Company N recruits staff for rotational work. It hires often and in large numbers, and receives applications through Telegram, among other channels.
The problem was that when the company ran ads in Telegram channels, candidates subscribed to its channel but often didn't submit an application.
To get more applications, the company decided to test a strategy with a private Telegram channel and a welcome bot that collects applications right away.
Written by Artem Zhukov, head of the Telegram bot development agency zhar.agency and author of the @ZharAgency channel
The recruitment bot scenario
How the welcome bot strategy works: we make the Telegram channel private and create an invite link with join requests. This means people can access the channel only after an administrator approves their request.
The bot acts as the administrator: it automatically approves requests and at the same time messages the person to tell them more about the company and get an application for the job. This way, the user joins the channel and immediately enters the bot's funnel.
This mechanic makes attracting subscribers faster and cheaper. As a result, the company gets two touchpoints with its audience, the channel and the bot, and we grow the audience not only in the channel but in the bot too.
The funnel for collecting job applications
The bot's funnel is fairly simple and linear. The person gets only the information they need and isn't distracted by anything else, which ensures a high conversion rate into applications.
When a person requests to join the private channel, they receive a welcome message from the bot.
The user subscribes to both the channel and the bot at the same time.
The bot explains the benefits of getting a job through the company and invites them to submit an application.
Applications from the bot are sent to a private group where managers process them.
Each stage has reminders in case the user stops and doesn't finish filling out the form.
Bot subscribers are segmented (submitted / didn't submit an application), which is handy for later broadcasts.
The company sends broadcasts from time to time to keep its database up to date and get applications for new vacancies.
Results of the hiring bot
Over the bot's three months of operation, 3 ad campaigns were run. About 1,000 people subscribed to the agency's channel, 550 are in the bot, and 348 people submitted applications.
In total, about 1,100 people went through the bot, and the conversion rate into applications was 31%.
What a bot brings to recruitment
There's no complex automation or "unique technology" here. The whole mechanic is built on a simple idea: don't wait for people to decide to apply on their own; guide them to the target action right away.
The private channel acts not as a restriction but as a trigger. The person has already shown interest by requesting to join. It makes sense to send them all the information they need and guide them to an application.
With the bot, the company dramatically changes its results, multiplies its conversion rate and gets the most out of its ad traffic.
