Recruiting with purpose: How RecruitMyMom scaled impact and engagement with Zoho Campaigns

The Company

Founded by Phillipa Geard in 2012, RecruitMyMom is a South African-based online recruitment agency that connects highly skilled mothers and professionals with part-time, remote, flexible, and hybrid job opportunities. Inspired by Phillipa's own experience of balancing motherhood and career, the company has grown into a national leader with an expanding international reach.

Today, RecruitMyMom boasts over 250,000 registered job seekers and works with more than 5,000 employers. Phillipa and her team have built a reputation for quality placements, exceptional service, and trusted career guidance.

RecruitMyMom was built to solve a real-world problem: talented women leaving the workforce due to inflexible workplaces. The organization’s impact goes far beyond job placements—it has transformed thousands of lives by giving women the opportunity to thrive in both their careers and personal lives while providing companies with access to this under-utilised talent base by

• Educating employers on what flexible working means, both location and hours and how best to implement flexibility to attract talent.
• Offering a variety of flexible hiring solutions from permanent hires, independent contracting, and fractional C-Suite solutions.
• Enabling financial empowerment and independence
• Supporting work-life balance through flexible roles
• Offering career resources, community support, and personal growth
• Promoting gender equality in traditionally rigid work environments
• Supporting mothers to re-enter the workforce or retain their careers post-maternity
• Enabling mothers wanting more flexibility in their career to move from inflexible work environments to employers that offer flexible working solutions.

The challenge

RecruitMyMom built its brand through high-touch, high-trust marketing, beginning with social media, expanding to radio, and growing through consistent, value-driven email campaigns. The company places a strong emphasis on customer service, authentic relationship building, and delivering useful, empathetic content. These efforts have contributed significantly to the company's reputation, reach, and retention.

RecruitMyMom launched at a time when flexible work was not mainstream in South Africa. Convincing employers to hire skilled women who needed flexibility was a major cultural and educational challenge. The organization also faced typical startup obstacles like:

• Building a two-sided platform (job seekers and employers).
• Creating trust and credibility as a new brand.
• Handling email marketing manually, which limited their ability to scale and personalize communications.

As the database grew, it became clear that manual marketing tools couldn't keep pace. The team needed to automate, segment, and comply with data protection laws like GDPR and POPIA, while still offering a personalized experience.

The solution

After experimenting with platforms like Mad Mimi and another local provider, RecruitMyMom turned to Zoho Campaigns, which integrated nicely with Zoho Recruit—the staffing solution the company was already using.

Zoho Campaigns stood out from other platforms thanks to the following features:

• Seamless integration with Zoho Recruit, which eliminated data silos.
• Automated compliance features (e.g., opt-outs, consent tracking).
• Advanced segmentation for personalized content delivery.
• User-friendly design and built-in templates.
• Improved data management across marketing and recruiting workflows.

In comparison to previous tools, Zoho Campaigns enabled the team to move from labor-intensive tasks to automated, scalable email marketing, supporting both operational growth and user engagement.

Benefits and ROI

While specific email open and click-through rates remained stable, the business efficiency improvements were significant. Key benefits included:

• Time savings from automating repetitive tasks.
• Greater accuracy and compliance in data handling.
• Faster segmentation and targeting based on user profiles and activity.
• Stronger brand consistency across platforms.
• An integrated ecosystem that unified marketing and recruiting.

Additionally, the platform helped maintain high customer retention, with 65% of clients being repeat users—a reflection of consistent service and trust.

Despite the rise of platforms like WhatsApp, email remains the most effective tool for maintaining long-term relationships with both job seekers and employers. RecruitMyMom's email marketing strategy includes the following:

• Monthly newsletters featuring a personal letter from the CEO.
• Weekly job alerts tailored to the recipient's skill set and preferences.
• Career blogs, tips, and guides focused on navigating motherhood and career.
• Interview advice, industry insights, and personal development content.

This ongoing communication ensures that users feel informed, empowered, and connected—whether they're actively job-seeking or simply staying engaged with the community.

Looking forward​

RecruitMyMom is focused on expanding its footprint in both the local South African market and internationally, especially in markets seeking English-speaking, remote-capable professionals in similar time zones.

"In the years to come, I'd like to increase global placements, empower more educated women entering the workforce, and continue supporting gender-inclusive work policies," Phillipa says.

From a technology perspective, Phillipa is eager to see more AI features and WhatsApp integrations within Zoho's platform to enhance reach, automate even further, and stay at the forefront of modern recruitment communication. RecruitMyMom is a powerful example of how purpose-driven leadership, combined with the right digital tools, can build not only a business but a movement. With Zoho Campaigns, the organization has created a smart, compliant, and scalable way to communicate, recruit, and inspire. Together, they're shaping the future of work—one flexible role at a time.