.
• Step 4: Send initial emails to known contacts (who are more likely to reply) to establish legitimacy for the ISPs.
• Step 5: Increase your candidate outreach efforts once you receive positive engagement.

6. Don’t forget to follow up 

They also enhance your employer brand, as follow-up emails demonstrate professionalism and strong communication. 

The first follow-up email is the most effective and often has a higher reply rate than the initial email. To increase your engagement, always ensure your message sounds gentle and professional. 

It is advised to send only 2-3 follow-up emails over 5-7 days to avoid bombarding candidates and ending up in the spam folder. Sending more than 3 follow-ups can be perceived as annoying, potentially harming your recruitment brand.

Here’s a follow-up email template to get you started:

7. Send the candidate outreach email at the right time

This is because reply rates are usually lower on these days, as candidates prepare for the weekend. This further affects your candidate engagement.

To avoid this, you must plan a foolproof schedule for your email campaign. Aim to reach out to candidates between Monday and Thursday for the best results.

8. Use AI to automate candidate outreach

You can use AI to manage candidate data and craft targeted emails based on its analysis. This makes it easy for you to hyper-personalize the email subject lines and body texts for the best results.

Apart from personalization, AI can also track open rates, responses, and tweak follow-ups based on individual candidates’ engagement. 

By tracking these metrics, it becomes easier for you to start connecting with the best-fit candidates and keep the conversation flowing.

9. Use LinkedIn along with your emails

By targeting candidates on platforms like LinkedIn, you can get a higher response rate compared to traditional email or phone outreach due to its professional environment.

LinkedIn recruiting campaign is very similar to your cold email outreach; you send short and direct personalized messages with a clear CTA. 

The only difference is that LinkedIn tends to be a less formal platform than an email inbox. This means you can use more conversational language and a friendlier tone to convey your job descriptions.

(Image Source: Go Hire(opens in a new tab))

Candidate outreach FAQs

1. What is candidate email outreach?

2. How to avoid spam filters in SaaS email outreach?

• Write personalized, engaging, and relevant emails 
• Clean your email list regularly and remove invalid contacts 
• Avoid using spammy words like ‘free’ or ‘guaranteed’ in your email body
• Ensure proper email authentication with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to improve deliverability.
• Be consistent with your sending schedule 
• Always monitor your email sender reputation and candidate engagement

3. How to use phone calls in cold email outreach?

4. How do I integrate email and CRM for outreach?

5. Which AI recruiting tool supports email outreach?

Summary 

• Make your email subject line short and engaging for the candidate.
• Personalize your email content 
• Keep your emails short 
• Use LinkedIn for your outreach campaigns 
• Segment your candidate pool
• Warm up your email domain 
• Send follow-up emails
• Schedule your emails at the right time
• Use AI-powered outreach tools