Tips for Sending Successful Email Applications

Those of you who have been with us for awhile may recall when we allowed jobseekers to contact employers directly, using their own email service provider. This permitted jobseekers to send messages in any format they wished, via their preferred email applications. It also relieved us of having to rely on our mail server to deliver tens of thousands of daily messages. Unfortunately, the open nature of the old system became vulnerable to some serious abuse. In particular, many of our users became barraged with spam and fraudulent offers, much of it from scammers located overseas. Thus, as we grew larger and our world-wide exposure increased, it became necessary for us to develop an in-house email system whereby all initial inquiries would be passed through our mail server. This in-house system allows us to protect our users by quickly blocking any abusive senders. Moreover, the improved system has been rigorously tested against all the popular services, such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, and AOL, and we have consistently achieved excellent delivery rates. To ensure that your messages get delivered successfully, and that our mail server continues to remain whitelisted, we ask that you follow the tips described below:

Keep Your Messages Brief But Informative. When first contacting an employer, it is always best to be concise and to the point. Nobody wants to wade through a huge block of text to decide whether to make a hire. Besides, it is unlikely that you will close the deal based on your first email, so we recommend that you save all the finer details for your follow-up exchanges and stick to the most important facts in your initial inquiry. Don't be repetitive or provide a lot of extraneous information, and definitely don't include typos or misspelled words, as that can be a major turn-off.
Be Professional and Courteous. It's no secret that people like to be treated with respect and consideration. Keep in mind that many jobseekers are competing for the attention of the employers listed on this site. To separate yourself from the others, a kind and thoughtful message that acknowledges this basic reality can go a long way. It will also demonstrate that you are realistic and understand the job market.
Be Clear and Specific About Your Skills. The biggest mistake you can make is to send a vague message that doesn't state your skills or qualifications. This is exactly the kind of email an employer is likely to ignore or delete. After all, it does not address why they are on the site in the first place. So please make sure that your initial email message describes what set of skills you are offering.
Provide Complete and Accurate Contact Information. Make it as easy as possible for employers to reply to your inquiry. We recommend that you include a contact name, a valid email address, and your SexyJobs ID in every message you send. If you don't have SexyJobs ID, you are seriously hurting your chances for success, as you are signaling to the employer that you are not serious. Beside, it's incredibly simple to get a SexyJobs ID. All you need to do is post a resume on our site. When you provide your SexyJobs ID # with your application, a link to your resume will automatically be shown to the employer. This allows the employer to quickly learn more about you and view your portfolio, without wasting time downloading photos and attachments.
Don’t Put HTML code in the Body of Your Message. If you have a link you want employers to visit, list it in the website field on your resume, not in the body of your message. And please make sure you do not put any HTML code in the message. Why not? For starters, it's a violation of our Terms and Conditions. Secondly, it will make your message much more likely to be marked as junk by the recipient's email service provider. For best success, use short messages with text only.
Don’t Use Rude, Hateful or Obscene Language in Your Message. Hopefully, we don' t need to explain to you why this is a very bad idea. Number one, we'll kick you off the site if you do this. Number two, your message is unlikely to get delivered anyway, since most email service providers filter bad language and throw these kinds of messages into a junk folder.
Keep Track of Who You've Already Emailed. You definitely don't want to hound an employer. We suggest you allow a waiting period of at least 2-4 weeks before emailing an employer a second time.
Upgrade to a Gold Jobseeker Ad. As mentioned above, most employers prefer to hire jobseekers who have posted a resume on the site, as it greatly simplifies their screening process. In particular, many employers are swayed by a jobseekers who have upgraded to Gold status, as this clearly indicates a commitment to finding work.