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Top 6 Recruitment Email Templates to Engage Passive Candidates

August 22, 2022

You’ve found the perfect candidates and added them to your sourcing pipeline. They have the skills, experience and exposure you ideally want – such a fit that can get started with you from tomorrow. But wait, are they really looking for a job? Nine out of ten times, the qualified matches you come through would be passive candidates. In fact, around 87% of people in the entire workforce are open to new opportunities. Once you source passive candidates for your organization, it’s time to engage them for favorable results. In this blog, we will share the top 7 LinkedIn InMail templates that you can directly use to ace passive candidate engagement. 

Recruiting quality talent is only becoming more intricate amidst the growing competition. From tech to growth, marketing and sales roles – organizations are doing everything possible to source and hire top talent. A majority of recruitment today involves passive candidate hunting. Although it was a thing earlier too, fast-growing startups backed by heavy investments have scaled up this practice. 

It has clearly become a candidate-centric world. Amidst this sensitive era when you need to grow in order to sustain as a business entity, you cannot experiment with hiring talent. The ray of hope? 73% of the candidates are passive job seekers – you now know where to mine gold from. 

Now while sourcing passive candidates, your communication is a vital aspect that needs to be optimized. The emails that you draft, and messages that you send – should be convincing enough for the candidates to hit reply. 

If you get overwhelmed every time you hear recruitment emails - you’re not alone. And you don’t need to worry, we’ve got your back. Let’s dive straight into the blog, we discuss everything you need to know about engaging passive candidates along with tailored-for-you recruitment email templates! 

Why Candidate Engagement is Vital in Recruitment? 

Recruiting candidates is not just about sourcing and adding them to your talent pipeline. A lot goes into keeping the candidates actively involved during the entire hiring journey. Assisting them throughout the recruitment and ensuring a positive candidate experience is the key to driving top talent towards the end of the funnel and reducing the drop-off rate. As an employer, you need to establish a connection with candidates in the workforce. While recruiting passive candidates, consistent and clear communication through various channels lays down the foundation of efficient engagement.

89% of surveyed candidates say being contacted by their recruiter can make them accept a job offer faster. Here are the four core reasons why candidate engagement is critical for recruitment:

  1. Establish a Positive Relationship

Hunting candidates for filling roles at your organization now involves building relationships steadily. Continuous engagement makes that possible. On the other hand, leaving your candidates in the dark after the first screening round would do more harm than good. The modern workforce wants to stay informed throughout the recruitment process.

  1. Helps you Beat the Competition

Positive and timely engagement with candidates helps you overcome competitors by making them excited to work with you and delivering a great candidate experience. Remember that almost no candidate is involved only in your recruitment at a given time. Applying and interviewing with multiple employers simultaneously is a common practice. A consistent and effective engagement process helps you win the recruitment race.

  1. Faster Recruitment

The most underrated advantage of proactive candidate engagement is the pace at which the recruitment cycle gets completed. Top candidates are available in the market for only 10 days, your recruiting journey needs to comply with that requirement for optimal results. Apart from keeping candidates happy, the speed of recruitment often multiplies with effective candidate engagement.

  1. Boosts Employer Brand

The way you engage with candidates and the recruitment experience that you serve directly impact your organization’s brand as an employer. Your candidates, no matter if they get selected or not, will share their recruitment experience with their network. In fact, 35% of candidates share it publicly online.

Strategies to Engage Passive Candidates 

Contrary to popular opinion, engaging candidates is not only about setting up communication templates. It should be a well-rounded approach toward representing your employer's brand and delivering a seamless candidate experience. Here are the top five strategies you should keep in mind while engaging passive candidates.

#1 Screen Candidates Rapidly

The first thing that recruiters need to optimize is the time taken to review candidate profiles. The slow screening also costs them quality candidates, as multiple organizations are approaching them at any given time. There shouldn’t be any obligations for reviewing a certain number of candidates together. The moment your sourcing pipeline starts filling, screening and filtering of candidates must begin too. Replying to your candidates at the right time helps in boosting their interest and hence, they would be more aligned to work with you.

#2 Practice Omni-Channel Communication 

A majority of modern candidates do not actively open their emails. Even if they do, there are high chances of them not replying because emails involve the highest effort among all communication mediums. Alternatively, if candidates are engaged through multiple channels like WhatsApp, SMS, and LinkedIn messages – the odds of them opening your messages and replying significantly increase. 

#3 Follow a Strict Hiring Timeline

A major chunk of the organizations today do not follow a strict hiring timeline. While this wasn’t too important earlier, it’s a vital factor defining your success in recruitment today. Preplanning all the stages of your hiring and sharing a chronological sequence of events ensures great candidate engagement. With an inclusive and dedicated approach, you can leave a mark in their mind which will further impact their employment decision. 

#4 Ensure Feedback Exchange

One of the most underrated parts of effective candidate engagement is giving and collecting feedback. 52% of candidates who were given feedback were more likely to have a positive relationship with the company. No matter if a candidate successfully moves forward to the next round or not, a brief review of their approach is immensely helpful.

Additionally, collecting feedback for your recruitment would also help in identifying and further filling the gaps. And it’s not a step involving huge efforts. You just need to create feedback forms once and share them with candidates after each round of interviews.  

#5 Update Candidates on Each Step

The biggest mistake done by recruiters traditionally is not updating your candidates about their recruitment journey further. When a candidate doesn’t qualify for the screening or interview, you and the recruitment need to inform them. If a candidate does qualify through the assessment, a detailed brief on the next steps along should be shared timely. Reaching out and sourcing passive candidates, and then keeping them uninformed leaves a negative impression of your organization.

Recruitment Email Templates for Passive Candidate Engagement

No recruiter ideally wants to dig through applications and filter among thousands of candidates. More importantly, quality candidates don’t usually apply to job boards. The only way to recruit them is by reaching out directly. 

We have tailored 7 recruitment email and LinkedIn Inmail templates that you can instantly use to engage passive candidates. Each of the templates can be used in dedicated scenarios with respect to how you source your candidates.

  1. Engage Candidates Sourced from Job Boards

Subject Line: Invitation: Recruitment drive for the position of [Job Title] at [Company Name] 

Hi [First Name],  

I came across your CV on [Job Board] and it instantly clicked on me that you may be a great fit for a [Job Title] opening we’re currently hiring for at [Company Name].  

Here’s the link to access the job description: [JD Link] 

We at [Company Name] are passionately solving problems in the [industry] space. Our objective is to [Company Mission] and we’re building a world-class team for the same. 

I am sure you would love the company culture, employee benefits, projects, workplace and the learning opportunities that our organization offers.

If this excites you, let’s schedule an interview this week – any working day is fine.  

Do you have any questions? Just reply to this email and I’ll be happy to answer them.

Looking forward to hearing from you,  

Best,

[Your Name] 

  1. Past Colleague 

Subject Line: Opportunity for the role of  [Job Title] at [Your Company] 

Hi [First Name],  

If you don’t remember, we worked together at [Your Past Company] when I was working as [Your Past Job Title] there.

I hope you’re keeping well and having a good time there. I just wanted to quickly check if you’re ready to consider another exciting opportunity right now. A [Job Title] position is open at my current company, [Your Company], and I think you may be an excellent fit based on your experience.  

I’ve worked at [Your Company] for [Length of Time] now, and it has been a pleasing experience here. You would probably appreciate the work culture, job perks, growth opportunities and inclusive environment of our organization.

For more details, check out the job description here: [JD Link] 

If this draws your attention, let’s schedule a conversation for this week or next. I would be happy to answer your questions if you have any of them.

Let me know! 

Best,

[Your Name]

  1. Past Applicants

Subject Line: [Job Title] position at [Company Name] 

Hi [First Name],  

I hope you’re doing well. 

I along with my team was impressed by the efforts you put in the last time you applied for a role at [Your Company]. Let me know if you’re ready to consider another opportunity right now. 

The [Job Title] position is open here at [Your Company]. I strongly feel you may be a perfect fit for the role. Based on your previous application for the [Previous Application Job Title] role, and your experience, I would love to schedule an interview with you this week or next.  

You can find the job description here: [JD Link] 

Reply to this email if you’re ready for this. I would be happy to answer your questions if any. 

Hope to hear from you soon,  

Regards,

[Your Name]

  1. Recommendations from Your Network

Subject Line: You were recommended for the role of [Job Title] 

Hi [First Name],  

My team at [Company Name] is currently looking for a talented professional for the [Job Title] position, and [Referrer Name] recommended us your profile. I completely trust his/her experience and hence, I want to interview you to find out if you’re a good fit for the role. 

I am sure you would be excited about the opportunity after reading the job description: [JD link].

If interested in taking this forward, kindly book an interview slot here: [Scheduling Link]

Let me know if you have any questions. I am looking forward to having a conversation with you!

Best,  

[Your Name] 

  1. Engage Candidates Sourced from Social Media

Subject Line: An opportunity you don’t want to miss

Hi [First Name],

You probably heard this a dozen times, but your profile caught my eye, it truly reflects your passion. 

I’m from the hiring team at [Company Name] and I along with my team believe your experience, would be a prolific fit for the role of [Job Title] at our organization.

Can we have a quick chat?

Looking forward to your response. 

Regards,

[Your Name] 

  1. LinkedIn Inmail Template for Following Up Passive Candidates 

Subject Line: Recruitment for [Job Title] job at [Company Name] 

Hi [First Name],  

I hope you’re doing well.

A few days ago, I reached out to you for an exciting opportunity – [Job Title] opening at [Your Company]. I sincerely believe you may be a great fit for our team as a professional.

Just wanted to quickly check again if you’re interested in interviewing for the role.

We’re willing to begin the recruitment process soon. 

If interested, please choose an interview slot over here: [Schedule link]. Please reply to this email with your queries, if you have any. We would be delighted to have a conversation with you.

You may read the job description here, if not checked already: [JD Link].

Looking forward to hearing from you! 

Best,

[Your Name]

Automate Your Passive Candidate Sourcing with Nurturebox

Seeking passive candidates for hiring at your organization is a justified objective given the fact that a majority of applicants usually do not qualify your requirements. However, initiating, managing and consistently practicing passive candidate recruitment can be overwhelming for you. Especially, while scaling up your business – the hiring also needs to be scaled up and at a high pace. Reaching out to candidates, engaging them and keeping your candidate sourcing pipeline updated – Nurturebox helps you automate all of these and streamlines your recruitment journey.

It’s now easier than ever to scale your outreach and engage candidates with minimal manual intervention. Here’s how Nurturebox enables passive candidate sourcing automation and contributes to your organization’s growth:

  • Find prospects on social channels: Leverage platforms like LinkedIn to find, identify and add candidates to your sourcing pipeline using Nurturebox’s Chrome extension. All it takes is a couple of clicks to find the contact details of candidates using dedicated plugins. Add them directly to your sourcing campaign and link to your ATS. The system ensures you never reach out to a candidate twice and no candidate is left out in the background.

  • Perform multi-channel outreach: Modern candidates prefer to be communicated via channels they are mostly active on. Be it LinkedIn chat messages, Whatsapp or emails – Nurturebox allows you to execute effective multi-channel outreach. Integrate your sourcing pipeline with automated engagement via plugins like recruitee, and automate the entire candidate engagement sequence. Additionally, you can also save templates in the plugin and use them instantly to send personalized engagement messages. 

  • Automate pipeline management while collaborating with your team: All your mundane tasks like updating the recruitment status for each candidate after each round of recruitment, and numerous others can be easily automated with Nurturebox. It allows you to get rid of all the admin chores so that you can focus on the more important part – efficiently interviewing candidates.
  • Track and analyze your performance: Nurturebox enables dynamic performance analytics. You can know which engagement campaign worked well for any given candidate. For example – if you found out that a majority of the prospects replied to the engagement message when it was sent just after lunchtime, then you can capitalize on the factor and schedule your further outreach campaigns accordingly. Additionally, you can track the performance of various subject lines and templates.

Amidst today’s noisy digital world, brands find it challenging to create meaningful connections with their customer base and target audience. Getting the target consumer’s attention and persuading them to buy from you gets even trickier. Hence, content marketing has become more crucial than ever for brands to attract, educate, and retain customers.

Content creation is a top priority for 80% of marketers, and there is no reason it shouldn’t be. Consistent, high-quality, and engaging content impacts your audience’s decisions through education and persuasion.

Depending on your business goals and requirements, the role of Content Marketers you hire will vary. The primary responsibilities revolve around forming consistent brand messaging and deciding upon a unique and identifiable voice, style, and pitch across various distribution channels.

From raising brand awareness to attracting a relevant audience to your website, boosting social media presence and engagement, generating leads, and building brand loyalty – content marketing drives all the growth efforts for your brand. When done effectively, it can help you:

  • Build positive brand awareness
  • Make your audience stick around for longer
  • Get better traction on social media
  • Gain more trust of your audience than ever
  • Generate qualified leads
  • Improve conversion rates
  • Boost business visibility with SEO
  • Position your brand as an authority
  • Cultivate loyal brand fans

While content marketing is a broad role with numerous areas of expertise involved, it’s vital to thoroughly understand your company’s current marketing goals and the related requirements. In this blog, we will dive deep into the step-by-step approach to hiring a Content Marketer.

What is The Role of a Content Marketer?

A Content Marketer must be deeply passionate about telling your brand’s story to the world. The objective is to educate and nurture the target audience to establish brand authority using thought-leadership and drive more people to buy from you.

As a candidate is expected to be a mediator between the brand and the target audience, they are primarily responsible for planning, creating, and sharing valuable content to grow their company’s awareness and engagement to bring more business.

To be more specific, the role of a Content Marketer requires a perfect blend of creativity and attention to detail in an individual. It’s a balancing role, as they need to ensure creating content that resonates and strengthens business relationships, using strategies that position your business as authentic and problem-solving.

Take a look at the core responsibilities of a Content Marketer that most businesses expect them to take over:

  • Research and Competitor Analysis: The first and foremost step to creating a content marketing strategy is effective initial research. It not only helps a Content Marketer understand the nuances of the industry through competitor analysis but also study and understand the target audience thoroughly.
  • Building Content Marketing Plans: Once the competitor research and target audience analysis is done, a Content Marketer needs to work on the different plans for all the business objectives, targeted channels, segments of the audience, and the bigger marketing strategy. A content marketing plan typically consists of:
  • Specific goals along with a pre-decided timeline
  • Various channels to be targeted for content distribution
  • Types of content to be created
  • Budget for the entire staff, outsourced services, and paid promotion (Collabs and Ads)
  • Creating Editorial Calendar: Creating, managing, and maintaining a content calendar is one of the most crucial responsibilities of a Content Marketer. It is a centralized visual document that enables effective collaboration among the marketing team and helps Content Marketers ensure on-time production and delivery.
  • Content Creation: Once the strategy and calendar have been approved by relevant stakeholders, Content Marketers need to do the on-ground work. This task usually depends on the scale of your company and content marketing strategy. Suppose an organization already has a set of writers, then the Content Marketer doesn’t need to create content by themselves.
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Producing quality content that educates your target audience and resonates with them, isn’t enough. You need to optimize your content creation to make it search engine-friendly. While most companies need a dedicated SEO specialist for keyword research and planning, Content Marketers need to closely collaborate with them and should be well-versed in the basics of SEO.

While the practices discussed above are primary responsibilities of a Content Marketer, they also need to be proactive with

  • Content editing and ensuring adherence to a certain style guide    
  • Continous publishing and distributing content
  • Measuring and analyzing performance

How to Hire a Content Marketer: Step-By-Step?

Content marketing has become the key to driving growth for businesses. Unlike a few years ago, it’s not possible now to get away with a one-person team for content marketing. You need deeply trained individuals for specialist roles.

Let’s now dive into the step-by-step approach of hiring a Content Marketer. But before you even source your first candidate, you should have a clear expectation of the skillset and experience to look out for top content marketing candidates.

Top Must-Have Skills in a Content Marketer

Apart from having relevant industry experience, a good Content Marketer must possess the following skills.

  1. Excellent Writing Skills

A Content Marketer’s prior skillset should be writing excellent attention-grabbing content. From long-form blog posts to website copy, ad copies, social media content, video scripts, emails, newsletters, e-books, whitepapers, and more – a Content Marketer should be able to adapt to the business’s specific requirements and create quality content.

  1. Audience Research

Identifying user behavior is vital for framing the story in the right direction. So a Content Marketer must know how to identify and analyze the needs and pain points to develop a buyer persona. User research can be performed through social listening, relevant communities, in-person calls with customers, analyzing sales call recordings, and more.

  1. Keyword Research

Creating valuable thought-leadership content isn’t enough. Researching the right set of keywords is an essential skill to further educate your target audience on the Whys, Hows and Whats of your business, and have your website rank on Google.

  1. Data-oriented Content

Content that’s not backed by relevant data points does not build enough trust. Experienced content marketing professionals would always prefer data over hollow claims. No doubt that only data doesn’t help a content piece succeed, but it’s essential..

  1. Project Management, Planning, and Publishing –

A Content Marketer is also expected to break down and analyze the pain points to turn keyword research into content ideas. So a professional must be able to identify and solve content gaps.

Further, they must know how to create a content calendar, decide the different types of content, and choose relevant platforms to publish and schedule marketing campaigns.

  1. Content Promotion

Creating a valuable content piece, for example - an ebook, isn’t enough. Your content marketing team needs to promote it proactively for bringing enough attention and engagement.

  1. Performance Analysis

Setting up goals and plans is one thing, but continuously executing, measuring, and analyzing content performance is another. A Content Marketer should always be monitoring key performance parameters to figure out the upcoming plans with the necessary updates required.

Not to forget - stakeholders and marketing heads need the performance reports regularly. So Content Marketers must be able to collect and comprehend all the data to make it worth presenting.

Step 1: Create a Candidate Persona

Let’s sort out the priorities first, and decide the type of content marketing candidates you want to recruit. From exceptional research skills to storytelling, communication skills, relationship building, audience engagement, and more capabilities must be comprehensively considered. Identify and break down the skill requirements for Content Marketers:

  • What are the educational qualification criteria for the role?
  • How many years and what type of work experience do you want in candidates?
  • What are the specific skill sets you’re looking for?
  • Which industry experience would you primarily prefer?
  • Are there any tools your candidates should be hands-on with?
  • What are some personality traits that will fit your company?
  • Where do they look for a new job?
  • What are their career and life goals?

Forming a candidate persona by answering all these questions would ensure you are not shooting in the dark while sourcing candidates. Further, it helps you determine the traits of the ideal candidate, and plan your sourcing and recruitment strategy further.

Step 2: Document the Role Requirements and Decide on Your Recruiting Process

Next step is determining your role requirements suiting primarily to organizational needs and business goals. A content marketing professional is expected to own the entire content strategy, creation, and distribution. But what about your business’s unique requirements?

You might need someone comfortable with frequently creating long-form content pieces like blogs, ebooks, or whitepapers, or creating engaging video content based on your industry trends.

Talk to various relevant stakeholders for seeking the complete detailed company requirements for the role.

Before you enter the recruitment funnel, outline your talent acquisition process. Identify various strategies, channels, and other informational insights you would need – and maintain a collaborative document.

As you update the tactics and tweak your recruitment process for meeting hiring requirements optimally – keep your document up to date.

Step 3: Prepare a Content Marketing Job Description

Once you have finalized the role requirements with respect to your current content marketing goals and team, you can start sourcing candidates. Preparing the job description is the first task you’ll need to do.

Here are the necessary components you must have in your job description:

  • Job Title: The position you’re looking to fill. For example - Content Marketing Specialist or Content Marketing Manager.
  • Roles & Responsibilities: An outline of the candidate’s day-to-day activities. From ideation to implementation and the impact on the organization, everything should be covered.  
  • Skill Requirements: Skills and abilities a candidate must have to perform the job successfully.
  • Perks and Benefits: The compensation details, perks of the job, and any other benefits.
  • About the Company: Why should a candidate consider working with your company?

Content Marketer Job Description Template

Role

The job of a Content Marketer is to perform competitor research, create user persona, and write plagiarism-free content for blog articles, social media, and the company website. They need to stay updated on the latest SEO techniques.

Responsibilities

  • Develop, write and deliver persuasive copy for the website, email marketing campaigns, sales collateral, videos, and blogs
  • Build and manage an editorial calendar; coordinate with other content crafters to ensure standards
  • Measure impact and perform analysis to improve KPIs
  • Include and optimize all content for SEO
  • Contribute to the localization of processes and content to ensure consistency across regions
  • Review and implement process changes to drive operational excellence

Requirements

  • Proven content marketing, copywriting, or SEO experience
  • Working knowledge of content management systems like WordPress
  • A well-maintained portfolio of published articles, blogs, copy, etc
  • Proven experience of working under pressure to deliver high quality output in a short span of time
  • Proficiency in all Microsoft Office applications, Google Suite
  • Fluency in English or any other required language

Soft Skills

  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills
  • Excellent writing and editing skills
  • The ability to work in a fast-paced environment
  • The ability to handle multiple projects concurrently
  • Strong attention to detail and the ability to multi-task projects and deliverables

Step 4: Source Candidates

Once you have the tailored job description in hand, it’s now time to do the groundwork and source candidates. Create an attractive job post to promote your job across job boards and social channels.

  • Begin with what to expect from the role at your company?
  • Why should candidates apply for the position?
  • Highlight the growth opportunities
  • State the company vision and mission
  • Briefly describe the recruitment process

Prepare an impactful job post and also execute paid job ad campaigns if required. The next step would be promoting your jobs on various job boards and hiring platforms. You can leverage the following platforms for hiring Content Marketers:

  • LinkedIn
  • Indeed
  • Instahyre
  • ZipRecruiter
  • Monster
  • GlassDoor
  • CareerBuilder

Not to forget - almost 3/4th of the workforce includes passive candidates, so you cannot miss out on passive talent sourcing as well. Reach out to qualified candidates on communities, LinkedIn, Twitter, and even Facebook to offer them suitable opportunities.

Step 5: Evaluate Candidates and Interview Shortlisted Ones

Once you have filtered candidates based on their experience and skills listed on their profile, it’s time to evaluate them deeply. Ask them to create a content strategy for your website, along with a value-adding content piece like a small blog. The topic of the article must fall within the scope of the strategy.

Interview the candidates whose profiles got shortlisted. Keep in mind the parameters covering skills, relevant experience, and personality traits of candidates.

Step 5: Make the Hire

Reach out to selected Content Marketers and communicate about the compensation.

Further, extend your offer letter to all the candidates who have been selected. In the case of passive sourcing, extend to only those who were aligned with you on the compensation and are willing to move forward.

Ensure having a deadline for the joining date and mention the necessary documents required by your recruiting team.

  • Get the required documents and set up the offer agreements with candidates
  • Organize an orientation session for the onboarded candidates
  • Introduce them to the entire team and the marketing teams they will be working with
  • Guide the new candidates about your company management tools and communication channels
  • Provide candidates with forms for benefits and perks like Health Insurance.

Supercharge Your Hiring for Content Marketer with Nurturebox

Inbound candidate sourcing doesn’t work effectively anymore. Do you also find challenges in closing quality candidates through job posts even after spending on ads?

Don’t worry, passive candidate sourcing can be an optimal solution for hiring top content marketing candidates.

Nurturebox is a one-stop talent sourcing and engagement platform which is powered by automation. Here’s how you can source product managers from LinkedIn using Nurturebox:

  • Install the Nurturebox Chrome plugin and sign up.
  • On your LinkedIn profile, start sourcing Content Marketers with boolean searches stating the required experience from targeted locations and including other criteria
  • Add the qualified candidates to your sourcing campaign pipeline with just a click
  • Automate the candidate engagement through email, Whatsapp and LinkedIn direct messages for reaching out and nurturing candidates at scale.

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