These 3 recruiting cold email examples are so good, you will want them now!

How do you write a recruiting cold email that engages and compels top talent to apply? 2 weeks ago, Our CEO received a recruiting cold email from a Fortune 500 company to apply for a Documentum developer job, a role for which he applied 22 years ago. Ofcourse, our CEO immediately unsubscribed from their mailing lists, marked the email as spam and deleted the email. 

All passive candidates get cold emails from recruiters. They are usually very bad and rarely include any customization, personalization or even checked for recency of a candidate experience. Often these emails are automated and they don’t have to suck.

At krita.ai, we analysed 1000s of cold emails and graded them based on performance, readability, authenticity and consistency to the brand. Based on these learnings, we have put together a list of highly persuasive, guaranteed to get response emails that have helped sources engage with the best available candidates faster. These cold emails are so good, you will want to steal them. 

Getting the basics in place

Lead with your employer brand

Your employer brand is the glue that holds the entire candidate experience together. Use the brand tone, language and phrases consistently across your emails.

Personalization works

Research about the candidate and gather information about their career path that aligns to the career growth opportunities at your company. Use this information to craft a personalized email that connects with the candidate.

Connect with “what makes your company special”

Most of us are competing for the same talent that big brands like Google are after. For small and medium companies, it’s a race for talent with our hands tied. Focus on answering two questions in a short sentence: a) what makes you different & attractive (your purpose, the reason you exist and thrive, impact you create, cool work you do, patents, awards & recognition, the way you treat people) and b) Your work that will best resonate with the candidate.

Keep your email simple

• Subject line: make it short, intriguing and relevant to the content of your message.
• Keep the email short – Maximum 120 words.
• Make it readable – avoid jargon. Check it is easily understandable by an 8th standard student.
• Verify to eliminate unconscious biases.

Right call to action matters

Your call to action will vary depending on the level of the candidate and the number of candidates you seek to hire. For example:

1. Interest CTA: Works well for executive and senior management hiring. Asks for interest, not a meeting. Like, “Are you interested in learning more about X?”
2. Meeting CTA: Works well for mid level hiring. Asks for a meeting using a specific day and time. Like, “Can you chat Friday at 2 PM PT?” OR, can you pick a date/time that works for you from the calendar below.
3. Specific CTA: Works well for high volume hiring where you want the candidate to directly apply for the role. Like, “if you would like to learn more about the role and apply, please click on the link here to apply”.

Top 3 recruiting cold email templates for sourcing

Now that we have got our basics right, let’s look at some examples of awesome email templates for sourcing top candidates.

Recruiting cold email Example #1: Hyper personalized email to the individual

Rule: It’s not about you, it’s about the candidate.

This format works exceptionally well when engaging with senior level candidates. Once you start talking about you, your company and how great you are, senior people tune out. So, make the first reach out about the candidate.

Best practices:

1. Use this approach only when you have credible and recent research about the candidate. 
2. Use Interest CTA.