#4
Optimize Your Outreach
Reaching out to potential candidates is in every recruiter’s job description, but it also requires effort and time, and with 21% of recruiters reporting they have too many candidates for jobs, this can feel overwhelming. Prioritizing quantity over quality with bulk emails or the copy-and-paste method to save time and seemingly increase your chances is not a winning strategy, though. What is a winning strategy is continuously optimizing your outreach.
Three in ten technologists are considering changing employers in the next year, according to the Dice Equality in Tech Report. Those candidates who are actively searching are, of course, more likely to respond to outreach (if the role sounds like a good fit for their experience and skillset). For passive candidates, it’s even more critical that recruiters get the outreach right. By continuously testing and optimizing your outreach efforts, you’ll be more aware of what’s increasing your response rate.
It's no secret that personalizing your outreach can boost response rates. It may take additional time to draft individual messages, but making a candidate feel like the message is unique to them almost guarantees a higher response in the long run. There are multiple ways to personalize your outreach, such as the type of message you send (email, direct message, phone call) or the length of the message.
Personalizing your outreach establishes trust and creates a positive atmosphere for candidates. It also supports a positive experience with your brand, your agency’s brand and/or your employer’s brand.
Here are a few ways you can start testing today:
Email Subject Lines
Try asking a question or including their first name. Email subject lines need to be short and to the point. According to Experian, emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened.
Show Evidence of Interest from Others
Mention the hiring manager for the position or your organization's CEO or CTO in your outreach to show that there are multiple people from the company interested in the expertise and skillset the candidate offers.
Ease Into the Ask
Don’t pitch the job right away. Ask for a brief call or to meet over coffee where you can establish trust and a friendly rapport. This will also allow you to learn what’s most important to the candidate right now so you bring them more relevant opportunities.
Mention Motivating Factors
Including specifics about the opportunity that might be motivating factors, such as salary range or fully-remote/flexible work options, could entice a candidate to respond to learn more about the opportunity.
Keep Lines of Communication Open
Test follow-up cadences with candidates who don’t respond or were not interested initially. (Maybe it wasn’t a good time to switch jobs six months ago, but now the candidate feels differently.)
Three in ten technologists are considering changing employers in the next year.
Source: Dice Equality in Tech Report
Connecting with Technologists on Dice
Recruiters have access to Instant Messaging and Private Email — two Dice tools that create seamless lines of communication. Recruiters and technologists can initiate real-time conversations through Instant Messaging, and with Private Email, recruiters can contact technologists while preserving personal email information. Because of this, Dice Private Emails see a 71% higher open rate than the industry average.