Automations: the welcome email and more
Send emails automatically when someone subscribes, gets a tag, downloads a lead magnet, sends a form or buys, starting from a ready-made sequence.
An automation is a series of emails that goes out by itself. The classic one is a welcome series: a thank-you email right after someone subscribes, a useful tip a few days later, and an invitation to get in touch a week later. You write it once; every new subscriber gets it.
Go to Email → Newsletter and open the Automations tab.
Start from a template
- Under Start from a template, click Use this template (1) on one of:
- Welcome series: three emails over a week after someone subscribes, ending with an invitation to talk;
- Lead magnet follow-up: three follow-ups after a lead magnet download; stops when they get the "customer" tag;
- Re-engagement: asks inactive subscribers (tag "inactive") if they still want your emails.
- The automation is created as a draft and opens. Change the emails to fit your business (see below).
- Set Status to Active and click Save.
Your automations are listed under the templates (2), with their Status, what they start on (Starts when), how many people are In it now and how many Finished.
The settings
- Name (1): only you see it.
- Starts when (2): what puts someone into the automation:
- Someone subscribes (confirms their email);
- A tag is added (type the Tag);
- A lead magnet is downloaded;
- A new lead comes in (only if they are a subscriber);
- A purchase is paid (only if they are a subscriber).
- Goal tag (optional) (3): when someone gets this tag, for example
customer, they leave the sequence early. No more "book a call" emails to someone who already booked. - Status (4): Draft, Active or Paused.
The boxes at the top count the people In it now, Finished, Reached the goal and Left (unsubscribed or filtered).
Build the steps
Under Steps, the automation runs from top to bottom. Add steps with the buttons at the end:
| Button | What the step does |
|---|---|
| Sends an email. Write it right there (Write it here (simple editor)) or choose a saved email. | |
| + Wait | Waits a number of days or hours before the next step. |
| + Add tag / + Remove tag | Changes the person's tags. |
| + Continue only if… | Goes on only if they clicked or opened the previous email, or have a tag. Otherwise they leave the automation. |
Use ↑ and ↓ to move a step, and Remove to delete it. Under each email step you see how many were sent, opened and clicked.
To check an email, type your address in Send tests to at the bottom and click Send test on the email step.
Pause, change or delete
In the Automations list:
- Pause stops sending; people in it wait where they are. Activate carries on.
- Edit opens the automation. Changes apply to the emails that haven't gone out yet.
- Report shows who's in it now, at which step, and when their next email goes.
- Delete removes it; people in it stop receiving its emails.
Good to know
- Only confirmed subscribers receive automation emails. Unsubscribing removes a person from every automation.
- Each person goes through an automation once. Adding the same tag again doesn't start it again.
- Tags given to someone who hasn't confirmed yet start their automations after they confirm.
- An active automation sends nothing until your business address is filled in under Settings.
- Emails count toward your daily sending limit.
Saved emails
The Emails tab keeps emails you reuse: in several automations, or as the start of a broadcast. Click New email to write one. Each email shows which automations use it (Used in automations). When you change a saved email, automations using it send the new version from then on. Click Use in a new broadcast → to send it to your list once.