A sequence is a series of marketing emails that goes out on its own. When someone joins a list, they start the sequence: a welcome email, a few days' wait, a follow-up, and different emails for people who opened the first one and people who didn't.
Sequences are part of the Landing plan, and need automations, which Landing includes.
Everyone except guests can see sequences and their figures. To make, change, switch on or delete one, you need to be an owner, admin or manager.
Sequence emails are marketing emails. Your organisation needs a verified domain to send from and a postal address, as it does for newsletters. See Send a newsletter.
Go to Marketing, then Sequences, and choose New sequence.
Give it a Name.
Under When someone joins, choose a list. The General list starts the sequence when someone becomes able to be sent marketing email, for example when they opt in on a form.
Under Let each person through, choose Once per person or Every time they join.
Choose Add a step and add the steps in the order they should run, up to 10.
Choose Create automation.
Step | What it does |
|---|---|
Send an email | Sends the person a marketing email. Up to 5 in a sequence. |
Wait | Pauses before the next step, for minutes, hours, days, weeks or months, up to a year. |
Add to a list | Puts the person on one of your own lists. |
Remove from a list | Takes the person off one of your own lists. |
Update tags | Adds or removes the person's tags. |
Create a task | Creates a task linked to the person, for their owner, a member or nobody. |
If / else | Sends the person down different paths. See below. |
There's no step that deletes a contact. Deleting someone can't be undone, so take them off the list instead.
Select the Send an email step.
Add a Subject and, if you like, Preview text.
Choose Write the email. The email builder opens. Write the email as you would a newsletter, or pick a layout under Start from a template.
Choose Done, then save the sequence.
Merge tags such as {{first_name|there}} fill in each person's details, in the subject and preview text too. The footer with your postal address and an Unsubscribe link is added to every email and can't be removed.
Someone joins a list when you add them by hand or in bulk, or when a deal, contact or form automation adds them with Add to a list.
Only people who can be sent marketing email start. Someone on the list who hasn't opted in, has unsubscribed or whose address is blocked doesn't.
Once per person lets someone through one time, ever. Every time they join lets them through again each time they rejoin the list.
Nobody goes through the same sequence twice at once.
When many people join at once, they start a few at a time, about 20 a second, so a large import takes a few minutes to get going.
An If / else step checks the person and runs different steps for each answer. It's always the last step, and its paths can't contain a wait.
The person can be checked by:
Opened the previous email: whether they opened the last email this sequence sent them.
Clicked in the previous email: whether they clicked a link in it.
Lists: whether they're on a list.
Lifecycle, Tags and Signed proposals.
Put a Wait before the If / else step to give people time to open the email. Opens and clicks are only recorded while tracking is on for your sending domain. With tracking off, or before the sequence has sent an email, these checks send people to Otherwise.
A person's place in a sequence ends, and nothing more is sent, when:
they unsubscribe, or you opt them out of marketing
their email address is blocked after a bounce or a spam report
they're taken off the list that started the sequence
they're deleted from your contacts
the sequence is switched off or deleted
your plan stops including sequences
Changing their lifecycle doesn't stop a sequence.
An email that can't be sent is skipped, and the rest of the sequence carries on:
your organisation's marketing email is paused
your plan's marketing emails for the period are used up, or your spending cap is reached
your domain or postal address is missing
Run history says which email was skipped and why.
On the Sequences page, each row shows how many people are part-way through and how many emails it has sent. Select a sequence and open Summary for how many people entered, finished or were stopped, and how many opened or clicked. Open Run history to see each person's run, step by step. A waiting run can be continued now or cancelled.
Sequence emails count in your marketing report and towards your plan's marketing emails, the same as newsletters.
On the Sequences page, type in the search box to find a sequence by name. Use Sort to order them by name, people in progress, emails sent or when each last changed, and Filter to show only the ones that are on or off, or that start from a particular list.
To change several at once, tick them and choose Actions:
Turn on or Turn off switches them all. A sequence that can't run as it stands, such as one whose list has been deleted, stays off and is counted as skipped.
Delete removes them, after you choose it again to confirm.
Deleting a list switches off the sequences it starts. The row says why, and you can't switch the sequence back on until you choose another list.
Duplicate copies a sequence with its emails, switched off.
Deleting a sequence stops anyone part-way through. The emails it already sent stay in your reports.
If your plan stops including sequences, they're kept but don't run.
