Is it nobler to worry about unknown spam filters or to risk catching someone on their lunch break? Should you call or should you send an email?

There is a profound split in opinion about the best form of contact in the recruitment industry. On one hand, recruitment and interviews have been done over the phone for decades and traditional hiring managers will prefer to work this way. On the other hand, emails last forever and wait patiently to be read, but can also be caught by spam filters and pre-rejected before you have a chance to make contact. When trying to reach hiring managers, the method you choose can have a significant impact on how you are received, but it’s also a coin-flip as to which method each person prefers.

Email Campaign Pros and Cons

Creating a list of influential contacts in the hiring arena means reaching out to as many people as possible, especially hiring managers and HR directors. Email campaigns are excellent for introducing yourself to a very large number of people at once, but unlike speaking to someone in person, it’s hard to know if your email was ever received, read, or considered.

Email Pros

Out to Lunch

Emails do not rely on catching someone when they’re available to talk in their office for a few minutes. If you happen to have chosen the ‘wrong moment’ to make contact, the email waits patiently for your recipient to return and read it.

Write it Carefully

Emails allow you to carefully craft your message beforehand. With thoughtful word choice and meticulous proofreading, your opening pitch can be word-perfect every time.

Emails Last Forever

Unlike a phone call, emails keep a semi-permanent record of themselves in your email system and theirs. With an email pitch, you can always be certain of what you said, and both parties can check previous correspondents for relevant information rather than having to ask for it again in conversation.

Email Cons

The Automatic Spam Folder

Spam filters are never 100% accurate and always seem to ‘malfunction’ at the exact wrong moment. Thus, relegating your important correspondence to ‘spam’ that your intended recipient will never see or acknowledge, and there’s no way to know if this has happened to your email if you get no response.

The Dreaded Typo

Just as the email allows you to perfectly choose your message and immortalize it, the saved email can also preserve any unfortunate typo that slipped through your proofreading, serving as a timeless trigger for chagrin.

Normal but Not Standard

Despite the universal adoption of email as the work-related communication of choice, there is still a large percentage of hiring professionals that prefer the telephone as their primary form of communication.

Phone Call Outreach Pros and Cons

Perhaps the reason many hiring managers prefer phone calls is that you can tell more about someone from their voice and how they talk than you can from a carefully written email. For people who are deeply invested in finding the right personality fit for each job, this is an appealing insight to acquire, and they get in the habit of seeking this insight from all their business contacts. There are definite risks and rewards to the cold call method.

Phone Call Pros

The Personal Touch

This is your chance to really connect with your new contact on a call. Thus, establishing a personal connection that could make them a long-time associate or even a personal friend.

Social Pressure

When you have someone on the phone, they don’t want to say no to you. It’s easy to archive an email and forget about it but it’s much harder to reject someone you’re already talking to.

Going the Distance

By calling someone on their schedule in order to be granted some of their time, you indicate that you’re willing to go the extra mile to earn their collaboration.

Phone Call Cons

Out to Lunch

There’s always a chance that they will be out of the office when you call, and you have a few options. You can leave a message and wait, or leave a message and call back in an hour, risking missing them and beginning an awkward series of messages and phone-tag.

Bad Day

The downside to the personal touch is accidentally calling on someone’s bad day. It can be hard to tell if a bad phone attitude is a mistake on your part, a personal problem of theirs, or just bad luck that their day has been especially frustrating.

Call Waiting

The biggest risk when calling someone who is often on the phone is the busy signal. If your cold call happens to interrupt their daily work time on the phone, you risk irritating them or being completely unable to get through tied up lines.

Find More Recruiting Tactics

When reaching out to hiring managers and new business contacts, the question to call or email weighs heavily on the mind. After all, you don’t want to be lost in a spam folder, risk annoying your new contact, or simply fail to connect by choosing the wrong avenue. One option is to cover all your bases and do both, another is to research each recipient to determine which method they would prefer. However, you choose to contact, do it with confidence, clarity,  and self-assurance and you’re sure to make a few new contacts with every wave of outreach.

For more interesting recruitment tips and tricks or to find someone helpful to do the recruiting for you, contact us today!

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