How to get better responses to your LinkedIn InMails

Friday, May 20, 2016

It's widely known that the average response rate to LinkedIn InMail's are no way near as high as recruiters would like them to be. First of all, would you reply to your own InMail, especially if it's a generic email about a job in your industry?

The InMail has to be one of the most abused forms of email communication out there. In theory, it's a nice idea as it democratizes working. You can send an InMail to pretty much anyone on LinkedIn. In practice, it's led to the temptation to spam a lot of candidates in the hope that some will reply or be interested in hearing about any other opportunities you may have.

However, using this approach is rather damaging for your brand. Overall, it's bad strategy to use. Whenever you plan on reaching out to a candidates you haven't spoken to before, the aim should be to start a meaningful conversation.

The candidate most likely does not know who you are, and you're trying to persuade them into changing their current position or taking some time out to talk to you. With this is in mind, it's not always best to go in all guns blazing about your perfect opportunity. It's important to make a connection first and touch base accordingly.

 Think back to how receptive you are when you get a random sales email out of the blue, pitching a product you know very little about. You have little to no idea about the company and almost always know nothing about the salesman. Lastly, you don't even know how the salesman got your email in some cases.

Bearing that in mind, how many of you would reply to the message. How many would even take time to open the message and read past the first line, let alone the subject matter.

Unless you've managed to identify a very willing candidate, you're not going to seal the deal with your first InMail. It is the first crucial step to opening an honest dialogue, but if you get it wrong, it can hugely damage your brand. Also, the candidate will get the impression that he or she is part of a huge mailing list which further damages your reputation.

Make it a goal to find out about the candidate's career goals and ambitions. Start by introducing yourself and tell the candidate exactly why you're messaging them. These should be the only KPI's at this point of the recruitment process.

When you've found out a little more about the candidate's career motivations, you can tailor your job pitch to fit their needs and increase your chances of placing them in a relevant position.

Follow these steps in your next InMail

1. Keep the subject line short and attention grabbing, especially you're looking for the best response rate,
2. Carry out a little bit of research other than looking at their first name. Try and look for a few interesting points in the candidate's profile that you can say in the message.
3. Try to make your pitch both informative and persuasive. Try and reference quite a few unique details of the candidate and explain why you think they could be right for the role. In short, what's in it for them?

One of the best ways to  make sure you're writing highly effective InMails that actually has a greater chance of being opened and considered is to put yourself in the candidate's shoes. Whilst you shouldn't spend a lot of time researching a candidate's profile, it's important to point out a minimum of two unique points before messaging.

Hari Singh, Recruitment Consultant