What Is Candidate Response Rate?

With so many people vying for the attention of potential candidates, it’s important to know how best to get their attention. That’s where candidate response rate comes in: the percentage of emails sent that result in a reply from a candidate.

A good response rate depends on how quickly you reply and what’s in your message. If you respond too quickly, you might appear desperate; if you take your time and send an impersonal message, it won’t be engaging enough to get read.

What is the Candidate Response Rate?

Candidate response rate is the percentage of people who reply to sourcing or recruiting emails. This is sometimes known as Prospect Response Rate, or simply Response Rate.

It’s a good indicator of how interested the person is in the job and your organization. If they’re not getting back to you, it might be because they don’t think highly enough of your company or brand to bother responding (or maybe their spam filter just ate your message).

Candidate response rate can also be used by recruiters as an indicator of effectiveness when it comes time for them to measure their outreach efforts against other recruiters within their organization.

How to Increase Your Candidate Response Rate

Stand Out

Prospects get tons of emails every day — and many of them are probably just like yours. So make sure that yours is different by including some details about the position and why it’s right for you (if applicable).

Be sure to include the job title and location in the subject line so that candidates can easily find it when they search through their inboxes later on. Additionally, be concise with your message so that prospects don’t lose interest before reading all of your qualifications.

Teams should spend substantial amounts of time iterating and improving sourcing copy with the hiring managers responsible for roles. Response rates are a great tool when going through initial calibration steps to properly identify the messaging around a new opportunity.

Avoid Spammy Language

Avoid spammy language and make sure the email addresses in your list are correct. If you are not sure about the email address, don’t send it. If it’s incorrect, your message will go straight to their junk folder or even worse: they may mark you as a spammer in their inbox and never hear from you again!

Instead, include links to the company website or career page, as well as any relevant info about the role. Be friendly and personal without being too informal.

Follow up

People receive tons of emails and yours might get overlooked. Be sure to send follow ups several days later to ensure candidates see them.

Use Chatkick Talent CRM to Boost Your Candidate Response Rate

If you want to improve your response rate, the most important thing is to make your message personalized, clear, and concise so that candidates can decide whether or not they’re interested in what you have to offer. High response rates indicate well pinpointed sourcing efforts with effectively written message copy. Tools like Chatkick offer a robust way to monitor the Response Rate of email sourcing campaigns.