Text to get read. Email to get remembered.

A candidate ghosts your email in 12 seconds. That same candidate replies to a text before lunch. The channel isn't a detail - it decides whether your role gets filled this week or next month.

The numbers, plainly

SMS open rates hover near 98%, and most texts are read within three minutes. Recruiting emails land closer to a 20-30% open rate, and the average reply arrives hours - sometimes days - later. For high-volume and hourly roles, that gap is the difference between an interview and a no-show.

When SMS wins

• Time-sensitive moments. Interview reminders, same-day scheduling, offer nudges.
• High-volume pipelines. Hourly, retail, warehouse, and call-center hiring where speed is the whole game.
• Re-engaging quiet applicants. A one-line text revives candidates your emails never reached.

When email still matters

• Detail-heavy communication. Offer letters, job descriptions, and documents that need a paper trail.
• Professional and senior roles. Where a considered message beats a quick ping.
• Compliance-sensitive records. When you need formal, timestamped, archivable correspondence.

The sequence that outperforms both

Don't pick one channel - orchestrate them. The recruiters who win use SMS to earn attention and email to carry the detail, sequenced so every message reinforces the last instead of competing with it.

1. Open with a text. A short, consent-based message that names you and asks one easy question earns the first reply.
2. Follow with an email. Once they respond, send the role details, comp range, and next steps where they can read and reference them.
3. Confirm by text. Interview times, reminders, and day-of logistics belong in the channel that gets read in three minutes.
4. Close with a documented email. Offers and formal correspondence need a timestamped, archivable trail.

Do it right, at scale

One recruiter can't hand-time a two-channel sequence across hundreds of candidates. ATS Mako runs it for you - branded SMS and email in one thread, consent-first sending, quiet-hours guardrails, and automations that fire only when a candidate goes quiet - so every applicant gets the right message on the right channel without you lifting a finger.