We can’t think of a single instance of a recruiter saying they love admin. And yet, administrative tasks eat up increasingly large chunks of a recruiter’s workday. It’s a given that job application volumes will keep rising, leaving recruiters with shrinking resources to carry out other vital functions – like nurturing passive candidates, engaging clients, or building a social media following. 

Marketing automation can solve many of the resource problems recruiters face. Trying to juggle activities like generating leads for new clients and candidates alongside the day-to-day practicalities of sourcing, interviewing and client consultation gets painful fast – unless you have the right tools to automate the process. 

We’ll explain how marketing automation for recruiters works in the wild, and how you can use it to connect with your target audiences. 

How Marketing Automation Helps You Target Clients 

Marketing automation for recruiters can be applied to every stage of the sales funnel, from raising awareness of your brand to building relationships with your long-term clients. Its potential for generation BD leads is second to none. 

Generating leads is one of the most effective uses of marketing automation and is generally an ‘always on’ feature, as long as you’re in business! 

Email Marketing 

One approach we use in our clients’ newsletter strategy is to highlight the top (anonymous) candidates of the month, in targeted campaigns to specific segments of the client’s mailing list. With the power of automation, we help them track link clicks which creates an especially handy list of BD leads their recruitment team can jump onto immediately. 

With automation, even invalid email contacts can be BD leads. Gathering a list of emails that have bounced can give you the opportunity to reach out to these contacts and update their details. 

Case in point: We helped a recruitment agency in New Zealand update all their contacts with automation, enabling them to make a solid 40 placements over 18 months. 

Lead Generation from Your Website or Campaigns 



For simpler BD campaigns, you can also automate alerts for high-value actions, like when a client clicks on your website, leaves feedback or clicks on a call-to-action (CTA) in an email. These alerts will give you warm leads that are prime opportunities for the taking. 

One successful automation we implemented with a client was an introduction email from the directors for anyone who registers a vacancy. This strengthened their connection with the recruiters and helped build the client’s relationship with their brand. 

For specific campaigns, such as salary surveys, webinars, events or anything else that leads your audience to a landing page, the sky is the limit! 

Engage Candidates with Automation 

Marketing automation tools are also excellent for nurturing candidates and efficiently managing your candidate database. 

You can capture new candidates from your company website (through contact forms and landing pages), social media channels and job boards, without manual input from your recruitment team. 

First, Freshen Up your ATS  

Cleaning up your ATS allows you to get the most mileage out of marketing automation. Ensuring contact details are current allows you to target people in your database with the most relevant messages. 

To refresh your ATS, start by clearing out incomplete, duplicate and corrupted data. The good news is that ATS spring cleaning can also be automated – there are tools that can weed out contacts with missing or incorrect email addresses, phone numbers and more. Considering your ATS is a core business asset, a periodic clean-up is a good practice (and helps with data privacy compliance).   

Acknowledge New Applications 

This one is standard among quality recruitment agencies, so if you’re not doing this yet, make it a priority! Set up an auto-response for people who apply to your open jobs or submit their CV to your website. 

Engage New Candidate Leads 

Just as you would with clients, with automation you can set up alerts when a candidate subscribes to your newsletter or updates their details on your database, providing you with instant leads to follow for new placements. 

Stay in Touch with Past Candidates  

Another excellent use of marketing automation tools is re-connecting with past applicants and candidates who have sat in your ATS for months or longer. 

It’s likely you have thousands of people in your database, a fraction of which could yield high-quality placements – if only you would reach out to them! Automation can do this for you, at set intervals of your choosing (e.g. every 6 or 12 months). 

Provide a Smooth Onboarding Experience 

It might seem simple, but the small check-ins with candidates once they’ve been hired can make a big difference. 

With automation, you can send a text on a new hire’s first day to see how they’re settling in. After a couple of weeks, you can send them a follow-up to ensure everything is going smoothly. 

Long-term Follow-ups 

Reaching out to candidates or clients after a year often surprises them because it’s so uncommon. This simple gesture can lead to valuable conversations that can turn into new placements. 



Case in point: One of our clients who implemented automated one-year check-ins found that about 1 in 10 responses led to new candidate and client opportunities. 

Tips for Successful Recruitment Marketing Automation  

Whether your business is running its marketing activities in-house or has engaged a recruitment marketing agency, you won’t go far without a functioning, user-friendly website integrated with an applicant tracking system or CRM. 

This setup is what allows you to siphon a range of marketing activities and workflows into one hub. As automation runs on data, centralising your data collection will enable advanced techniques that help you target client and candidate prospects without lifting a finger. 

Tracking the return on investment for each campaign – measuring the costs vs the resulting revenue or conversions generated – is essential for a sustainable marketing strategy. 

Automation Tools to Supercharge Digital Marketing for Recruiters 

As you might expect, there are tons of automation tools to choose from. Most mainstream CRMs include automation features, with varying levels of sophistication. 

The key criteria you should judge these against is whether they’re designed with recruitment businesses in mind. That’s why we recommend solutions made by recruiters for recruiters, like Roi-Ai, can do all of the above and more, and Bullhorn Automation which also has many handy features. 

Find Tailored Automation Solutions for Your Recruitment Business 

We’re not exaggerating when we say there’s not enough space here to cover all the marketing activities that can be automated! With so many platforms and add-ons available, your biggest concern is likely to be about where to begin. That’s when talking to a recruitment marketing specialist can help. For marketing that is tailored to your business goals, contact us for a free chat today.