Creating the Perfect Cold Recruiting Email Template

The art of recruiting has always taken skill, but even more so today, when there are 5 million more job openings than workers. Recruiters have to upskill and cut through the noise to reach top talent. Job boards no longer cut it—it’s time to apply cold emailing best practices to your recruitment efforts.

Here at Wiza, we’re experts at writing effective cold sales email templates. In fact we spend the majority of our time in the ideal recruiters’ playground—LinkedIn.

That’s why we took the time to put together what we’ve learned about creating the perfect cold recruiting email. We even threw in two free templates that you can use today.

What makes a cold email unique?

In recruiting, as in social life, your first impression is critically important. How you position your company, the role, and why you’re interested in a particular candidate can make the difference between a phone call and the spam folder. 

Generic recruiting emails are not only less effective at getting a response, they can also reflect poorly on your company’s brand. Remember, when reaching out cold, your focus is on getting a commitment to a simple ask, like a short phone call. To do this, focus your emails on why a call, and ultimately a job at your company, is worth their time.  

Always state the reason that you’re reaching out. This shows candidates that you’ve done your homework and understand their fit for the role. The last thing anyone wants is to be pitched a job that doesn’t match their skills. Take a look at their LinkedIn history with special attention to any job responsibilities they’ve listed and the types of companies and industries they’ve worked in. 

To cut through the noise, make sure your email is attention grabbing. Keep your message to the point and about the candidate, not your company. Your subject line has to be compelling and different in order for someone to open your email. For example, instead of “Great opportunity to join a growing startup” your subject line could say “We like what you’re good at.” 

What are the key elements of a good cold recruiting email?

People like to hear about themselves. And with a recruiting email, they want to know that you actually want them (and it’s not just a copy + paste email). That said, your email will stand out if you make the message all about the candidate, their skills, and why they caught your attention in the first place. 

Once they open your email, keep them engaged by including these 5 key elements. 

1. Keep it short and sweet: 

Most people will read emails for the first time on their mobile devices. So if your message has 5 long paragraphs, they’re not going to bother to open the email at that moment. Catch their attention with a short, punchy subject line and aim for six sentences or less.  

2. Personalize, personalize, personalize:

It’s very easy to hop on to LinkedIn and learn about your target candidates. Call out achievements they’ve listed on their About page, for example, “We’re impressed with how you grew your project to $10M in revenue in just two years,” or “Your 5 years of experience in customer support is exactly what we’re looking for.” 

3. Flatter the recipient:

This is an easy way to create rapport. Let them know that you’re super impressed by how quickly they rose through the ranks at their current employer. Compliment their latest LinkedIn post and why you liked it. Tell them how a mutual connection spoke very highly of their work. 

4. Start with a small request:

Make it as easy as possible for a potential candidate to say yes to your call to action. Don’t ask them to click a link, fill out an application, and upload their resume. Instead, ask for a quick phone call and provide them with a calendar link so they can grab a time slot in your schedule. Try to avoid the back and forth about availability. 

5. Work with high quality leads:

You can write the most impressive, foolproof recruiting email but if you’re working off of old or inaccurate leads, your message will accomplish nothing. The easiest way to get high quality, up-to-date leads is to download lead lists from your LinkedIn Recruiter account. 

Filter these lead lists to only include candidates’ work emails, which tend to have a better response rate than personal emails. Upload the leads into your outbound email software so you can pull in custom details like name, job title, current company, and city. 

2 Tried-And-True Cold Recruiting Templates 

Cold email template

In our Wiza case study, we discuss exactly how we used LinkedIn and Wiza to fill our open customer success manager role. Aside from advice on how to narrow your search, we also included our most effective email template which saw a 28% response rate: 

Hi NAME,

I recently stumbled upon your LinkedIn profile while researching potential candidates for a JOB TITLE.

I’ve been over it a few times, comparing it with our current open position, and have forwarded your info to our hiring manager. We’re impressed with your expertise and think you’d make an excellent addition at YOUR COMPANY.

We are an early-stage start up with a lean, focused team that was recently recognized as an ACCOLADE.

If that sounds interesting to you, feel free to schedule a 30-minute intro call with someone on our TA team CALENDLY LINK. 

Job Description LINK

Thanks for your time.

LinkedIn InMail template

If you spend most of your time on LinkedIn and want to make the most use of your LinkedIn Premium account, try this short but sweet cold recruiting template: 

Hi NAME,

I found your post on TOPIC to be super helpful. I shared it with the team and we’ve started implementing some of your advice. Thanks!

I’m the lead recruiter at YOUR COMPANY and we’re looking for someone with your SKILLSET to help us grow OUR business to $10 million in revenue OVER the next 18 months. Are you interested in learning more? 

Please grab some time that works for you in my calendar HERE. 

Talk soon, 

NAME

What’s next?

Don’t be dissuaded if a candidate says that now is not the right time. Focus on nurturing them for future openings. To see exactly how Wiza used our own tool to sort through thousands of leads to find the perfect job candidate, check out our article, How we took a DIY approach to hiring our CSM.