A Comprehensive Glossary of Keap & CRM Data Terminology for HR & Recruiting Professionals

In the fast-paced world of HR and recruiting, leveraging technology effectively is not just an advantage—it’s a necessity. Understanding the core terminology of CRM systems like Keap and related data management concepts empowers professionals to optimize their workflows, automate repetitive tasks, and make more informed decisions. This glossary provides essential definitions, tailored for HR and recruiting leaders, to help you navigate the complexities of data, automation, and candidate management, ultimately saving you time and enhancing your strategic impact.

Keap

Keap is a comprehensive sales and marketing automation platform (formerly Infusionsoft) designed to help small and medium-sized businesses manage their customer relationships, automate marketing campaigns, and streamline sales processes. For HR and recruiting professionals, Keap serves as a robust database for candidate management, allowing for meticulous tracking of applicants through various stages, from initial outreach to hiring and onboarding. Its capabilities extend to automated communication sequences, personalized follow-ups, and segmentation of talent pools, making it an invaluable tool for maintaining a highly organized and efficient recruiting pipeline.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management, a technology used to manage all your company’s relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers. The goal of a CRM system is to improve business relationships to grow your business. In an HR and recruiting context, a CRM is repurposed as a Candidate Relationship Management system. It’s used to store, organize, and track interactions with job applicants, potential candidates, and even past employees. This allows HR teams to build talent pipelines, nurture relationships with passive candidates over time, and ensure a personalized and efficient recruitment experience, leading to better hires and a stronger employer brand.

Contact Record

A Contact Record in a CRM system like Keap is a digital profile that stores all pertinent information about an individual. For HR and recruiting, this includes a candidate’s name, contact details, resume, cover letter, application history, interview notes, communications logs (emails, calls), and any custom fields relevant to their professional background or application status. This centralized record ensures that all team members have access to the most up-to-date and complete candidate profile, facilitating seamless collaboration, reducing duplicate efforts, and providing a holistic view of each applicant throughout the entire recruitment lifecycle.

Tag

In Keap and other CRM systems, a “Tag” is a flexible, keyword-based label applied to contact records to categorize them based on specific attributes, behaviors, or interests. For HR and recruiting, tags are incredibly powerful for segmenting talent pools. Examples include “Software Engineer,” “Passive Candidate,” “Interviewed – Strong Fit,” “Decline – Future Consideration,” or “Marketing Specialist – Q3 Hire.” Tags enable recruiters to quickly filter and target specific groups of candidates for new job openings, re-engagement campaigns, or talent nurturing initiatives, dramatically improving the efficiency and personalization of outreach efforts.

Custom Field

Custom Fields are user-defined data fields that extend the standard information captured within a CRM’s contact record. They allow HR and recruiting teams to store unique data points essential to their specific hiring processes that aren’t available in the system’s default fields. Examples include “Desired Salary Range,” “Years of Experience in [Specific Technology],” “Visa Sponsorship Required,” “Referral Source,” or “Preferred Start Date.” Custom fields ensure that all critical, specialized candidate data is systematically captured and searchable, enabling more precise candidate matching, reporting, and automation triggers within Keap campaigns.

Campaign (in Keap)

In Keap, a Campaign is a series of automated actions and communications designed to guide contacts through a specific journey. For HR and recruiting, Keap campaigns are transformative for managing candidate experiences at scale. They can automate initial application acknowledgements, schedule interview reminders, deliver pre-screening questionnaires, nurture passive candidates with relevant content, or even manage post-hire onboarding sequences. By setting up triggers and conditions, recruiters can ensure timely, consistent, and personalized interactions with every candidate, freeing up valuable time to focus on strategic hiring decisions rather than manual follow-ups.

Automation (Workflow Automation)

Automation, specifically workflow automation, refers to the use of technology to execute a sequence of tasks or processes with minimal human intervention. In HR and recruiting, this can involve automating everything from parsing resumes and scheduling interviews to sending welcome emails and updating candidate statuses in a CRM. Tools like Keap or Make.com enable teams to build these automated workflows. For example, when a candidate applies, an automation might tag them, send an automated acknowledgment, update their status, and notify the hiring manager, dramatically increasing efficiency and reducing the risk of human error in high-volume processes.

API (Application Programming Interface)

An API, or Application Programming Interface, is a set of rules and protocols that allows different software applications to communicate and exchange data with each other. In the context of HR and recruiting, APIs are crucial for integrating various tools like applicant tracking systems (ATS), HRIS, assessment platforms, and CRMs such as Keap. For instance, an API might allow candidate data from an ATS to flow directly into Keap, or enable a custom form submission to trigger a Keap campaign. This seamless data exchange eliminates manual data entry, reduces discrepancies, and creates a more connected and efficient ecosystem for talent management.

Webhook

A Webhook is an automated message sent from an app when a specific event occurs, essentially an HTTP callback. It’s a way for one application to provide real-time information to another application. In HR and recruiting automation, webhooks are powerful for triggering immediate actions. For example, a webhook could be set up so that when a candidate completes an online assessment, the assessment platform automatically sends a webhook to Keap, which then triggers an automation to update the candidate’s score, move them to the next stage in a campaign, or notify the recruiter. This ensures instantaneous data transfer and responsive workflows.

Data Sync

Data Sync, or data synchronization, refers to the process of establishing consistency among data from different sources and continuously maintaining that consistency. In HR and recruiting, this is vital when using multiple systems like an ATS, CRM (Keap), HRIS, or payroll software. An effective data sync ensures that a candidate’s information—from contact details to application status and onboarding progress—is always identical and up-to-date across all connected platforms. This prevents data discrepancies, reduces manual data entry, and provides a single, reliable source of truth for all candidate and employee information, critical for efficient operations.

Data Migration

Data Migration is the process of transferring data from one storage system, format, or computer system to another. For HR and recruiting teams, this often occurs when adopting a new CRM (e.g., migrating from an old system to Keap), implementing a new ATS, or consolidating multiple disparate databases. A well-planned data migration ensures that all historical candidate data, employee records, and recruitment process information are accurately and securely moved to the new platform, preserving data integrity and minimizing operational disruption. Proper migration is key to leveraging new tools without losing valuable institutional knowledge.

Data Integrity

Data Integrity refers to the overall accuracy, completeness, and consistency of data throughout its lifecycle. Maintaining high data integrity in HR and recruiting means ensuring that candidate profiles are correct, application statuses are current, communications are logged accurately, and no data is accidentally duplicated or corrupted across systems. Poor data integrity can lead to miscommunication with candidates, flawed reporting, and inefficient recruitment processes. Implementing robust data validation rules, regular data audits, and effective automation strategies helps ensure that the information driving your hiring decisions is always trustworthy and reliable.

Lead Scoring

Lead Scoring is a methodology used to rank prospects (or, in HR, candidates) based on their perceived value or likelihood of a desired outcome. In recruiting, candidates can be scored based on criteria such as experience level, skills matching, engagement with career content, or responses to pre-screening questions. A higher score indicates a more qualified or promising candidate. Keap allows for automated lead scoring based on various interactions and profile attributes. This helps recruiters prioritize their efforts, focusing on the most suitable candidates first, thereby shortening time-to-hire and improving recruitment efficiency.

Pipeline Management

Pipeline Management in recruiting refers to the systematic process of attracting, tracking, and nurturing candidates through various stages of the hiring process, from initial contact to successful placement. It involves organizing candidates into distinct phases (e.g., Applicant, Screened, Interviewed, Offer Extended, Hired) and moving them forward through an established workflow. CRM platforms like Keap provide visual pipelines and automation tools to streamline this process, allowing HR teams to easily monitor progress, identify bottlenecks, and ensure a consistent candidate experience. Effective pipeline management is crucial for maintaining a healthy talent pool and making predictable hires.

Integration

Integration refers to the process of connecting different software applications or systems so they can work together and share data seamlessly. In the HR and recruiting technology stack, integration is paramount. It allows an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to communicate with a CRM like Keap, or a calendar tool to sync with interview scheduling. Through integrations, manual data entry is minimized, workflows are automated across platforms, and a unified view of candidate data is achieved. This interconnectedness boosts efficiency, reduces errors, and enables a more cohesive and scalable recruitment operation.

If you would like to read more, we recommend this article: The Essential Guide to Keap Data Protection for HR & Recruiting: Beyond Manual Recovery