Seven key email marketing tips for recruitment agencies

There’s no doubt that the introduction of GDPR has made email marketing more challenging in all sectors, but it can still be an effective tool for recruiters and recruitment agencies both in engaging with potential or former clients, and also in communicating with prospective candidates. 

In this article, we share some of our top tips for recruiters wanting to use this marketing channel to generate more business and attract top talent to apply for roles. 

1. Build a compliant list for email marketing

Ensuring that you give people lots of opportunities to sign up for marketing emails is important, and you need to give them a compelling reason to do so. People (understandably) don’t always give away their data lightly these days, so they need to know what they will get in return. Access to exclusive valuable content or tools can be a great incentive for them to tick that box. 

2. Segment your email list effectively

The complexity of your segmentation is likely to depend on the specific recruitment niche(s) that you operate in, to some degree. To get the best results from your email marketing, the more you can make emails super-relevant to the recipient’s specific interests, the better. 

For clients, segmenting the email sign-ups into size of business (number of employees), along with the industry niche and the types of roles they usually want to fill can be a good idea. 

For candidates, there can often be more variables but along with the usual information such as experience levels/seniority, you can also segment by:

• Jobs they have applied for through you previously
• When they last applied for a job through you
• How frequently they have said that they want to be contacted

Using the information you have on your subscribers can help you to deliver the most relevant content possible to them.

3. Include a variety of useful content in your emails

If your emails to candidates include only job postings, you might find that they unsubscribe fairly quickly. Including valuable content, using great visuals, that drives them back to your website for the full version can be a good tactic to use. Think salary calculators, CV tips, interview advice etc. 

4. Make your calls-to-action (CTAs) clear and meaningful

Every ‘story’ included in your emails should include a clear and compelling CTA. Whether it’s ‘Apply Now’ for a specific job role, ‘read the full job spec’ or ‘use the tool now’, leave the reader in no doubt as to what they’ll find if they click the link. 

5. Choose your subject line carefully

Quite simply, a subject line will make all the difference on whether an email is opened or ignored. Keep yours short and to-the-point, run them past someone else before using and test different styles to compare open and action rates. 

6. Enable easy unsubscribes

We probably all know the frustration of unwanted email newsletters that make you jump through hoops to unsubscribe. Of course, you ideally don’t want anyone to unsubscribe, but if they do choose to, the last thing you want is for the process to damage what they think about you as a recruiter. 

7. Ensure they are mobile-friendly

According to research, over 40% of emails are opened on mobiles, so ensuring that your emails look great and work properly on a variety of different screen sizes is important. Images that hide buttons or long text that takes forever to scroll can be big turn-offs. 

Email marketing is a channel that can bring great rewards for recruiters when planned and implemented carefully.

If you’d like some support with any element of your recruiter marketing strategy, we’d love to talk! Get in touch today, 

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