We’ll admit the idea is ambitious, even utopic. For a monthly fee, you get access to arguably the largest database of professionals in the world. With a few simple clicks, you’re directly in the inbox of your favorite candidates telling them about the open position you have. With the right amount of luck, you should be able to hire the best candidates in a matter of days. Sounds too good to be true? That’s because it kind of is…

InMail response rates tend to be within the 15% range. That’s not exactly perfect nor is it atrocious, but it doesn’t exactly deliver on its promise. Here are the reasons we think InMail tends to have lower success rates:

It feels less genuine

When you send a generic mass InMail message, it doesn’t feel personalized or genuine. Candidates can and will definitely notice that. Of course, there are ways to make the message more personalized but the medium itself allows for the candidate to suspect disingenuousness. That’s no one’s fault but the system’s. 

Your offer can be less relevant

A good portion of those InMail messages are less relevant to candidates. That could be for a number of reasons.

  1. The position does not align with their career goals
  2. They are satisfied with their current position

That’s a risk anyone takes when reaching out to candidates but LinkedIn InMail is even less effective in detecting relevance. This takes us to visibility.

It is less visible than an email

This is in all likelihood the single biggest reason why LinkedIn InMail goes unnoticed. Candidates who are not on a serious job hunt are less likely to keep their LinkedIn updated and check it constantly.

Email is still objectively one of the best ways to reach candidates. When you have a workflow that works across multiple channels, you are more likely to get better results. InMail is still a great feature that can help you find the best candidates. However, you need to do it right. You need to make it personable, actionable, relevant to the candidate.

We’ve made some templates for LinkedIn messages in the past. Check them out here.

The best strategy is to combine your LinkedIn messages with an email follow-up. You can use a sourcing tool (Jobjet has a Chrome Extension that enriches contact information in seconds) and build a pipeline right away.

Make sure you try out this new strategy and drop us a line about how it worked out for you.

Happy sourcing!