Ace Your Recruitment Email Marketing 🎯 [+Free Templates]

Being a recruiter means you’re never out of business. People need jobs, and you being their fairy godmother, help them secure their dream positions. 

But who’s going to make life easier for you? 👀

From sifting through thousands of CVs to organizing numerous interviews, there is one domain that you can happily put on autopilot, i.e., email marketing for your recruitment needs. 

This article shares all the important information about recruitment email marketing to achieve your hiring goals. Let’s dive in. 

What is Recruitment Email Marketing? 

Recruitment email marketing involves sending emails to candidates to facilitate your recruitment process, i.e., finding, screening, hiring, and onboarding potential job holders. 

Why Emails of All Channels for Recruitment Emails?

Imagine receiving an Instagram DM from a person claiming to be a recruiter from your dream company, asking you to share your CV for an open position. Not only will you be suspicious about the legitimacy of that message/recruiter, but you will also feel violated about being reached on your personal social profile. 

Email marketing for recruitment works simply because it is the professional channel that people are used to. It is what is expected by job seekers when being reached by recruiters. Even when people headhunt on LinkedIn, emails are involved somewhere later in the process. 

Another plus point is that email marketing is reliable. When promoting your culture on Instagram/Facebook, there is a big possibility that your target audience was simply not shown the post because of the algorithm we all love to hate. 

Provided you follow all deliverability best practices, emails will always reach your audience’s inbox. No dependencies on algorithms here! 

6 Types of Recruitment Emails You Can Send (+Free Templates) 

The common misconception is that all recruiters send the same email copy that good ol’ Google recommends. But that’s seldom the case. 

Your recruitment email marketing can be as extended and limited as you want it to be. Generally, you can send the following types of emails when hiring candidates: 

1. Email for hunting employees 

In this email, you send a targeted message to candidates to fill a certain position in your company. Make sure to politely introduce yourself and the company and explain why they’re the best fit for the said position. 

One quick tip is to always mention how you got to know about them, whether it was a referral from a former colleague or a job hunt site. This acts as a source of familiarity when the candidate doesn’t know about you. 

The following template features a vibrant email design that’ll be an instant hit with your targeted candidates. 

‍2. Email of a roundup of the best jobs 

You should be sending this email if a) you belong to a job hunt website, like Glassdoor and Indeed, and want to share the best jobs or b) interested candidates have signed up to receive job updates from your company. 

The following template provides a roundup of recent jobs in a minimalist email style. 

3. Email sharing tips for securing dream jobs

Whoever said no to free insider knowledge? 

People looking for jobs are also looking for ways to boost their chances of being selected for an interview. Since you have tons of experience in this field, you can share some helpful tips/best practices/hacks for securing their desired jobs; and turn the pursuit of dream jobs into a reality with actionable insights.

The following email template might be of interest to you. 

4. Email updating your company’s success/news 

To be the best, you need to consistently communicate why you’re the best. And the easiest way to do so is by sharing company-wide wins with interested job candidates. The latter will get more excited about joining your company and will engage in positive word-of-mouth, encouraging others to apply as well. 

The colorful email template below has sections already divided so you can share multiple pieces of information. And, oh, did we mention this template is completely free? 

‍5. Email promoting your company culture 

Did you know that 90% of job candidates consider brand reputation before applying to an open position? One factor that promotes a healthy brand reputation is how employees are treated, aka the company’s culture. 

Sending emails promoting your company’s culture and what makes working there fun is a sure-shot way to reach your preferred job holders. 

Customize the following email template to promote why your culture is better than others. 

‍6. Email breaking news to unsuccessful candidates

Sharing bad news is never easy. But there is one way to bring out the positive from the negative.

When informing unsuccessful candidates about the bad news, give them honest feedback on why they weren’t processed further. After all, rejected candidates who receive feedback are twice as likely to consider another position from your company in the future. 

The following free email template will make things easier for you. 

Tips for Getting Your Recruitment Email Marketing Right

Let’s move on to the meaty stuff. 

Many recruiters send different types of emails, but not all get the same results they’re aiming for. Make sure to follow the below helpful tips the next time you create emails for recruitment purposes. 

Send personalized emails to candidates 

When hunting for those perfect candidates, send them extremely personalized emails or else you’ll end up ignored. 

Like buyer personas, create hiring personas for each position, i.e., a description of the skills and experience required to make the ideal job candidate. To help you identify the latter, you can create negative personas, aka the person you don’t want occupying that said position. 

Once you’ve selected the right pool of candidates, send them targeted emails explaining how you found them and why they’re the right fit for the position. Also, address them with their first name as opposed to a ‘Dear Candidate.’

Use email automation strategically 

Automating your emails is a God send. Instead of always being on your laptop sending emails, email automation allows you to automatically send emails based on different triggers. 

Candidate didn’t reply? Set a cadence for automatic follow-ups. Finished the first interview with a job seeker? Automatically send them a thank you message. 

One note of caution: don’t get too excited with email automation. You need to find an in-between where your emails appear personalized yet are automated for your peace of mind. This can be done by strategically adding merge tags. 

Merge tags are code snippets that let you add unique subscriber data directly from your email marketing software. Addressing your subscribers by their first name is the most common example of merge tags in emails. 

With Unlayer, adding merge tags is super easy. From first name to company city, there are a number of merge tags for you to explore. The best part? All these merge tags are human-friendly, i.e., no code names to confuse you but rather humanistic names for easy selection. 

Easily Design Recruitment Emails With Unlayer

Just drag and drop elements, and you’re all set.

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Encourage subscriber sharing

When sending job update emails, you’d want to reach out to more and more people in chances of landing that ideal applicant. 

But your email list isn’t the most extensive, so how can you reach the masses? Through subscriber sharing, of course. In your recruitment emails, add your social channels so people can share with their social followers. You can also add an ‘Email to a Friend’ call to action button in your email’s design. 

Related: Call To Action in Emails: The Only Guide You’ll Ever Need

Keep your email list healthy

The success of your recruitment email marketing campaigns ultimately depends on how healthy your email list is. But what do we mean by a healthy email list? The latter is a list of subscribers who actually want to hear from you. 

Here’s how you can maintain a healthy email list: 

• Conduct a routinely audit of your email list in which you remove duplicate, incorrect, and disengaged email addresses. 
• Never buy (or rent) email lists. Always make use of permission-based email marketing. 
• Use double opt-in forms to ensure only interested people sign up. 

Remain consistent with your branding

Ever noticed how your favorite brands are those with unique brand characteristics? Nike is famous for its swoosh, the golden arches remind you of McDonald, and red and black colors are synonymous with Netflix’s branding. 

All these characteristics help shape their brand identity, which is crucial when promoting open vacancies. 

When sending recruitment emails, ensure your emails are on-brand. Add your brand colors, typography style, and logo to the email you design. Also, ensure the tone of your copy is synonymous with that of the different campaigns you send. 

Related: 4 Steps to Maintain Brand Consistency in Email Marketing

Don’t forget email etiquette 

Etiquette is important, but it holds even more significance when reaching out to potential hires. On most occasions, job seekers aren’t aware of your company, which is why the way you communicate with them creates the first impression they have of you. 

To ensure you’re always on your best behavior, follow the below rules of email etiquette:

• Address the recipient with their first name/full name, and make sure you greet them. 
• Avoid clickbaity subject lines. 
• Proofread your emails and avoid the overuse of exclamation marks, emojis, and words written in all caps. 
• Refrain from using humor in emails because you never know how the other person will react. 
• Keep the email’s tone friendly and approachable. 
• Make sure to provide any details that the job seeker may require. 
• Close with a professional signature. 

How to Measure the Performance of Your Recruitment Email Marketing Campaigns? 

Just following email and design best practices isn’t enough to guarantee successful recruitment emails. You must track the performance of your recruitment emails to ensure you’re on the right track. Timely tweaks are better than questioning the ROI of your campaign after witnessing disappointing results. 

There are a number of email marketing metrics, but tracking the following three are the most fruitful for recruitment email marketing. 

Response rate

This metric tracks the number of responses received against the emails you send. You can calculate the response rate by dividing the number of responses by the number of delivered emails and then multiplying the answer by 100 to get a percentage. 

This is important to track, especially in the case of headhunting or cold emails. A high percentage signifies that people find your emails easy to understand and reliable. 

Interview conversion rate

The interview conversion rate can be found by dividing the number of candidates interviewed by the number of delivered emails, multiplied by 100. 

This KPI measures how successful you’ve been in not only finding interested job seekers but convincing them enough to be involved in your recruitment process by interviewing them. A higher percentage is preferred as it shows that your set strategies are working. 

Hiring conversion rate

The hiring conversion rate directly indicates the ROI of your recruitment email marketing campaigns. It measures how many candidates were hired through the emails you’ve sent. You can find this figure by dividing the number of hires by the number of emails delivered, multiplied by 100. 

The higher the number, the more fruitful it is for you to continue sending recruitment emails to attract potential candidates. 

Related: 15 Email Marketing KPIs and Metrics You Must Be Tracking

Make Recruitment Email Marketing Easy With Unlayer

Designing emails for different needs is a time-consuming process. It’s not about simply adding a few pictures, writing copy, and calling it a day. There are many minute details that you need to consider, like responsiveness, rending on multiple email clients, and optimizing for dark more. 

This is where Unlayer can help. 

Unlayer can supercharge your email design process in the following ways: 

• No-code drag and drop editor that makes designing emails possible in a matter of minutes. 
• Vast library of 1,000+ email templates carefully created by our designers. 
• Templates already tested for responsiveness. 
• Ability to preview emails for both dark and light modes. 
• Personalization capabilities through human-friendly merge tags.   
• Integratable with top email service providers, including HubSpot, Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, and more. 

Want to see how easy it is to design emails with Unlayer? Watch the video below. 

Interested in what you see? Start your free 14-day trial today - no credit card details required.  

Conclusion 

Recruitment email marketing is not as daunting as it seems. By following design best practices and monitoring your strategy along the way, you can increase your chances of landing the right candidates. 

Got any tips to add? Comment below ⬇️.