There are plenty of articles floating around the interwebs proclaiming that email is dead. I disagree. Email is still a powerful tool and effective when marketing for recruitment. It’s important to stay on top of the latest trends and best practices. Here are a few pointers if you haven’t reviewed your process recently.
- Build your own direct email list, with subscribers who have specifically opted in. If you’re relying on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook to reach your regular audience, you may be selling yourself short. You also may not have the ability to email them OUTSIDE of those platforms, which puts you at risk of losing contact if any of them change their rules. Offer an easy way for people to subscribe to your mail list. Be sure to confirm those subscriptions (that’s the “double opt in” method). Services like MailChimp or Constant Contact use these methods and offer affordable pricing.
- Take advantage of segmentation to tailor your message to specific parts of your overall list. One option is to add categories to your confirmation email – for example, audit jobs or tax management jobs. You can then market audit jobs JUST to the people who are interested in those jobs, instead of trying to be all things to all people.
- It bears repeating: your email MUST be mobile-friendly! Job seekers are looking at content from hand-held devices. If your email is hard to read, with tiny impossible-to-click hyperlinks, images that don’t resize properly, or requires a lot of pinching and zooming, your audience will disappear.
- Pay attention to email deliverability. There are a LOT of changes taking place to try to limit the amount of email spam. Unfortunately, good email often gets caught up in these changes. Work closely with your ISP to ensure you have the correct server settings so that your email doesn’t get rejected as spam.
- Experiment with sending time. Email marketing for recruitment depends on engaged subscribers who open, click, and share your email. The “traditional” wisdom that open rates are highest on Tuesday mornings is no longer accurate. Additionally, *YOUR* audience may not respond when others do. Try a few different things until you find a time where people are opening your messages … and stick with it. Don’t be afraid to try weekends. Job seekers may have more time for email when they’re away from work.
- Create compelling subject lines. Email marketing for recruitment requires interruption. People receive a *lot* of email. Your subject line must grab the reader’s attention and prompt action. If your email services offers A/B testing, use it!
Email marketing for recruitment is still one of the best tools you have for communicating with clients and candidates. The trick is to make sure you stay current with this ever-changing communication medium.