How to Cold Email a Recruiter?
Uzair Rasheed
Publishedat
Cold emailing has been proven to be handy in many areas besides marketing. It can be used for getting career advice, building up your career in different aspects and even getting a new job title.
Cold emails can be useful in many areas, including finding your dream job or a dream company. Though using cold emails in this area might be odd for some, it shows the effort you’ve invested and your willingness for the particular position.
Writing a cold email for a job is a good idea since it is a different approach from many others who just apply on the job portals. It could also help you get an interview so you can ask more questions about the job opening to make sure that the company you are applying for is a good fit for you.
On top of that, it can also help your application stand out among the other applicants. In this blog post, we will discuss whether cold emails are effective for recruitment or not, a few tips you should use when sending cold emails for a job, and an email template we have optimized just for job applications.
Why use cold emailing?
Cold emailing has many advantages when it comes to job seeking and here are some benefits of using cold emails for job hunting.
It increases your chances
Writing cold emails to a recruiter or prospective employer can increase your chances of getting a job. If you will do it the right way, you may find it better than searching for a job online on a career site.
Cold emailing is a direct and immediate approach to reaching out to someone who is in the position of hiring and if you do it the right way, you might even get your first interview scheduled sooner than you expected.
You can stand out from the rest of the applicants
Whenever there is a job opening, you apply for it with a resume and cover letter just like many other people that do the same thing. If you use cold emailing to find the best-fit position for yourself you can simply stand out from others who are only using the conventional approaches via a job board or website portal to apply for the jobs. The best part is that it's not even difficult. Job seekers are expected to write a cover letter when applying for an open position. Rather than writing a cover letter, you just need to write a good cold email to a potential recruiter. We believe that you must not write generic cold emails and personalize the email content for each specific company.
Don't use templates or copy-paste the same content in your cold emails otherwise, they won't serve the purpose.
Gives you a chance to get to know them better
It is also very helpful for you as you would get the chance to know the company more. If you could manage to arrange a brief meeting or an informational interview to answer their queries and ask questions about the target company, you can get to know each other better. That way you can find a perfect place that suits you as well.
Imagine all those people getting jobs in companies that do not align with their personalities or their values after they have applied for the company and already gotten the job since they didn't even bother to ask questions. Many people are miserable for that reason only and we believe that using a different approach for recruitment can make the leave you in a better position and make a lot of difference.
Are cold emails effective?
The simple answer to this question is “Yes”.
Whether your cold email will be effective or not, it all comes down to the following questions which you might ask yourself.
How good is the cold email structure?
Is there any value in your cold emails for your potential employers?
Are you personalizing your email content?
Will they read your cold email till the end?
To learn more about how to write effective cold emails to business prospects, take a look at our blog post on this subject.
How to compose a good cold email for your job search
A cold email is a message sent to someone you don't know, typically to initiate contact. It's also called a "cold outreach". You are reaching out to someone that you haven't talked to before.
The best way to compose a good cold email is to keep it short and simple. You should introduce yourself and why you are reaching out, provide some information about your background, and then ask for an opportunity to meet in person.
There are many elements to sending the best cold email for a job. Your subject lines, first lines, and the rest of the text should be tailored perfectly for the recruiter.
1. Subject line matters
A good subject line in an email is really important in cold emailing. It is one of the first things the recipient will see. Writing a good cold email with a subject line that stands out will help you immensely.
You can check our blog post here for more ideas about writing cold email subject lines that work. Keep in mind to avoid clickbait subject lines and make sure that your email is there to add value to the recipient's time.
Email subject line is something that is seen first by the people. According to HubSpot, over 47% of all marketers test different subject lines to optimize email performance. This is enough reason to spend some additional time crafting your subject line for your next email.
2. Personalization is key to getting a response
The first few lines of your cold email should be able to give a good impression and develop an immediate connection with the recipient. Finding a shared interest could also be a good idea to build rapport.
To personalize your cold emails you need to visit the company website or LinkedIn to read about it. Just so that you can tell the hiring manager or recruiter that you have been following them and know about their company for a long time.
What makes personalization so important is that it differs from generic emails sent to hundreds of leads. Not only it shows your genuine interest in the company but it also increases the chance of getting a response.
You can find the information for personalization by looking at the company's website or visiting the hiring manager's LinkedIn page. Don't forget to mention the company name and the job opportunity you are looking for.
If you aren't sure how you can personalize your cold email content, you can get Nureply's AI to do it for you. Sign up now and generate unique lines for your first few potential employers for free.
3. Explain why you are emailing briefly
One of the biggest mistakes done by job seekers is sending a "vague" cold email. Be specific and clear about the goal of your cold email. Recruiters already know it's going to be an email for a job, so be clear, specific, and bold enough to state the purpose of your cold email.
Also, you do not want to bore the hiring manager with a 15-minute-long email. Long emails can be annoying as you are taking readers’ time for something that could be summed up. On top of that, since there are no salary expectations set here you need to make sure that you make an offer that they can't refuse. Something that is realistic and suits the job position you emailed for.
4. Always include details about yourself
After personalized first lines in your email, you need to tell them briefly about yourself. However, it should be just enough to pique your recruiters' interest. You do not want to write the whole resume for the hiring manager. You should briefly mention the key skills and the references for the job you are applying to. Tell them why you are a good fit for {company name} and how can you bring value to them.
5. Show interest
You should show your interest in the open position. Being curious about the position can show that you want to get the job and could make you more interesting to the hiring managers.
Briefly mentioning an award the company won, some special networking event they have prepared, etc. will let them know that you are interested in them. Following their business social media accounts, if they have one, will be useful for gathering this kind of information.
In the end, you can ask for a brief meeting as the call to action part of your email. In that initial meeting, you can ask every question you have about the position you are applying to. These may include questions about the company culture, the position in detail, key responsibilities, and most importantly how you can help them achieve their targets.
6. Find the right person to contact
It is very important to contact the right person while sending a cold email to find a job. Your best option will be to look at the company website and LinkedIn.
Search for recruiters or managers that hire people in your target company. While it's not easy always to find the right person who decides recruits. But still, there is a good chance that the recipient will forward your email to the right person.
Finding a common personal connection could also be useful and could be used as a reference in the cold email. Your mutual connections can endorse your skills and increase your chances of getting hired. If you know your potential employer beforehand, it would make you more trustworthy.
7. Do not add links in your initial email at all
Maybe you wonder what kind of job application email would be without a CV, but you will have to trust us with this one. There are a few reasons why you might not want to add links or attachments to your initial email.
There should be no attachments or links in your initial cold email since it affects the deliverability and make it look like spam to email service providers. Besides, your prospect is unlikely to trust a link or attachment from a stranger anyway. Therefore, you should just rely on the email content and try to get a response.
8. Know when to send your cold email
Write a cold email within business hours to get a prompt response from your potential employers. Cold emailing recruiters between 8 am and 11 am are usually considered to be the best times.
Sending a cold email when office hours are about to finish can decrease your chances of getting a response. When you are only sending a few cold emails, it is always a good idea to schedule your cold email at the right time.
9. Check email deliverability
Checking email deliverability is not a subject you will stumble upon on many other posts about sending cold emails. Scaling your cold emails and keeping an eye on email deliverability is one great way to ensure that you are knocking at the right door.
Also, approaching the right person and sending the emails to the right email address is very important in finding a job via cold email. Since the number of prospects you approach for a certain job opportunity is limited, you should always verify the email addresses by using an email verification tool to ensure maximum cold email deliverability.
If you use Nureply to send cold emails to a recruiter, you can verify the email addresses before sending, personalize your email content with AI, keep an eye on email deliverability, and will also know when your prospective recruiter opens your email.
10. Follow-up emails and frequency
As the name suggests, a follow-up email means following up on the reply or the action, depending on your last cold email. If you don’t receive an answer after seven days of sending your initial cold email to the hiring manager, sending a short gentle follow-up email can be a quick reminder, and prioritize your cold email in case the recruiter has been busy.
The average cold email response rate is 1%. You need to understand that not all hiring managers from every company you approach will respond to your cold email. Being invasive and sending indefinite emails will just raise red flags and nothing else. It is always important to be extremely professional. So just a couple of short follow-ups to remind them are more than enough.
However, if you still don't get any reply, then you must admit that they aren't interested and don't send another follow-up.
11. Example with a good structure
We usually do not recommend using a cold email template. Every business or recruiter is different. You need to do the research and personalize your email content accordingly. However to give a brief explanation of what we have talked about earlier in this blog post let's take a look.
Here is a sample cold email for you to understand everything we discussed above.
Dear {firstname},
My name is {yourfirstname}, and I am reaching out to you to express my interest in the advertised position on your {CompanyWebsite/LinkedIn}.
I love that you offer great quality Indian food in Nottingham. It’s great to see how much the city loves your service and that it has been around for over 20 years.
I have noticed that your restaurant has won multiple "Restaurant of the year awards" and it would be an honor for me to join your team as a manager. I have got considerable experience working as a manager at {relevant work experience}.
I would like to schedule a time with you for a personal meeting where I can reveal how my managerial skills can be a perfect fit for your restaurant.
Would you be open to discussing the role sometime this week?
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely, {yourname}.
Conclusion
To conclude, cold email job inquiries are the most underestimated, but still efficient way for reaching out to recruiters nowadays.
If you are a job seeker with all the relevant skills for a particular job and your cold email checks all the elements described above in this blog then you have a good chance to make it to the job interview.
Following the few basic steps in writing your cold email like writing a compelling subject line, paying attention to personalization, keeping it simple but creative and a few follow-up emails can get you to your dream job.