Actions
Actions are what happen to a contact once a trigger has enrolled them. Click the + below any leaf node to open Next Step and choose one.
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Send an email | Sends an email to the contact who reached this point. |
| Notify admin | Sends an internal notification to a fixed address. |
| Operation | Copies or moves the contact to another list. |
| Wait | Holds the contact for a set delay. |
| Evaluate a condition | Splits the path based on the contact's engagement. |
Send an email
The core action. It's a three-step wizard: Setup, Email Content, and Confirm.
Step 1 asks you to choose a sending node. If you have none, set one up under Sending → Nodes before building this action.
Step 1 — Setup
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Action Label | A name for this step, shown on the canvas and in statistics. Maximum 28 characters. Required. |
| Sending Nodes | Which node sends this email. |
| Sender Info. | Where the from/reply details come from — Sending Node, Contact List, or Custom. |
| From Name | Sender name (Custom only). |
| Reply-to Email | Reply address (Custom only). |
| From Email | Local part plus a verified sending domain (Custom only). |
| Select specific time to execute this email | Off sends as soon as the contact arrives; on reveals a time-of-day picker. |
| If time passed on same day | With a specific time set — Send Now or Next Day. |
| Track Opens | Records opens. |
| Track Clicks | Records clicks. |
| Skip Un-confirmed | Skips contacts who never confirmed their subscription. |
| Unsubscribe-Link | Inserts an unsubscribe link into the email body. |
| Add List-Unsubscribe header | Adds the List-Unsubscribe header. Added in 3.1 — see below. |
Sender Info
Sending Node inherits the from name, from email, and reply-to already configured on the node — the simplest option and the usual choice. Contact List takes them from the list. Custom lets you set all three by hand, choosing the domain from your verified sending domains.
Specific execution time
Left off, the email goes out as soon as the contact reaches this step. Switched on, you pick a time of day — useful when you'd rather not send at 3 a.m.
If time passed on same day decides what happens when a contact arrives after that time has already passed today:
- Send Now — send immediately rather than waiting.
- Next Day — hold until that time tomorrow.
Tracking
Track Opens and Track Clicks are ordinary engagement tracking, and they are also a prerequisite for conditions. A condition that asks "did they open the previous email?" can only work if that email tracked opens. The builder warns you if you try: "You did not enable the tracking in Send Email action. Please enable the tracking in Send Email action."
Unsubscribe options
There are two distinct unsubscribe controls, and they do different jobs. You can use either, both, or neither.
Unsubscribe-Link places a visible unsubscribe link in the body of the email.
Add List-Unsubscribe header adds the List-Unsubscribe header to the
message. This isn't visible in the body — mailbox providers read it and render
their own unsubscribe control next to your message.
The List-Unsubscribe header was added to the Send an Email action in Automations 3.1. Before that, automation emails carried no such header at all. See the changelog.
Switching the header on reveals two more options:
| Option | Effect |
|---|---|
| Unsubscribe Link | Includes a one-click unsubscribe URL in the header. |
| Unsubscribe Email | Includes a mailto: address in the header. |
| (address field) | The address used, shown when Unsubscribe Email is on. |
The address is pre-filled from Settings → General, and supports the
%%sending_domain%% placeholder — it's replaced at send time with the domain of
the sending address, so one automation presents the right address across several
sending domains.
The header is off by default, including on automations built before 3.1, so nothing changes until you switch it on.
The major mailbox providers expect bulk senders to offer one-click unsubscribe. Giving recipients an easy opt-out reduces the chance they report your mail as spam, which protects your sending reputation. Enabling both options is the usual recommendation.
Step 2 — Email Content
Choose where the content comes from:
- Select Broadcast — reuse an existing broadcast. Search the list and use Filter Checked to narrow to your selection.
- Design New — build fresh content, opening the template picker and editor.
Step 3 — Confirm
A review screen with Send a test preview to mail yourself a copy first.
"Sending a preview will not convert the system variables e.g. web_version, unsubscribe link, etc." Personalisation tags and links appear in raw form in the preview — that's expected, and they resolve correctly on the real send.
Click Finish to complete the action.
Notify admin
Sends an internal notification to a fixed address — not to the contact. Use it to alert your team when someone reaches a meaningful point in a journey.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| To Email | The recipient — your team, not the contact. |
| Subject | The notification subject. |
| Sending Nodes | Which node sends it. |
| Sender Info. | Sending Node or Custom. |
| From Name / Reply-to Email / From Email | Sender details (Custom only). |
| Message | The notification body. |
Notification emails go to a fixed internal address rather than to a subscriber, so they carry neither an unsubscribe link nor a List-Unsubscribe header. This is deliberate.
Operation
Moves contacts between lists as part of the journey — promoting engaged contacts onto a "warm leads" list, or moving them off an onboarding list once finished.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Select Operation Type | Copy to another list or Move to another list. |
| Select Lists | The destination list. |
| If Duplicates Found | Skip duplicate or Overwrite duplicate. |
Copy leaves the contact on the original list as well. Move removes them from it.
If Duplicates Found decides what happens when the contact already exists on the destination: Skip duplicate leaves the existing record untouched; Overwrite duplicate replaces it with the incoming data.
Conditions can't follow an Operation. The builder blocks it: "You cannot set condition in the child of Operations: Copy/Move". Put any condition earlier in the workflow.
Copying into a list can trigger another automation. If the destination list has its own Contact is added to a list automation, the copy enrols the contact there too. That's a useful hand-off between journeys — and an easy way to build an accidental loop, so map it out before you build it.
Wait
Holds the contact for a set period before the next action. This is what turns a pile of emails into a paced sequence.
Pick from the delay list:
| Range | Options |
|---|---|
| Minutes | 1, 5, 10, 30 |
| Hours | 1, 2, 4, 8, 12 |
| Days | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
| Weeks | 1, 2 |
| Months | 1, 2 |
Choosing custom opens a dialog for a value that isn't on the list.
The delay is measured from that contact's arrival at the step, not from a shared calendar date — so every contact gets the full wait regardless of when they enrolled.
Waiting contacts sit in the waiting pool until the automation:waiting_pool job
releases them. If the scheduler isn't running, they wait forever. See
Setup.
Evaluate a condition
The branching action, and the reason to choose Automations over a drip. It asks a yes/no question about the contact's engagement and sends them down one of two paths.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Select Workflow Email | Which earlier email in this workflow the question is about. |
| Select Engagement | Subscriber read an Email or Subscriber clicks on a Link. |
| Select Delay Time | How long to wait for it to happen before deciding. |
| Any Link / Custom | For click conditions — any link, or specific ones. |
| Select Email Link | The specific link(s), with Custom. |
How it evaluates
The condition waits for the delay you set, then checks whether the engagement happened:
- Yes branch — the contact opened or clicked within the window.
- No branch — they didn't.
Both branches continue independently, so you can build a full follow-up on each side.
The delay is the deciding window. Too short and you'll classify people as unengaged who simply hadn't checked their mail yet; a couple of days is a reasonable default for an open condition.
Requirements and limits
A condition reads tracking data from the email it points at. If that Send an Email action had Track Opens (or Track Clicks) off, there's nothing to evaluate and Mumara warns: "First, open the tracking with linked email."
Two structural rules:
- A condition can only be added after a leaf node — you can't insert one into the middle of an existing branch.
- A condition cannot follow an Operation.
Deleting a condition
Deleting a condition deletes everything below it, on both branches. Mumara asks first: "If you delete the condition, will all its children be deleted on both sides. Do you want to delete all the children?"
Next steps
- Building Automations — assembling actions on the canvas.
- Worked Example — these actions combined into a real journey.
- Statistics — how each action performed.