Winning recruiter outreach messages

Writing the right outreach message is one of the most underestimated and neglected parts of recruitment. Whether you are a recruiter or founder directly reaching out to talent, you need to think carefully about the intent and content of your outreach messages.

In the current online world with an overflow of standardised and automated outreach messages from recruiters, candidates get scared off and frustrated.

Therefore, if you want to be successful with your outreach, you need to stand out by personalizing your message while communicating your intentions.

Some general guidelines to use while drafting your outreach message:

• Hyper personalize your message by referring to relevant professional facts about the candidate that you have found on public (!) sources online.
• Include personal facts only when they relate to the job or company you’re recruiting for or when the candidate mentions them on professional platforms, don’t mention the name of their cat that you found on Instagram (that’s kind of creepy).
• Don’t ask too many questions in your message, don’t make the candidate work hard in answering you. Keep things simple and provide value first.
• Don't be commercial or transactional, you're talking to a human being not to a robot.
• Provide one simple and frictionless call to action at the end of your message where the candidate can simply reply yes or no to.

Candidate outreach message examples

Messages to engineers

Engineers usually have a particular preference for how they want to be contacted. Some like to be contacted on social media and some want emails only with a clear concise subject line. Also they are receiving a ton of messages weekly and most of them are automated, so if you do your research and show that you have customised your message to them personally, your chances are significantly higher of getting a conversation with them.

Example 1

Hi [first name], I saw on LinkedIn that you’re a big Guardians of The Galaxy fan, can’t wait until the GoTG 3 release in 2023.

I’ve been looking at your GitHub repos and was impressed with your Angular projects, especially the dev tools projects, not something I have seen a lot of people working on but seems to be very relevant.

With [your company name] we’re building out our [subject] app which is reaching 50k business clients and we’re looking for someone who’s able to not only write great code using Angular but who takes the junior team to the next level.

This is the product and tech stack we’re building on.

With the variety of your Angular projects and the level of complexity you’re handling, it seems to be something that you might love to do.

If you want to have a chat over this you can reply in short and I'll take care of arranging our chat. Enjoy this sunny day! [your name]

Example 2

Hi [first name], I saw you mentioned to be open to recruiter outreach but like to keep it short. So here we go, with [company name] we’re building the next generation of API Marketplaces. I see you have been back-end engineering leading marketplaces before. Here’s more about the job that’s open with [company name] including salary range and a bit more about the product.

Let me know if you want to talk, pick a moment that suits best here or simply reply in short.

Enjoy the day, [your name]

Messages to sales executives

Sales executives are used to a direct and commercial form of communication. So you should get to the point quickly, but just like in building any other relationship you should not be too transactional. Remember, these people haven’t heard about you before and don’t know anything about you when they receive your message. Show that you did your research and explore if you like to learn a bit more from each other.

Example 1

Hi [first name], I saw you’re nailing it at [company name]. Seems like you’re on fire with the new clients you’re signing, congrats! We’re continuously looking for great sales execs to sell our SaaS product across different industries. Our sales execs are talking to c-suite from SMB to big corporates and they typically love the variety of their clients.

Let me know if you want to have a chat to see where you are now and what your potential next steps are, in the short or long term.

[your name]

Example 2

Hi [first name], must have been a great adventure helping [company name] and [company name] grow. Not many people can say they have worked with two startups that grew that fast. We’re looking for people like you. We’re on a mission to radically change the way people find people with our talent search engine (Here's more about our product vision). We are looking for one of our first sales execs who will be responsible for growing our client base and driving revenue in the European market.

We are a well funded startup (3M in funding) and growing fast: 50% MoM in revenue.

Let me know if you’d like to have a chat on Zoom or just send me a reply.

[your name]

LinkedIn connection invite messages (max 300 characters)

LinkedIn connection invites are short and require a different approach than longer and more substantive emails or InMails. The goal of a LinkedIn connection invite is to have the candidate accept your invite so you can, once connected, continue the conversation with more detail and comment on each other's LinkedIn updates.

Example 1

Hi [first name], I saw you extensive experience with [skill1] and [skill2]. We’re building the next [product vision statement]. Would be great to connect and follow you. We’re continuously looking for the best tech talent like you. We can always have a chat when it’s a good time. Kr, [your name]

Example 2

Hi [first name], I saw you post a lot on [topic1a]. What are your thoughts on [topic1b]? I’m always looking for people with a voice in this industry and they are quite rare I can tell you. We’re trying to change [company mission statement]. Would be great to connect on this topic. Kr, [your name]