How do sequences work?
The sequence is a powerful strategy that enables you to streamline your communication efforts and optimize task management. In this article, we will talk about the various sequence capabilities Recruit CRM offers. When a candidate or contact is enrolled, Recruit CRM begins executing the sequence from the first configured step.
A sequence can include:
• Emails
• SMS messages
• LinkedIn messages
• Internal tasks
Each step executes in sequence according to its configured timing and channel. The next step is triggered based on the delays and schedule defined within the sequence.
This allows you to automate outreach, follow-ups, and internal actions without manually managing each interaction.
If a step fails due to issues such as a disconnected email account, insufficient SMS credits, or invalid contact information, the enrollment may pause until the issue is resolved.
A candidate or contact can only be actively enrolled in one sequence at a time.
What this feature does and when to use it?
Sequences in Recruit CRM help you automate communication and follow-ups across multiple channels such as email, SMS, LinkedIn, and internal tasks. Instead of manually reaching out at every step, you can set up a structured workflow that runs automatically over time.
This ensures consistent outreach, better engagement, and fewer missed follow-ups while managing candidates or contacts at scale.
You can use this feature when:
• You want to automate candidate follow-ups after sourcing.
• You want to Reactivate an existing talent pool.
• Scale outreach with consistency.
Please note: This is an exclusive feature which is available on Business plan and above. Users on the Pro plan/Free Trial can create only 1 sequence on their account at a time.
Before you begin:
• Ensure your email, SMS provider, and LinkedIn integrations (where applicable) are connected and active.
• Confirm that you have the required permissions to access Admin Settings > Sequences if you plan to manage sequence configurations.
• Make sure candidate and contact records have valid email addresses, phone numbers, and LinkedIn URLs (if used in sequences).
• Check that your account has sufficient SMS credits if you are using SMS sequences.
• Be aware that opted-out contacts (email/SMS) and candidates already in another sequence will not be enrolled again.
Understand sequence types and capabilities
Recruit CRM supports multiple types of sequencing that you can use individually or in combination:
Email Sequencing
Send a series of scheduled email templates to candidates and contacts over a defined period. This ensures consistent, timely, and personalized outreach, with emails going out one after another as configured.
SMS Sequencing
Create SMS sequences to automatically send timely text messages to candidates and contacts. This helps automate communication, improve engagement, and streamline your recruitment process.
LinkedIn Message Sequencing
Create a sequence of LinkedIn messages to be sent to candidates and contacts at scheduled intervals. This keeps you in touch with prospects automatically, improving response rates and smoothing your recruitment workflow.
Task Sequencing
Go beyond external communication by creating task sequences. These automatically create and assign tasks on candidate and contact profiles, helping you manage follow-ups and internal actions consistently.
You can combine email, SMS, LinkedIn, and task steps into a single workflow-style sequence that contains all or selected steps you need.
Enrolling candidates or contacts in a sequence
You can enroll records into a sequence either in bulk or individually, depending on your use case.
Enrolling multiple candidates or contacts in a sequence in bulk
1. Open the Candidates or Contacts list page. You can also enroll records from the Jobs page, which will include all primary contacts associated with that job.
2. Select the records you want to enroll by clicking the checkbox next to each name.
Once selected, click on Enroll in Sequence from the top bar. If the option is not visible, click on More to locate it.
3. After selection, review the pop-up listing the candidates or contacts that will be enrolled. Records will be excluded if they:
• Have opted out of email
• Are already enrolled in another sequence
• Do not have a valid email address.
4. Click Continue to proceed to sequence selection, then choose the sequence you want to enroll the selected records in. You can use filters to narrow down sequences based on the owner or the types of steps they contain.
5. Once selected, review all the steps in the sequence. Use the pencil icon next to any step to make changes. You can adjust the number of days between steps and set the preferred execution time for each step.
6. While reviewing, you will also see a preview of placeholders used in each step. These placeholders are highlighted in yellow in the preview (only for reference and not in the actual message). If multiple records are being enrolled, the preview will display data based on the first record in the selection.
7. If you have multiple email accounts connected, select the email ID you want to use for sending the sequence before completing the enrollment.
Enroll a single record
Open the candidate or contact profile → click the three-dot menu (⋯) → select Enroll in Sequence.
2. After clicking on Enroll, a pop-up will display all available sequences. Use the search bar to find a specific sequence or scroll through the list to select one.To narrow down your options, apply filters based on:
• Step type (Email, Task, SMS, LinkedIn)
• Sequence owner
3. Once selected, review all the steps in the sequence. Use the pencil icon to edit any upcoming steps if needed. After confirming everything looks correct, click Enroll in Sequence at the bottom to complete the process.
Handle failed steps and paused enrollments
When a step in an email, SMS, or LinkedIn sequence fails, the enrollment is paused. Common reasons include:
• Email account disconnected or token expired
• Email sending quota exceeded
• Missing or invalid candidate/contact email or phone number
• Prospect has opted out
• Missing or invalid LinkedIn URL
• LinkedIn chat not initiated or LinkedIn not connected
• Low SMS credits or Twilio pricing errors
Note:
If the user selects Yes, the “failed” step of all paused enrollments will be scheduled to execute in the nearest 30-minute slot.
Action Time: 30th Jan 2025 10:05 AM; the failed step will execute at 30th Jan 2025 10:30 AM.
If the user selects No, the “failed” step of all paused enrollments will execute after the number of days and time set in the enrollment configuration.
Action Time: 30th Jan 2025 10:05 AM; if the step is set to execute after 1 day at 1:00 PM, it will run on 31st Jan 2025 at 1:00 PM.
How to fix paused enrollments?
If you want the paused step to execute you do not need to unenroll the prospect. Follow the appropriate resolution below:
Note: When you click resume and complete these resolutions, the execution of the steps will run smoothly.
If the error is specific to a prospect (e.g., missing or invalid email/contact number):
Open the affected prospect’s profile.
Fix the issue.
Once resolved for all affected prospects, the next enrollment step will execute smoothly.
If the error is related to SMS credits (account-level issue):
Purchase the required SMS credits.
Once done, the next enrollment step will execute smoothly.
If the error is related to LinkedIn Add-on or LinkedIn Messages integration:
Fix the LinkedIn connection or renew the add-on.
Once resolved, the next enrollment step will execute smoothly.
If the error is a general failure (e.g., error encountered while sending mail, SMS, or LinkedIn message):
Unenroll the impacted prospects.
Re-enroll them from the same step.
If you don’t want the remaining steps to run:
You can simply unenroll the prospect directly.
Manage sequences (edit, clone, delete)
To view and perform actions on a sequence:
1. Go to Admin Settings > Sequences.
2. Click the three dots under the Action column next to the sequence you want to manage. The following options are available:
• Edit a Sequence
- You can edit only the steps that have not yet been sent.
- Changes apply to future enrollments only and do not retroactively affect enrollments already in progress.
• Clone (Duplicate) a Sequence
- Creates a copy of the existing sequence.
- The cloned sequence appears in your sequence list and can be reused or slightly modified without changing the original.
• Delete a Sequence
- Deletion is irreversible.
- To confirm, type Delete in the confirmation pop-up when prompted.
Troubleshooting
Problem: A candidate or contact is not appearing in the bulk enrollment pop-up.
Problem: A candidate or contact is not appearing in the bulk enrollment pop-up.
Likely cause: The record is ineligible for enrollment.
What to check:
Whether the person has opted out of email.
• Whether they are already enrolled in another sequence.
• Whether a valid email address is present.
Resolution path:
Update the record’s email details if missing or invalid, confirm opt-out status, or un-enroll them from the existing sequence before trying again.
Problem: Sequence steps are paused and are not being sent.
Problem: Sequence steps are paused and are not being sent.
Likely cause: A failure occurred in an email, SMS, or LinkedIn step.
What to check:
• Email connection status and sending limits.
• SMS credit balance and Twilio configuration.
• LinkedIn integration status and prospect LinkedIn URLs.
Resolution path:
Fix the underlying issue (reconnect accounts, add credits, correct contact details), then use Resume on the paused enrollments or choose whether to reschedule failed steps in the next 30 minutes or after the original delay.
Problem: Edited sequence steps are not affecting current enrollments.
Problem: Edited sequence steps are not affecting current enrollments.
Likely cause: Sequence edits apply only to future enrollments.
What to check:
When the enrollment was created relative to when the edits were made.
Resolution path:
If you need updated steps for existing prospects, un-enroll them and re-enroll them into the modified sequence.
Problem: LinkedIn steps are consistently failing.
Problem: LinkedIn steps are consistently failing.
Likely cause: LinkedIn integration or data issues.
What to check:
• Whether LinkedIn is connected and the add-on is active.
• Whether the candidate/contact has a valid LinkedIn URL.
• Whether a LinkedIn chat has been initiated where required.
Resolution path:
Reconnect LinkedIn, renew the add-on if needed, correct LinkedIn URLs on profiles, and then resume or re-enroll affected records.
Problem: SMS steps are not being sent.
Problem: SMS steps are not being sent.
Likely cause: Insufficient SMS credits or invalid phone numbers.
What to check:
• SMS credit balance and any Twilio errors.
• Format and validity of stored phone numbers.
Resolution path:
Top up SMS credits, correct phone numbers on profiles, and allow the next steps to execute or re-enroll where necessary.
FAQs
Q1. Can a candidate or contact be enrolled in multiple sequences at the same time?
Q1. Can a candidate or contact be enrolled in multiple sequences at the same time?
No. Records that are already enrolled in another sequence are excluded during bulk enrollment, so a candidate or contact can only be actively enrolled in one sequence at a time.
Q2. Do changes to a sequence affect enrollments that are already in progress?
Q2. Do changes to a sequence affect enrollments that are already in progress?
No. Edits to a sequence only apply to future enrollments. Existing enrollments continue using the version of the sequence that was active when they were enrolled.
Q3. What happens if my email account disconnects during a sequence?
Q3. What happens if my email account disconnects during a sequence?
If your email account disconnects or the token expires, affected email steps will fail and enrollments will be paused. Once you reconnect your email, you can choose to reschedule failed steps in the next 30 minutes or allow them to run on their original schedule.
Q4. Can I choose which email address a sequence sends from?
Q4. Can I choose which email address a sequence sends from?
Yes. If you have two email IDs configured, you can choose which email ID to use when enrolling records into a sequence.
Q5. Do I need to un-enroll prospects to fix paused steps?
Q5. Do I need to un-enroll prospects to fix paused steps?
No. In most cases you can simply correct the underlying issue (for example, invalid email/phone, low SMS credits, disconnected LinkedIn) and then resume the paused enrollments. Un-enroll and re-enroll only if you want to restart from a specific step.
Q6. Can I combine email, SMS, LinkedIn, and task steps in one sequence?
Q6. Can I combine email, SMS, LinkedIn, and task steps in one sequence?
Yes. Recruit CRM allows you to create multi-channel recruitment workflows that combine communication and internal task management within a single sequence.
Conclusion:
Sequences help you automate candidate outreach, candidate nurturing, recruiter follow-ups, and recruitment communication campaigns at scale. By combining email sequences, SMS automation, LinkedIn outreach, and task management into a single workflow, recruiters can build consistent communication cadences while reducing manual effort.