Everyone seems to be glued to their phones these days, and the talent you’re searching for is no different. And what people love to do most with their phones isn’t scanning their Facebook feed, checking their emails, or making phone calls. It’s texting. Whether you are looking for younger talent or someone more experienced, there’s no shortage of prospects when you’re talking texting. Over 90% of Americans aged 18-29 and 88% of Americans aged 30-49 own a smartphone. There’s not going to be a downtick anytime soon.

 Personalization: Learning more about leads gives recruiters the opportunity to personalize messages. Crafting genuine, targeted texts helps ensure leads don’t end up feeling like “just a number.”

 Length: Keep text messages around 160 characters in length. When messages are too long, they’re liable to be skimmed, ignored, or in the worst case scenario, undeliverable.

Campaign Size:  Communication: Use a texting platform that allows two-way texting communication. Use two-way communication effectively by starting small and limiting campaign sizes to 50 contacts to start. Keeping campaign sizes small makes sure you can handle the high volumes of replies you’re sure to get.

Protect Candidate Experience: Make it easy for candidates to unsubscribe. Some platforms automatically attach an opt-out message the first time you send a text message to a candidate. Other platforms can intelligently read candidate responses and unsubscribe contacts if words like “stop” “cancel” or “unsubscribe” are found.

Time: The best time to send text messages is at the start of the working day and before lunch. 26% of candidates preferred to receive a text between 8 and 10 am. 29% of candidates preferred to receive a text between 12 and 2 pm.  Candidates tended to view texts sent after working hours unfavorably so make sure not to schedule any campaigns after 5:00 PM and don’t text your candidates at night.

Keep Questions Simple: If you are asking your candidate a question over text message keep it simple. Candidates should be able to answer any question you send them over text message with a simple yes or no.

Analytics: Use text message recruiting software that offers analytics capabilities. You’ll want to track metrics like open rates, response rates, unsubscribes, and clicks. You’ll want to A/B test different message copy, send times, and call to actions to find the combination that works best for your recruiting market.