LinkedIn is the largest professional networking site in the world. It is a platform that connects professionals with businesses and recruiters, making it easier for job seekers to find job opportunities. If you’re actively searching for a job, LinkedIn can be an excellent resource for finding new opportunities. However, reaching out to a recruiter on LinkedIn can be intimidating, especially if you don’t know how to go about it. In this article, we will discuss how to reach out to recruiters on LinkedIn and the best practices to follow.
Should I use InMail to Reach out to Recruiters?
LinkedIn InMail is a messaging service on LinkedIn that allows you to send a message to any LinkedIn member, even if you’re not connected with them. InMails are particularly useful for reaching out to recruiters who aren’t in your network. InMails are paid messages that require a LinkedIn Premium subscription.
Since InMail costs quite a lot, it may be challenging for your budget to incorporate this way of outreach. From our experience, simple connection request + follow-ups may be as effective as sending InMails – direct messages.
Step-by-Step Instructions on How to Reach Out to Recruiters on LinkedIn:
- Find the right recruiter: The first step is to identify the recruiters who specialize in your industry or field of work. You can do this by using LinkedIn’s search function and filtering your results based on location, industry, and job title.
- Add them to your network: Once you have identified the recruiters you want to reach out to, you can send them a connection request. When sending a connection request, make sure to personalize the message and introduce yourself.
- Wait for the recruiter to accept your request: Once you have sent your connection request, you will need to wait for the recruiter to accept it. While you wait, you can continue to send connection requests to other recruiters who specialize in your industry.
- Consider using LinkedIn automation tools: To save time and reach out to more recruiters, you can use automation tools like Closely. This tool allows you to automate the process of sending connection requests and follow-up messages to recruiters, which can help you reach out to more recruiters in a shorter amount of time. As a cherry on top, it will also auto-like their posts and auto-visit their profiles. We will explain how to put this to best use in this article. However, it’s important to use these tools responsibly and not spam recruiters with generic messages. Make sure to personalize your messages and only connect with recruiters who specialize in your field.
By following these steps, you can effectively reach out to recruiters on LinkedIn and increase your chances of finding job opportunities in your desired field.
Tips for Writing an InMail LinkedIn Subject Line to a Recruiter
If you’ve decided to try out InMail, here is what’s good to know about subject lines. A well-crafted subject line can grab a recruiter’s attention and entice them to read your message. Here are some tips for writing an effective subject line:
- Keep it short and sweet: Your subject line should be concise and to the point. Recruiters receive a large volume of messages, so make sure your subject line is easy to read and understand.
- Use keywords: Include relevant keywords in your subject line to help the recruiter understand the content of your message. For example, if you’re applying for a marketing position, include the word “marketing” in your subject line.
- Personalize it: Use the recruiter’s name in your subject line to add a personal touch. This can help your message stand out and show that you’ve taken the time to do your research.
- Highlight your unique value proposition: Your subject line can be an opportunity to showcase your unique skills and experience. For example, you could use a subject line like “I’d like to send my CV for the position listed on…”
- Avoid using all caps or excessive punctuation: Using all caps or too much punctuation can come across as unprofessional or spammy. Stick to using proper capitalization and punctuation.
Get to the point in a follow-up message
Seeing the link to your CV or you talking about job offer in a connection message is not something every recruiter dreams of. Talking about your needs in a connection message may seem intrusive. At times, it’s worth experimenting with connecting with recruiter first, and then ask about job offer, in a follow-up message.
Create a message sequence and reach out to a handful of recruiters on autopilot
Imagine that you want to send your CV to a couple of recruiters or even 10 or 20. Just to be sure. Instead of manually finding their profiles, writing connection request and follow-up messages, you can easily do it in an automation tool of your choice. To put it simply, let the automation tool do the job for you. Closely can be your time saver and assistant in this endeavour.
Closely is a LinkedIn lead engagement platform, but you can use it for your job-hunting purposes as well.
1. Go to closelyhq.com
Create your account. It takes less that a minute to fill in your email and think up the password.
2. Log in to your account and go to “LinkedIn campaigns” or “LinkedIn Campaigns 2.0” tab.
LinkedIn campaigns are regular LinkedIn campaigns that are run on autopilot. They consist of a connection message request and follow-ups. The tool will send a connection request to the audience of your choice, and then follow-up those who have accepted a connection request. Whenever the recruiter replies, it will stop the sequence, and you will be able to see the reply in your inbox.
You can use variables (brackets that are auto-populated with corresponding data about the recipient) to scale your outreach and make each message unique for each new recipient.
A razzle-dazzle approach
Closely Campaigns 2.0 adds other steps on top of just connection requests and follow-ups. Those are post likes, skill endorsement and profile visits. The tool will like their posts and visit their profiles to show that you cared enough about their company to at least visit their profiles or like what they’ve written.
Let’s form up the second type of a campaign.
3. Connect your LinkedIn account to Closely.
To do this, go to LinkedIn accounts > add new account. Type in the email and password that you use to log in to your LinkedIn account. Wait till your account is synced.
Go to “Closely Campaigns 2.0”, click on “Create new campaign”. Name your campaign and choose the LinkedIn account that will be used.
4. Choose the audience for your campaign
If you have the list of your potential employers’ LinkedIn URLs – you can simply drop your file here. Simply click on “Import from CSV”.
You can also provide the link to LinkedIn search results – if that’s how you’re looking up recruiters of the companies you’re interested in.
You can use filters on LinkedIn to segment companies that might be interesting to you and use the “job title filter” to single out recruiters within those companies.
Just use the “keyword” filter ad type “recruiter” in job title. Select the company you’re interested in. Then you can copy the link to your search result and paste it to Closely on the step of audience building.
Tell us how many people to add to your campaign.
When you audience is uploaded, click on “Save & Next” and start writing your messages to recruiters.
5. Write messages
At this point, you can start building your steps: connection request, view profile, endorse skills, like post, and follow-ups messages.
Add as many steps as you want. Closely will execute all these steps automatically and will provide reporting for your campaign.
How to write an exceptional message sequence to impress a recruiter?
Well, there is no one-size-fit-all advice here. However, we’d suggest to keep your connection request message short and sweet. This is our collection of juicy connection request messages for different cases. Take a sneak peak if you like.
As to the follow-ups, we recommend to keep it to strictly to the point, avoiding overly intrusive wording. You can mention that you’re impressed by what their company is doing and believe you can make a contribution. You do, don’t you?
Find some of the brightest message sequence templates for recruiters below.
6. Launch your campaign
Once you campaign is ready and shiny, click on “Save & Next: Verify”. You’re about to launch your campaign.
Double-check your audience and exclude those who are not a good fit for this campaign, as you see it.
Once everything looks like polished off, click on “Save and Start Now”.
Congrats! 🎆 Your campaign is officially launched — it means that you can get ready to receive replies and job offers in your Inbox.
7. Catch up in your Inbox
You don’t even need to switch to LinkedIn to reply to recruiters’ messages. All replies from your potential employers will arrive to your Closely Inbox. Just keep your eye on it. Once you see a reply, it means the sequence has stopped for this LinkedIn user, and you can jump into a conversation. We believe, at this point you’ll be already discussing the details of your first day in the office. ☺️
If you’re a bit lost at the thought of how to approach creating your message sequence, we’ve taken care of this. Find a few good templates below. Feel free to use them and flesh them out with the details of your case.
Message Templates to Reach Out to Recruiter on LinkedIn
If you’re looking for a message templates — go no further. Make use of these customizable templates to shine in your messages to recruiter.
Message sequence #1
Step 1. Connection request.
Hello {first_name}. My name is {my_first_name}. I work in {industry_name}. I greatly appreciate {company_name}'s deeds, especially [specify what you admire most about this company]. Would be happy to connect!
Step 2. Like post.
Like post
Step 3. Follow-up.
Good morning {first_name}. I've recently learned about the opened position in your company [specify which one]. I'd love to send my CV, if you don't mind. I believe my experience and skills can become a valuable contribution. Thank you. :)
No wrap-up message.
Just pull over here. No need to remind about yourself. It always sounds needy. If they haven’t replies, they have their reasons. You don’t have that much time to trying to guess what reasons exactly, and it’s also a pointless business. Let’s move on —Closely will let you connect with dozens of recruiters on autopilot — quite enough to receive the job offer of your dream, in the end, how do you think?)
Message sequence #2
Step 1. Connection request.
Hello {first_name},
Would love to connect with like-minded professionals from the {industry}.
{my_first_name}.
Step 2. View profile.
View profile
Step 3. Follow-up.
Good morning, {first_name}. I've found out about the opened position in your company. I'd love to send my CV for your consideration. I have more that [number of years] experience in {industry_name}. Hope I can contribute to hitting {company_name}' business goals, combining my experience and enthusiasm. Thank you. :)
Conclusion
If you were wondering how to reach out to a recruiter on LinkedIn or what might be the best note to your connection request — we hope now you’ve gained a little bit of glimpse into how it works nowadays. The takeaway points are:
- Keep your connection request message to a recruiter short
- Ask about sending your CV in a follow-up message
- Use automaton tools like Closely to speed up your outreach
We hope this helps. If you have any questions — don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. Happy job hunting! ⭐️
