Automatic Follow-up Emails

A sequence is a short series of emails that sends itself. Something happens (a new person joins your list, or someone gets a tag), and they receive the first email, then the next one after a wait you choose, and so on. You write the emails once and the series runs on its own for every new person.

The most common one is a welcome series: a few emails over the first week or two that say who you are, what to expect, and one thing worth doing. You can also follow up after a purchase, or with new members.

Create a sequence

1. Go to Newsletter → Sequences and click New sequence.
2. Give it a Name for your own reference, such as "Welcome series".
3. Under Starts when, choose what starts it (see below).
4. Add the emails (see below).
5. Click Save sequence.
6. Click Start next to it when you are ready for it to run.

What starts it

Someone joins the list. This starts when a new person confirms their signup, or signs up on a list that does not ask people to confirm by email. It does not start for people you import from a spreadsheet or add by hand, so bringing your existing list over never sends everyone a welcome series at once.

Someone gets a tag. Type the tag under Which tag, for example "Bought". The series starts for anyone who is given that tag. If a signup form adds the tag and your list asks people to confirm by email, it starts once they confirm. Tags added in a spreadsheet import do not start it.

If your list already sends a welcome email and the first step of a "joins the list" sequence is that same email, we skip it rather than send it twice. See Confirmation Emails, Welcome Emails and Topics.

Add the emails

Each step is a wait, then an email. You can have up to 10 steps.

1. For the first step, set Wait after they start. Use 0 to send it straight away.
2. Under Then send, choose an email you have already written, or click Write an email to write a new one right there. When you finish writing, click Done editing, then save the sequence.
3. Click Add another email for the next step and set Wait after the last one.

Waits can be in Minutes, Hours or Days, and they are exact: three days means 72 hours after the previous email. Use the arrows to reorder steps.

Every email in a sequence must be ready to send before you can start it: a subject line, a description on each picture, and so on. If something is missing, you will see which email needs fixing. Writing and Sending a Campaign explains each message. You can send yourself a test from inside the email with Send a test.

Taking people off early

Two optional settings stop the series for someone before the end:

• Stop if they get this tag: for example, stop a follow-up once someone has the tag "Bought".
• Stop once they click a link in any email: useful when the whole point of the series is to get one click.

Anyone who leaves your list, blocks marketing email, or turns off the topic an email is about is taken off automatically, whatever step they are on.

Pause, resume or stop

On Newsletter → Sequences, each sequence shows whether it is Running, Paused or Not started, and how many people are in progress, finished or stopped.

• Pause holds everyone where they are. Nothing more goes out until you click Resume. Any email that came due while it was paused goes out when you resume.
• Stop everyone takes everyone currently on it off the series. They get no more of its emails. The sequence itself stays, ready for new people.
• Remove deletes the sequence. Anyone partway through gets no more of its emails.

Changing a sequence that is running

You can click Edit at any time. People who are already partway through keep the steps they started with; your changes apply to people who start after you save. This means nobody gets a half-old, half-new series.

Because of this, an email that is part of a sequence cannot be deleted from Campaigns while it is in use. Replace it in the sequence first, and anyone still working through the old version needs to finish before it can go.

See who is on it

Click Who is on it to see everyone on the sequence, where they are, when their next email is due, and what has already gone out to them. If someone was stopped, the reason is shown next to their name.

If a sequence is not doing what you expect, open a ticket and a real person will look at it with you.