CATS Applicant Tracking System

Arrows by Cooper Whitescarver

Email blasts to candidates seem like a great way to get a message quickly out. When is a blast appropriate and when isn’t it? Let’s dive into the details of this communication type and dismantle it.

E-mail blasts seem great. You get to save a ton of time by reaching out to many candidates at one time to see if they, or someone they know, are interested in a new opportunity you have.

While this may yield a few pleasant responses each time, you’re probably doing more damage than good. This kind of strategy is often viewed as spam by the recipient and doesn’t make a good impression of the company.

In the group of candidates that dislike these types of emails, how many do you think will be open to working with you in the future? Probably none of them and the small bucket of those that are OK with these emails will dry up quickly. Not a good long-term strategy.

Wouldn’t it be much better to receive a personalized email from someone who took the time to research you before advertising a job?

Personalized and individual messages that show time was actually spent learning more about the recipient and their fit for a particular position will greatly increase the chances of receiving a response from the candidate. As humans, we like when others take interest in us.

If the email clearly demonstrates that some amount of work was put into it, it’s much harder to ignore.

Sending these targeted and personalized messages will impress the candidates and increase your chances of great word of mouth placements. Imagine working with each of your candidates, having an awesome relationship with them such that they are telling their friends about how great you are.

But Blasts Work For Me!

The above might be an “in a perfect world” idea since we can’t always research all candidates. Luckily, there are effective ways to use email blasts. The point is to be responsible, maintain a good name for your company and respect the candidates. Part of this comes from where you’re getting your candidates.

They Can Work

Email blasts can be detrimental if you just buy a big list of email address and blast them unsolicited. This is a quick way to damage your company reputation and become blacklisted by email providers. With email being a primary communication tool, it’s important to protect its integrity.

Of course, most of the time, there isn’t enough time to send personalized messages to every candidate and in recruiting, everything is fast paced. No one wants to miss a placement because they were too slow. Enter email blasts.

Let’s say you have a nursing job in Chicago and 1000 candidates apply. Only one or two end up being selected and placed. Then, a few days later, or perhaps even months later, a new opportunity comes up in the same area. It’s probably safe to assume that the candidates that applied to the previous nursing job are interested in the new one. An email blast is sent out to the 998 candidates and you’re able to quickly find some good fits to fill the new job.

Even Better

Instead of assuming a candidate is interested in similar job opportunities in the future, ask them. Simply add a question to your application that asks if they are interested in being contacted about future job opportunities or not.

When using this method, it’s important to make sure you don’t contact candidates who answer ‘no’ about future opportunities. However, now when you contact those that are interested, you know for sure that they are. Winning!

Assess your needs

In short, it’s best to assess your needs, what you have and how your message could affect your company and then decide which route to go. There are situations in which email blasts are a good idea and others where a blast isn’t a good idea.

Make sure you’re contacting those that wish to be contacted and not spamming them. Keep in mind, the definition of spam is unsolicited bulk email. Keep a good company image by being respectful of candidate wishes.

Your results?

I’d be interested to hear if you’ve found better success one way or the other when it comes to using email blasts or not.