A LinkedIn study of InMail, the site’s advanced messaging feature, was designed to discover which types of messages get the best results.
The study analyzed tens of millions of InMails sent by corporate recruiters worldwide between May 2021 and April 2022.
For the study, the social media site looked at five areas to determine which types of messages were most likely to receive a response. It attempts to answer the following questions:
- Do longer or shorter messages work better?
- What day of the week are you most likely to get a response?
- Do personalized messages get better response rates?
- Is “Recommended Match” more likely to accept InMail?
- Are ‘open job’ candidates more likely to respond?
It found that InMails most likely to receive a response within 30 days were personalized, with shorter messages sent to “Recommended Match” or “Open Job” users sent on Mondays.
Short messages are better than long messages
LinkedIn Discovery shortest InMail is the best performer.
message less than 400 characters implement twenty two% Better than average, numbers drop as information grows.
Those with character counts between 401 and 800 were 3% above average, while those with 801-1200 were 6% below average.
The longest messages (over 1200 words) performed the worst, 11% below the global average.
However, most recruiters send longer messages, with 90% of InMails exceeding 400 characters.
LinkedIn suggests that shorter messages may perform better because users are Candidate Driven Market.
InMails sent on Fridays and Saturdays get the lowest response rates
According to LinkedIn data, Day of the week doesn’t make a big difference Reply rate, as long as it is not sent on a Friday or Saturday.
Every other day, the average global response rate fell within 1%, with Monday’s performance slightly better than the rest of the day.
Responses were down 4% on Friday and 8% on Saturday. However, only 2% of messages were sent on Saturdays.
Get more responses with personalized messages
According to this study, InMails send alone almost execute 15% Better than sending in bulk.
This follows the trend of general email marketing principles that identify message personalization as #1 Strategies to Increase Engagement Rates.
“Recommended candidates” and “Open for new positions” most likely to respond
Recruiter used LinkedIn Referral Candidates most 35% Studies have found that messages are more likely to be replied to than messages found through searches alone. Recommend candidates based on the relevant skills listed in the user’s profile.
The study also found that recruiters had the greatest success with candidates whose profiles were marked as “Open to Work.” These users responded 37% more often than other candidates.
source: LinkedIn Talent Blog
Featured Image: Tada Images/Shutterstock
