Recently I ran a webinar around the topic ‘what is candidate nurturing?’ If you are not sure what that means, here is a link to that webinar and you can have a quick watch before getting deeper into this post – webinar link!
In that webinar I talk briefly about the concept you can use candidate newsletter campaigns to build relationships with your candidates so they will consider working for you in the future. Saving you a ton of costs for new job ads, but also helping you to simply recruiter faster in the process.
What is a candidate newsletter?
The idea of a candidate newsletter strongly focuses on what happens with your candidates after they have been unsuccessful in any of your recruitment processes. Most companies throw rejected candidates away, and then 6 months later when they open for a similar role they buy fresh job ads and start all over again.
This is wrong people!
Most candidates are unsuccessful in recruitment processes for time related reasons. I.e. unqualified, happy in their current role, or maybe they just had different life priorities at that time. Six months later, many of those elements can be different, and it’s always worth considering those candidates again when you open new roles. Because you basically already paid the money to get them in the first place. But for more of that, watch the webinar I linked previously.
A candidate newsletter is an email you send to all your candidates. This email should have the intent of building your brand with those candidates, and providing a unique value to them. You can send candidate newsletters as often as you think you can provide value. At TRAFFIT we try to send them once per month. Here is an example of our TRAFFIT Talent Newsletter we send to all our candidates.
5 cool tools that can help you get your newsletter started
To make this happen is super easy. here are 5 tools I can recommend for getting your newsletter up and running in no time!
1. Zapier
I’ve put Zapier in the first place, because in most cases it’s what you need to get your candidates from your ATS into your messaging software. Unless you have an awesome IT team who create an API connection.
Zapier is a bridge between 5,000 different platforms that saves you any need for IT involvement. It has a freemium plan that allows up to 100 zaps per month.
You can easily setup a Zap that when a candidate is removed from your recruitment process they are automatically added to your candidate newsletter list in your email provider.
2. Stripo
Stripo is a life saver for people who don’t wanna code emails in HTML. It allows you to create beautiful emails and collaborate with other team members. In TRAFFIT it’s common for our awesome content manager Zuza to finish designing an email and send me a link to add my content. Once you are done, Stripo can add that email directly to over 60 email platforms.
3. GetResponse
Probably one of the most important factors to the candidate newsletter is your sending platform. It’s important to select a platform that has strong email delivery, and will also provide you the analytics and reports needed to monitor the effectiveness of your newsletter campaign. At TRAFFIT we use GetResponse, but there are many providers out there. What would be my best advice would be to check what your marketing team currently use, and see if you can join there.
The Email Marketing platform space has lots of options. We use GetResponse but here are a few other options to consider:
- Mailchimp
- Hubspot
- Klaviyo
- Active Campaign
- Drip
5. Copy.ai
At TRAFFIT we are lucky to have full time content managers who can dive straight into creating emails for our candidates, but I know this is not a resource that is always available to teams, especially in HR departments. Copy.ai can help you create attractive copy in minutes just by entering some main points you want to cover. A real help when you are either lacking in time, or just have mental block that happens to me all the time!
Wrap Up
Newsletters are a great tool, when you want to try and keep contact with in some cases thousands of candidates at the same time. It will never replace human contact, but it’s not intended too.
84% of candidates said they would happily apply to the same company more than once if the situation presented itself so for less than $99 you can keep this group of candidates connected to your business and recruit cheaper and faster next time you hire!
Until next time!
Mick
