How to Build a Passive Talent Pipeline using MailChimp

Posted by Jonathan Kidder on February 27, 2018February 7, 2023

As a recruiter, have you ever come across candidates who may not fit your current role but could be a potential match for future opportunities? This is a common scenario, where you may encounter great candidates who simply do not align with the current opening. What happens to these leads? Unfortunately, many recruiters do not make use of such leads, which often get lost in the applicant tracking system. But don’t worry, I have a great solution for you to consider!

To streamline your process for future leads, you can establish a passive talent pipeline and keep candidates informed about current job openings at your company through email updates using Mailchimp. This can be achieved by integrating your company’s career page feed into the platform and creating targeted email campaigns based on job categories. I’ll provide more details below.

My suggestion is to inform your passive candidate that you will keep them in mind for future job prospects via email. You could either send an opt-in form through Mailchimp or add them directly to a new email list. Consider sending out periodic email updates every 1 to 3 months, based on your current job openings.

1. Create an account on Mailchimp

It’s a fairly easy process to create an account with Mailchimp. Good to note: If your lists are under 2,000 subscribers Mailchimp email campaigns are free! You can get started here.

2. Creating Group Lists

Once you have an account created the first step will be creating different group lists.

Create different group lists based on job-opening categories for example:

Marketing Opportunities List
Finance Opportunities List
SAP Opportunities List
Mechanical Engineering Opportunities List
Front End Developer Opportunities List

3. Creating a simple email template

I would encourage you to have that lead directly subscribe to your newsletter. Here’s an example message you could use on LinkedIn:

Jonathan, it was a real pleasure speaking with you about your future plans. I will be sending a bi-monthly newsletter about our career opportunities at our company. Please keep me updated on your future goals and let me know if any of these openings would be of interest to you. (Click here to opt in for our “Marketing” careers newsletter)

4. Creating a template using Mailchimps Template Builder

I recommend creating a unique template for each group list job category. You could highlight employer branding content for example: projects that department is working on, PR related news, or employer branding videos. Make sure your email campaigns are relevant to the demographic you are targeting. Here’s how to create a template using Mailchimps: Template builder.

5. Use your RSS Feed when creating an email campaign

You can use Feed Merge Tags to customize content pulled in from your RSS website. So, when an RSS feed is updated with new posts, MailChimp will pull that content into the campaign and send it to your subscribers on the schedule you choose. For example, you could pull (Marketing) related job openings using those channel tags. Here’s how to create those tags.

If you have issues with using RSS Feeds you can also individually hyperlink new job openings in each email campaign. But, this would take an extra step and not allow you to automate the whole process.

6. Scheduling your email campaign

Once you’ve created those different group lists and have around 15-20 subscribers you can then schedule email campaign blast to go out on a future date. You can read how to schedule an email campaign here. When you’ve included in the RSS channel tags this email campaign could become completely automated.

By using Mailchimp you basically automate your future talent pipeline! You can keep passive talent warm for several months with little effort. This will help increase your future applications. You can even get more creative by asking for referrals and encouraging your subscribers to share the job openings with there networks on social media.

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Jonathan Kidder

With more than 12 years of recruitment experience, Jonathan has helped startups and small businesses find the talent they need. He runs the blog WizardSourcer, which explores the latest trends in talent sourcing, provides reviews of recruitment tools, and features interviews with prominent figures in the industry.