People Don't Read Carefully Anymore

My company is hiring additional marketing directors. We posted the role on LinkedIn, received tons of applications and invited about a dozen candidates to an interview. The invitation to a first round interview is a simple email stating, roughly, "Hi, thanks for applying. We’d like to interview you. Please indicate your top three preferred interview times from the options below." And then it lists dates and times.

Pretty simple, right? Would you believe that about 15 per cent of candidates send back ONE interview time?

I’m amazed and confounded by this. The lack of attention to detail is a wonderful screen test for us—someone won’t make a good marketing director if they don’t pay attention to detail, so if they send back one time rather than three, we don’t need to interview them. But I find it amazing how many people don’t read their emails—even important ones—anymore. It’s a function of the volume of emails everyone receives, and the communications devices we use. We live in a Twitter world, whether we like it or not.

But, my frustration aside, this is a trend that is not going away. And it has big implications for all marketers. The upshot is this:

Keep your marketing communications short. Emails need to be super short.

Keep things clear. Crystal clear.

Keep the messages focused. One or two points is best for emails. No more.

And that’s all I’m going to say about that.