Death of the Cover Letter - Long Live the Warm Intro
By Seleena
While the cover letter has traditionally been viewed as an important marketing tool, its ultimate purpose is to entice the reader to read your resume. As people continue to have more demands placed on their time, recruiters and hiring managers have less time to read formal cover letters and now prefer short, succinct introduction emails in their place.
The warm introduction, if well written, can accomplish everything that a cover letter does in four or five lines. Embodied in an email, it should be to-the-point, relevant, and action-oriented. A good warm introduction will succeed in enticing the reader enough to want to read your resume, and further still, invite you in for an interview. Here are a few tips to help you craft that perfect introduction email that will leave the reader wanting more:
Tailor to the Reader, Company and the Role
Being an email, you will have to determine who the right person is to send it to, along with their contact info. Address them personally and speak to them in a warm, professional tone. If possible, try and find a piece of information unique to them that will grab their attention – it could be the name of a mutual contact that referred you, a shared personal interest, or a quick comment about any noteworthy recognition or awards they might have received.
Keep the actual job description top-of-mind when composing your introductory email and speak to the details of the role. Pick a couple of the key requirements of the role and very briefly outline when you have successfully performed them in the past to demonstrate a match for the reader.
Finally, do some research on the company to better understand their business and show your skills as a fit for some of their current business challenges or projects to help position yourself as an ideal candidate.
Differentiate Yourself
Part of positioning yourself as the best person for the job is communicating what is different about you that other candidates can’t offer – answering the “why should we pick you over everyone else?”
While it’s important to communicate you have the core skills and experience needed for the job, your email introduction is a great opportunity to illustrate what makes you unique. Think about what your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) is – what are you better at than anyone else at? If you don’t give them a clear reason to choose you over the next person, then they probably won’t.
Sell Yourself
While your email introduction should outline why you’re interested in the company, it should also highlight what you can do for them. It’s important to demonstrate how your skills and experience would positively impact the company, and the type of performance they could expect from you.
From a personality standpoint, communicate how you’d be a natural fit for the organization in terms of cultural fit. This is where injecting some personality into your introduction comes into play. Remember that more and more, companies are hiring for cultural fit as well as technical competence and capability.
Go Beyond the Resume
While you should definitely use your introduction as an opportunity to highlight relevant points from your resume, don’t just regurgitate your resume in your introduction. Use it instead as an opportunity to add interesting details about yourself, or expand on points in your resume. There’s a little more freedom in terms of acceptable language and being able to talk about one’s self in a personal email versus a formal resume.
Show Enthusiasm
Ensure your introductory email conveys a sense of enthusiasm for the role and communicates how much you really want to work for the company. A candidate who really shows a passion for the role and the company always seems more attractive than a person who seems complacent or indifferent.
The reasoning behind this is people who love what they do typically tend to perform better and are willing to go above and beyond to accomplish great things. If a company has the choice, the person who seems more eager is going to be more desirable to them, all things being equal.
Contact Information
In addition to your email address that will obviously be provided, ensure you also provide the rest of your contact information – either in the email itself or in your signature. You want to make it as easy as possibly for the company to contact you.
One note about the email address you provide in your email and on your resume – make sure it’s professional. Your full name or a shortened variation of it is the safest choice – using nicknames, slang, or other words and numbers in your email risks presenting you in a less-than-professional manner. As well, it does little to connect your email address to you, the person.
Additional Tips for Writing a Great “Warm Introduction”:
- Limit the email to a few lines; keep it short and sweet – 4 to 5 lines that are catchy and leave the reader wanting to know more
- Be selective in your use of language and use powerful words that leave a lasting impression. Avoid repetition and the use of standard clichés.
- As obvious as it sounds, triple check your email for any grammar and spelling errors – when competition is high, the smallest mistake can eliminate you from contention. Errors in your introduction could cause an employer to question your attention to detail.
The next time you’re applying to an opportunity, try forgoing a traditional cover letter and craft a personal, introductory email to the hiring manager. By quickly summarizing why you’re the best person for the job and what you can do for their company, it’s almost certain that person will want to read more and give your resume some face time.
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As a Consultant, Seleena Juma works in partnership with some of the brightest minds in the legal, financial services, and media industries.
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