Messaging: The Key to Building a Successful Candidate Pipeline

Mar 18th, 2021

Just like in most life situations, you only get one chance to make a good first impression. The same thing goes when conducting that first reach-out message to a potential candidate. There are certain tips and best practices when messaging a candidate that will not only increase your response rate but also build a relationship and expand your future network.

When writing your initial reach-out message, it is essential to open with a punch to capture the attention of that candidate. Choose a subject line or header that grabs that person’s attention and will make them continue reading. Half of the battle in getting a candidate’s response is getting them to read what you have to offer in the first place! Try to separate yourself from every other person with your subject line. Chose something you think they will value and add it to your subject line.

After building interest with a unique subject line, we now move to the message itself. Make sure when conducting your reach-out message you personalize it as much as possible. You do not want to sound like a robot just copying and pasting template after template. Take something specific from their profile and bring it up in your message to sound more human. If you share any connections or similarities from their profile, mention that too. Whether it be location, skills, school, hobbies, or lifestyle, it will show that you spent time looking at their profile. Remember you want to build a relationship with this person, and this will show them they are not just a number or metric, but that you genuinely want to learn more about them.

Lastly, be concise in your message. Most people do not even look at their InMail’s and if they are viewing your message it is probably from their phone. Be clear in your message regarding the next steps and do not send them a novel. Make sure you get the most important points across in as few words as you can. You can talk on the phone about all the “extras” after gaining their interest. Ask for “10 minutes to connect.” With people as busy as ever and not actively focused on new roles, it is important to keep these tricks in mind. They will help you not only get that response rate up but grow your network as well…total win-win!