Email still the best way to recruit millennials

Having issues getting your brand in front of job-seeking millennials? Wish millennials understood your company's culture? It's an important issue and often one of the biggest pain points for recruiters at lesser-known brands.

Every year I hear from millennials who want to personally connect with their new employer. Often times, millennials will even choose a company with the "right" culture over the company offering more money. Millennials need to know they'll love their new job. And you need to show them that they will. But how?

Millennials, or Generation Y, are known as the connected generation. So how do you communicate with the connected generation? Through their mobile phones? According to the PewResearchCenter, 66% of millennials own smartphones, compared to 53% for generation X, and 28% for boomers. But more often that not, millennials are annoyed with advertising via SMS (aka text messages). And good luck getting them to pick up the phone to chat.

Of course, social media is an obvious channel to reach millennials. The two words go together like Kim and Kanye. 75% of millennials use social network sites (compared to 30% of boomers). But it can be hard to portray company culture in 140 characters or less. And, outside of a viral YouTube video, good luck creating any sort of meaningful message that sticks.

Email is in fact still the best way to reach millennials. It's simple. Just create a message that describes your company's culture and breaks down the typical day at the office. Include testimonials and links to videos of happy employees. And be sure to explain how your company is different from the bigger brands. You'll get better open rates, better click-thru rates, and better responses than any other channel. Guaranteed.

Public service announcement: Unsubscribe links on the bottom of every marketing email

So it appears that most people don't realize there is an "Unsubscribe" link/button on the bottom of every marketing email you receive. In fact, it's a law. So if there isn't one, report it as a violation of the CAN-SPAM act to the FTC here.

You'll get much more accomplished by doing this versus replying to the do-not-reply@ or generic@email.address with swear words or threats (trust me, this does happen, and it is a much less "effective" way to expedite the unsubscribe process -- which by law can take up to 30 days).

If you aren't interested in the message or offer, it benefits everyone involved for you to unsubscribe. Obviously, you will stop filling up your inbox with crap. But what you might not realize is that the marketers sending you the message aren't interested in "spamming" you either.

Average unsubscribe rates can run from 0.1% to 0.5% of all emails sent (depending on the message and industry). And though most marketers aim for low unsubscribe rates, this KPI can be misleading. The main purpose of email marketing, and marketing in general, is to build brand awareness and drive sales. If the cash register doesn't ring it's all for not.

The most effective email marketing campaigns are targeted campaigns to extremely focused and interested lists of "prospects." These prospects are the only people who might convert to "clicks" and then convert to "customers." By removing yourself from email lists for uninteresting offers -- and increasing the unsubscribe rates -- the real KPIs only improve, and with it the chance of a "sale."

So go ahead, unsubscribe. Please. I'm actually begging you.

This has been a public service announcement from the multitasking millennial, Ryan Pratt.