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It’s one of the worst feelings in the world.

You’ve spent weeks perfecting your resume and crafting the perfect cover letter, and you’re finally ready to submit your application for your dream job.

But when you scan the company’s careers page, panic starts pouring over you. The job you wanted to apply for is no longer open. It’s gone. And as you stare at your laptop screen in shock, you can’t help but think you’ll never be able to join your dream company.

What should you do in this situation? You can’t just put your job search on pause until the company opens the position again. How do you express interest in joining a company when the position you want isn’t currently available?

One of the most effective ways to grab a hiring manager’s attention and get your foot in the door is by writing a letter of interest to the company.

Sending a letter of interest is a great way to introduce yourself to a company, and it shows them you’re willing to take the initiative to proactively reach out. This can keep you top-of-mind when the company starts recruiting for the job you inquired about. If hiring managers are particularly impressed, they might even create a position just for you.

Other times, sending a letter of interest can lead to a coffee chat or an informational interview with the hiring manager of the team for which you want to work.

Writing a letter of interest sounds like an easy way to get your foot in the door at any company, but it’ll only pique a hiring manager’s interest and elicit a response if it actually resonates with her.

To do so, we recommend following a formula called problem-agitate-solve. It’s modeled after an old copywriting framework and has helped one job seeker skyrocket her cover letter response rate from 0% to 55%. We’ll flesh it out below.

How to Write a Letter of Interest

To compel a hiring manager to read your letter, respond to it, and consider you for a job, there are four crucial elements you need to include in your letter of interest:

1. Hook the hiring manager with proof that you understand her problem.

Hiring managers don’t hire people just to be nice. They hire people to help them run their team better. To immediately grab a hiring manager’s attention, you should show how you understand the problems she’s trying to solve, like the hook below:

“As a two-year blogging veteran in the marketing technology industry at companies like Return Path and SlideBatch, I know how hard it is to write well. I also know how challenging it is to get found on Google.”

By describing a similar experience you’ve had at your current or prior job, you can relate to her on a deep level, which will engage and prompt her to read the rest of the letter.

The hardest part of this step is discovering the hiring manager’s problems. One way to figure it out is by listing off the job’s responsibilities and asking yourself why these tasks are important to her team. If you keep analyzing until you reach a dead end, you’ll usually find her needs there.

2. Agitate the problem to remind the hiring manager she needs a solution.

How do you make a hiring manager realize how valuable a solution could be? You remind her just how painful her problems are. And to make her visualize her dreaded problem as vividly as possible, you need to be specific, just like the example below:

“According to HubSpot’s careers page, you’re not currently hiring, but, in the future, if you’re looking for someone who can not only engage an audience with clear, concise, and compelling blog posts, but also optimize them for search engines, while hitting every deadline, you can count on me.”

When she realizes how much pain she’s actually in, she’ll have more of a sense of urgency to resolve it. And this’ll push her to respond to you because you might be her fastest route to a solution.

3. Prove that you’re the solution with an example of your skills and experience.

If you’re really the solution to her problems, you must prove to the hiring manager how you’ve used your skills to solve similar paint points in previous experiences. Then, you should describe how you’ll be able to use those learnings to help solve her current problems. Check out the example below:

“Last year, at Return Path, I was the top performing blogger, writing weekly posts that averaged 7,500 views, 1,000 social shares, and 35 new blog subscribers gained. The year before, at SlideBatch, I devised and implemented a new keyword strategy that increased organic page views for our Visual Marketing 101 blog series by 15%.

I’ve read HubSpot’s blog every day since I started my content marketing career, and I’m inbound, content, and email marketing certified, so I strongly believe I’ll be able to hit the ground running if I were to work on HubSpot’s blog team one day.

Whether I’d be uncovering high opportunity keywords or crafting blog posts to support and develop your team’s new pillar cluster model, I’m confident my skills and experience can help your team crush their goals.”

By quantifying your accomplishments and researching the company’s pain points, you’re proving your worth. But if you just list your skills and work experience, you’re only proving to the hiring manager that you’ve failed to make an impact.

4. Confidently request to move on to the next step.

At the end of your letter, you should express your interest in exploring upcoming opportunities or ask her to keep you top of mind when an opportunity opens up, like the call to action below:

“I’d love to learn about any upcoming roles on your team or be considered for a position later down the road. My resume is attached, and my contact details are listed in my email signature below. Thank you for your time! It was a pleasure connecting.”

These call-to-actions are crucial because they tell her how to get the ball rolling. If you don’t tell the hiring manager what to do next, then nothing will happen.

Letter of Interest Example

All together, a successful letter of interest looks like this:

Letter of Interest Template

Hi [Hiring Manager’s First Name],

As a [X]-year [Your Profession] veteran in the [Space You Work In] industry at [Most Prominent Companies You’ve Worked For], I know how hard it is to [Pain Point #1]. I also know how challenging it is to [Pain Point #2].

According to [Company] careers page, you’re currently not hiring, but, in the future, if you’re looking for someone who can not only [Solution for Pain Point #1], but also [Solution for Pain Point #2], you can count on me.

Last [Specific Timeframe], at [Current or Old Company], I was the best performing [Your Profession], [List Your Responsibilities and Describe the Impact You Made]. The [Specific Timeframe] before, at [Current or Old Company], I [List Your Responsibilities and Describe the Impact You Made].

[Show Hiring Manager that You’re a Voracious Learner and You Regularly Keep Up with Company News], so I strongly believe I’ll be able to hit the ground running if I were to work on [Company] team one day.

Whether I’d be [What the Team is Working on Now], I’m confident my skills and experience can help your team crush their goals.

I’d love to learn about any upcoming roles on your team or be considered for a role later down the road. My resume is attached, and my contact details are listed in my email signature below. Thank you for your time. It was a pleasure connecting!

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

Featured Resource: 5 Professional Cover Letter Templates

Download These Templates for Free

Steps to Take Before You Send Your Letter of Interest

After you finish writing your letter of interest, you need to make sure the company will actually open it. So before you send your letter, it’d be ideal if someone on the team personally knows who you are.

To do so, ask your connections or alumni that work at the company to introduce you to the team’s hiring manager. If you can’t do that, you could add the hiring manager on LinkedIn, tell her why you want to connect, and send her your letter of interest.

Getting your foot in the door will ultimately help you stand out from the crowd of job seekers who are all sending the same “hire me” pitch to her.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in May 2018 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

 

In high school, one of my friends was determined to find the perfect time to post her Instagram photos to maximize the amount of likes she got. She was surprisingly scientific about it, posting at different times of the day and jotting down each of her posts’ “likes per minute.”

After weeks of testing, she figured out which post time raked in the most likes, and, from then on, she could easily get 200 likes on all her Instagram posts.

My friend’s rather scientific method to maximize her Instagram likes still makes me chuckle to this day. But since I’m a marketer now, her desire to build a strong Instagram presence also resonates with me.

To build a sizable Instagram following, you need to create compelling content that your audience actually craves. But if you don’t post your content at the right time, most of them will never see it.

So how do you figure out the optimal post time for your specific audience?

The best way to find an ideal posting time is by testing the timing of your posts to see which post time generates the most audience engagement.

But if you don’t have enough resources or time to conduct your own tests, Sprout Social, a social media management platform with over 20,000 customers, has you covered. Last year, they analyzed their customer data to see what time and day their social media posts generated the most engagement. They also segmented the data by social network and industry.

Looking at their aggregate customer data for Instagram, you can see that the following days and times — in Central Daylight Time (CDT) — are ideal for generating the most engagement on the social network:

As stated above, although 10 AM – 3 PM is considered the best time of day to post on Instagram, the day of the week on which you post can change how much engagement you actually get from 10 AM to 3 PM.

Why? Think about the little differences in your daily mood and routine — the ones you might not realize you have — and how they affect your behavior. The same goes for everyone following your Instagram account. Here are some additional insights about optimal post timing from data by Sprout Social to show you what I mean:

• Posting at 7:00 AM CDT from Wednesday to Friday generates some of the highest engagement — people usually check their phones right when they wake up.
• Posting from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM CDT during the weekdays also generates a lot of engagement — people usually check their phones during lunch or when they start to run out of mental energy toward the end of the work day.
• If you want to post on the weekends, post on Saturday around 10:00 AM CDT when people eat brunch or hang out with their friends.

So, when Instagramming, don’t go by this time range alone. Consider both the day of the week and the industry you’re in (we’ll talk about the latter in just a minute).

On average, here are the best times to Instagram during the week within each time zone globally:

* = particularly high levels of engagement

Want some easy marching orders based on this data? Post to Instagram between 9 AM and 4 PM from Monday to Friday. You’ll get the most consistent engagement that way. 

Need a visual to strategize around? Check out this Sprout Social chart which shows Global Instagram Engagement hotspots.

Source: Sprout Social

The general data above about optimal post timing is a great starting point for growing an engaged Instagram audience. But if you want to get more granular, here are the best times to post on Instagram if your organization is in the technology, B2C, education, healthcare, and non-profit industries, according to Sprout Social’s research.

Best Times to Post on Instagram for Technology Companies

• Best Time: Wednesday at 6:00 AM and 9:00 to 10:00 AM CDT, Friday from 7:00 AM to 10:00 AM
• Most Consistent Engagement: Tuesday evening through Wednesday afternoon, Friday from midnight to 10:00 PM CDT
• Best Day: Wednesday
• Worst Day: Sunday

Best Times to Post on Instagram for B2C Companies

• Best Time: Wednesday at 3:00 PM CDT
• Most Consistent Engagement: Tuesday through Friday from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM CDT
• Best Day: Wednesday
• Worst Day: Sunday

Best Times to Post on Instagram for Educational Organizations

• Best Time: Friday at 10:00 AM CDT
• Most Consistent Engagement: Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM CDT
• Best Day: Friday
• Worst Day: Sunday

Best Times to Post on Instagram for Healthcare Companies

• Best Time: Tuesday at 8:00 AM CDT
• Most Consistent Engagement: Will depend on audience location and business niche
• Best Day: Tuesday
• Worst Day: Saturday and Sunday

Best Times to Post on Instagram for Non-Profit Organizations

• Best Times: Tuesday at 1:00 to 3:00 PM, Wednesday at 2:00 PM CDT
• Most Consistent Engagement: Monday to Friday from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM CDT
• Best Day: Wednesday
• Worst Day: Sunday

Every brand’s audience is different. To build a sizable, engaged Instagram audience, you need to know who your followers are. And one of the best ways to get to know your audience and capture their attention is by knowing exactly when they like to surf the app. 

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in February 2018, but was updated for comprehensiveness and freshness January 28, 2021.