In my twenty-odd year recruitment career, I’ve learnt about many tactics to try and engage candidates through the written word.

Clever openers and lines, pattern disrupts, attention grabbers, and so on and so forth.

The issue is many of them come across as manipulative and, for me, a poor way to start a conversation - especially when the trick employed is the crux of the message when the reason should be.

Combine that with wonky automation and pop goes the credibility balloon.

The one approach I’ve always relied on that works the best for me?

Treating the people I write to like people. People with their own situations, challenges, needs, and aspirations; finding out their problems and how I can help them.

Without doing this how can you establish whether the opportunity presented would be a good move for the reader?

For me, it starts any conversation off on the right footing, and my tone of voice is the same in writing as it is on the phone and in person.

That's not to say I don't write creatively, more that everything I do is about the reader, not about me.

And I find I get a good response, from people who treat me the same way that I treat them.

Which is ultimately the point of writing to potential candidates.

After all, finding people has never been easier, it's having them want to listen that's the key.