What you'll need

• A defined criteria for top talent at your firm — a score threshold, a rating value (such as Gold or A+), or a custom field
• A candidate-facing outreach email template that references open opportunities relevant to the candidate's background
• Optional: a second email template for a follow-up touchpoint one week after the first
• Optional: a recruiter notification template to prompt a call if the candidate does not engage with the email

Build it

1. 1

   Create a candidate-based standard automation

   In the Automations tab, click + Add Automation and select Blank Automation. Choose Candidate as the entity type and select Standard. Give the automation a name and save.

2. 2

   Build an Always Updated list

   Set the list to Always Updated. Add your top talent condition — for example, Candidate Score is greater than 75, or Rating is Gold or A+. You can also add a note action type condition — many customers use an MPC (most placeable candidate) note type to flag their best candidates, which works well as a list criterion. Add condition: Candidate Status = Active. Add a final condition: Date Added is after the date you plan to activate this automation.

3. 3

   Add a Send Email step

   Send your personalized outreach email. Use merge tags for the candidate's first name and include job match variables to populate relevant open positions.

4. 4

   Add a Wait step

   Set a wait of six to seven days before the follow-up. This gives candidates time to respond while keeping the touchpoint frequency reasonable.

5. 5

   Add a notification step for the recruiter

   Alert the record owner to follow up with a call. Include merge tags for the candidate's name and the date the first email was sent, so the recruiter has full context.

6. 6

   Configure re-entry settings

   In the automation settings, set the re-entry behavior so candidates do not receive the same outreach sequence repeatedly. A common approach is to prevent re-entry for a set period (for example, 90 days) or until a specific condition changes. Without this, high-rated candidates will re-enter the automation every time the list refreshes and could receive the sequence multiple times.

7. 7

   Optional: add the candidate to a job alerts list

   If the candidate has not already opted in to job alerts, enroll them in a segmented list so they receive relevant openings automatically going forward.

How to measure it

Track these metrics to confirm the automation is surfacing and engaging your best candidates:

• Email open rate: whether your top candidates are engaging with the outreach. A low open rate on this audience is worth investigating — these are candidates you most want to reach.
• Click rate: percentage of recipients who click a job link or call-to-action. Indicates genuine interest in the opportunities you shared.
• Recruiter follow-up rate: percentage of recruiter notifications acted on within 48 hours. Track manually — Automation sends the notification but does not record whether the recruiter followed up.
• Interview rate: percentage of top talent outreach recipients who progress to an interview. Track manually in your ATS — Automation does not capture downstream submission or interview activity.
• Engagement score trend: whether candidate engagement scores in Bullhorn Automation are increasing over time for this audience. Rising scores indicate the relationship is being maintained.

Sample outreach email