According to LinkedIn, the InMail response rate is three times higher than a traditional email. Along with such benefits as connecting with any LinkedIn user without knowing their email addresses (even if they do not have a Premium account), LinkedIn InMails allow recruiters to converse with both passive and active potential candidates about career opportunities and build a talent pool.
This article focuses on little-known shticks for crafting a LinkedIn invitation message to candidates that grabs the receiver’s attention immediately and increases your organization’s hiring potential manyfold.
Let’s get started.
Sidenote: InMail Basics
First things first. So let’s refresh the basics behind LinkedIn InMails briefly:
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You’ll need to craft an up to 200-character subject line for your InMail.
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The text body should not exceed 1900 words.
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Different LinkedIn tools see InMails differently. Say, Sales Navigator sees InMails and messages as different entities, while in Recruiter, InMails are messages to the first circle.
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You’ll need InMail credits to send InMails. Depending on your plan, you get to send from 30 to 150 InMail messages per month.
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You can purchase more InMail credits above your LinkedIn plan’s monthly usage limit — $10 for each extra credit (in Recruiter Lite only). (Not inspiring, huh?)
How Do You Increase LinkedIn InMail Response Rates?
Every recruiter does outreach campaigns in their unique, unrepeatable manner. But there are certain commonalities veteran recruiters name when crafting content that helps find the next quality hires and create a talent pool of prospects.
Tip #1: Open brief, catchy, strong
Curiosity is a driving force for increasing your InMails’ open rates.
What will be inside this message?
If you manage to craft meaningful content that triggers a train of thought in your candidates’ minds, the chances are high that they will want to open your message to find out more.
We are all thankful for LinkedIn templates and hints. But alas, such subject lines as “Your next career opportunity,” “We are hiring,” or “Your dream job is here” are not working at all.
What you can and should do is put on your candidate’s hat and think “Would I want to open such an InMail?” “What would I want to see in such a message?”
Answering these questions will let your finger content that is interesting yet useful both for the candidate and your brand.
Tip #2: Personalize uniquely
Professionals have been speaking about personalization for the last decade and will keep discussing it.
It would help if you remembered that calling your candidate by name is no longer a personalization tactic. They are rules of etiquette.
You will know that InMail is a masterpiece when it is a template, but it does not feel or sound like one at all.
For that, you can:
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Quote the candidate’s recent post
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Share insights on their most recent comment
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Mention something about their experience or background
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Talk about their hobbies
Concurrently, there is the possibility to send messages with hyper-personalized images using dedicated services. With the help of built-in variables, the users can add custom text (first and/or last name, company name, industry, etc.) to the uploaded images. The cherry on top is that some LinkedIn automation tools offer syndication with such services to facilitate the process. For example, Linked Helper comes with syndication with Uclic. So after creating a personalized image, all you will need to do is generate and copy its dynamic link and paste it to the platform’s Message Template Editor.
Demonstrating your prospect that you’ve done your research will play into your hand.
According to LinkedIn data, the personalization of messages by talent professionals helps increase response rates by 20%.
Tip #3: Endorse the candidate’s achievements and efforts
This advice is also personalization but a more flattering one. People love being special and should be treated accordingly.
Seeing that your candidates’ efforts in developing their skills are recognized will help gain their affection and establish a friendly and sincere relationship.
Tip #4: Search areas of common interest
People are social beings. We love being a part of the community and connecting with individuals who share our interests and support causes that resonate with our convictions.
Connecting with the candidates’ former coworkers or connections also counts.
What you can do is mention whatever in common you find. If you are working in the same industry, there’s a good chance you know opinion leaders, pain points, common connections, and ideas.
Pro Tip: Use LinkedIn Automation Tool to Send Automatic InMails
Out-of-the-box LinkedIn InMails come with certain limitations. (We covered some of them above.) So if you need more, the platform will require you to invest more.
It gets better:
Using LinkedIn automation software, you can overcome those limits and gain more flexibility at a lower cost.
Linked Helper is an excellent example for the job.
The tool is not limited to the InMail functionality only. So let’s not get carried away and focus on this feature to have a full picture of what else you can do with LinkedIn InMails to incentivize responses:
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Take your InMails personalization to the next level using the Linked Helper Template Builder and its custom built-in variables. Such functions as “if/then/else” are worth noting individually. They are offered by the tool to personalize auto-messaging.
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Parse candidates on LinkedIn who can receive free InMails and outreach to them in bulk (with highly personalized smart campaigns).
And the best part is,
You won’t have to worry about your account’s safety or compliance with the LinkedIn rules. LH has it all covered — the software is not a Chrome plugin; it is built to imitate human-like behavior while automating it.
Summary
We hope this article has managed to equip you with valuable insights on how to grab your candidates’ attention from the first lines and better this communication channel even further.
So next time you want to send out an InMail, avoid cliche phrases and templated content but follow the pieces of advice we provided in this article. With the right tool at hand, your recruitment marketing campaigns will enjoy an uplift, and your InMails will demonstrate higher open and response rates.
Happy recruiting!
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