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An automation brings subscribers into a journey: a series of actions (wait, send an e-mail, add a tag, take a branch…) that each of them follows at their own pace. A welcome series, a basket reminder, a birthday message, winning back the inactive: anything that starts without someone clicking “Send”.

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Create an automation

1

The creation panel

Automations → New automation: a name (“Welcome series”), a list, and what starts it. See Triggers.
2

Write the e-mails

The e-mails of a journey are automation e-mails, written once and reusable. The Automation e-mails button at the top of the page. See Automation e-mails.
3

Build the actions

The Actions tab: Add an action, then Add below on each action. See Actions.
4

Set the goal and the ways out

The Settings tab, optional: see below.
5

Start it

Start at the top right. It needs at least one action.

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Ready-made journeys

In the New automation panel, Start from offers an empty page or a journey already written, in the language of the list, that you then change as you like:
The New automation panel and its ready-made journeys

Start from an empty page, or from a journey already written.

A journey is created as a draft: read its e-mails, put your own words in, then start it. The two shop journeys need your shop to report events — the WordPress plugin does it for WooCommerce.

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The states

Pause and Start switch between active and paused.
Starting an automation does not bring in the subscribers already on the list: only the events that happen afterwards set it off. To bring existing people in, add them from the Subscribers tab.

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The settings

The Settings tab, saved with Save the settings.

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Automation

Name, List and Who may enter: the whole list, or a segment. A subscriber outside the segment when the trigger fires does not come in.

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Trigger

The trigger and its settings. See Triggers.

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What it is for: the goal

Whoever does what the automation is pushing them towards leaves it, instead of being reminded again. It is checked at every step:

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Leaving early

  • Someone who unsubscribes leaves (on by default).
  • A tag that lets someone out: a tag that ends the journey, customer in a prospect reminder, say.

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The journeys: the Subscribers tab

Each person who came in has a journey: The table shows the current action, the next step (with its time) and the date they came in; filter by status. Add subscribers brings in up to 100 addresses at once; they have to be on the automation’s list already.
A person never travels through the same automation twice at once. Once their journey is over they may come back, if the trigger happens again (a tag removed then added, a birthday the following year).

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In the action editor

Each action shows N waiting here and N went through: the best way to see where subscribers stop.

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The funnel

Each step of the editor says what share of those who entered reached it, with a bar: where the line shortens is where people leave. A step that sends an e-mail also says how many left, and the share opened and clicked — opens by people, not by machines (see About opens).