Dev recruiters are a goldmine for growth tactics

If you're a Growth person looking for inspiration on growth and marketing tactics, ask the Devs on your team how technical recruiters go about getting their attention.

Devs get inundated with the mass, cheap/free forms of recruiting, so the unique approaches to recruiting stand out. Other recruiters quickly copy these unique approaches; thus, the vicious cycle for creative recruitment tactics persists.

Recruiting is also highly personal, so the best recruiters are masters at presenting topics of specific interest. Great recruiters are incredible at tactic iteration for attention

✉️ Devs receive hundreds of Emails, 99% of which they ignore, a significant portion of which ends up in a Spam inbox.

🗣 Devs receive dozens of LinkedIn DMs, 99% of which they ignore. (LinkedIn DMs are not cheap!) If/when they respond, what were the elements/tactics that led to the Dev doing so?

📦 Devs get gifts, big and small. I've seen unsolicited items arrive on Dev's desk ranging from a $25 iPhone case to a $450 keyboard. What are the items that stand out? The items that are overused? The items that were so specific to the needs/wants of the Dev that they were darn near stopped in their tracks?

✍️ Devs receive envelopes, many of which are hand-delivered and need to be signed for. Most of the time, the envelope simply contains the *exact* same message as an email that was sent, but FedEx envelopes get a 100% open rate, y'all. (The best mass/marketing emails get a 30% open rate.)

✈️ They are gifted conference passes + travel, most of which they can take while at their current company, before making any commitment regarding the recruiting company.

🍴 For more Senior and CTO roles, there are big trips (ex: weekend, luxury off-site, get-to-know-you with the Leadership team), Michelin star meals, in-person meetings with big industry names who might be board members, investors, or advisors, or fans of the company's cofounders.

Ask your Devs. They've got stories.