How to Build Your First Automated Candidate Nurturing Sequence in Keap: A Step-by-Step Guide

In today’s competitive talent landscape, simply posting a job and waiting is no longer sufficient. High-growth B2B companies need proactive strategies to engage potential candidates, build relationships, and keep their talent pipeline warm. An automated candidate nurturing sequence in Keap can transform your recruiting efforts, allowing you to consistently communicate with prospects, share valuable content, and position your company as an employer of choice—all without constant manual intervention. This guide walks you through building your first sequence, helping you save significant HR and recruiting time and ensuring no top-tier candidate ever slips through the cracks.

Step 1: Define Your Target Candidate Profile and Nurturing Goals

Before you begin building in Keap, clearly articulate who you’re trying to reach and what you want to achieve. Are you nurturing passive candidates for future roles, engaging applicants who weren’t selected for a current opening, or educating prospects about your company culture? Define the specific candidate personas (e.g., senior software engineers, sales directors, marketing specialists) you want to target, understanding their pain points, career aspirations, and what might attract them to your organization. Your goals should be measurable: Do you want to increase engagement rates, improve application quality, or reduce time-to-hire for specific roles? Having this clarity ensures your content and sequence logic are strategically aligned, making your automation effective rather than just busywork. This foundational step is critical for a truly ROI-driven automation.

Step 2: Map Out the Candidate Journey and Content Strategy

Once your goals are clear, visualize the candidate’s journey from initial contact to becoming an applicant, or even a successful hire. What information do they need at each stage? A typical journey might include stages like “Awareness” (company culture, employee testimonials), “Consideration” (role benefits, career growth opportunities), and “Decision” (interview tips, next steps). For each stage, identify the types of content you’ll need: blog posts, video testimonials, whitepapers, case studies, FAQs, or simple check-in emails. This content should be valuable, informative, and subtly lead candidates toward your desired action. Remember, nurturing is about building a relationship, not just selling a job. Plan the sequence of this content to ensure a logical flow that progressively builds trust and interest over time.

Step 3: Set Up Your Keap Campaign and Entry Points

Navigate to Keap’s Campaign Builder to start a new campaign. This is where you’ll house your entire nurturing sequence. The first crucial element is defining how candidates will enter this sequence. Common entry points include web forms (e.g., “Join Our Talent Network”), Keap’s API for integrations with ATS/recruiting software, manual addition by a recruiter, or applying a specific tag (e.g., “Future Talent – [Role Type]”). For example, you might have a web form embedded on your careers page that, upon submission, adds the candidate to this Keap campaign and applies a “Nurture Sequence” tag. Ensure your entry points are intuitive and clearly defined, as this is the gateway for your valuable candidates to begin their automated journey with your brand.

Step 4: Design Your Email Templates and Automation Flow

Within your Keap campaign, begin designing your email templates for each stage of the journey. Use Keap’s drag-and-drop builder to create professional, branded emails. Focus on clear subject lines, personalized greetings (using Keap’s merge fields like `~Contact.FirstName~`), concise body copy, and a single, clear call-to-action (e.g., “Explore Our Open Roles,” “Watch Our Culture Video,” “Connect on LinkedIn”). Schedule delays between emails to avoid overwhelming candidates, typically ranging from 3 to 7 days, depending on the intensity of your sequence. Incorporate decision diamonds and sequence goals within Keap to branch candidates based on their engagement (e.g., did they open the email? Click a link?). This allows for dynamic pathways, ensuring a more relevant experience for each individual.

Step 5: Integrate Keap Tags and Internal Process Automation

Leverage Keap’s tagging system to segment and track candidates effectively. Apply tags automatically at different stages of the nurturing sequence (e.g., “Nurture: Email 1 Sent,” “Nurture: Culture Video Viewed,” “Nurture: Interested in Sales Role”). These tags are invaluable for follow-up and reporting. Beyond emails, incorporate internal process automations within Keap. For instance, if a candidate clicks on a “Ready to Apply” link multiple times, trigger an internal task for a recruiter to personally follow up. Or, if a candidate has completed the entire nurturing sequence without applying, trigger an email notifying the talent acquisition team to review their profile for potential outreach. These internal automations ensure human intervention occurs at the most opportune moments, maximizing the value of your automated sequence.

Step 6: Test Your Automated Nurturing Sequence Thoroughly

Before launching your campaign to actual candidates, rigorous testing is non-negotiable. Create a few dummy contact records in Keap, each with different names and email addresses. Manually add these contacts to your campaign’s entry point, or simulate the entry method (e.g., submit your web form using a test email). Monitor your inbox to confirm that all emails are delivered as expected, that merge fields are populating correctly, and that all links are functional. Crucially, test all decision diamonds and goal completions: Do contacts move to the correct next sequence if they click a specific link? Do tags get applied appropriately? This meticulous testing phase will catch any errors, ensure a smooth candidate experience, and prevent potential reputational damage from broken automations. Consider running test sequences through different email clients to check for display issues.

Step 7: Launch, Monitor Performance, and Iterate for Optimization

Once thoroughly tested, activate your Keap campaign. The launch is just the beginning. Continuously monitor its performance using Keap’s reporting features. Track key metrics such as email open rates, click-through rates, unsubscribe rates, and, most importantly, conversion rates (e.g., how many nurtured candidates apply, how many move to an interview). Pay close attention to which content resonates most and where candidates might be dropping off. Gather feedback from your recruiting team about the quality of leads generated. Use these insights to iterate and optimize your sequence. Experiment with different subject lines, call-to-actions, content types, and sending frequencies. An automated sequence isn’t a “set it and forget it” tool; it’s a dynamic system that requires ongoing refinement to maintain peak effectiveness and adapt to evolving talent market conditions.

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