Candidate Engagement Practices

6 EMAIL MARKETING PROBLEMS (and how to fix them) LOW OPEN RATES This can stem from uninteresting subject lines, poor deliverability, or not using preview text. Craft subject lines that spark curiosity and use personalization. Ensure strong sender reputation, avoid spam words, and test sending times. Use preview text to complement and summarize. Make subscribers eager to open your email, not just feel obligated. HIGH UNSUBSCRIBE RATES High unsubscribe rates may signal irrelevant content or frequency issues. Get feedback via surveys or emails. Segment list for tailored content and frequency. Improve content with value and variety. Deliver what subscribers want to keep them engaged. LOW CTR Low click-through rates often result from dull call-to-actions (CTAs) and irrelevant content. Use action-oriented, appealing, and well-placed CTAs. Align content with audience interests; use visuals. A/B test CTA styles, placements, and wording. When you have CTAs that stand out and relevant content, it'll help improve your email engagement. EMAIL GOING TO SPAM Emails landing in spam folders are often due to not following email deliverability best practices. Use double opt-in if necessary. Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Regularly clean your email list. Monitor reputation with Google Postmaster. Follow these easy best practices to improve email deliverability. SLOW EMAIL LIST GROWTH This can stem from poor sign-up strategies, low-value offers, and low traffic. Offer compelling lead magnets like eBooks or discounts. Write persuasive copy and simplify the sign-up. Promote sign-ups via social media and website. A/B test form designs, placements, and copy. A streamlined and seamless sign-up process will help boost your list growth. HIGH BOUNCE RATES High bounce rates typically indicate issues with email addresses or list hygiene. Clean list regularly; verify addresses before sending. Monitor bounce reports; address hard and soft bounces. Use double opt-in; keep subscription info updated. A healthy, well-maintained list minimizes bounce rates.

After years in recruitment, I thought I’d seen it all — until this. I recently reached out to a candidate who was a great fit for a role I’m actively recruiting for. She told me she’d already been submitted by another agency. Fair enough — sometimes someone else gets there first. But here’s the thing: I’m the only agency working with this client. Curious, I called the client to clarify. Not only had they never received her CV — they confirmed I’m the sole recruiter on the role. So, what was really going on? Turns out, the other agency was “speccing” her CV — sending it out speculatively to try and win business. There was no live role, no agreement, and no transparency. This isn’t just bad practice. It’s unethical. We’re dealing with people’s livelihoods — their rent, their families, their future. Behaviour like this damages trust and tarnishes the industry for all of us who are working to do things the right way. We have to hold ourselves — and each other — to higher standards.

Candidates aren’t just applying. They’re collecting clues. They scroll through job ads. Skim your About page. Google your Glassdoor reviews. Ask friends. Scroll again. They’re asking: • What’s it really like to work here? • Will I be supported, or left guessing? • Will leadership show up—or disappear after the interview? Here’s the problem: most companies leave too many of those questions unanswered. And when they do answer? The messages don’t always line up. A flashy EVP on the website. A cold auto-reply after applying. An engaging recruiter call. A confusing onboarding. Disjointed experiences break trust fast. Candidates remember every gap. And they’ll walk away before you even know their name. That’s why mapping your employer brand touchpoints matters. Every single interaction is a signal. Every email, tour, policy, and welcome moment adds up. Good or bad, it all speaks. I put together this one-pager to show how touchpoints shape trust. From shallow to deep. General to personal. Quick impressions to meaningful moments (see article in the comment). Because experience design isn’t just for customers. It’s the foundation of how people choose where to work. Want to build trust? Start with the experience. Because a great employer brand isn’t one single moment. It’s the sum of every moment, every message, and every person involved: TA, hiring managers, IT, onboarding buddies, everyone. Which touchpoint do you think gets overlooked the most? #employerbranding #candidateexperience #experiencedesign #designthinking

Imagine sending highly targeted Cold Emails... only for them to bounce or land in spam. Frustrating, right? That’s why cleaning your email list is critical for Outbound success in 2025. Here’s why it matters and how you can do it right. 1️⃣ Protect your sender reputation Each bounce damages your sender reputation. Bad reputation = more emails landing in spam. 💡 Example: If your bounce rate exceeds 2-3%, email providers may start flagging all your messages as spam. 2️⃣ Improve deliverability A clean list ensures your emails reach active inboxes. The result? Higher open rates and better engagement. 3️⃣ Boost campaign performance Better leads means fewer bounces, which increases campaign ROI and $ generated. Here’s how you can clean your list: 🟡 Use email validation tools like ZeroBounce, NeverBounce by ZoomInfo, DeBounce, Clearout, LeadMagic ⚡️ Pro Tip: Validate your lists with 2+ providers to remove unverifiable accounts and maintain high deliverability. 🟣 Create an Email validation workflow Step 1: Run all new leads through a tool like NeverBounce before adding them to your list. Step 2: Segment contacts by email provider. Reaching out to Google inboxes first, then Microsoft ones, will help maximize campaign performance. Step 3: People change jobs often. Regularly validate your lists before the next campaign to remove any inactive or bounced emails. Remember: Clean list = good campaign performance. 🔝 Let’s keep yours thriving in 2025. 💰 💬 What tools do you use for Cold Email validation? Share your favorite ones in the comments. PS: I’m co-hosting a super-cool webinar with Tal Baker-Phillips from lemlist on Unlocking Cold Email Deliverability in 2025 and it’s happening on December 17th! DM me if you want an invite. 😊

The biggest mistake companies make? They forget that hiring isn’t just about filling a role-it’s about protecting and strengthening company culture. Because when your best people don’t feel valued, they don’t wait around. They leave. Your best people don’t just want promotions - they want honesty. I’ve seen this scenario play out over and over again: A company is hiring for a high-level leadership role-maybe a VP, maybe a C-level position. They bring me in for an external search, excited about finding "fresh talent" to take the company to the next level.   This individual has been with the company for years. They know the culture, the strategy, the challenges. They’ve been acting in the role unofficially for months, maybe even years. The board, however, wants to “see what’s out there” before making a final decision. The problem: They haven’t told the internal candidate. 👉 If they get the job, they feel undervalued—"Why wasn’t I trusted from the start?" 👉 If they don’t get it, they feel misled—"Was I ever really considered?" 👉 If the external hire struggles, resentment builds—"I could’ve done this job better." And often, the internal candidate walks. Not because they weren’t good enough. Not because they didn’t want to stay. But because leadership failed them. The Brutal Truth About Internal vs. External Hiring Companies think they’re protecting themselves by “benchmarking” external candidates. But what they’re really doing is breaking trust with their own people. - If an internal candidate is strong enough to compare externally, why aren’t they strong enough to be communicated with honestly? - If you’re just interviewing external candidates to justify promoting someone internally, you’re wasting everyone’s time. - If you’re already leaning toward an external hire, be upfront about it—don’t string along your internal team.  How To Handle Internal vs. External Hiring ✅ Transparency from Day One If an internal candidate is in the running, they deserve to know where they stand. Whether they’re being considered alongside external candidates or just being used as a “backup plan” (which is a terrible idea, by the way), clarity is non-negotiable. ✅ Set Clear Expectations If you’re conducting an external search, make sure your internal candidate understands: - Is this a real competition, or are they just there for optics? - What skills or experience would put them on equal footing with external candidates? - If they don’t get the role, will they have future leadership opportunities? ✅ Don’t Waste Time on Performative Searches If leadership already knows they want to promote the internal candidate, stop running external searches just to check a box. If you want to strengthen your leadership pipeline instead of losing your best people, let’s connect. #ExecutiveSearch #LeadershipDevelopment #TalentRetention #HighPerformanceLeadership #CultureMatters

🛰️ Claudia thought hybrid-working schedules would save her: Two days at home for deep work and the invisible care work, wherever she could breathe. One day on-site to be seen. Although she kept over-delivering. She was seen less and remembered less. The promotions went to people whose jokes landed in hallways, not Slack. Her work traveled by email; their faces traveled by elevator. 🌓 Here’s the trap: working from home is both blessing and curse for women. The blessing is focus and flexibility for the invisible labor we carry. The curse is that we avoid the spotlight. We’d rather deliver quietly and trust merit to carry us, and we get passed over by people who were seen. 🧠 The truth is that people remember who they see, not just what they read. Being in a few key rooms still moves careers, even if it shouldn’t. The 9–6 badge-swipe culture punishes anyone doing school pickups, elder care, or real life. So don’t swing to either extreme, always on-site or always invisible online. Design your visibility like a workflow: pick the two moments each month when decisions get made, show your face there, and cover the rest with tight written receipts and short live updates. 🔧 So, how to design this now: 1. 🎯 𝗖𝗵𝗼𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝘄𝗼 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝗮 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝗻𝗼𝗻-𝗻𝗲𝗴𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀.    Forecast week and exec reviews.    Walk three specific people who need to know your work before the meeting with a one-minute “here’s the impact, here’s the ask.”     2. 🧾 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗶𝗽𝘁𝘀 𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹.    For every major deliverable, ship a 6-sentence note: problem → action → business result → risk removed → next bet → what I need from you. CC two people not in the room. If it isn’t written and witnessed, it isn’t yours.     3. 🗓️ 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆.    Publish your office rhythm: “Tuesdays I’m in for decisions; Thursdays I’m in for cross-team syncs; other days async, 2–4pm live window.” Leaders invest in what they can reliably find.     4. 🔁 𝗥𝘂𝗻 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘅𝘆 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗽 𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗲.    Pre-brief an in-room ally with your two lines and your ask;    Post-brief them for the echoes.    Rotate proxies so you’re not indebted and return the favor when you’re on-site.     🚀 Today Uma and I are running a 90-minute working session, “𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗕𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗮𝘁 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸.” Last chance to join us live and get the exact scripts, pre-wiring moves, and the one-page receipts template: https://lnkd.in/gte3PVrM 👊 Because remote can do the work, but only designed presence gets you the credit, the mic, and the raise.

United Airlines has been my airline of choice since they merged with Continental, and it's one of the few brands that has my absolutely loyalty as a customer. And currently, they are having success with "oversharing" around their delays - and it's working with greater customer satisfaction since implementing this strategy. This is something I've noticed in recent months. Looking at my texts, I can see where they let me know that we'd be delayed due to limits on the number of flights allowed to land due to construction at SFO. Another was a technical issue, with regular updates on their efforts to find a new plane. Most travelers know that delays are part of the game, and often outside of the control of airlines. I don't think most of us are unreasonable when faced with delays. The issue is often the lack of information - not knowing why the delay exists, what's being done about it, and estimates on when the issue will be resolved. Recruiting professionals out there, take note because we can learn something from this when it comes to candidate experience. Transparency builds trust, and it leads to a better experience for everyone involved. 1. Embrace the "no update update" Sometimes, just being told you need a bit more time to review an application or have scheduled all of the interviews needed can alleviate a lot of anxiety vs someone applying and sitting in an applicant pool for weeks or months on end! At Zapier, we try to communicate every 7 days...we may miss the mark sometimes, but our hope is that candidates are never wondering where they stand. 2. Share "the why" Airlines have always let us know when there's a delay - that's not new. But sharing the "why" behind it is. That can feel scary, especially if the news is something like, "we've extended an offer, but think you're amazing and if it doesn't pan out, we'd love to hire you". But candidates ultimately appreciate it, AND it shows them they can trust what your company tells them. Offering feedback after interviews is another way to do this and leave people feeling a less confused around rejections. 3. Tell people what to expect Let candidates know who they are interviewing with. Let them know what topics will be discussed. Tell them how you plan to set their compensation. The more information you can provide candidates, the better the experience will be for everyone. If any of these seem hard, there are tons of tools out there that can help. candidate.fyi creates a candidate hub making it easy to share this info directly with candidates (and empower candidates in a variety of other ways). Crosschq provides an arsenal of data, and one of my favorites is color-coding candidates so you can see when a candidate needs communication. And most decent ATSs will help you automate those "no update updates". It doesn't take significantly more effort to create a significantly better candidate experience - just lean into transparency!

People want their manager to help them get better. They want feedback that’s specific, actionable, and given with care. When leaders rush through performance reviews or treat them as administrative checkboxes, it’s not neutral. It’s damaging. It signals that their growth doesn’t really matter. Take Jennifer, for example. A year into her new role, she was called into a 15-minute performance review that wasn’t even on the calendar. Her manager, too busy to prepare, gave her a 3 out of 5 across every category because “no one under a year gets more than that.” She had worked hard, exceeded expectations, and liked her manager. But that review, her one chance to hear how she could keep growing, felt like an afterthought. If you remember nothing from today, remember, a rushed, check-the-box performance review doesn’t just demotivate. It signals indifference. And indifference kills engagement faster than criticism ever could. Do you agree? #performancereview #leadership #coaching #management

Cold email outreach is often misunderstood as a numbers game - send more, get more. But the truth is, quality always beats quantity. Your success largely depends on the quality of your email list. A well-curated list means you’re reaching the right people with the right message, while a poorly managed list can lead to low engagement, high bounce rates, and damage to your sender reputation. Here’s a few key steps to refine your cold email lists for better results: 1️⃣ Segment your audience: start by dividing your list into segments based on criteria such as industry, job title, company size, or previous interactions with your brand. 2️⃣ Regularly clean your list: over time, email lists can become cluttered with inactive or invalid addresses. Regularly clean your list to remove bounced emails, unsubscribes, and unengaged contacts. This not only improves your deliverability rates but also ensures you’re focusing on prospects who are more likely to engage. 3️⃣ Use data enrichment tools: tools like Clearbit, ZoomInfo, or Hunter.io can help you enrich your email list by adding valuable data points such as the prospect’s role, company details, and social profiles. This extra information enables you to personalize your outreach even further. 4️⃣ Monitor engagement metrics: pay close attention to open rates, click-through rates, and responses. If certain segments of your list are underperforming, it may be time to re-evaluate those contacts. Use these insights to continuously refine your list and improve your targeting. 5️⃣ Leverage intent data: incorporate intent data into your list-building process. This data shows which companies are actively researching solutions like yours, allowing you to target prospects when they’re most interested. Tools like Bombora or 6sense can provide these insights. If you do something extra special to your email lists, share below 🤓 #Sales #ColdEmail #EmailMarketing #Outreach #SalesStrategy

Bad onboarding kills good deals. Here’s why slowing down actually gets you ahead. I used to think speed was everything. • Get things done. • Close the deal. • Move fast. And honestly? In a lot of cases, that’s true. But where people mess up is when they confuse speed with rushing. I see this all the time with new web designers and agency owners. • They’re eager to close. • Eager to start. • Eager to get that next client. So they rush through onboarding. No deep dive into what the client actually needs. No clear scope. Just a quick contract and “Let’s get started.” Because they’ve been told, “The faster you close, the better.” But that’s not speed. That’s recklessness. And there’s nothing good that comes out of rushing things. -> The client says, “This isn’t what we expected.” -> You go back and forth with endless revisions. -> You lose time, money, and sometimes the entire project. Worst case? You tank your reputation. All because you skipped the one thing that makes a difference: listening. Speed is good. But skipping steps isn’t speed - it’s self-sabotage. So slow down. • Ask the right questions. • Set clear expectations. And please don't get it confused. A strong onboarding process doesn’t slow you down it sets you up to win. And when you do that? Clients don’t just hire you. They trust you. And business is all about getting that trust strong :) —— ✍ Question: Have you ever rushed into a project and regretted it later? What happened?