Common Outreach Issues
Most Recruiters put little time into their outreach message to candidates. They often rely on copy and pasting the job description or on templates.
It’s usually focused on 'me', 'our company', 'us' & 'I' language.
It contains lots of clichés like 'passionate', 'fast-paced', 'team player', 'dynamic' & 'can-do attitude'.
They will often send out mass mailers to multiple candidates with little personalisation or relevancy, leading to poor response rates and engagement.
This results in a downward spiral. More messages have to be sent to get enough responses to generate a shortlist.
Improving Message Structure
In PURPL course ‘Improve your Candidate Outreach’ Matthew Mercer provides a full framework on how to deeply understand the candidate motivation factors within your ICP.
Once you have that he recommends using the AIDA structure to craft your outreach messages:
A - Awareness: The subject line.
I - Interest: After you’ve got their attention, your first couple of sentences need to compel to read on.
D - Desire: This is where we’re getting the reader to switch from being interested to WANTING to respond to you.
A - Action: This is your Call-to-Action (CTA) to tell the reader what to do next (i.e. how to get in contact with you)
This can be easily applied to both outreach messages and job adverts. The aim of the framework is to create a slippery slope that takes the reader through the four stages and ready to take action.
A simple way to improve your outreach is to start with AIDA in an empty table on a word doc vs staring at a blank page.
Industry Analysis - Subject Lines
64% of people decide to delete a message purely on the subject line.
Recently Neil Patel analysed 75,000 articles, 850,000 posts and 13,000 emails to see how the headline / opener performed.
This study was cross-domain (marketing, recruiting, etc). Below are the top 3 performing headline types, with both a generic example and recruiting example for each:
1 - Number-Based
Example: 10 ways to improve your SEO in 2025
Recruiting Example: 3 reasons you’re a great fit for X role / company
This title style feels perfect for recruitment because 1.) it’s rarely used so you stand out, and 2.) it leads perfectly into some personalisation or key selling points of the role.
2 - Data-Driven
Example: New study shows 78% of marketers prefer video
Recruiting Example: 100% of our AEs hit their target last quarter…
Great opportunity to hit a current pain point for a candidate that might trigger them to take action (or at least open your message).
3 - Curiosity-Evoking
Example: What happens when you stop posting on social media?
Recruiting Example: This caught my eye on your profile
This style fits perfectly into the AIDA framework we outlined above. This subject line causes intrigue to open and gets the reader onto the next part of the message.
How to A/B Test a Message
Our friends at Scede Source have built a quick guide on how to A/B test your messages they've perfected recruiting for top-tier tech companies across Europe.
A/B testing involves running two processes simultaneously to identify what works best. It’s a great tool for refining outreach campaigns to passive candidates.
By experimenting with subject lines, content, timing and personalisation tailored to specific roles, you can boost engagement and response rates. This data-driven approach helps optimise message relevance, length, and timing while incorporating feedback for continuous improvement.
Here’s how to set up your own A/B testing campaign
Step 1: Create two separate nurture campaigns you can send to candidates which includes the content you want to test. Ensure there are slight differences, these could be subject heading, personalisation & message length.
Step 2: Create two LinkedIn Projects targeting similar candidates with the same skill set and responsibilities.
Step 3: Send out the correct nurture campaign using the same number of touch points, ensuring the message is tailored to the project / audience.
Step 4: Record your response rates, along with any feedback you receive on your messaging, to see which has been more successful.
Step 5: Use this to iterate your outreach content and be sure to track how your response rates change.