Templates
Cold email for recruitment agencies: three templates that get replies
Hiring managers get dozens of recruiter emails a week. The ones that get answered are short, specific to the company, and ask for one small thing. Here are three you can use today.
Before you write anything
- Pick one niche. "Accounts staff for practices of 5 to 30 people in the South West" beats "all roles, all sectors".
- Find a reason to write. A job advert they're running, a new office, growth on LinkedIn. One line about them is worth more than a paragraph about you.
- Lead with the risk you remove. For most agencies that's "no fee until they start".
Template 1: the live job advert
Subject: your {Role} advertHi {First name},
Saw {Company} is hiring a {Role}. Roles like that usually take ten to twelve weeks to fill in {Town}, and the work lands on someone else in the meantime.
We place {Role}s for firms like yours in under three weeks, and there's no fee until they start.
Worth a quick call to see who's available right now?
{Your name}
Why it works: it proves you looked, names their actual problem, and removes the risk in one line.
Template 2: the hidden candidates
Subject: quick one about hiring at {Company}Hi {First name},
Most of the people we place in {Sector} are already in work and never apply to adverts. They come to us when the right firm turns up.
I've got two or three who'd suit a business like {Company}. Happy to send over anonymised profiles, no commitment.
Want me to?
{Your name}
Why it works: it offers something useful for free and asks for a yes or no, not a meeting.
Template 3: the polite last email
Subject: last one from meHi {First name},
I'll leave you be after this. If hiring isn't on the cards right now, no problem. Would you rather I check back in a few months, or not at all?
{Your name}
Why it works: it's easy to answer, and "check back in March" is a warm lead you'd otherwise have lost.
Timing
- Email 1 on day 0, the hidden-candidates email on day 3 if there's no reply, the last one on day 7.
- Stop the moment anyone replies, even with a no.
- Send Tuesday to Thursday mornings.
What to expect
From 1,000 well-targeted emails, 20 to 40 replies and 5 to 10 real conversations is a good month. The biggest lever isn't the wording, it's the list: the right people at the right companies.