A Glossary of Key Terms in Keap Specific Features and Functions Related to Data Backup and Restore

In the fast-paced worlds of HR and recruiting, efficient data management is not just a convenience—it’s a critical component of operational success and compliance. Keap, as a robust CRM, offers a suite of features that, when understood and utilized correctly, can significantly streamline workflows, enhance candidate experiences, and safeguard vital information. This glossary aims to demystify key Keap-specific terminology, focusing on features and functions crucial for data backup, restore, and overall integrity. For HR and recruiting professionals, mastering these terms can translate directly into improved data security, seamless automation, and greater peace of mind.

Keap (CRM)

Keap is an all-in-one CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform designed for small businesses, offering sales and marketing automation tools. For HR and recruiting, Keap serves as a centralized database for candidate profiles, communication history, application statuses, and engagement notes. Its features, including contact management, email marketing, and workflow automation, are invaluable for tracking the talent pipeline from initial outreach to onboarding. Understanding Keap’s structure is fundamental to implementing effective data backup strategies, as all critical candidate and client engagement data resides within its ecosystem.

Data Backup

Data backup refers to the process of creating copies of data from your Keap account, which can then be used to restore the original data in the event of loss or corruption. For HR and recruiting, this means regularly copying candidate profiles, communication logs, custom field data, and historical records. A robust data backup strategy is essential to prevent the loss of critical information due to accidental deletion, system errors, or unforeseen technical issues. Effective backup ensures business continuity and compliance with data retention policies, protecting your valuable talent acquisition efforts.

Data Restore

Data restore is the process of retrieving lost, corrupted, or deleted data from a backup copy and returning it to its original state within Keap. In HR and recruiting, the ability to restore data quickly is paramount. Imagine losing an entire segment of candidate profiles or crucial interview notes; data restore allows you to recover this information, minimizing disruption to your hiring process and maintaining the integrity of your talent database. The speed and accuracy of a data restore operation directly impact your team’s productivity and ability to respond to recruitment demands.

Automation

In Keap, automation refers to predefined rules and sequences that trigger actions based on specific criteria or events. For HR and recruiting, automation can power tasks like sending automated follow-up emails to candidates after an application, updating candidate statuses based on assessment results, or tagging contacts based on their engagement. While automation is designed to improve efficiency, it also highlights the importance of data integrity; flawed data inputs can lead to incorrect automated actions. Automated processes should also consider data backup points to ensure continuity even if a workflow encounters an issue.

Campaign Builder

Keap’s Campaign Builder is a visual tool used to design and automate marketing and sales campaigns. For HR and recruiting, this translates to creating automated nurture sequences for passive candidates, onboarding workflows for new hires, or re-engagement campaigns for silver medalists. Campaigns often rely on specific data points (e.g., tags, custom field values) to trigger actions. Understanding how campaign data interacts with contact records is vital for backup purposes, as campaign history and associated outcomes are crucial for evaluating recruitment effectiveness and maintaining a comprehensive candidate journey.

Tagging

Tags are labels you can assign to contacts in Keap to categorize them based on various criteria. In HR and recruiting, tags are incredibly versatile: “Applicant – Senior Developer,” “Interviewed – First Round,” “Offered – Accepted,” “Cold Lead,” or “Preferred Skill: Python.” Tags are critical for segmentation, targeted communication, and triggering automation. Because tags drive many automated processes and are central to how HR teams segment and manage candidates, their consistent application and inclusion in data backup routines are non-negotiable for maintaining an organized and actionable candidate database.

Custom Fields

Custom Fields in Keap allow you to store specific pieces of information about your contacts that are not covered by standard fields. For HR and recruiting, these are invaluable for tracking unique candidate data such as “Desired Salary,” “Visa Status,” “Previous Employer,” “Availability Date,” or “Recruiter Notes.” These fields capture highly specific, often critical, information for matching candidates to roles. Given their bespoke nature and the unique data they hold, ensuring that all custom field data is meticulously included in backup procedures is paramount to prevent loss of specialized candidate intelligence.

API Integration

API (Application Programming Interface) integration enables Keap to communicate and exchange data with other software applications. For HR and recruiting, this might involve integrating Keap with an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), HRIS, or a specialized assessment platform. API integrations facilitate a “single source of truth” by ensuring data flows seamlessly between systems, reducing manual entry and errors. When considering data backup, it’s crucial to understand how data from integrated systems is stored in Keap and whether the backup strategy covers all data points that flow through these APIs, ensuring comprehensive protection.

Webhooks

Webhooks are automated messages sent from one application to another when a specific event occurs. In the context of Keap, a webhook might be triggered when a new contact is added, a tag is applied, or a custom field is updated. For HR and recruiting, webhooks are essential for real-time automation, such as instantly sending candidate data to a hiring manager’s Slack channel or updating an external project management tool when a candidate progresses. Given their real-time nature, understanding webhook activity can be part of a robust data integrity strategy, helping to monitor data flow and potential discrepancies that would then need to be covered by backup.

CRM-Backup

CRM-Backup.com (or a similar service) refers to specialized solutions designed to provide automated, comprehensive backup and restore capabilities for CRM platforms like Keap. Unlike manual exports, these services typically offer granular control, scheduled backups, and easy restoration of individual records, fields, or entire databases. For HR and recruiting, CRM-Backup provides an invaluable safety net, protecting against accidental deletions, data corruption, or compliance issues. It ensures that all engagement notes, candidate profiles, and historical data are securely stored off-site and readily recoverable, safeguarding the extensive investment made in building and maintaining a talent database.

Data Integrity

Data integrity refers to the accuracy, consistency, and reliability of data over its entire lifecycle. In Keap, for HR and recruiting, high data integrity means that candidate profiles are accurate, communication logs are complete, and all fields contain valid and consistent information. Poor data integrity leads to inefficient automation, misguided outreach, and compliance risks. Robust backup and restore processes are fundamental to maintaining data integrity, as they ensure that even if data becomes compromised, a reliable version can be quickly restored, preserving the quality and trustworthiness of your talent acquisition data.

Compliance (GDPR, CCPA, etc.)

Compliance refers to adhering to relevant laws and regulations regarding data privacy and protection, such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) or CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act). For HR and recruiting, this means properly managing candidate data, obtaining consent, providing data access/deletion rights, and ensuring secure storage. Data backup and restore play a critical role in compliance by enabling organizations to prove data integrity, recover from data breaches, and fulfill data retention requirements. A well-documented backup strategy is a key component of a comprehensive data compliance framework, protecting both the organization and the candidates.

Lead Scoring

While often associated with sales, lead scoring in Keap can be adapted for HR and recruiting to prioritize candidates based on predefined criteria and their engagement levels. For example, a candidate might receive points for specific skills, relevant experience, positive responses to outreach, or interaction with career pages. A high score indicates a more qualified or engaged candidate. The data points used for lead scoring are critical for recruitment strategy, making their accuracy and inclusion in backup systems essential. Losing scoring data could force a recruiting team to re-evaluate their entire candidate pipeline, causing significant delays.

Segmentation

Segmentation in Keap involves dividing your contacts into smaller, more specific groups based on shared characteristics or behaviors. For HR and recruiting, this might mean segmenting candidates by “Job Role Interest,” “Geographic Location,” “Years of Experience,” or “Source Channel.” Effective segmentation allows for highly targeted communication and personalized candidate experiences. Since segments are often built using tags, custom fields, and engagement data, ensuring the integrity and backup of these underlying data points is crucial. Losing segmentation criteria would disrupt targeted outreach and require significant manual effort to recreate.

Reporting

Keap’s reporting features allow users to track and analyze various metrics related to contacts, campaigns, and sales activities. For HR and recruiting, this means generating reports on candidate pipeline velocity, source effectiveness, conversion rates, or campaign engagement. These reports are vital for making data-driven decisions and optimizing recruitment strategies. The accuracy of these reports is entirely dependent on the integrity of the underlying data. Therefore, ensuring that all data feeding into these reports, including historical records, is regularly backed up is essential for accurate insights and strategic planning.

If you would like to read more, we recommend this article: How CRM-Backup Safeguards Your Critical Keap Engagement Notes in HR & Recruiting