What Is a Good Open Rate for Email for Recruiters in 2025?

If you're a recruiter sending cold outreach, you're probably wondering “what is a good open rate for email” – and you should be. Your open rate tells you whether candidates are actually paying attention to your messages. The thing is, what’s classed as a “good” open rate differs dramatically depending on which channel you're using.

In this article, we’ll break down the benchmarks for email, LinkedIn, recruiter platforms and WhatsApp, and talk about why contextual search is the key to better results.

Why Do Cold Email Open Rates Matter?

Let's start with email, since that's probably how most recruiters contact candidates. So, what is a good open rate for email?

Good cold email open rates typically sit around 15-25%, though recruiter emails can push slightly higher (25–35%) with a clean domain reputation and personalized subject lines.

In 2025, your main challenge is that most inboxes are saturated. Between spam filters, AI-powered blocking and general email fatigue, people have learned to ignore most cold outreach. And even if someone opens your email, that doesn't mean they're interested.

That said, email still has a place for longer, more detailed messages and follow-ups. If you're explaining a complex opportunity or need to include multiple links and resources, email makes sense. But as a first-touch channel, it is losing ground to alternatives like LinkedIn and WhatsApp.

Plus, open rates alone don't always tell the whole story. What matters is the match between your message and the candidate. A hyper-relevant, contextual email to the right person will always outperform a generic mass message sent to a thousand people.

This is where tools like Kalent come in. Our platform doesn't just help you send more emails; it helps you send better ones by building context from the job ad itself.

What Is a Good Open Rate for LinkedIn Messages in 2025?

So, we’ve covered what is a good open rate for email, but LinkedIn is a different beast altogether. InMails see open rates between 40-60% in 2025, which is significantly higher than email.

This is because LinkedIn has built-in credibility. Your name, photo, company and mutual connections are all visible, which makes your message feel more legitimate than a random email landing in someone's inbox.

The problem is that LinkedIn has also become flooded with templated, automated campaigns. Everyone's using the same "I came across your profile" scripts, and candidates can smell them a mile off. What’s more, spam regulations and AI-driven automation tools have made it harder to stand out, even on a platform designed for professional networking.

However, when you integrate job-ad context into your LinkedIn messages (mentioning specific skills, projects or career moves that align with the role you're hiring for), you’re able to cut through the noise. It’s worth noting that Kalent does this automatically, enriching messages with relevant details that make candidates feel like you've actually done your homework. Reply rates end up five times higher than with standard campaigns!

The bottom line is that LinkedIn still works, but only if you're willing to move beyond copy-paste templates and actually personalize your outreach. In 2025, combining LinkedIn with other channels such as email and WhatsApp will increase your visibility and engagement even more.

What Is a Good Open Rate for WhatsApp Recruiting Messages?

WhatsApp is dominating engagement in a way that email and LinkedIn just can't touch, with open rates of 90-98%. So why does WhatsApp work so well?

The first reason is phone notifications. When you send a WhatsApp message, it pops up on someone's phone immediately. They don't have to check an email inbox or log into a recruiter platform – it’s just there.

WhatsApp also feels more casual and authentic than other platforms – it doesn't have that same corporate, salesy vibe as email and LinkedIn. Candidates perceive it as a human-first interaction, not automation. Even if you're using a tool to send it, it just lands differently.

When someone accepts a WhatsApp message, they're giving you access to their personal space, which helps build trust and genuine connections. If a candidate responds, they're likely to be genuinely interested.

Whether you can use WhatsApp to contact candidates depends on where you’re based geographically. WhatsApp is absolutely dominant in Europe and Latin America for professional communication, while in the US, recruiters still lean heavily on email and LinkedIn, partly due to SMS and iMessage regulations.

With Kalent, you don’t need to worry about where to find candidates – Kalent's multi-channel precision handles this automatically. The system picks WhatsApp where it's legal and effective, or defaults to email and LinkedIn in markets like the US. This leads to faster placements, better candidate experiences and reply rates that are five times higher than standard recruiter outreach.

How to Find Social Media Accounts Ethically

Another question we get a lot, as well as “what is a good open rate for email” is how to find social media accounts ethically – say, if you want to contact a candidate on LinkedIn but don’t have their profile link.

The key is using verified, consent-based contact enrichment tools – just like Kalent. You can't just scrape data from the internet and hope for the best. This is not only ineffective, it's also potentially illegal depending on where you operate, as GDPR in Europe and CCPA in the US have strict rules about how you can collect and use personal data.

The ethical approach starts with a job ad or a LinkedIn profile. From there, you use contextual enrichment tools like Kalent that match public professional data with verified emails and phone numbers. This way, you're not scraping random social media accounts but building respectful, context-rich connections.

With over 10,000 enriched profiles and an integrated sourcing-to-outreach flow, Kalent makes this process seamless so you’re not spending hours hunting for contact info. Our platform does it for you, so you can focus on crafting messages that actually resonate.

This is how to find social media accounts and contact details ethically without being invasive or breaking any laws – by using smart tools.

Kalent: The Multi-Channel Future of Outreach

Now you know what is a good open rate for email and how to find social media accounts ethically.

Kalent's AI co-pilot model brings all of this together by unifying sourcing, enrichment and messaging into one efficient platform, replacing the fragmented tool stacks that most recruiters are juggling. No more switching between five different tools just to send one good message!

The future of recruiting is contextual, human and multi-channel, with WhatsApp setting the new standard for engagement.

If you're still relying solely on email and hoping for 20% open rates, you're leaving opportunities on the table. Tools like Kalent exist to help you do better. Book a demo today to see how it can work for you.

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