Thanks to AI-empowered tools, finding candidates is easier now that it has ever been, but what happens after you’ve found them? How do you get them to respond to your outreach? One way is to schedule your message at the most opportune time. There is a science to that and it’s called Send time optimization (STO) which is sending emails to recipients to maximize engagement, such as open rates and click-through rates. This technique leverages data analytics and machine learning to analyze past email interactions and predict the best times to deliver emails for each individual recipient. I typically hear about STO in connection with consumer marketing emails but I don’t see why it can’t be applied to candidate outreach.
I wanted to find case studies on this related to recruitment alas, what I found was not quite what I was looking for. However, what I did find may inspire you to consider STO methods in your candidate outreach. For example, here is a quote from Unmudl.
Knowing the preferences of your audience is another vital consideration. You must factor in the time zones of your recipients and their typical work hours. For instance, emails sent to professionals perform better during midday or early evening, as they are likely to check their inboxes during lunch break or after work…A/B testing, or split testing, is an effective way to optimize email timing. It involves sending the same email at different times or days to different segments of your audience to see which performs better. By analyzing open and click-through rates, recruiters can fine-tune their email schedules for maximum effectiveness.
Prism Global shared a case study stating that…
“Personalizing the content of emails, and the days and times the emails send, has had a tremendous impact on their email performance this year to date. 93% increase in emails opened, 55% increase in emails clicked, 26% decrease in the hard bounce rate, and 14% decrease in the unsubscribe rate”
There are tools that include STO in their overall bundle of products. A few examples…
Now I have not tried this tool but I am intrigued by it – Mailgun. Here’s a heads up on what they have to offer, courtesy of You.com.
Mailgun offers a robust STO feature that holds emails until the recipient is actively engaging with their inbox. This approach ensures that messages are top of mind, leading to better engagement. Campaigns using Mailgun’s STO consistently see a 5-10% uplift in opens and clicks compared to regular methods. The tool works across all major inbox providers, including Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo, and targets the best send time using engagement data from billions of emails sent each month
So you send me an email that hangs in limbo until I actually open up my email, giving the effect that it was sent at that very moment? Interesting, very interesting. Of course, this is not an endorsement, just a citation of curiosity. But I digress.
By leveraging send time optimization, Sourcers can enhance the effectiveness of their email campaigns, ensuring that their messages reach recipients at the most opportune moments for engagement. With all of the AI tools available for finding passive talent, I predict we will see more standalone tools like Mailgun that increase the likelihood of email success. Just my two cents. What do you think? Leave a comment on social media and tag SourceCon and I may feature it in an upcoming newsletter.
May the source be with you!
Jim Stroud
Your SourceCon Editor
