Your Comprehensive Guide To Outbound Recruitment Campaign

Mass layoffs have been taking over the market, and recruiters are crushed under the weather. On one end, they have to wave off some talented people due to business reevaluation. On the other end, they must maintain a healthy talent pipeline to fill job roles for future requirements. The market is facing a slow hiring season, but it will boom again in some time. Recruiters need to forecast, plan, and be prepared for the same. 

The dynamic job market demands a specific strategy to source and hire people that meet the job requirements and helps recruiters find their ideal candidate. Outbound recruitment is gaining popularity, and recruiters invest their resources to get desired candidates by proactively sourcing and engaging with them. Additionally, they get to tap the unique opportunity to communicate with passive job seekers.  

Do you wish to start passive hiring? Are you planning to source and engage qualified candidates actively? Where to start your outbound recruitment campaign? 

In today's blog, we will discuss what an outbound recruitment campaign is, and the top 5 strategies to plan your next campaign. 

What is an Outbound Recruitment Campaign? 

Outbound recruitment means actively reaching out to qualified candidates and nurturing a relationship to hire them in case of a vacancy. Recruiters use various sources, primarily LinkedIn, to source desired candidates and engage with them. They communicate about company values and work culture to persuade the candidates to either switch or join the company. 

An outbound recruitment campaign means strategically planning and proactively building relationships with qualified candidates. Recruiters forecast and decide the job profiles they want. They source and engage with them to fill vacancies as and when available. The vital part is building relationships by showcasing the company’s value and consistently communicating with them. 

But how does this approach help the company when the recruiters have to work harder than the traditional approach? 

The traditional or the inbound approach involves job posting and getting applications. Recruiters put an ad on different job boards and wait for applications. Then, they review all the applications and go through a screening process to select candidates for further rounds. Recruiters conduct interviews, assessments, and other tests based on job complexity. Finally, they hire the most qualified candidate that matches their needs. 

Here is the difference between inbound and outbound recruitment .

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Earlier outbound recruitment focused on reaching out to candidates when the companies had vacancies and hired people. This was an easy and fast way to hire people for short-term vacancies. However, outbound recruitment evolved, and it's not just a quick fix to fill job roles. 

Recruiters plan and forecast the business need to source and engage with qualified candidates way before time. It's a long-term strategy to build relationships and hire easily during vacancies. 

Recruiters save time on screening and going through various CVs and applications. Alternatively, they can save on the tools for screening automation as well. Moreover, they need not spend a single penny on advertisements and posting vacancies on job boards. 

Here are the top 4 benefits of hiring candidates via the outbound strategy. 

1. Scalable- Outbound recruitment focuses on planning, forecasting, and recruiting people based on business needs. This helps recruiters to create a scalable recruitment plan by hiring for multiple roles at the same time quickly. They need not go through hundreds or thousands of applications and headstart with a list of qualified and interested candidates. Recruiters can hire various people at the same time without any hassle or complexity. 

2. Qualified Candidates- Outbound recruitment gives the recruiters more control over the kind of candidates they engage and hire because they can individually source and hire people. Instead of waiting for their desired candidate, who might not even know about the company, recruiters cut to the chase and directly get in touch with their ideal employee. This is helpful for job roles that demand a specific skill set, as recruiters can pick the desired candidate. Moreover, they can target passive job seekers as well.

3. Mitigate the Screening Process- Recruiters no longer have to spend time reviewing thousands of applications and screening hundreds of CVs before finding their desired candidate. Additionally, they need not invest in tools for screening. Outbound recruitment allows recruiters to source the desired candidate based on their requirements. This saves their time and effort in screening a myriad of candidates. 

4. Promote Employer Brand- Inbound recruitment demands companies to work on their employer brand and create a healthy work environment. Contrarily, outbound recruitment involves recruiters communicating the EVP, company culture, work environment, etc., with the qualified candidates. This promotes the employer brand and strengthens it as a by-product. Recruiters engage with candidates and provide a personalized experience to foster relationships and employer brand. 

Outbound hiring is a continuous process that helps companies to fill vacancies faster and deploy marketing and sales techniques to persuade desired candidates. Recruiters blend employer brand and cold emailing to engage and hire their ideal candidate. 

But how do recruiters execute a successful outbound recruitment campaign? How can they secure a qualified candidate? Let us look at some strategies to plan your next outbound recruitment campaign.

Top 5 Outbound Recruitment Campaign Strategies

An outbound campaign is only successful when recruiters change their mindset from a reactive to a proactive approach. They must value each candidate and provide a personalized, valuable experience. Instead of waiting for applications and screening them, they can hunt down their desired candidates and get them to join the company when the vacancy arises. Here are the top 5 strategies to ensure an efficient outbound recruitment campaign.

Data-driven Sourcing Plan 

Data can enhance the efficiency of any planning stage. Recruiters must gather data and consider them while drafting strategic sourcing plans. But what kind of data will provide insights that will help in hiring?

• Forecast- Company data enables the recruiters to forecast and understand the business needs.

• Candidate Persona- Companies can easily make an ideal candidate persona by looking into records and the performance of the current top and poor performers.

• Personal Information- Recruiters can refer to social media and other channels to gather information like average salary, typical education background, job change frequency, etc. A basic LinkedIn search can help to provide a personalized experience and create a custom-made sourcing strategy to meet business needs. 

• Track Metrics- Data like the source of hire, retention rate, etc., can help recruiters to understand weaknesses and strengths. For instance, if the source of hire is mainly employee referrals with a high retention rate, the recruiters will incentivize the employees to give referrals. Moreover, recruiters must try to expand the sourcing channels. 

Build a Healthy Pipeline 

A recruiter can not depend upon a single source to hire, engage, or hire people. It will not enable them to exploit the job market and find desired candidates. They can expand their source channels by checking individual platforms such as Inbound org. ( for digital marketing), GitHub ( for a software engineer), etc. Moreover, they can look for networking opportunities and diverse communities to tap diverse candidates on channels like LinkedIn communities, referrals, etc. 

However, networking with so many candidates can be difficult. Recruiters must maintain proper data for all the candidates, the conversations, and every relevant detail to provide a personalized and creative experience. Additionally, recruiters must integrate the tools and sourcing information to create a comprehensive database. 

Nurturebox can help recruiters to integrate their HR stack to provide a seamless hiring experience. Recruiters can get away with the admin task of remembering all the conversations, engaging consistently, maintaining records, and so much more. Finding the desired candidate was never this easy!! 

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Active Engagement 

Engagement is vital for outbound recruitment and decides if candidates will join the firm. If these candidates are not consistently engaged, they might forget about the company or question the brand’s prestige. Candidates value recruiters who take time to build relationships and consistently communicate. 

Personalization is also the key to adding true value and providing a memorable experience to each candidate. Generic content won't help the company, and sending the same message to 100 candidates will spoil the brand's reputation. Moreover, personalization means an improved response rate and strengthens the employer brand. 

Recruiters must take their time to research the candidates and weigh upon performance indicators such as work experience, industry experience, background interest, etc. Generally, all this information is available on LinkedIn or any other professional job board. However, recruiters can deploy specific tools to do in-depth research and make their tasks easier. 

Specific Message 

Passive hiring is not just about finding candidates, telling them about job roles, consistently communicating, and getting done. The exact message matters a lot and impacts the response rates too. A generic message that doesn't appeal to the reader will get no attention. However, a personalized message tailored to persuade a specific candidate will have a higher success rate. 

But how to write a specific message for outbound hiring? 

• Share the job role benefits and employee value proposition. 
• Start with the skills required and express interest in their work experience and current skills. 
• The message should be short, crisp, and not contain complicated elements of HTML or other irrelevant information.
• Follow up within one-two weeks, which will enhance the reply rate and help in case the original message gets lost in the inbox. Ensure to mention the previous touch point. 
• Don't spam with irrelevant information or resources that might not add value. 
• Add a specific CTA and persuade the candidates to get on a call or discuss further. Avoid loose threads or too many confusing CTAs.

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Add Tools To Streamline the Hiring Process 

Outbound recruitment can be overwhelming with so many steps and having to engage with all the candidates. Adding a few tools to the HR tech stack will help improve the efficiency of the process and make the job easier. Moreover, recruiters can easily scale the whole process when required. 

Instead of going through a lengthy sourcing and hiring process, recruiters can deploy to integrate and take over admin tasks. This enables the recruiters to focus on high-value tasks. Recruiters can hire quickly and easily without spending time verifying email lists or maintaining candidate lists and get everything done from a single interface. Moreover, tools like ATS can help to reach out while simultaneously scrapping emails. 

Finally, recruiters must measure the results by using metrics to refine the campaign further.  Our tool Nurturebox provides analytics with performance insights for recruiters to know what's working and what's not. They can undertake A/B tests to try various strategies and make data-driven decisions based on open, click, and conversion rates.

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Executing a Successful Outbound Recruitment Campaign With Nurturebox 

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A successful campaign is about sourcing candidates from various resources and communicating effectively. These two steps help the recruiter to create awareness, interest, and desire in the candidates for the open job role. It will become easier to hire quickly. However, this won't be efficient without proper planning and the right tools. 

Start by creating a recruitment plan, which includes all information regarding open roles, forecast business hiring needs, budget, etc. The next step is defining goals for the campaign. It can look like expanding each department with a junior-level employee in 2 months. It could be as specific as required. Finally, recruiters can end the planning stage by outlining the candidate's persona and picking sourcing and engaging channels. 

A candidate persona is about the job role company is hiring for, including the responsibilities, experience, and other valuable information. Recruiters go through various sourcing channels to individually pick the desired candidate and engage with them. 

Nurturebox is the ultimate tool for recruiters who want to source and engage candidates and proactively hire qualified candidates. It helps recruiters by integrating all the HR tools and seamlessly hiring people from a single interface. 

Recruiters can download the plugin and start sourcing and engaging without remembering additional information. They get all the information, such as communication channels, past conversations, contact details, and much more, from the plugin. Want to get rid of admin tasks and hire effortlessly? Get started with Nurturebox to find your next ideal employee!