Fall 2024 Edition

Recruiting email
outreach benchmarks
and best practices
 Introduction Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 How Gem can Help

Recruiting email outreach benchmarks and best practices Introduction Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 How Gem can Help

Table of contents
Introduction 2

Part 1: How many emails to send and when to send them 5

Part 2: What to say in your subject lines 16

Part 3: SOBO: Send-on-behalf-of 23

Part 4: The email itself - what to say and how to say it 26

Part 5: Putting data in the driver’s seat 32

Part 6: Examples of great recruiting outreach 36

How Gem can help 44

Recruiting email outreach benchmarks and best practices Fall 2024 Edition 2024 Page 1
Over 1,000 talent teams trust Gem to manage their end-to-end recruiting process. And every
year, we help them send over 4 million emails.

That’s why we’ve refreshed "Gem’s Guide to Email Outreach & Benchmarks" for 2024. These
insights and best practices are drawn from over 4 million email sequences sent between March 1,
2023 and February 29, 2024.

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Recruiting email outreach benchmarks and best practices Introduction Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 How Gem can Help

If you’ve ever struggled with email outreach, you’re not alone. There are so many
factors involved—the time and day, subject line, sender, and of course, the
content of the email itself!

The truth is that there’s both an art and a science involved in this process.

We’ve combed through the data and pulled best practices from some of the
most successful TA teams including Robinhood, Yext, Anthropic, Zapier, and
Roblox. You’ll find their suggestions sprinkled throughout this guide. Consider it
your cheat sheet to more effective talent sourcing and outreach.

And, of course, if you’re ever curious to learn more about how Gem can support
you with sourcing and outreach, we’re more than happy to speak with you!

Let’s dive in!

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Recruiting email outreach benchmarks and best practices Introduction Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 How Gem can Help

Executive summary
1 2 3

Remember

Always be testing!
It’s worth stressing that the
real “best practices” will be
the strategies that work
uniquely for you. Review
4 5 6
metrics and A/B test to
determine what works. Data
is your best friend!

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How many emails to send
and when to send them

The data in this section shares key metrics on email outreach benchmarks, like open rates, reply
rates, and interested rates. We also present how these metrics vary based on different tactics and
strategies like send times, message composition, and more.

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Recruiting email outreach benchmarks and best practices Introduction Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 How Gem can Help

Overall benchmarks
On this page, we’re sharing a bird’s-eye view of overall open rates, reply rates, and Passive talent is more receptive to outreach in 2024 vs 2022
interested rates from email outreach to passive talent. Compared to 2022, this year’s
open rates have come down a bit, but reply and interested rates metrics have
noticeably improved. The data here should be no surprise. Given the cooling job
market, there are more eager job-seekers who are more receptive to recruiter
outreach if a promising opportunity shows up! 76.6% 78.4%

Our data also shows that while 22.6% of sequences see replies, only 12.1% of
sequences see interested replies. In other words, around 50% of replies are of the
“thanks, but no thanks” type.
22.6% 21.3%

12.1% 7.9%

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Recruiting email outreach benchmarks and best practices Introduction Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 How Gem can Help

Sequence length: magic number 5

“The difference between a great sourcer and a sub-par sourcer is in how much
The data on the next page shows how open, reply, and interested rates evolve as you
discipline someone has in following up, in not wasting productivity cycles. Less
send more sequences.
successful sourcers do a lot of work to generate lists of good pipelines; but

No surprise here: Sending follow-ups increases your response rates and interested then they reach out once and never follow up. Response rates on that initial

rates. A five-stage sequence, for example, receives 2x more replies and achieves outreach might be 15%, but they might be 50% on the follow-up.”

nearly 68% higher interested rates compared to one-off emails!

Angela Miller
Head of Talent Acquisition, Moloco
However, engagement starts to flatten after Stage 5. Open rates remain at 76.8%, (Former Head of Recruiting, Instabase)

reply rates remain at 22.6%, and interested rates stay at 12.6%. So, after the fifth
stage, your email will likely be ignored, creating unnecessary work for your team.
Pro Tip
Cold outreach continues to be effective! In contrast to 2022, 2024 open rates and
Long-term nurture after the initial sequence
reply rates for the first email are both higher (7% and 27%, respectively).
Gem’s 2024 data shows that around half the replies are of the “thanks, but no
After your first email, you need to make the next ones count. After the first email,
thanks” or “thanks, but not yet” type. This means they may be open to future
open rates are lower compared to 2022, but reply rates and interested rates are
conversations. Give prospective candidates some space, then continue to
higher. So if your first email doesn’t work, the second email may also present
send emails with company updates a few times a year. If your first outreach
challenges. But if you do get the candidate’s attention, they’re more likely to be
doesn’t catch talent precisely when they’re ready to make a move, that doesn’t
engaged and responsive.
mean they won’t be ready several months down the line!

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Recruiting email outreach benchmarks and best practices Introduction Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 How Gem can Help

Cumulative engagement rates by email stage

Open rate Reply rate Interested rate

76.3% 76.7% 76.8%

74.3%

66.7%

21.8% 22.5% 22.6%

18.2%

11.7%

12.2% 12.6% 12.6%

10.7%
7.5%

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Spacing between sequences

Outreach cadence has remained fairly consistent over the last few years: recruiters
“Our cadence tends to vary depending on the client and whether we have
typically allow 6 days between emails 1 and 2 and 6 days between emails 2 and 3 (in
access to internal email. Typically we’ll send the first message in the afternoon
2022, it was also 6 and 6, respectively). Spacing your sequences gives candidates
(Mon-Thurs), the second two to three days later, the third about four days after
time between stages to consider the opportunity that’s being offered.
that, and a fourth about a week or so later. When there’s more urgency in the
market, our sequences are quick to roll out: two weeks or so.”

Alyssa Garrison
Talent at Linear (formerly Co-Founder at Techmate Talent)

“One pattern our team at Dropbox observed is that six days was a bit of a magic
number when it came to email outreach cadence. It meant we were always
catching the prospect on a different day of the week, which increased our
chances of eventually hearing back from them. It also meant we were allowing
enough breathing space between touches to give the prospect time to turn
over what we were offering.”

Mike Moriarty
Operating Partner

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Optimal times to send the first and second follow-up email

Email 2: the best times to send are either one day after email 1 (12.4% open rate) or eight days after (10.8% open rate).

Email 3: the best times to send are either two days (8.2% open rate), four days (8.1% open rate), or six days (8.0% open rate).

Email 1 day after 2 days after 3 days after 4 days after 5 days after 6 days after 7 days after 8 days after

Email 2 Email 2
Email 1 - - - - - -
Best Time 2nd Best Time

Email 3 Email 3 Email 3

Email 2 - - - - -
Best Time 2nd Best Time 3rd Best Time

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Recruiting email outreach benchmarks and best practices Introduction Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 How Gem can Help

Send times: timing matters Opened emails by hours to open

50% of candidates will open your email within the first hour of send time. The longer
it takes for someone to notice your email, the less likely they are to open it.

That’s why we’ve shared benchmarks on send times below to help you strategically
schedule your email to the right candidate, at the right time.

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Recruiting email outreach benchmarks and best practices Introduction Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 How Gem can Help

Overall best send times by day of the

week Best send times Open rate

Tuesday has the best open rates at 66.5%, followed by Wednesday, which has
66.4%. There’s little variation Monday through Thursday, but Friday sees a small dip.
Fewer emails are sent on Saturday and Sunday, but open rates remain steady on these
days.

Pro Tip

Sent Messages
Consider Weekend sends

Few recruiters send outreach on weekends, but the data shows these
messages perform well (>=66% open rates!). If you can schedule set-and-
forget outreach, we recommend experimenting with weekends. You’ll either
catch candidates when they have a free moment, while they’re preparing for
the week ahead, or first thing Monday morning.

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Overall best send times by hour

Best send times Open rate
Throughout the week, the best send times are 8am (68.0% open rate), 4pm (67.3%
open rate), and 10am (67.0% open rate). Open rates remain relatively steady
throughout standard working hours (9am–5pm) and start to drop off significantly at
8pm.

Pro Tip

Get them as they grab coffee

Sent Messages
8am is not a popular time to send messages, but sees one of the highest open
rates (68.0%). This is your chance to capture a candidate’s attention before
they get distracted with work.

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Best and worst send times by Best send times

role type AVG
Roles Open Rates Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun

Whether you’re trying to reach technical candidates or non-technical

3pm
candidates, one trend is clear: Weekends are best! For both tech and 4pm
Tech Roles 71+% - 10am - - - -
non-tech roles, three out of the top four times fall on a Saturday or 9pm
11pm
Sunday afternoon or late evening. You can imagine these are times
when candidates are relaxed and receptive to outreach. Tuesday 2pm
mornings also see the highest open rates, perhaps because the Non-Tech Roles 66+% - 8am - - - 2pm 3pm
9pm
workweek is well underway and candidates are ready for a little
distraction.
Worst send times
One small exception to the “weekends are best” rule—Sunday early
evenings (5pm and 7pm) are the worst times to send email outreach AVG
Roles Open Rates Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
for tech roles. This may cut into family time or fall when candidates
are experiencing the “Sunday scaries” and don’t want to think about
10pm 5pm
work or email at all. Tech Roles <66% - 11pm - - -
11pm 7pm

For non-tech roles, early morning or late at night midweek see the 6am 12am
Non-Tech Roles <54% - - 12am - -
smallest open rates. As a general rule of thumb, stick to typical 11pm 6am

business hours or weekends for the best chances of having your

email opened.

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Recruiting email outreach benchmarks and best practices Introduction Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 How Gem can Help

Roles Open Rates Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
Best send days and
times by job Engineers 72+% - - - - - -
3pm
4pm
11pm

Drilling down into specific roles, the overall

Engineer Manager 77+% - - 8pm - 7pm - 3pm
trend is that weekends and Wednesdays
tend to see the highest open rates, but Data Science & Analytics 76+% - 12pm - 10am - - 11am

there’s still quite a lot of variation.

Marketing 78+% 5pm - 2pm - 6pm - -
Marketing roles, for example, see the
highest open rates on Wednesdays,
5pm
HR & Recruiting 76+% - - 8pm - - -
Fridays, and Mondays, while product roles 7pm

see the highest open rates on Fridays,

Product 81+% - 9pm 5am - 8pm - -
Tuesdays, and Wednesdays and business
development roles see the highest open
Sales 74+% - - - 6am 6am - 8pm
rates on Monday evenings and Wednesday
mornings and afternoons. Design 81+% - - 12am - 11pm - 9pm

5am
Business development 80+% 10pm - - - - -
1pm

Science & research 78+% - - - 7am 8pm 2pm -

PMM 83+% - - - 7am 12am 11am -

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What to say in your subject
lines

There’s a lot of pressure riding on your subject lines. They create a first impression and determine
whether a candidate decides to engage with you or not. This section includes our tips and tricks for
making the most of this limited and high-pressure space in prospective candidates’ inboxes.

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Recruiting email outreach benchmarks and best practices Introduction Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 How Gem can Help

Best-performing subject lines

On this page you see the top-performing subject lines from Gem
customers in the last year. Some of the noteworthy trends include Our customers’ best-performing subject lines (90+% open rates)*
appealing to the candidate’s values, asking questions, clearly
outlining the next steps of the hiring process, sending event Appeal to the candidate’s values Send event invitations and follow-ups

invitations and follow-ups, and highlighting specific aspects of the • Elevating talent acquisition together • Nextplay San Francisco spotlight – tonight! (event
details inside)
opportunity (or simply using the word “opportunity” also seems to • Flexible Technical Work
• {company} @Harvard | Thanks for coming!
work well!). Winning subject lines find the right balance between Ask questions
• Thanks for visiting {company} at bfutr!
including relevant details while keeping the messaging concise. • {company} - Your application: When are you available
to chat? Highlight the opportunity

• {first_name} + {company} = Leadership Opportunity

Be clear about next steps
• {company} - An exciting new job opportunity for you!
• {first_name} +nspt | hiring manager interview
“I get as creative as possible with my emails, especially with confirmed • {company} SRE role

compelling subject lines—things that capture people. • Additional information regarding {job title} and • {first_name}, grow your {title} career at {company}!

Personally I enjoy food puns. So I’ll say something like: Can I {company} search • Announcing {company}: GTM executive search firm

have a slice of your time? And I’ll include a pizza emoji. And as a • {company} virtual interview request • head of growth @ industry defining vintage
• {company} - screening interview marketplace growing 50% mom
follow up, I’ll say: Come on, use your noodle, and include a
• next steps with {company}! • sr. software engineer opportunity - base-2 solutions
bowl of noodles. Of course, these things are always persona-
specific, but food puns seem to work really well with * At least 100 messages with the subject line had to be sent to qualify

engineers!”

Joe Pecci
Recruiting Director, YEXT

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Words most often used in top subject "{company}" "hello" "role"

lines
"{title}" "you" "build"
The following cloud contains the words Gem’s customers use in subject lines that see
80%+ open rates. Note that {first_name}, {company_name}, and {title} are tokens that "@" "software" "hi"
auto-populate when the message sends. A few trends we’ve noted (you might
observe others):
"opportunity" "series" "leadership"
• Personalization is powerful: The first name token and the word “you” can make
messages feel like they’re speaking directly to the prospect.
"{first_name}," "opportunities" "data"
• Be clear right away: Sharing the job title and company name lets the candidate
immediately understand what you’re reaching out about.
"from" "startup" "lead"
• Keep it conversational: Words like “hello” and “hi” keep your tone friendly and
inviting.
"join" "team" "next"
• Tap into ambition: Using words like “lead,” “leadership,” and “build” can appeal
to a prospect’s desire to take on the next big challenge in their careers.
"senior" "new"

"ai" "founding"

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Open rates by token

Using tokens in subject lines

Open Rates
Teams should generally include at least one token in their subject lines. It can make a
nearly 5% difference in open rates (in absolute terms), and which tokens work best for
you will be well worth testing. Do your due diligence and research them—on LinkedIn,
Twitter, GitHub, Medium, and elsewhere. Then drive opens with a personalization
token—or if you don’t use Gem, a manually personalized subject line. company +
company + company + first name +
company first name + first name title
first name title title
title

Larger companies include the company name in the subject line. This makes sense
since bigger brand names are more likely to capture candidates’ attention.
Token usage by Enterprise Mid-Market SMB

Smaller companies are more likely to use the job title as a way of catching the
candidate’s interest, which makes sense since they may be able to attract them with a
more impressive sounding title.

Overall, SMBs are the most likely not to include any tokens in their subject lines, which

Sent Messages
could be a missed opportunity to personalize their messaging and attract more
candidates.

company +
company company + first name + company + first name first name + title
None first name title title
title

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Keeping subject lines short and sweet Open rates by subject line word count

When it comes to subject line length, shorter is generally better. The sweet spot for
achieving the best open rates is between 3 to 9 words, though some subject lines as
as lengthy as 11 words still see good open rates (if they’re catchy!).

Open Rates
Word Count

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General approaches to winning subject Why it works Example

line strategies Appeal to the candidate’s values Today’s candidates crave “Elevating talent acquisition
connection and purpose together”

When it comes to crafting your subject line, there are a few tips and tricks you might Using ambiguity, uncertainty,
“Help us make the internet a
want to experiment with. Many of these suggestions—like appealing to curiosity and Appeal to the candidate’s or missing information
safer place! (Career
curiosity motivates candidates to learn
mentioning mutual connections—are proven copywriting tactics that are based on Opportunity)”
more
principles of human psychology.
You’re helping candidates “Play a pivotal & impactful role
Be verb-forward visualize what success will as our machine learning
look like in the role expert”

You’re placing recipients in an

“Want to join the next
Ask questions instant dialogue with your
unicorn?”
email

Having a common connection “{{name}} recommended I

Mention mutual connections
minimizes risk reach out to you”

Compliments give us a “mini

“Come be our expert marketer
Indulge in a little flattery high” that leave us wanting
at {{company}}”
more

Adding a pun, pop culture

Infuse your language with “Hello, Is it {{company}} you’re
reference, emoji, or touch of
personality looking for?”
humor helps you to stand out

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Personalizing subject lines

Why it works How to do it
If you’re a Gem user, we recommend a short token in the subject line and a longer one
in the body of your email. This could be a recent success, a blog post they wrote, how
Mention your company name,
their recent GitHub project aligns with what your eng team is working on, an interest
Use your company name (even if Our data shows that subject your elevator pitch, your
that would make them a great add to your company culture or a career aspiration they you’re a small or mid-size lines with company names + recent funding or release, or
organization) {{title}} tokens do well. describe the possibilities of
appear to have… whatever might inspire them to respond.
the role.

Dig into your own data. In

Gem, it’s as simple as filtering
Use outreach stats to inform If it’s worked before, it’ll likely sequences to those with the
your subject lines work again. highest open rates and
discovering your own best
practices from there.

Include hyperlinks directing

Shorter messages tend to prospects to web pages on
Stick to the most important perform better due to careers, diversity, and
details candidates’ limited time and company culture so they can
attention spans. dig in more if they’re
interested.

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SOBO: Send-on-behalf-of

SOBO ("Send on behalf of”) is where emails are sent on behalf of someone else in the company,
often a hiring manager or executive. This approach adds a personal touch by using the credibility
and authority of the person the email is "from." It can be especially effective because candidates
are more likely to engage with messages that appear to come from a senior leader. This tactic
drives higher response rates, as you’ll see in a few pages.

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“From” names — a critical element of Overall Sequences Sent: SOBO vs No-SOBO

any subject line SOBO

21.9%
Over 20% of outreach sequences sent through Gem contain a message sent on
behalf of someone else. Our data shows that sending on behalf of (SOBO-ing) a hiring
manager or executive in the company over the course of a sequence increases open
and response rates. In fact, some of our customers have seen tripled and quadrupled
response rates with SOBO.

“We use SOBO very intentionally for things like leadership hires and key
individual contributors, and we take it seriously. With Gem, gone are the days of
No SOBO
needing to ask senior leaders to send emails for us. The efficiency we’ve
achieved with the SOBO feature is fantastic.”
78.1%

Joe Gillespie Pro Tip

Recruiting at OpenAI
(formerly Head of Technical Recruitment, Robinhood)
While only 21.9% of sequences use SOBO, we find that using this tactic can
increase reply rates by 50% or higher!

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Use SOBO after stage 1

Our data suggests that a best practice is to have at least the first
email come from a recruiter, and to wait until the second email (or
beyond) to send on behalf of a hiring manager or executive. The
Initial Stage Was There a Response Using SOBO in Follow Up Stage
narrative this generates is that the recruiter is excited enough about
them to have personally brought their name up to leadership. What’s
+9.2% open rate
more, talent is more likely to respond when they know that more than Stage 1 NO

one person—at least one of them in a high-level role—awaits a +13.7% reply rate

response.
+21.5% open rate
Stage 2 NO
+55.5% reply rate

+23.4% open rate

Stage 3 NO
+54.1% reply rate

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The email itself—what to
say and how to say it

So you’ve found the ideal send time and cadence. You’ve crafted a compelling subject line that
entices candidates to open. What should you say in the email itself and how should you say it?
That’s what we’ll be covering in this section.

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Message length: Err on the shorter

side “I’m definitely in the shorter-is-better camp. Of course, the shorter the
message, the more compelling its words need to be. The essential thing is to
make sure you’re always adding value for the candidate, whether it’s in 20
In aggregate, the majority of our customers tend to stay in the 170–210 word count words or 200 words.”
range for the initial message of their outreach sequence.
Chinsin Sim
We’d recommend initial messages in the 101-150 word count range. The “shorter is Recruiting Manager, G&A at Anthropic
(formerly Senior Recruiter, Business Strategy & Operations, Robinhood)
better” strategy echoes what LinkedIn studies have shown about best practices for
InMail: “The response rate for the shortest InMails [400 characters or less] is 22%
“Everyone says: you’ve got to have a short message. And I was like, I’ve never
higher than the average response rate for all InMails.” done that, and I’ve always been successful. So I tested it. I created two
sequences in Gem. One was super condensed: I’m hiring for my team, help us
Remember: you can deliver the essentials—a personalized mention, a compelling
make an impact, short and sweet. The other was: Let me tell you what we’re
detail or two about the opportunity, a call to action—in fewer than 10 sentences.
doing on my team, some of the challenges we have, how you would make an
But don’t be afraid to A/B test longer messages, too. We’ve seen long messages do impact. I had fewer opens and replies on the long one, but more candidates
well—both for ourselves at Gem, and for our customers. replied with interest. So dive into your own metrics to figure out what works for
you.”

Jaime Onofre
Recruiting Manager, Zapier

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Reply rate by email body length [SMB]

Reply rate by email body length

Reply Rate
Reply Rate

51-100 101-150 151-200 201-250 251-300 301-350 351-400 401-450 451-500 500+

Reply rate by email body length [Mid-Market]

51-100 101-150 151-200 201-250 251-300 301-350 351-400 401-450 450-500 501-550

Reply Rate
Word Count

Here’s how reply rates as a factor of word count break down by 51-100 101-150 151-200 201-250 251-300 301-350 351-400 401-450 451-500 500+

company size:
Reply rate by email body length [Enterprise]
In terms of response rates, slightly longer messages seem to work better for SMBs,
giving them the ability to explain the opportunity in more detail. Shorter message
lengths work well for enterprise companies, likely because they have recognizable

Reply Rate
brands. Mid-market companies reflect the overall trend of either short (around 101-
150 words) or longer (around 451-500 words) emails working better than those in the
middle range of length.
51-100 101-150 151-200 201-250 251-300 301-350 351-400 401-450 451-500 500+

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Message content: speak to what

candidates care about most “We need to really understand what our candidates are looking for—from
impact to partnership to collaboration—and then make sure we’re offering an
experience that highlights who we are as a company. Candidates need to feel
Generally, it’s a good rule of thumb to put yourself in the candidate’s position. What do welcomed, sought after, and like hiring is not just a cookie-cutter, conveyor-
they want and need to know, especially in initial outreach? Describe why this is a great belt process.”
opportunity for them and what makes your company and this role attractive rather
than sending them a list of requirements. Mike Moriarty
Operating Partner

It’s worth taking a moment to acknowledge some of the specifics of the current talent
“We’re not trying to sell anything in our outreach. We’re trying to start a genuine
market, since these things are always fluctuating and may influence whether your
conversation. I want someone to respond to the dog photos I send with
messaging is likely to resonate or fall flat. In 2024, the top reasons candidates are
pictures of their own dog, and that leads to a conversation, which eventually
starting job search include career advancement, greater work flexibility/remote work
brings us to a discussion about their career. An easy segue is, “What are your
opportunities, and better company leadership.
heartburns at your current company?” When we have the answer to that
We’re also seeing a growing number of Gen Z employees enter the workforce (Gen Z question, we know what value prop to use right off the bat. We’re telling them
and millennials combined will make up about 58% of the global workforce by 2030). how things work at Yext with their pain point in mind. And the best part—we
Gen Z is 36% more likely to prioritize advancement opportunities and 34% more likely haven’t even touched on the opportunity yet.”
to prioritize skill development opportunities than other generations.
Michael Franco
Senior Director of Recruiting

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Good Bad

Share highlights of what makes the

Keep it concise Paste the entire job description Pro Tip
opportunity interesting

Use the Reason Token

Try to capture the candidate’s curiosity in as Spend paragraphs describing exactly what
Be selective about what you include
few words as possible the job will involve
The {{reason}} token is a concept unique to Gem’s

Explain why this job might appeal to the platform that allows recruiters to
Focus on the candidate’s candidate, why you think it’s a good fit, and Include a laundry list of all the required skills personalize the motivation for reaching out to each
perspective and opportunities what they’ll be able to accomplish (e.g. build for the role
prospect while on their LinkedIn, GitHub, SeekOut, etc.
a team from scratch, make an impact)
profiles (e.g. “I’m reaching out because you worked at
Briefly describe the daily experience at work
Mention your company’s mission and Leave them guessing about what day-to- [Company X] for four years, and it looks like you have
and provide links to resources where they
culture day life is like at your company
can learn more rare industry expertise for an opportunity that just
came up here”). Messages that use a {{reason}} token
Expect candidates to only want to hear your
Offer social proof
Share articles or quotes from their
perspective (they tend to be distrustful of
achieve 47% higher response rates than those
perspective peers
recruiters) without. The takeaway? Deep personalization—
explaining to a candidate why you’re reaching out to
Highlight what today’s candidates Focus on flexibility, career advancement, Provide a laundry list of basic benefits like
value and company leadership health insurance and PTO them specifically—will be well worth your time.

Share resources related to skills Assume Gen Z candidates have the same
Tailor your messaging to Gen Z
development opportunities, company priorities and preferences as millennials or
(when appropriate)
values, and diversity & inclusion other generations

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Personalize as much as possible To: You

From: Your Sourcing Coach

Our data found that highly personalized messages saw a 73% engagement rate, while
Subject line: DON’T do this. Please!
reply rates for somewhat personalized outreach were no better than reply rates for
outreach that wasn’t personalized at all. What does it mean to highly personalize your Hi there,
outreach? Start with one to two details unique to the prospect in the opening
First of all, you’re doing a great job on trying to improve your sourcing game. You
paragraph. Follow that up with a full paragraph that outlines what you know about their
already know and follow a lot of the best practices (high five for that!), but I
work and how you believe their skills and experience would make a terrific fit for your
wanted to send a quick reminder of what NOT to do when it comes to your
company. This tactic is especially critical for connecting with highly sought-after
outreach emails:
talent (diversity candidates or leadership roles, for example), or talent pools in which
there are only a small handful of people that are qualified for the job.
• Don’t paste a full job description in the email. Remember: The end goal
may be getting candidates in the door for an interview; but the goal of
initial communication is an interested response from prospects.
“When I’m recruiting for a position, I often spend time with engineers on the
• Don’t drone on. You’re aiming for short and curiosity-piquing. A lot can
teams I support to ask them questions that help me understand the ins and outs
get lost in a lengthy message. You’ll get to the juicy details once you’ve
of their role: What makes this team attractive to join, what the day-to-day work
got them on the phone or in your office.
is like, and what they’d say to a candidate considering a role like theirs. Their
• Don’t offer a laundry list of required skills. The professionals you’re
responses often go right into the body of my sequence emails. In that sense,
reaching out to already know what’s required to do the work. Focus on
the outreach is a joint effort across team members.”
opportunity instead.

Olivia Jamison (Duran)

Talent Acquisition Manager Happy hiring!

Your Sourcing Coach

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Putting data in the
driver’s seat

Throughout this guide, we’ve shared proven best practices and tried and true tips from TA pros.
But now it’s time to let you in on a little secret: One of the most impactful things you can do is to put
your own data in the driver’s seat. Regularly check in on the performance of your subject lines,
sequences, and individual messages. You can use the tips we share in this section as a starting
point, but make sure you regularly monitor your own data and make adjustments accordingly.

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Always be testing Sourcing KPIs

Open rate by month Reply rate by month Interested rate by month

It’s worth stressing that the real “best practices” will be the things that get your team
the most engaged responses and move the most qualified prospective candidates
through your hiring funnel. What we’ve given you in this guide are starting points only. If
you can, review analytics such as open rates, reply rates, interested rates, click-
Jun Jul Aug Sep Jun Jul Aug Sep Jun Jul Aug Sep
through rates, number of follow-ups sent, who entered process, how far into the
recruiting funnel they got, and more. Outreach activity
Outreach activity by sequence

NAME FIRST MESSAGES SENT FOLLOW-UPS SENT REPLIES RECEIVED INTERESTED CANDIDATES CONVERTED TO PROCESS

SWE NYC 1233 2083 350 116 75

SWE SF 805 1501 249 120 87

AE Midwest 1403 2653 150 75 55

AE South 934 1305 353 120 76

PMM 785 1100 227 111 45

Top performing content

Title

CONTENT LINK SEQUENCES RECIPIENTS REPLIED CLICKED REPLIED & CLICKED

Home page 35 5281 897 (17%) 500 (9%) 256 (5%)

G2 reviews 23 4583 1054 (23%) 705 (15%) 458 (10%)

Company awards blog 45 6000 1500 (25%) 1200 (20%) 1000 (17%)

Instagram profile 78 7501 975 (13%) 375 (5%) 235 (3%)

Life at Gem webpage 34 3505 1682 (45%) 700 (20%) 506 (14%)

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Consider which elements of your email

outreach are worth testing “One critical practice is asking about our messaging after hiring someone.
We’re asking, “Hey, what attracted you? Why did you respond to this outreach?”
I’ll even ask, “Why did you click on this link but didn’t open the second email?”
While it’s easy to fixate on reply rates as the metric of your most successful outreach
The answers to those questions help us create future iterations of our outreach.”
strategies, remember that open rates and click-through rates also offer actionable
insights. Exceptional open rates mean you’ve hit upon compelling subject lines; Michael Franco
great click-through rates mean you’re linking to interesting content. Senior Director of Recruiting

These metrics should inform your judgment about which prospects to follow up with
“Our CTO did a podcast about tech at Wheel; we put that in our outreach and
and how quickly, as well as what additional information to send them. Did they click
Gem tracked clickthrough rates. That behavioral data showed passive talent
through to your careers page, or into that blog post by your head engineer that you
was more interested in that podcast than a lot of other things we’ve linked to in
linked to? Which of the LinkedIn profiles you provided saw the most views? Gem’s
the past. I took that data to the CTO and said, now we know you need to do
analytics will offer insights into click-throughs. Use that intelligence to strategize your
more podcasts. Clearly this is a powerful talent attraction strategy for us. It’s not
next step.
like, well, my instinct says this is working, but I have nothing to show for it.”
Hands down, data will be your most priceless asset; and we recommend testing for
Greg Troxell
the following metrics. Note that this list isn’t inclusive, and that you won’t be able to Head of Talent Operations, Midi Health
(formerly Recruiting Manager, Wheel)
discover the answers to all of these questions through analytics. Tone can’t really be
measured by metrics, but the questions are still worth asking.

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Outreach analytics checklist

After how many follow-ups does your team start seeing What’s the average length of your best-performing {{reason}}
diminishing returns? tokens?

What’s the most effective wait time between initial outreach and What send times are statistically most effective for which roles?
each of your follow-ups?
Do you see statistically better response rates when you send
In subject lines, which tokens statistically attract the most
from a recruiter or from someone in a leadership role?
opens?
At what stage in the sequence is it best for a recruiter to switch to
Do more tokens in the message copy earn more responses? Or
SOBO?
are there eventually diminishing returns?
For which roles is SOBO best?
Do you get more opens by appealing to values or opportunities
in your subject lines? Is there a tone in your email copy that seems to motivate the
highest levels of engagement?
What subject line “power verbs” get you the most clicks?
Which links get the most clicks?
What’s the average length of your best-performing subject
lines? What forms of social proof are most compelling to your
prospects?
What’s the average length of your best-performing body copy?
Which break-up strategies get the most responses?

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Examples of great
recruiting email outreach

In this section, we’ve curated a few best practices and shared some examples to illustrate what
these ideas might look like in practice. Think you can do better? We bet you can! Our goal is to give
you some inspiration and a jumping off point, but we’d encourage you to make unabashed edits so
the wording sounds more like your own voice and highlights what’s relevant to your candidates.

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Explain why you’re reaching out to

them To: Candidate

From: Recruiter

This is another way of reiterating: personalize. And we don’t just mean mentioning Subject line: ...
mutual interests here, though that’s been shown to work in subject lines. You’ve done
your research. You know what projects and initiatives your prospect has been Hey {{first_name}}, I hope your {{day_of_week}} is going well.
undertaking at their current company in recent years. You know their interests and skill
I partner with our Success Engineering Managers at [company name] to
sets, and have a strong sense of what they could bring to the position (or to a specific identify new technology-focused, customer-centric individuals for our team.
current project) at your company. Tell them as much. It’ll flatter them, yes. It’ll also Your experience {{extra1}} caught my eye and I thought I’d reach out to tell you
more about our team. This is a truly ideal time to join—it’s still early enough to
make you look instantly trustworthy.
have a huge impact and to create an amazing home in the greater Denver tech
community. We’re outgrowing the startup phase and running to power the
entire customer data ecosystem, and we need the best people to take the
market.

I realize that you might be happy at {{company}} and not actively planning a
move right now, yet

My hunch is that this would be a great conversation at least. I’m adding a few
links below in case you want to dig in more.

Let me know if you’re interested. The next step would be to have an intro call
with me to help familiarize you more with the customer-facing Success
Engineer opportunity. Open to learning more?

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Talk about “opportunities,” not “roles” To: Candidate

or “positions” From: Recruiter

Subject line: ...

“Positions” are static; “opportunities” are dynamic. 87% of millennials say professional
development or opportunities for career growth are very important to them in a job. Hey {{first_name}},

Think of this as the value proposition for your prospect. (Your mantra should be: My name is [name] and I head up Sales Recruiting at [company name]. We are
“Upward trajectories, not lateral transfers.”) Why would top talent who isn’t even looking for a Sales Operations Manager to drive operations for our fast-growing
sales team. As the first Sales Operations Manager, you’ll be instrumental in
looking for work consider your open position a better opportunity than what they’ve
solving critical business problems and building the blueprint to help our
got now? The ability to build a team from scratch? Increased organizational impact?
organization scale. Our Director of Sales Operations was impressed with your
The opportunity to learn a new skill set (and ultimately to be more attractive in the experience at {{company}} and thought it would be a great fit for what we’re
market)? Whatever it is, speak to that. looking for. Do you have 15–20 minutes for an exploratory conversation in the
next week?

More about the opportunity:

• Amazing culture
• $88M in funding from investors including Union Square Ventures, First
Round Capital, and Sequoia
• Opportunity to work closely with Sales Leadership team coming from
Atlassian, Twilio, Optimizely, and Google
• Ability to build the blueprint and operationalize the infrastructure to help a
young sales team scale 4x from today
• Strong revenue growth (100% YOY growth) and impressive portfolio of
customers: Twilio, Airbnb, Jet, Zillow

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Give them what they’re not getting

To: Candidate
now
From: Recruiter

This best practice is an extension of the last: It’s one thing to speak to opportunities; Subject line: ...

it’s another to speak to the opportunities prospects aren’t experiencing in their

Hi {{first_name}},
current role. Where does their current company fall short—in terms of growth
My name is [name] and I’m working alongside our CTO at [company name] to
opportunities, benefits, company culture, work environment? If your company offers
find product-focused Mid to Senior Web Engineers to join us... from anywhere
something more energetic, substantial, or successful, emphasize those elements—
right now, though our HQ is in Austin. Based on your experience with {{reason}}, I
without, of course, mentioning their company’s weakness. (Your prospect will figure feel you would be a great fit.
that out for themselves.)
In the past two years, we’ve raised $35M in funding, opened in 4 cities, and are
on track to double in size by next year. We’ve proven our business model, are
generating revenue each quarter, and now need your expertise to scale,
optimize, and automate our operations.

What it’s like to work here:

• No product managers. You own and drive the product from start to finish.
• Lots of growth opportunity as we grow from a small team of 6 engineers to
20+ by the end of the year.
• Tackling technical challenges across internal tooling, guest experience,
finance, and data.
• Work on a very collaborative team of forward-thinking, creative, and
product-focused people.

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Mention company mission and culture To: Candidate

From: Recruiter

You’re not just selling an opportunity; you’re selling a daily experience. It’s worth Subject line: ...
noting that one of the biggest roadblocks candidates face when changing jobs is “not
knowing what it’s really like to work at the company.” So describe it for them. Consider Hi {{first_name}},

work-life balance, collaborative environments, paid time off, continuing education, I noticed you have a great Infra-Eng Leadership background with {{company}}
and more. Consider what you know about the prospect’s interests and how they’d fit in a {{title}} capacity. [company name] is hiring for a Platform Manager who will
in with your current team. Granted, you won’t have time to expound. Make a brief take over a high-performing SRE/SETI style team due to growth in the
organization. I’m curious if you might be open to considering a career
mention about culture or values, and link to a page on your website dedicated to your
opportunity if the company/team/tech are right?
company’s mission or culture.
[company name] has an incredible origin story which has led us to now serving
1.4M registered developers who build with [company name]. Outside of our
incredible open-source culture, one of the aspects which I’m particularly
excited about is our focus on user privacy & community impact. We are also big
proponents of creating a diverse culture and building a company based on
values and a moral compass.

The Platform Team practices the playbook outlined by the Google SRE
visionaries. We believe in empowering & growing teams to reach their full
potential which is demonstrated by our CTO’s Story and Philosophy. A quick
note is that we live in containerized SPOT instances on AWS which allows us to
pay 10–20% of list price for our service needs as we scale. There’s a lot of great
work in place already but so much left to do.

Would you be open to learning more about what we could offer you in a career
opportunity?

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Offer social proof

To: Candidate
“Social proof” is the psychological phenomenon in which people look to others to
From: Recruiter
determine what to do in a given situation. While it’s originally a marketing term, the
concept is just as relevant to talent outreach. Typically, social proof in sourcing comes Subject line: ...
in the form of employee confirmation that the company culture is as dynamic and
supportive as the recruiter says it is. If you’re sourcing diversity prospects, maybe you Hi {{first_name}},
link to a blog post written by your female head engineer, for example. If you don’t yet Sharing with you a blog post one of our top reps wrote detailing the unusual
have that first-degree connection, other strategies include media mentions and DNA of [company name]’s sales org. If you feel you have DNA superseding the
acknowledgments that others have taken a particular action with you (“Candidates “traditional salespeople” you work with or popularized in Wolf of Wall Street,
give this piece a read.
we’ve recently interviewed have said [X]”). The point is to give voice to those people
top talent most want to hear from. Candidates are three times more likely to trust A key quote:
company employees (rather than the employer itself) on what it’s like to work there. So
“The Account Development team includes an Olympic hopeful in Atlanta, a
link to your careers page, your about page, or a page on company culture where former professional rugby player in San Francisco, and a ballet-dancing,
employee quotes are featured—or highlight employee sentiment in the email itself. chess-playing, part-time DJ in London. In fact, the team is led globally by a
former biomedical engineer and a special operations veteran—it’s not your
traditional group of deal-closers. But it is a group of multi-talented individuals
who draw upon a diverse range of backgrounds to challenge their prospects
to think differently.”

[name] joined in [date] and a few months later was promoted from our team to
a field Account Executive role.

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Consider conversational cadence

To: Candidate

From: Recruiter

Conversational cadence is exactly what it sounds like: the speed at which you move Subject line: ...
the conversation forward (even if that “conversation” looks more like a monologue).
Hey {{first_name}},
Remember, you have four emails in which to motivate engagement and elicit a
response… and you have plenty of information about your company to offer. So Are you starting to think about a new jumping off point for your career?
[company name] just got named on the 2024 Career-Launching List and I’d
introduce it in small doses. If your initial outreach about how the opportunity could
love to chat with you about growth and learning opportunities here.
advance your prospect’s career doesn’t elicit engagement, perhaps your first follow-
up describes company culture, and your second shouts out the Series C funding you Thanks!

just received. Every prospect will have their own “sweet spot”—that nugget of
information that finally animates them into action.
To: Candidate

From: Recruiter

Subject line: ...

Hey {{first_name}},

I wanted to share the latest news with you that [company name] has been
awarded one of the Best Workplaces in Technology by Great Places to Work
and Fortune Magazine! This means a lot to us as we continue to try to push the
boundaries of technology and workplace culture.

If you’re open to discussing opportunities here at [company name] or learning

more, what’s your availability for a 15-20 minute chat?

Thanks!

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Make your breakup email

unforgettable
Done well, the breakup (aka “Hail Mary”) email may very well be the hook that finally
gets prospects’ attention. After all, loss aversion—the notion that the fear of loss is To: Candidate
more powerful than the pleasure of gains—is real. It can be difficult for prospects to
From: Recruiter
hear you confirm for them that they’re not moving forward in the process—so try it, and
see if that’s what gets a bite. Subject line: ...

Some of the best breakup emails we’ve seen propose that the sourcer/prospect
Hi {{first_name}},
relationship take a new form—whether through blog subscriptions, company events,
or referral programs (“I have a philosophy that good people know good people!”). The bad news is I haven’t heard back from you. The good news is that you are
probably loving your current role.
Parting gifts are memorable. Humor is memorable. And poems will likely leave their
mark for a long time. Since this will be my last email, I wanted to sign-off with a gift as a thank you for
reading. It’s one of my favorite tools from Sourcing Master Glen Cathey—a
handy Candidate Sourcing Funnel Calculator to help you estimate how many
people you need to identify to find your purple squirrel.

Hopefully you will find it useful.

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How Gem can

Gem is the AI-powered recruiting platform TA teams love. Use Gem as your all-in-one recruiting
platform or enhance your existing ATS with integrated products for CRM, sourcing, scheduling,
analytics, career sites, events, and more. Over 1,000 companies – from startups to industry
leaders like Airbnb, Wayfair, Cintas, Carmax, Doordash, and Zillow – trust Gem to hire with speed
and ease. See why Gem is the industry’s most beloved solution, with a 4.8/5 rating on G2.

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Simplify your tech stack and cut costs

Consolidate multiple tools into one platform and reduce spend on recruiting technology, job boards, and ads.
Customers like Veho and Prestige Care save hundreds of thousands by reducing their reliance on agencies and other
sourcing platforms. Our larger enterprise customers like Airbnb and Wayfair use Gem to search for qualified talent in their
ATS, accounting for ~50% of their sourced hires.

Attract, engage, and hire talent faster

Build high-quality pipelines across all channels through sourcing, nurture, events, career sites, inbound, and more. With
Gem, teams can source talent 5x faster with easy, 1-click add and 2x talent pipelines with a stronger employer brand.
Our customers like Celestica have used Gem to hire over 700 employees in just 90 days.

Maximize recruiter productivity

Use AI and automation to save time on routine tasks like reviewing applications, scheduling, and managing follow-ups.
With Gem, recruiters spend half as much time on routine tasks like reviewing applications, scheduling, and managing
follow-ups. Our customers like Procore, Robinhood and Octave have all saved hundreds of hours a month for their
recruiters.

Unlock data-driven recruiting

Visualize hello-to-hire analytics to debug your funnel, monitor pipelines, forecast hiring, and demonstrate impact, with
data anyone can use. Our deep ATS integrations and no-code analytics interface have allowed teams like Unity pinpoint
and address bottlenecks, resulting in a 10-day reduction in time-to-fill.

Recruiting email outreach benchmarks and best practices Fall 2024 Edition 2024 Page 45
Gem is the AI-powered recruiting platform TA teams love. It helps you
maximize productivity, hire faster, and save money – all while giving
recruiters a solution they find easy to use.

To learn more and see a demo, visit gem.com

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