Email Straight From Heart

Email with empathy and humility

“Thank you for your interest in the opportunity. We will get back to you in a couple of days after reviewing your resume and portfolio. Take care.”

-Every Hiring Manager

Like this, I have written so many impersonal emails in my life to so many good souls. As you can perceive, my email responses to job seekers were nothing better than an automated reply. I realized that I could do a much, much better job when I saw a couple of automated replies, championing ‘human centricity’ and highlighting an amazing personal tone of voice. How? Read on…

The IKEA Way

IKEA automated recruitment email

The screenshot of IKEA automated recruitment email is posted in LinkedIn by somebody (I couldn’t find the source; as soon as I have it, I will link it here). This email thanks the job seeker, appreciates the time taken by the person to apply, confirms the receipt of the application to a particular role, casually mentions the time that will be taken for a thorough review and gives a ‘Call to Action’ (CTA) to the recipient for knowing the company better.

The Futur(e)

The Futur automated newsletter email

This second automated email was sent to me by The Futur, when I signed up for their newsletter (This is a lengthy mail, the screenshot given below is edited). It starts with a first person narrative from the Creative Director on how he became a designer. Then the person gives me a motivational push and highlights the company’s goal of helping designers. The cleverly crafted CTA is asking me to wait till tomorrow for an email containing an exclusive access to free resources!

Moral of the Story

The above emails are impressive, right? If automated email content can be this great, then why are we, as humans, sending monotonous, machine sounding, impersonal emails? It is time to adopt a better email etiquette and tone.