Why Your InMails Suck and How To Improve

The most important part of your communication with a candidate is the SUBJECT! You get only a few precious seconds before your InMail gets ignored forever and no matter how compelling your "awesome opportunity" is, they won't read a single glorious detail.

Candidates are so inundated with InMail, most of them blandly overt and blunt employment "offers," that reading them all would be a full time job. So they just don't. The only way to get a candidate to read you InMail is by having a carefully worded, high-impact subject line.

Here is an online course on the art of crafting compelling email subject lines, but meanwhile here are some tips to follow:

• Action: Action verbs hit harder.
  
  Example: "Mortgage Industry disruptor eclipses revenue goals, now must hire top talent"
  
  
• Affiliation: Well known names attract attention.
  
  Example: "Atlanta billionaire Sara Blakely joins local startup board of advisors"
  
  
• Brevity: Use 8-12 words.
  
  Example: "new iOS app can save lives, but needs more engineers"
  
  
• Creativity: Alliteration, puns, and crafty wordplay get noticed and add vitality to your subject. A good pun is its own reword.
  
  Example: "Crafty Chemists find fortune at local lab"
  
  
• Deadline: Deadlines make people take action.
  
  Example: "Hiring 10 nurses by April 1st, can you help?"
  
  
• Localize: Mention the location by name in the subject line.
  
  Example: "Gwinett employer hiring Atlanta's top Insurance Agents"
  
  
• Provoke: Edgy is good, just keep it clean and relevant.
  
  Example: "New jobs offer Financial Advisors no-cap comissions"
  
  
• Referrals: They may not be your ideal candidate, but could know someone who is. Don't close the door on referrals before you even get them to read your message.
  
  Example: "Need help identifying the best Radiology talent in Duluth, can you help?"
  
  
• Rewrite: First drafts are never good enough. Work on it until its perfect. Get your colleagues to review it. Send it to friends or family.

What are YOUR most successful subject lines?