5 Tips to Increase InMail Message Response Rates
April 1, 2015
As hiring managers and recruiters, LinkedIn has clearly streamlined our ability to connect with potential candidate opportunities. The challenge, of course, is that it’s not exactly a secret resource. With candidates being bombarded daily with a flurry of InMails and connection requests, we have to get laser focused with our messaging. How can we make sure it’s targeted and positioned correctly to stand out and grab the attention of our recipients?
To answer that question, I was able to tap leading talent acquisition expert Andre Boulais, currently Strategic Account Director at Jobvite. Boulais has 10 years of experience sourcing and hiring for various companies including ExactTarget.
During our conversation, Boulais shared several exciting tips and tricks to help you streamline your recruiting efforts and make the most out of each outreach attempt (including how a few select Star Trek references helped his team recruit top engineers). Andre and his team were able to achieve a 44% acceptance rate for their InMail messages to passive candidates! Let’s dive into them below.
1) Actually read your target’s profile
Yes, this sounds straightforward, but you’d be surprised how often seemingly smaller, trivial details can ultimately make the difference in getting your target to respond.
Candidates are well aware that recruiters have the ability to send out mass InMail templates to cast a wide net. You need to use every piece of information available to make your outreach more specific and personal.
Mentioning something specific in your subject or first sentence can signal to the prospect you’ve actually read their profile and are serious about your outreach.
2) Be clear and specific
When it comes to sending out a cold InMail, the key is to treat the exchange as if it were any other form of communication. Intro yourself with a brief profile of who you are and get right to the point with the key reasons you’re contacting that individual, specifically.
Show that you respect and value their time by keeping your message clear and concise.
3) Do your homework
I know what you’re thinking — that’s easier said than done if you’re trying to source for a large number of positions. That’s where 360Social comes in. It’s a simple Chrome extension that can be used to pull up information from anyone’s profile, including links to other social media accounts, professional groups, and personal pages. It works just like other Chrome extensions and will constantly be running on the sidebar of your browser.
This is a simple tool that makes obtaining information far more easy, but it’s still your job to read through it and incorporate various aspects into your messaging.
4) Personalize your outreach
For starters, highlight any core connection you have with the individual. This can be anything from a shared interest to shared connections.
Example in action: By taking a more personal approach, a junior member of one of Boulais’s recruiting teams was able to reel in a response from a highly targeted engineering candidate.
How did he succeed where others on the team had failed? He discovered the candidate was a die-hard Star Trek fan, which the recruiter was, as well. As a result, he drafted a custom message littered with plot references, and received a positive response within 11 minutes. Not only that, the message also resulted in creating a strong networking connection with the candidate the recruiter was able to leverage later.
5) End with a clear action item
You can take all the time in the world to create a strong, personalized message, but if you don’t include a direct CTA it may all be for nothing.
Never close out a message without highlighting clear next steps. That can be as simple as highlighting windows of availability you have, or asking the candidate if they would be open to having a brief call to discuss the opportunity in more detail.
Always leave your contact information as a signature in your messaging. Some candidates will use your contact information to call you directly rather than responding to the InMail.
Remember, the main goal of your messaging is to get the conversation started and ultimately see if the opportunity would be a great fit for both sides.