Traditional methods for amateur athletes to seek recruitment can often be insecure and ineffective. If you've ever emailed your transcript and player profile to a team, odds are they either don't see it among dozens of other emails, they forward it on to other inboxes, or they see it and make a mental note to reply later but forget. Maybe you work with an advisor with direct lines of communication with teams, but the process still doesn't avoid the inbox trap.

Here are 5 tips to stand out more:

1. Include your name in your email subject. Many inboxes don't show the sender's name, and generic subject lines can look like spam. Include your name, birth year, and current playing level in the subject line so your email is easy to find.

2. Include everything the coach or scout would want to know about you in the email body. Omitting relevant information means the team needs to follow up with you to find out more. This lowers your chances of getting that reply or phone call, especially when other recruits are including the more relevant information. It's important to include your birth year, height/weight, playing resume including stats or a link to your EliteProspects/HockeyDB, academic background (GPA, courses completed), and a photo or video. You should also include a brief summary of your skills and attributes written in your own words, explaining what qualities you bring to a team. Finally, the more coaching or other references you can provide the better. Pre-written letters are ideal, but the names, phone numbers and emails of your references will work as well. Make sure you ask for approvel to use these individuals as references first so they aren't confused when they get a call from your prospective team!

3. Avoid typos and grammatical errors. If written english is not one of your strengths, it's easy to use a spell-check tool or have someone proof read your email before hitting send. Sending emails with typos and grammatical errors makes it look like you're too lazy to spell check.

4. Do your research. Treat your recruitment email like a job application. The person reading it wants to know whether you've taken the time to research their team, and it will be obvious if you've sent a generic email to many teams. Talk about how you would fit into their system and why their team interests you.

5. Don't be afraid to follow up! Emails are easily lost among spam and junk mail. If you haven't received an acknowledgement that they've receiveed your email, follow up in 1-2 days to make sure your email has been read.

ProspectMix is here to help!