The tech industry has been on a bumpy ride ever since the pandemic began more than 3 years ago. 2021 kicked off the Great Resignation, a period where employees across hundreds of industries—not just in technology—took steps to leave their jobs. When that wave turned, a new term was coined, The Great Regret. Next, towards the end of 2022, the job market was hit by The Great Layoff. In a nutshell, it has been wild, both for recruiting teams and for employees.

This is the fourth installment of our key messages series, analyzing cold calling. Read the first parts here: Crafting Key Messages that Sell (Part I) – Cold Email in Style, Crafting Key Messages that Sell (Part II) – Cold Messaging on LinkedIn, and Crafting Key Messages that Sell (Part III) – Cold Calling Like a Pro.

Crafting meaningful messages

One way to reach potential candidates quickly and effectively is with emails and messaging. While cold messaging can be difficult, it’s not impossible—and can work well when you use best practices.

Connect with industry professionals in meaningful ways so you can fill your open positions with the best possible candidates.

Focus on messaging interested parties

If you feel like your messages are being ignored then you might be reaching out to the wrong people. Professionals who recently started new jobs or who are happy with their work likely aren’t interested in hearing from recruiters. Similarly, workers who want to secure contracts and part-time freelance work likely don’t care about receiving full-time offers.

Use the tools available to you to find the right candidates before doing any outreach. LinkedIn has an Open to Work feature that allows candidates to specify that they’re interested in positions. These candidates are the ones you want to be reaching out to.

Don’t stop after you’ve sent the message. Keep tabs on what’s working so you can optimize your efforts by tracking response rates. If you’re sending good messages but aren’t getting responses, you might be reaching out to the wrong people. If you’re reaching out to people who are looking for work, and still not getting responses, your message may be off.

Use data to guide your outreach efforts. You can use a simple spreadsheet or in-house software to keep tabs on recruiting metrics including:

• Offer ratios
• Application completion rates
• Message open rates
• Message to interview rates

Reaching the right candidate is possible, it may just take a little time and tracking to get your strategy right.

Give them a reason to consider your position

Getting someone to leave one company for another is no easy feat. This is a major life change and can create stress for your candidates who need to interview and then go through an onboarding process, which can take several months. Even if they’re ready to find new work, give them a reason to consider the position.

To do this, consider what your candidates are looking for. For example, 40 percent of departing employees cite a lack of career development as a key reason for leaving their jobs. If this is important in your industry, then you should:

• Be offering candidates a step up in their career or would it be a lateral move for them?
• Include career development initiatives in your email to entice them to join your company instead.
• Ask them about how they’d like to see their career develop.

To figure out what potential candidates want, stay up to date with annual reports and data. For example, the 2021 Compensation and Culture Report found that employees would switch jobs if another company offered the following:

• Ability to work remote
• Unlimited paid leave
• More flexible working hours
• More transparency than current company provides
• A built-out DEI strategy

You might also look for newer reports to see what changed on the job market in the past 2 years.

Ditch the all-template messages

The more your candidates receive recruitment messages, the faster they get at identifying form emails. While it makes sense to work with a template when reaching out to candidates—allowing you to send dozens of messages on LinkedIn and via email in a short period of time—focusing on quantity over quality isn’t effective. Your candidates don’t want to be treated like one of 100 people to get your note, so make your templates more authentic.

Start by researching the professionals you plan to reach out to. Leave room in your template to note personal details and highlight their relevant skills and work experience. This allows you to send messages quickly and easily while still showing that you’ve taken time to get to know the person.

Send recruiting messages that work

The best way to win over potential job applicants is to send authentic messages and speak their language.

Drop the jargon and templates and focus instead on real messages. Talk about pay rates and benefits, not just the fast-paced environment and engaging opportunities.

Don’t forget to track your success so you can continually optimize to find the best candidates and bring them into your company.