What’s one outreach message really worth? It's more than you think.
By Mitch Sullivan,
Recruiters send thousands of outreach messages a year, but very few ever calculate the true commercial value of one message.
Here I’m going to try and work out exactly what that might be.
Before we talk numbers, let’s start with an outreach pattern almost every recruiter should recognise. Your numbers will be different - I’m just using what I think might be averages across all hiring sectors and job disciplines.
£12,000 average fee
50 outreach messages sent per campaign
10 positive responses (20% response rate)
5 are suitable after screening
3 candidates go to interview
1 gets placed
This is the “10 → 5 → 3 → 1” rhythm recruiters live with every day. This funnel is the foundation for everything that follows.
When I say “1 in 3 results in a placement,” I’m not saying: 1 in 3 responses or 1 in 3 messages or 1 in 3 CVs. I’m talking about interviewable candidates. Once you have three strong candidates in front of a client, one usually gets hired.
Which means each carries one-third of the placement probability
Breaking it down…
We’re assuming an average fee of £12,000.
Because we’re assuming one out of every three interviewed candidates results in a placement, that average fee can be divided by 3 to calculate the expected value of each of those candidates.
£12,000 ÷ 3 = £4,000 expected value per candidate
Now let’s move one step earlier in the funnel…
If it takes 10 positive responses to end up with 3 interviewable candidates which produce (on average) 1 placement -then those 10 responses collectively produce £12,000 in revenue. So each positive response is worth:
£12,000 ÷ 10 = £1,200 per positive response
Not every response will be suitable. Not every suitable candidate gets interviewed. But averaged out across all your roles, the value works.
Now we can calculate the value per message…
With a 20% response rate, each message has a 1 in 5 chance of producing a £1,200 candidate.
So the expected value per message in my example is:
0.20 × £1,200 = £240 per outreach message
You’re not earning £240 per send - but you are earning it over time across repeated searches. Every single message has real monetary value.
Some messages go nowhere. Some get a polite “no thanks.” Some get a “tell me more.” And occasionally, one turns into £12,000. But when you average it all out, each message you send contributes around £240 of revenue potential (using the original assumptions).
And that number moves dramatically depending on your response rate.
Here’s where it gets powerful…
If you improve your response rate even slightly:
20% → 25% response rate → £300 value per message
20% → 30% response rate → £360 value per message
20% → 40% response rate → £480 value per message
Same number of messages. Way more value.
This is why improving message quality has such a huge commercial impact. And it’s what all the AI platforms promising to source “top talent” in minutes don’t understand. Maybe they don’t want to understand.
The biggest improvements happen before you send a message…
Recruiters often focus too heavily on things like templates, timing, follow-ups and connection requests - but the real leverage isn’t downstream, it’s upstream. Your outreach improves dramatically when your job ads move from “good enough” to “very good”.
That’s because a very good job ad gives you:
the hook
the WIIFM
the clarity
the reason to care
It becomes the foundation for everything that follows. This isn’t theory either. Here’s someone who achieved this using the same approach….
The pattern is consistent:
Better ads → better outreach → better response rates → higher value per message
If a £10 job ad can increases the value of each outreach message from £240 to £480, the return on investment is absurd, financially. Speaking of which, my accountant has been nagging me to put the prices up - which I am stoically resisting :)
And taking about prices, I haven’t even factored in LinkedIn’s recent massive price hike for InMails. When (or if) you start paying around £20 per InMail, your value per message becomes especially critical.
This is why a good job ad is the most underrated force multiplier in the entire recruitment process.
Fix the ad → outreach improves → pipeline improves → screening is easier → placements increase → revenue increases
Once you have a proper job ad, everything downstream gets easier.
Want to start measuring the value of your outreach messaging? I’ve built an Excel tool that does exactly that. You can download it here.