Automation Actions
Actions are what happen to a contact once a trigger has enrolled them. Click the + below the last step of a branch to open Next Step, then 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, such as your team's. |
| Operation | Copies or moves the contact to another list. |
| Wait | Holds the contact for a set delay. |
| Evaluate a condition | Splits the path in two, depending on whether the contact opened or clicked the email above. |
Where each action can go
New steps are added at the end of a branch. On top of that:
- Evaluate a condition can only come straight after a Send an email step.
- Two Wait steps can't follow each other, and neither can two Notify admin steps.
- A condition can't follow an Operation, a Wait or a Notify admin step.
Actions that aren't allowed at that point are greyed out in Next Step. See Rules the builder enforces.
Send an email
The core action. It's a three-tab wizard: Setup, Email Content and Confirm.
You need a pool to send through and a verified sending domain for the From address. See Dedicated Pools and Sending Domains.
Setup
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Action Label | Required. A name for this step, shown on the canvas and in statistics. Up to 28 characters. |
| Sending Nodes | Required. The pool this email is sent through. In Mumara ONE, the entries in this list are your pools. |
| Sender Info. | Where the From and Reply-to details come from: Sending Node, Contact List or Custom. See Sender information. |
| From Name, Reply-to Email, From Email | With Custom only: the sender details for this email. |
| Select specific time to execute this email | Off sends the email as soon as the contact reaches this step. On lets you pick a time of day. See Specific execution time. |
| If time passed on same day | With a specific time: Send Now or Next Day. |
| Track Opens | Records when the contact opens the email. |
| Track Clicks | Records clicks on links in the email. |
| Skip Un-confirmed | Doesn't send to contacts whose subscription is still unconfirmed. |
| Unsubscribe-Link | Adds an unsubscribe link to the body of the email. |
| Add List-Unsubscribe header | Adds the List-Unsubscribe header, so mailbox providers can show their own unsubscribe button. See Unsubscribe options. |
Click Save & Next.
Sender information
- Contact List uses the From name, From email and Reply-to address set on the contact's list. This is the simplest choice when each list already has its sender details. See Contact Lists.
- Custom lets you set all three here. Type the part of the From Email before the
@, then choose one of your verified sending domains under Choose Email Domain. - Sending Node uses sender details stored with the pool. In Mumara ONE your pools don't hold your own sender address, so choose Contact List or Custom instead.
Mumara ONE sets the bounce (return-path) address for you.
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 in your account's time zone, which is set in My Profile. This is 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 straight away rather than wait.
- Next Day: hold the email until that time tomorrow.
Tracking
Track Opens and Track Clicks are ordinary engagement tracking, and they're also what a condition reads. A condition that asks "did they open the previous email?" only works if that email tracked opens. The builder warns you if it didn't: You did not enable the tracking in Send Email action. Please enable the tracking in Send Email action.
Both switches start off on a new email. If a condition will follow this email, switch both on.
Unsubscribe options
There are two unsubscribe controls, and they do different jobs. Both start off on a new email.
Unsubscribe-Link places a visible unsubscribe link in the body of the email. Switch it on for marketing email unless the email already has its own unsubscribe link.
Add List-Unsubscribe header adds the List-Unsubscribe header to the message. It isn't visible in the body; mailbox providers read it and show their own Unsubscribe button next to your message. Switching it on shows two more options:
| Option | Effect |
|---|---|
| Unsubscribe Link | Puts a one-click unsubscribe link in the header. This is what Gmail, Yahoo and others look for. |
| Unsubscribe Email | Also puts a mailto: address in the header, entered in the box that appears. You can write %%sending_domain%% in the address; it's replaced with the domain of the From address when the email is sent. Use an address whose requests you act on. |
The major mailbox providers expect bulk senders to offer one-click unsubscribe. An easy opt-out makes recipients less likely to report your mail as spam, which protects your sending reputation. Switch on Add List-Unsubscribe header with Unsubscribe Link, and keep Unsubscribe-Link on too. See One-click unsubscribe and Compliance.
Email Content
Under Select option, choose where the content comes from:
- Select Broadcast reuses one of your broadcasts. They're listed by group; use the search box to find one, and Filter Checked to show only the one you've picked.
- Design New builds new content. Under Create New Broadcast, click Design Now to choose a template and open the editor. When you've saved your design, click Back To Automation to return to the builder. See Email Builder.
Click Save & Next.
Confirm
A review screen: You're all set to send!
Under Send a test preview, enter your address and click the send button to mail yourself a copy.
Sending a preview will not convert the system variables e.g. web_version, unsubscribe link, etc. Personalisation tags and system links appear in their raw form in the preview. That's expected; they're filled in on the real send.
Click Finish to complete the step.
When the email is sent
Just before each email goes out, Mumara ONE checks the contact again. Contacts who have unsubscribed, complained, been deactivated, hard-bounced or been added to a suppression list since they entered the automation are skipped, even though they're partway through it.
Each email sent also appears on the contact's timeline, and in Automations Stats.
Notify admin
Sends an internal notification to a fixed address, not to the contact. Use it to tell your team when someone reaches a meaningful point in a journey.
The panel is titled Send notification to admin.
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| To Email | Required. Who receives the notification: your team, not the contact. It starts as your account's email address. |
| Subject | Required. The notification's subject, up to 28 characters. It's also the step's name on the canvas. |
| Sending Node | The pool to send through. In Mumara ONE, the entries in this list are your pools. |
| Sender Info. | Contact List or Custom, as for Send an email. Sending Node is the default; change it, because your pools don't hold your own sender address. |
| From Name, From Email, Reply-to Email | With Custom only. |
| Message | The notification's body, written in the editor. Insert dynamic tags to include the contact's details, such as their email address. |
Click Update.
Notifications 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 to a "warm leads" list, or moving them off an onboarding list once they're done.
The panel is titled Select Operation.
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Select Operation Type | Copy to another list or Move to another list. |
| If Duplicates Found | Skip duplicate or Overwrite duplicate. |
| List Name | The list to copy or move the contact to. |
Copy puts a copy of the contact, with their field values, in the other list and leaves the original where it is. Move takes the contact out of its current list and puts it in the other one.
If Duplicates Found decides what happens when the address is already in the destination list:
- Skip duplicate leaves the existing contact in the destination list untouched. When moving, the contact also stays in its original list.
- Overwrite duplicate replaces the contact in the destination list with the incoming one, including its field values.
The builder blocks it: You cannot set condition in the child of Operations: Copy/Move. Put any condition earlier in the workflow, straight after an email.
Wait
Holds the contact for a set time before the next step. This is what turns a pile of emails into a paced sequence.
Pick the delay from the 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 (a month counts as 30 days) |
The delay is measured from when that contact reached the step, not from a date shared by everyone, so every contact gets the full wait whenever they enrolled.
Two waits can't follow each other; pick one longer delay instead. A condition can't follow a wait either, because a condition has its own waiting time. See Evaluate a condition.
Evaluate a condition
The branching action, and the main reason to choose an automation over a drip campaign. It asks a yes-or-no question about the contact's engagement with the email directly above it, and sends them down one of two paths.
The panel is titled Set up your condition.
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Select Workflow Email | The email the question is about: the Send an email step directly above the condition. It's only listed when that email tracks opens. |
| Select Delay Time | How long to wait for the engagement before deciding, from 5 minutes to 2 months. |
| Select Engagement | Subscriber read an Email or Subscriber clicks on a Link. |
| Any Link / Custom | For click conditions: whether a click on any link counts, or only on the links you choose. |
| Select Email Link | With Custom: the links that count. |
On the canvas, the condition shows as Condition: open previous email? or Condition: click on a link?.
How it's decided
The condition waits for the delay you set, then checks whether the engagement happened:
- Yes branch: the contact opened the email, or clicked a counting link, within the delay.
- 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 treat people as unengaged who simply hadn't checked their mail yet; a couple of days is a sensible default for an open condition.
Requirements
A condition reads tracking data from the email above it. Switch on Track Opens on that email, and Track Clicks too for a click condition. If tracking is off, the builder warns you: First, open the tracking with linked email.
Two structural rules:
- A condition can only be added straight after a Send an email step, at the end of a branch.
- A condition can't follow an Operation, a Wait or another condition.
Deleting a condition
Deleting a condition deletes everything below it, on both branches. Mumara ONE asks first: If you delete the condition, will all its children be deleted on both sides. Do you want to delete all the children?
What counts toward your plan
Each email sent, each notification sent and each copy or move counts as one action toward your monthly allowance. Waits and conditions don't. See Plan limits.
Next steps
- Building Automations: putting actions together on the canvas
- Worked Examples: these actions combined into real journeys
- Automations Stats: how each action performed