Automations
Timed email sequences triggered when someone joins a list.
An automation is a sequence of emails sent on a schedule after something happens — someone joins a list, a tag is added, a form is submitted. Welcome series, onboarding sequences and post-purchase follow-ups are all automations.
How they work
- 1You choose a trigger. Whatever it is happening to a contact enrols them.
- 2You add steps. Each step is an email plus a delay before it sends.
- 3Delays are counted from the previous step, in minutes, hours or days.
- 4The contact moves through the steps until the sequence finishes.
Nobody is ever in the same automation twice at once. Whether they can enter again later depends on the trigger — see Being enrolled more than once below.
Sequences do not have to be a straight line — branching sends different people down different paths, and the journey view shows exactly where each contact has got to.
Building one
Go to Automations → New automation, name it, choose what starts it, then add steps. Each step has its own subject line and its own block editor — the same editor as campaigns.
What starts one
| Trigger | Fires when |
|---|---|
| Someone joins a list | A contact is added to the chosen list — by hand, by import, by a form, or through the API. |
| A tag is added | The chosen tag lands on a contact. Tags are matched case-insensitively, and it counts however the tag arrived: typed on the contact, carried in a CSV column, set through the API, or applied by another automation. |
| A form is submitted | The chosen form is submitted. Works whether or not the form adds anyone to a list, so a form with no list can still start a sequence. |
Because an Add tag step counts as a tag being added, one automation can hand someone to the next. The tag only counts when it genuinely changes — re-applying a tag a contact already has starts nothing, which is what keeps a chain from looping.
Being enrolled more than once
Nobody is ever walked through the same automation twice at the same time. Beyond that, it depends on the trigger:
- Joining a list is once ever. Being re-added to the list later does nothing. This is deliberate: re-importing a CSV re-adds everyone in it, and re-running a welcome series for a whole list is a mistake measured in unsubscribes.
- A tag or a form can start a fresh run — but only once the previous run has finished. Someone part-way through is left where they are. Each run is tracked separately, so the second run really does send the emails again.
Steps can be reordered or deleted while the automation is in draft.
Statuses
There is no separate publish button. The status is the dropdown next to the automation's name at the top of the editor — switch it from Draft to Active and it is live from that moment.
An automation needs both a fully set trigger and Active status to do anything. With one and not the other it will sit there looking finished and enrol nobody.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Being built. Nobody is enrolled and nothing sends. |
| Active | Running. Contacts matching the trigger are enrolled and receive the sequence. |
| Paused | Enrolments and sends stop. Existing enrolments resume where they left off when reactivated. |
Who gets enrolled
Only contacts who match the trigger after the automation is activated. Turning one on does not retroactively mail everyone already on the list, or everyone who already carries the tag — which is almost always what you want, and prevents accidentally sending a five-part welcome series to a 10,000-person list.
Contacts who are not subscribed are never enrolled, and someone who unsubscribes partway through stops receiving the rest.
Timing
Delays are honoured accurately and survive across days without anything running on your machine. A step set to 3 days sends 3 days later even if you close your laptop.
Let AI draft the sequence
In AI Studio, describe what the sequence is for and get a complete draft automation — subjects, copy and timing — created for you to review and edit.
Something unclear or wrong? Tell us and we'll fix it.