How to Build a Targeting Plan for an Ongoing Candidate Pipeline

Build an ongoing candidate pipeline by defining the roles you expect to hire, separating audiences by license or specialty and geography, choosing a repeatable message, and tracking each campaign’s response. This workflow is for hospital and health-system HR and talent-acquisition teams, especially those hiring licensed healthcare professionals for hard-to-fill or recurring roles.

1. Define the hiring demand your pipeline will support

Start with the hiring demand you expect over time, not just the requisition that is open today. A pipeline is more useful when it is connected to roles your organization regularly needs to fill or expects to need as services, locations, or staffing plans change.

Separate immediate openings from future demand

Create two working categories:

• Urgent requisitions: roles that need attention now, such as an ICU night-shift RN opening or a difficult-to-fill rural physical therapist position.
• Pipeline demand: roles you expect to recruit for repeatedly, including ongoing CNA, caregiver, respiratory therapist, or dental hygienist hiring; seasonal needs; planned expansion; or a future unit need.

Record the details that change the audience

For every role, document the information that determines who should receive the message:

• License type or credential
• Specialty or unit
• Work setting
• Shift or schedule
• Location and number of locations involved
• Whether relocation is relevant
• Whether the need is immediate, recurring, or future-facing

Prioritize roles with a small qualified local pool, roles that have not closed through normal channels, and roles likely held by already-employed professionals. Job boards and paid search largely depend on active job seeking. A pipeline campaign is designed to put a relevant opportunity in front of people who may not be searching.

2. Choose an audience definition for each role

Define each audience by license type, specialty, or trade plus geography. This is different from a generic demographic mailing. The goal is to make the audience fit the actual role you need to support.

Decide how specific the specialty needs to be

Use the role requirements to determine the appropriate level of precision. An opening for an operating-room nurse should not automatically use the same audience and message as a broad RN campaign. The same applies to oncology, labor and delivery, physical therapy, imaging, respiratory therapy, and other specialty-driven needs.

Ask: would a person qualified for one version of this role see a materially different opportunity from another? If yes, keep the audiences separate.

Set the geographic scope

Choose whether each audience supports one market, several locations, or a nationwide rollout. If relocation is part of the plan, state that clearly in the role message and landing-page content rather than assuming candidates will infer it.

Keep audiences separate when any of these factors changes materially:

• License or credential
• Specialty or unit
• Location or travel expectation
• Work setting
• Schedule
• The reason a candidate may consider the opportunity

3. Match the audience to the hiring use case

Not every pipeline campaign has the same purpose. Select the audience approach based on what you need candidates to learn or do.

Use a requisition-focused audience for a role that will not close

Use this approach for a specific opening that is difficult to fill through regular recruiting activity. Examples include a night-shift specialty role, a niche clinical position, or a role in a location with a limited qualified pool. The card and landing page should focus on that opportunity and one next step.

Use a recurring local audience for continuous hiring

For high-volume or high-turnover local roles, such as CNA, HHA, caregiver, or similar recurring needs, plan repeated outreach to the relevant local audience. The message can establish awareness and give prospective candidates a simple way to express interest before a particular requisition becomes urgent.

Use an awareness audience when candidates cannot search for the opportunity

Some recruiting goals are not tied to a conventional job search. A hiring event, open house, apprenticeship, training program, or new facility may need awareness before people can act. In these cases, define the audience around the qualification and geography that make the opportunity relevant, then make event registration or information access the clear next step.

Use a long-term pipeline plan for future needs

A broader pipeline plan can introduce your organization to the right licensed professionals before the next vacancy opens. It should still be specific about the specialty, geography, and type of future opportunity. “We are always hiring” is usually less useful than a message that tells a recipient why a particular team, setting, or location may be relevant to them.

If you are a recruitment marketing agency, decide at this stage whether the campaign will be delivered under your agency’s brand through a white-label model.

4. Create a repeatable message for each audience

Write a specialty-specific message for each audience. Do not rely on a generic employer statement that could apply to any role or any recipient.

Give passive candidates a reason to pay attention

Consider why an already-employed professional might be open to hearing from you. The reason may be a unit environment, a schedule, a career path, a particular location, a planned facility opening, or an upcoming hiring event. Use only claims your organization can support.

Build a reusable message framework

Use a framework that remains consistent across waves while allowing relevant details to change:

• Who the message is for: the license type or specialty
• What the opportunity is: role, team, event, or pipeline purpose
• Why it may be relevant: a truthful role- or setting-specific reason
• Where it applies: location or relocation context
• What to do next: one action

Avoid unsupported statements about compensation, campaign performance, hiring outcomes, or timing. Clear and specific is more useful than broad and promotional.

5. Build the card around four essential elements

Each card should let the recipient understand why they were selected, what the opportunity is, and what to do next within a few seconds.

1. Personalized name: Use the recipient’s actual first name.
2. Specialty-specific message: Lead with content relevant to the recipient’s license type or specialty.
3. Credible employer branding: Include the organization’s identity so the recipient can quickly recognize who is reaching out.
4. One clear action: Use a QR code and short URL that lead to the campaign landing page.

Review the card as the recipient would

Before release, ask three practical questions:

• Is it clear why this person received the card?
• Is the role, event, or pipeline opportunity understandable without extra context?
• Is there one obvious action to take next?

If the card asks recipients to choose among multiple unrelated actions, simplify it. One focused campaign is easier to understand and easier to measure.

6. Plan the landing page and response path before mailing

The landing page should continue the card’s message. Sending every audience to a generic careers page can break the connection between the reason a candidate scanned and the action you want them to take.

Match the destination to the campaign purpose

Create or select a landing page that aligns with the campaign:

• A specific role or specialty campaign should lead to relevant role information and an expression-of-interest or application path.
• A hiring-event campaign should explain the event and provide a registration path.
• An apprenticeship or training campaign should explain the program and its next step.
• A long-term pipeline campaign should make it easy for a qualified professional to indicate interest in future contact.

Define what happens after a response

Decide in advance what information the recruiting team needs and who will follow up. Keep the response path consistent with the request. For example, event registration may need different details and follow-up than a candidate expressing interest in a future specialty role.

Test the QR code and short URL before the campaign is released. Confirm that the destination works on a mobile device and that the next step is clear.

7. Set up a repeatable campaign cadence

Choose a cadence that fits your hiring cycle and the audience. An ongoing pipeline should not be treated as a one-time tactic if the demand is recurring.

Plan waves around real differences

Use separate campaign waves when the audience or message changes. You may need different waves for multiple locations, distinct specialties, recurring local roles, or different stages of a hiring initiative.

• Keep a recurring role message active when ongoing local hiring is the goal.
• Refresh the creative when the purpose changes from an open requisition to a hiring event or longer-term pipeline awareness.
• Coordinate campaign waves with your team’s capacity to respond to interest.

Use the same basic targeting and tracking framework across waves. This makes it possible to compare campaign activity over time without relying on invented performance benchmarks.

8. Coordinate the campaign as an end-to-end workflow

An ongoing pipeline needs clear ownership. Assign responsibility before the campaign moves into production.

Assign key approvals and follow-up responsibilities

• Audience definition and role details
• Employer-brand approval
• Card copy and creative review
• Landing-page review
• QR-code and response-path testing
• Recruiting follow-up after a candidate responds

Use a written campaign brief

Keep one brief for each wave. At minimum, include the audience, license or specialty, geography, hiring use case, message, landing page, call to action, response handling, and follow-up owner.

RecruitCard manages direct mail recruiting campaigns end to end: audience targeting, card creative, printing, postage, delivery, and QR-code and landing-page response tracking. Campaigns can support a single market or a nationwide rollout. For agency teams, define what RecruitCard will manage and how the white-label experience should appear to your client.

9. Measure activity and connect it to recruiting follow-up

Direct mail recruiting does not need to be a guessing exercise. Track QR scans and landing-page traffic for each campaign or audience, then connect that activity to what the recruiting team does next.

Separate activity where it is useful

When your campaign setup allows, review activity by:

• Role or license type
• Specialty or unit
• Geography or location
• Campaign wave
• Message or hiring use case

Record the recruiting outcome of the next step

Track what happens after a scan or visit. Depending on the campaign, that may include an expression of interest, event registration or attendance, entry into a recruiting process, or addition to a longer-term pipeline.

Use this information to identify which audiences and messages merit continued attention. Tracking helps you understand activity and improve the pipeline. It is not a promise of a particular response rate, cost per hire, or return on investment.

10. Review and refine the next pipeline cycle

Review each cycle against the original plan. Compare the audience you intended to reach, the message you used, the traffic generated, and the recruiting follow-up that occurred.

Make the next decision from what you learned

• Was the audience too broad, too narrow, or divided incorrectly by specialty or geography?
• Did the card clearly explain the opportunity and the reason it was relevant?
• Did the landing page provide a useful, obvious next step?
• Could the recruiting team follow up consistently at the level of interest generated?
• Should the next wave change the audience, message, location focus, or campaign purpose?

Update the next campaign around your current hiring priorities, observed response activity, and operational capacity. For a targeting plan built around a specific licensed healthcare role, recurring need, hiring event, or nationwide rollout, Book a 15-minute call.