How to Use Email Marketing for Recruitment and Hiring

You probably already use email marketing to reach your target customers … but are you using email to help with your hiring efforts?

Email can be a great channel to use for recruitment. Whether you’re looking to hire employees for your company or you’re a recruiter working for multiple companies, your email list can be a huge asset … if you use it well. Find out what mass mailing is in recruitment.

What is Recruitment Email Marketing?

Recruitment email marketing means sending emails to a list of individuals who’ve (a) signed up for updates from you and (b) who might be interested in the job role(s) that you’re advertising. Utilizing an employee template can streamline this process and ensure consistency in communication.

Recruitment email marketing definitely isn’t about sending mass spam emails to people who haven’t asked to hear from you. 

Types of Recruitment Email Marketing Content

Once we know what email marketing recruiting is, it's helpful to know the types of recruitment email content. There are a number of different types of content you can send to entice people to apply for jobs with your company. Some of these are more direct and immediate; others help “warm up” your email list so you pique the curiosity of some candidates.

1. Individual Email Messages to Target Candidates

You might choose to approach target candidates individually. This can be a good way to get a response, though it’s vital to personalize your message: don’t make it look like a mass email that you’re sending to lots of people.

You might explain why you’re approaching this particular person, tell them a bit about the job opportunity, and offer to chat about the role at a time that suits them. Keep your email short and to the point.

2. Emails to Your List Letting Them Know About a New Job Opening

If you have a list of people who are interested in your company – or, even better, a list of people who are specifically interested in a role with your company – then you should definitely alert them to new job openings.

If you’re a very small company hiring for a new role, you might send out several announcements about the role. If you’re a larger company with several roles, you might send out an email that lists all the open positions.

3. Emails That Focus On What it’s Like to Work for Your Company

Another great type of email to send is one that focuses on what it’s like to work for your company. You might share details about your benefits plans, perks of the position, and include quotes from current staff members.

This type of email campaign can be a good way to entice potential candidates who aren’t actively job hunting. An email that shares all the great things about your company might encourage them to consider making a move.

4. Tips About Finding Work in Your Industry

If your email list is likely to have a large number of job hunters, such as recent graduates or people looking for a career change, then you could share tips about finding work in your industry. 

This type of email offers useful information – encouraging people to keep opening and reading your emails – and it’s also a great opportunity to tell people about any jobs your company happens to have open.

5. News About Your Company, e.g. an Award You’ve Received

Your email list is a great place to share company news. That could be an acquisition, a new product line, or an industry award that you’ve received. Demonstrating that you’re a growing, award-winning company will help potential candidates warm to you.

Your news doesn’t necessarily need to be big. Even something as simple as receiving press attention or being featured on a list of “best places to work” is worth telling people about. 

6. Messages to People Who’ve Applied (Unsuccessfully) in the Past

If past candidates have given you permission to email them about future jobs, make sure you do so. Someone who narrowly missed out on a role in the past might still be interested.

Obviously, you’ll want to filter out unsuccessful candidates who clearly weren’t a good fit – such as those who didn’t come close to meeting your criteria.

7. Newsletters That Are Relevant to Potential Candidates

If you run a recruitment firm, then you might want to send out a monthly newsletter to all the people on your email list. This could include job hunting tips, a list of open positions, industry news, or anything that’s going to be relevant to potential candidates in the field you specialize in.

It can be difficult to find the time to write a monthly newsletter – and you might struggle to know what to write. This is why less than 5% of recruitment firms manage to send out an email newsletter. Try to plan out your newsletters in advance (e.g. listing the topics you’re going to cover).

How to Outline a Recruitment Email Marketing Plan

Recruitment emails aren’t a one-time thing. You probably won’t get many top candidates from simply sending out one email.

When you’re outlining a plan for your recruitment email marketing campaign, it’s important to consider:

How Many Emails Will You Send?

A single email might go almost unnoticed in busy inboxes … but twenty emails about the same position will annoy people and get you reported as a spammer.

For most companies, sending around three to five emails about a role is probably right. If you’re sending emails over a longer period of time (e.g. listing all open roles or sharing information about your company), then you might aim to send one or two emails each week.

How Long or Short a Time Do You Have?

If you need to fill a role by the end of the week, you won’t have much time to create content. You’ll want to send short, focused emails that make it clear what you’re looking for.

If you have longer, then your emails could be further apart and more in-depth.

What Type of Content Will You Include?

Are your emails going to purely focus on a role that’s open? If so, you might want to have one email about the role itself, another about working for your company, and a third reminder email that summarizes and gives one strong, clear reason to apply.

Or are your emails going to be more “newsy”? Then you might want to have short articles or quotes from different people within your company.

Will You Segment Your List for Following Up?

You can create a dynamic segment of your list to follow up on your recruitment efforts. For instance, you might send a second email to those who didn’t open the first one after a couple of days. This makes sure everyone has a chance to see the information … but avoids annoying people who already read the email.

You could even create a segment of people who clicked on the link to a specific job ad, e.g. in an email listing several different roles. This lets you send just those people more information about the job they’re interested in.

Four Quick Tips for Sending Recruitment Emails

When you’re writing your emails, make sure you follow these quick key tips:

Make Sure Your Emails Comply With HR Rules 

As with your job ads, you need to make sure your emails are fully compliant with the rules about recruitment. For instance, it’s illegal to imply that you’ll show preferences for candidates based on protected information or characteristics such as race, religion, sex, disability, age, and more. 

If you’re unsure if your wording is OK, ask your HR team to check your email for any HR compliance issues.

Use a Compelling Subject Line

You want your emails to be opened and read – and that means using a compelling subject line. Something like “Need a programmer – are you interested?” is likely to get more opens than “New Position Open at Acme Inc”. 

Have a Clear Call-to-Action

Let people know what you want them to do next. Include a button in your email that they can click to express their interest in the role – or give them a link so they can outright apply for it. Don’t simply talk about the role then leave them to hunt around your website to figure out what to do next.

Encourage People to Forward the Email to Friends

One of the great things about sharing job details by email is that it’s easy for people to forward your email to friends. Encourage this by saying something like, “Do you know anyone who’d be the perfect fit for this role? If it’s you, come and apply! If it’s a friend, do them a huge favor by forwarding this email on to them.”

Email marketing is a powerful, flexible tool for recruitment. It can help you land more top candidates in less time. Start working out your plan today for advertising job openings by email … and you’ll soon have a stronger candidate pool than ever before.