Getting Started with Automation

If you haven't done so already, you'll need to complete the following before building your first automation:

• Add a notification email
• Create Unsubscribe Groups
• Add a sender (optional)

Once you've completed the prerequisites, you're ready to start building your first automation. You can start with a pre-built Welcome Series and make it your own, or start from scratch by selecting Custom Automation.

To create a Custom Automation:

1. Navigate to Automations and then click Create an Automation.
2. Under Custom, click Select.
3. Give the series a name. This is for your reference and will not be visible to your contacts.
4. Select the entry criteria. You can choose from "The first time a contact is added to a list or "The first time a contact is added to a segment".

5. Select the exit criteria for this series. You can choose from "Contacts have received all emails in the automation", "Contacts no longer meet the entry criteria" or "Contact meets the following criteria".

6. Select an Unsubscribe Group. This Unsubscribe Group will apply to all emails in your Automation.
7. Add a category to the automation (optional). Categories are useful for comparing performance across different types of email you send.

8. Select the send time for the first email. You can choose to send the first email instantly, or you can set a delay of days or hours from the time meet the entry criteria.

9. Build your email(s) by clicking Add Email Content.

10. Choose a template, then use your preferred editor to craft your content.

11. If you did not do so within the editor, you can add a subject line and select a sender from the Edit Automation page.

12. To add more emails to this automated series, click Add an Email.

13. Choose how long to wait before sending the next email. This time will be relative to the preceding email.

14. Once you have created all of your emails for the automation, click Set Live.

The pre-built Welcome Series automation provides a jumping off point to inspire you to create your own tailored welcome series.

To create a Welcome Series:

1. Navigate to Automations and then click Create an Automation.
2. Under Welcome, click Select.
3. Update the automation name (this is for your reference and will not be visible to your contacts).
4. Review the entry criteria to decide if you'd like to update it. The default entry criteria is "The first time a contact is added to All Contacts".
5. Review the exit criteria to decide if you'd like to update it.
6. Select an Unsubscribe Group. This Unsubscribe Group will apply to all emails in your Automation.
7. Add a category to the automation (optional). Categories are useful for comparing performance across different types of email you send.

8. The pre-built Welcome Series has three placeholder emails by default. You'll need to edit the subject line and content of each email. You may decide to remove or add emails to the pre-built.
9. If you did not do so within the editor, you can add a subject line and select a sender from the Edit Automation page.
10. To add more emails to this automated series, click Add an Email.
11. Choose how long to wait between each email in the series. This time will be relative to the preceding email.
12. Once you have created all of your emails for the automation, click Set Live.

To duplicate an automation:

1. Navigate to Automations.
2. Find the automation you want to duplicate.
3. Select the Action Menu to the right of the automation.
4. Click Duplicate.
5. Once you create the duplicate, the automation will open to the edit page. From here, you can change any or all of the settings within the automation.

You can edit the content, subject line, and sender for any emails in your automation.

To edit an automation:

1. Navigate to Automations and select the series you want to edit.
2. Click Edit on each email you'd like to modify.

3. Make your changes in the editor, then click Save.
4. Click the arrow in the upper left-hand corner.
5. Below the email you've edited, you'll see an alert that changes have not yet been applied to the live automation. When you're ready to apply them, click Save and Apply.

To disable an automation:

When you disable an automation, all emails in your automation will stop sending unless you set it live again. No new contacts will be entered into your automation while it's disabled. If you set the automation live again, contacts who entered the automation before it was disabled will continue receiving emails again according to where they left off.

1. Navigate to Automations and select the series you want to stop.
2. Select the Action Menu to the right of the Automation.
3. Click Disable Automation in the upper right corner.

To set a disabled automation live again:

1. Navigate to Automations and select the series you want to re-enable.
2. Select the Action Menu to the right of the Automation.
3. Click Set Live in the upper right corner.

A valuable use case for Automation is to nurture your free customers to become paid using a drip series. The series will send automatically to free users until they reach the end of the email sequence or they upgrade to paid, whichever comes first. Here's how:

1. Create a segment of all contacts whose custom field "Plan Type" value is "Free"
2. Set entry criteria to the first time a contact "is added to a segment" and select the "Free customers" segment you just created.
3. Set the exit criteria as "Contacts no longer meet entry criteria"
4. Craft a series of emails to nurture contacts to become paid.

From there, any time you add a new contact whose plan type is "Free", they are automatically added to the relevant segment and entered into the automation. If they upgrade their plan during the drip series, Automation automatically removes them from the series.