Your users and candidates need to receive your emails in order to keep your hiring goals on track, but sometimes email deliverability issues can get in the way.
To ensure your emails have the best chance of reaching their intended recipients, follow the best practices listed below.
Email setup
Verify your email domain
Greenhouse Recruiting sends emails on your organization's behalf using a third-party mail server.
Since spammers have been known to use similar methods to imitate legitimate email addresses, some mail providers may block emails from Greenhouse or mark them as spam.
To prevent this, be sure to verify your domain in your organization's account. This informs mail providers that you've given us permission to send emails on your behalf, which will reduce the chance of your emails being blocked or marked as spam.
Allowlist our mail providers' IP addresses
Allowlisting is a process in which you permit, or "allow," certain applications to run. This allows the application to bypass typical security measures and prevent it from being blocked.
You may need to add our mail providers' IP addresses to your organization's allowlist. Contact your IT team for help.
Email content
Add an email signature
Emails that include a signature, or sign-off, are less likely to be marked as spam. You can add and edit an email signature in your Greenhouse Recruiting account that will automatically be added to your outgoing emails.
Avoid spam triggers
Email providers associate certain words and phrases with a higher likelihood of spam. If these are detected in your email, your email may be marked as spam.
Common spam triggers in the hiring industry include:
- References to earnings: "Be your own boss," "Fast cash," "Potential earnings," etc.
- References to remote work: "Home-based," "Online opportunity," "Work while you sleep," etc.
- References to personal finances: "Social security number," "Your income," "Debt," etc.
Mix up your email content
Sending multiple identical emails over a short period of time may result in your future emails being marked as spam. Consider adding variety to the body of your emails using tokens or other information.
Lengthen your emails
Short emails, especially those that include links, are more likely to be marked as spam. If you find that a specific email template is consistently being marked as spam, consider adding more content to the body of the template.
Email strategy
Avoid bulk emailing
Email recipients are more likely to mark an email as spam when the email isn't personally directed at them. While email templates sent to individuals can be personalized with a variety of tokens, the token options for bulk email templates are limited. This prevents bulk emails from being as personalized as possible and increases the risk of the recipient marking the bulk email as spam.
For this reason, we encourage you to use the bulk emailing feature only in special circumstances.
Replace outdated candidate email addresses
You might sometimes receive a "failed to send" email after attempting to email an invalid address. Continuing to send emails to an invalid email address increases the likelihood of your future emails being marked as spam.
If it's indicated that a candidate's email is invalid, be sure to let me know using another contact method. You can replace the outdated address with a new address in the candidate's profile.
Test your email deliverability
After following the best practices outlined above, you can check your email deliverability score using a free tool like Mail Tester. The test results provide a score out of 10, along with recommended areas of improvement.