Recruiting Tips: How to Entice Candidates with Your Messaging

As mostly everyone knows, a recruiter’s job is to find that perfect candidate to fill the position. Recruiter’s source candidates, interview them, and coordinate with the hiring manager for further interviews.

A highly important detail of the recruiting process is finding the most qualified candidates. However, even if you find this needle in the haystack, how can you guarantee they will be interested in the position or company you are pitching?

This is where recruiting messaging is most important. By messaging, I am referring to the content of the email/inmail you are sending to candidates in order to grab their attention and move forward with next steps.

There are different ways to tailor a message to candidates, and it can depend on the company or the type of position you are recruiting for. I have also found there is a fine line between withholding information (in order to prompt the candidate to ask for more info) and offering too much information, resulting in a message that’s too long and wordy.

The most important pieces of information to include are:

Selling points on the company

• Has your company grown 50% over the last year?
• Have they won awards from the industry or been named a best place to work?

Appealing details on the position

• Is it a brand new role where the growing potential is boundless?
• Would the candidate be working with an exciting new type of technology?
• Would he or she have direct reports?

These are highly important to highlight in the message. My ultimate goal is to make the position and company sound so appealing that even candidates who are not actively looking for a new job comment on how great the position sounds and share it with their network.

Another best practice is to personalize the message. The last thing you want is for the candidate to think you are using a template and blasting it out to anyone in the area who meets the minimum qualifications.

Take the time to review a candidate’s Linkedin profile and pinpoint what exactly would make them a great candidate. It doesn’t hurt to make the candidate feel special, but it’s also ideal to point out why you think they would be a fit.

There are a variety of ways to incorporate these three important pieces into your messaging. Tinkering with messaging and testing different methods while recruiting for a specific role will help to continuously improve.

What else would you want to include when messaging a candidate for a position? How do you leverage the information you have to attract candidates and set up phone interviews?