What’s the best time to send an email? How do I guarantee someone will open my email? How can I prove email actually drives sales?
There are a lot of questions and mystery shrouding email marketing, considering how long this medium has been around, and how effective it is when used correctly. For staffing and recruiting professionals, email marketing can be an incredibly effective weapon in your arsenal for today’s war for talent. If you want to start using email to your advantage, and not just clutter the inboxes of already-busy professionals, follow these tips.
What’s the Best Time to Send an Email?
There’s no perfect time to send an email. What works for one staffing company may backfire for another. There is something to consider, though, and that is the fact that we are all constantly on our computers and phones. And considering 49% of web traffic comes from mobile devices, there’s a good chance for an email sent at 8 p.m. to stand out, as opposed to one sent during regular nine-to-five business hours.
The key to determining your best email send time is to test. Send one at 11 a.m. on a Tuesday, one at 7 p.m. on a Thursday, and one at 8 a.m. on a Sunday, for example. Which one has the best open rate, or click-through percentage? Use those statistics to help you learn about your audience’s preference, and find a better time to mail for your audience.
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How Do You Guarantee Someone Will Open Your Email?
In short: You can’t. However, you can improve the odds! The first step is finding the right time, as mentioned above. The second step is sending content your audience is actually interested in. Whether it’s an employment law update, interesting industry trend you’ve noticed, company achievement or even something as simple as a holiday or seasonal greeting, you need to send engaging content your audience is interested in, and answer their question of, “What’s in it for me?” should they open it.
Staffing and recruiting agencies have an opportunity many overlook: Sending available candidates or open positions out through email. While “dialing for dollars” might be the tried-and-true strategy, sending available vetted candidates to your client list not only puts your candidates right in front of their faces, it also allows you to see who opens the email or clicks on a candidate, and you can use those engagements as warm leads to follow up with. Same goes for sending open jobs to your candidate list.
The last way to get your email opened is simple: Use better subject lines. You don’t have to use click-bait strategies, but there are different engagement levels for subject lines like these two:
1. Staffing Law Update From ABC Staffing
2. Is Your Workplace Compliant With This New Employment Law?
Again, a good email doesn’t need to trick readers into opening it, but it does need to entice them and tell them the benefit of opening your message.
What Drives Response in Email?
If you follow the tips outlined in this email, driving response should be no problem. Many staffing and recruiting agencies send a mass email and then wait for the windfall of cash to come, but email doesn’t work that way (unfortunately!). It does, however, put your company’s name and brand in front of your clients and/or candidates on a consistent basis, position you as a thought leader and a reputable organization, and remind them you are there. Employers may not read your email and then pick up the phone to order 10 temps, but they may see your emails every month and then think of you first when a staffing need arises – instead of going to Google and looking through all your competitors.
In email, the response is often yours to drive. As we mentioned, people who open and/or click on your content are engaged and interested. Even if they don’t reach out to you, what’s stopping you from reaching out to them and following up on what you know they’ve already taken an interest in? Don’t let warm leads turn cold waiting for them to pick up the phone!
By using these tips, you can improve your email open rates, increase your response and inevitably boost your return on investment through email.
