Sequences

A sequence is a series of emails with gaps between them: a seven-day course, a welcome series, a follow-up after a demo. You write it once. Each contact you add gets the first email, then the next after its wait, and so on, counted from when they were added.

Sequences live under Emails → Sequences.

Sequences and automations

A sequence is a simpler kind of automation:

	Sequence	Automation
How contacts get in	You add them, or an automation does	A trigger, such as a tag being added
What it holds	Emails and waits, in one line	Any steps: conditions, branches, tags, emails
Who it emails	The contact, as marketing email	Anyone the step names

Use a sequence when the order of emails is the whole plan. Use an automation when something should start it by itself, or when it needs to decide or act along the way. The two work together: an automation’s Add to a sequence step puts someone into a sequence, and the Finishes a sequence trigger starts an automation when someone has had every email.

Create a sequence

Click New sequence. The sequence opens straight into writing its first email.

The editor is a timeline. Each card is one email, showing its subject, the day it is sent (counted from when the contact was added) and, once the sequence is running, its numbers. Changes save themselves.

Add emails and waits

• Add an email adds one at the end. It starts with the sender, sending hours and UTM settings of the email before it, so you set those once.
• The Wait above each card is how long after the previous email it is sent (for the first email, after the contact is added), in Hours, Days or Weeks. The first email can have no wait: it shows Right away, and add a wait gives it one.
• Each card’s menu has Move up, Move down, Duplicate and Delete. An email moves with the wait before it.
• The eye icon previews an email; Edit opens it.

Write each email

Edit opens the email full screen in the email editor, with these rows above it:

• When — the wait before it, with the day it lands on.
• From — sent as Settings → Email defaults says, unless you tick Use a different sender for this email.
• Send — As soon as it’s reached, Only within certain hours (choose the Days and the hours From and To), or On a specific date (and, If that date has passed, either Send right away or Skip this email).
• UTM — tags the email’s links for your analytics.

Click Test email to send it to an address. When the address belongs to a contact, their details fill the merge tags. Click Done to keep your changes.

If someone is added again

Above the timeline, If someone is added again decides what happens to a contact who is added while they are in it, or after they have finished:

• Skip them
• Let them go through it again once they finish
• Let them go through it again after a number of days after they last started
• Start them over from the first step

Turn it on

A new sequence is a Draft: nobody can be added. Click the status beside the name and choose Active to start accepting contacts, or Paused to hold everyone where they are and send nothing until it is on again. You can also activate or pause several from the list.

Put contacts in

A sequence has to be Active before anyone can be added. Then add contacts from:

• The sequence’s report — click Add contacts, choose lists, tags or segments (or Every contact) under Who, and confirm. The dialog says how many are already in it or kept out by the re-entry setting.
• The contacts list — select contacts and choose Add to a sequence.
• A contact’s page — use Add to an automation or sequence.
• An automation — the Add to a sequence step.

Each email is marketing email, so it goes only to contacts who are subscribed. When a contact unsubscribes from email, they are taken out of every sequence they are in.

Editing a sequence people are in

Changes reach the people already going through it. A new email at the end is sent to everyone still going, and a changed wait counts from when they got the email before it.

Take contacts out

On the report’s Contacts tab, select people and Take them out: they stop where they are and receive nothing more. Remove from automation goes further, deleting their history in the sequence so they can enter it again. The emails they received stay in the email log.

An automation can also take people out with the Take out of a sequence step.

See how it is doing

The Sequences list shows, for each sequence, how many are In progress, how many Completed, and the open rate. More columns, such as Entered and Clicked, are under the column picker.

In the editor, each email’s card shows how many were Sent, Opened, Clicked and Unsubscribed. The report (Report in the editor bar, or View report in the list) has three tabs:

• Performance — how many entered, are in progress and completed, and how far they get.
• Steps — each email’s numbers. Click a count to see who it is.
• Contacts — everyone who entered, where they are and what comes next.

Delete a sequence

Choose Delete sequence from the editor’s menu, or Delete in the list. Its emails and report are removed, and anyone part-way through gets nothing more. The emails already sent stay in the email log.