A Glossary of Key Keap Terms for HR & Recruiting Professionals

In the fast-evolving landscape of HR and recruiting, leveraging robust automation platforms like Keap can be a game-changer for talent acquisition and management. For HR leaders and recruiting professionals, understanding the core terminology of such a powerful system is not just helpful—it’s essential for maximizing its potential. This glossary provides clear, authoritative definitions of key Keap terms, explaining how each applies directly to automating and streamlining your HR and recruiting workflows, from candidate outreach to onboarding. Equip yourself with the knowledge to build a truly automated talent acquisition machine.

Contact Record

A Contact Record in Keap is the central repository for all information pertaining to an individual, whether they are a candidate, employee, lead, or client. It stores comprehensive data such as contact details, communication history, custom field entries, applied tags, notes, and activity logs. For HR and recruiting, an organized Contact Record is vital for maintaining a single source of truth for each applicant. This allows recruiters to quickly access a candidate’s resume, interview notes, skills assessments, and communication history, ensuring a personalized and informed hiring process, driving efficiency, and reducing the risk of data silos.

Tag

Tags are customizable labels applied to Contact Records in Keap, serving as a powerful organizational and segmentation tool. They allow HR and recruiting professionals to categorize contacts based on specific criteria, such as “Active Applicant,” “Interviewed,” “Skills: JavaScript,” “Onboarding Pending,” or “Former Employee.” By tagging candidates, recruiters can easily segment their talent pool for targeted communications, identify qualified candidates for new roles, or trigger automated workflows based on a candidate’s status or qualifications. This granular segmentation drastically improves the relevance and effectiveness of talent acquisition campaigns and internal HR communications.

Campaign

A Keap Campaign is a multi-step, automated sequence of communications and actions designed to achieve a specific goal. For HR and recruiting, campaigns are invaluable for nurturing candidates, streamlining onboarding, or managing employee communications. For example, a “Candidate Nurturing Campaign” might involve a series of emails providing company culture insights, followed by an invitation to connect on LinkedIn, and then a task for a recruiter to follow up. Campaigns can be triggered by specific actions (e.g., submitting an application) or by applying a tag, ensuring timely and consistent engagement throughout the talent lifecycle.

Sequence

A Sequence is a fundamental building block within a Keap Campaign, representing a series of automated steps performed sequentially over a defined period. These steps can include sending emails, internal notifications, assigning tasks to team members, or applying/removing tags. In an HR context, a Sequence could be used to automate a “Post-Interview Follow-Up” that sends a thank-you email, sets a reminder for the hiring manager to provide feedback, and updates the candidate’s status. Sequences ensure that critical steps in the recruiting or HR process are never missed and are executed consistently.

Automation

In Keap, Automation refers to the overarching capability to design and implement workflows that execute tasks automatically based on predefined triggers and conditions. This is the core engine for efficiency. For HR and recruiting, automation can encompass anything from automatically sending an application confirmation email, scheduling an initial phone screen, triggering background checks, to launching an onboarding document sequence. By automating repetitive administrative tasks, HR professionals can free up significant time to focus on strategic initiatives, candidate experience, and high-value interactions.

Lead Score

While traditionally used for sales, Keap’s Lead Score can be adapted for HR as a “Candidate Score” or “Talent Score.” It’s a numerical value assigned to a Contact Record based on their engagement, interactions, and specific attributes. For instance, a candidate might gain points for opening application emails, clicking on career page links, having relevant keywords in their resume (parsed via integration), or completing an initial assessment. A higher score could indicate a more engaged or qualified candidate, allowing recruiters to prioritize their outreach and focus on top talent more efficiently.

Webform

A Keap Webform is a customizable online form used to capture information from individuals. In an HR and recruiting context, webforms are essential for job applications, resume submissions, interest forms for future openings, event registrations (e.g., career fairs), or even internal employee surveys. These forms can be embedded on career pages or shared directly. When a webform is submitted, it can automatically create or update a Contact Record, apply relevant tags, and trigger an automation campaign, instantly initiating a workflow and streamlining data collection.

Landing Page

A Keap Landing Page is a standalone web page designed with a single focus: to prompt a visitor to take a specific action, often involving a webform. For HR and recruiting, landing pages are perfect for promoting specific job openings, attracting candidates for talent pools, offering lead magnets (e.g., “Top 5 Interview Tips” download), or inviting registrations for recruitment events. A well-designed landing page reduces distractions and guides candidates towards applying or providing their information, making it a powerful tool for focused candidate attraction and lead generation.

Broadcast

A Broadcast in Keap is a one-time email or SMS message sent to a specific segment of your contacts. Unlike campaign emails which are part of a sequence, broadcasts are ad-hoc communications. HR and recruiting teams can use broadcasts to announce urgent job openings, share important company updates with specific employee groups, invite all active candidates to a virtual career fair, or send out a seasonal greeting to their talent network. They are ideal for timely, non-sequential communication to a targeted audience.

Pipeline

Keap’s Pipeline feature (often part of its CRM functionality) provides a visual representation of the stages in a process, allowing users to track opportunities as they progress. For recruiting, a Pipeline acts as a “Candidate Journey” or “Hiring Funnel” board. Stages might include “Application Submitted,” “Initial Screen,” “Hiring Manager Review,” “Interview Scheduled,” “Offer Extended,” “Offer Accepted,” and “Onboarding.” This visual tool helps recruiting teams manage multiple candidates across various roles, ensuring no candidate falls through the cracks and providing clear oversight of the entire talent acquisition process.

Opportunity

Within the Pipeline feature, an Opportunity in Keap represents a specific deal or, in an HR context, a specific candidate moving through a hiring process for a particular role. Each opportunity has a value (e.g., the potential salary for the role) and a stage in the pipeline. For recruiters, managing opportunities means tracking individual candidates for distinct job openings. This allows for detailed reporting on conversion rates at each stage, forecasting hiring timelines, and understanding where candidates are getting stuck, leading to more data-driven recruitment strategies.

Custom Field

Custom Fields in Keap allow users to extend the standard Contact Record with unique data points relevant to their specific business operations. For HR and recruiting, these are incredibly powerful. Beyond standard fields, you might create custom fields for “Desired Salary,” “Notice Period,” “Visa Status,” “Preferred Start Date,” “Referral Source,” or “Skills Assessment Score.” These fields ensure all pertinent information about a candidate is captured and easily searchable, facilitating better matching, compliance, and personalized candidate engagement without relying on external spreadsheets.

Integration

Integration refers to the ability of Keap to connect and exchange data with other software applications. This is critical for building a comprehensive HR tech stack. For instance, Keap can integrate with popular scheduling tools (e.g., Calendly), applicant tracking systems (ATS), HRIS platforms, background check services, or communication tools (e.g., Slack). These integrations eliminate manual data entry, ensure data consistency across systems, and enable end-to-end automation of complex recruiting and HR workflows, drastically increasing operational efficiency and reducing human error.

Merge Field

Merge Fields are placeholders in Keap communications (emails, SMS, documents) that automatically pull specific data from a Contact Record or Custom Field. For HR and recruiting, merge fields are essential for personalization at scale. Instead of manually typing “Dear [Candidate Name],” a merge field like `~Contact.FirstName~` will dynamically insert the candidate’s first name. This applies to sending offer letters (e.g., `~Job.Title~`, `~Salary.Amount~`), onboarding checklists, or general updates, ensuring every communication feels personal and relevant, enhancing the candidate and employee experience.

Task

A Task in Keap is an actionable item assigned to a user or team member, often triggered by an automation or created manually. For HR and recruiting, tasks are crucial for ensuring follow-ups and manual actions are completed on time. Examples include “Review Resume for [Candidate Name],” “Conduct Phone Screen for [Role],” “Send Offer Letter to [Candidate],” or “Schedule Onboarding Meeting.” Tasks integrate with calendars and provide reminders, helping recruiting teams stay organized, manage their workload effectively, and ensure no critical step in the hiring process is overlooked.

If you would like to read more, we recommend this article: Keap Marketing Automation for HR & Recruiting: Build Your Automated Talent Acquisition Machine