Dive Brief:

• Taking the time to personalize and tailor each email message to passive candidates can result in a more favorable response, says Roy Maurer, Online Manager and Editor, Talent Acquisition for the SHRM blog. This helps to establish a real connection early on that demonstrates you’ve done your homework and actually reviewed their profile.

• Christian De Pape, head of marketing at Recruiting Social, a recruiting, branding and training agency, shares his tips for getting sourcing emails right. He says that while it’s tough to initiate a conversation via LinkedIn or a cold email, “You need to get candidates to actually click through to read your e-mail.” He adds, “You also want them to get a good first impression and hopefully not totally shut you down."

• Kerri Mills, an executive talent sourcer at Indeed and the 2015 SourceCon Sourcing Grand Master shares another great tip. She advises recruiters to set themselves apart from others and give candidates a reason to feel compelled to respond. Mills warns against the use of templates unless they include a personalized note. Even if a candidate isn’t interested right now, they know you reviewed their profile and may feel obligated to at least respond. 

Dive Insight:

Kristen Widman, customer success manager at LinkedIn agrees. She says that it’s best to think of initial conversations with candidates via email much like you would a regular meeting at a live networking event. She advises recruiters to, “focus on starting a conversation, rather than selling them on a job.”

Writing the perfect sourcing email is a lot like crafting a strong marketing message. The tips to create an attention-grabbing subject line, keep messages brief, adding a call to action, and giving candidates a chance to respond are fairly textbook. However, Arron Daniels, senior recruiting sourcer at H-E-B., makes the important point that every recruiter needs to do his or her research before sending an email to any candidate.

Sourcing emails must be to the point, show genuine interest in candidates, and invite them to take a specific action in order to provide results. It’s no doubt that this can be difficult to convey in an email format. Recruiters are encouraged to use email as one of many tools in their arsenal of resources to get in front of the best passive talent, but not overuse it.