Worked Examples

Build a welcome journey with a re-engagement branch

This is the automation most people want first: greet new contacts, then treat the engaged and the unengaged differently.

What we're building

Trigger: Contact is added to "Newsletter"
    │
    └── Send an email: "Welcome aboard"
            │
            └── Condition: opened "Welcome aboard"?  (Select Delay Time: 3 days)
                    ├── Yes → Send an email: "Here's where to start"
                    │           └── Operation: copy to "Engaged"
                    └── No  → Send an email: "Did you miss this?"

Before you start, check that you have:

• a Newsletter list whose contacts you want to welcome, and an Engaged list for the Yes branch,
• a verified sending domain, and sender details on the Newsletter list, or ready to enter,
• a pool to send through,
• your three emails as broadcasts, or be ready to design them in the builder.

Step 1: Create the automation

1. Go to Actions → Automations and click Add New.
2. Enter the Automation Title Welcome Journey.
3. Click Confirm. The builder opens.

Step 2: Set the trigger

1. Click the top step, Click here to begin.
2. Under Select Automation Event, choose Contact is added to a list.
3. Under Lists, choose Selected List, then pick Newsletter under Choose a Contact List.
4. Leave Subscribers Custom Criteria off to welcome everyone, or switch it on to narrow who gets the journey.
5. Click Confirm.

Step 3: The welcome email

Click + below the trigger and choose Send an email. On the Setup tab:

Field	Value
Action Label	Welcome aboard
Sending Nodes	Your pool
Sender Info.	Contact List, or Custom with your details
Select specific time to execute this email	Off, to send as soon as the contact joins
Track Opens	On
Track Clicks	On
Skip Un-confirmed	On, if the list uses double opt-in
Unsubscribe-Link	On
Add List-Unsubscribe header	On, with Unsubscribe Link on

Click Save & Next.

Track Opens must be on

The condition in step 4 asks whether this email was opened. If tracking is off here, the condition can't be set up. Turn it on now.

On Email Content, choose Select Broadcast to reuse your welcome broadcast, or Design New to build one. Click Save & Next.

On Confirm, send yourself a test preview, then click Finish. Remember that previews don't fill in personalisation tags.

Step 4: The condition

Click + below the welcome email and choose Evaluate a condition.

Field	Value
Select Workflow Email	Welcome aboard
Select Delay Time	3 days
Select Engagement	Subscriber read an Email

The canvas now splits into a Yes and a No branch.

The condition's delay is the wait

You don't need a separate Wait before the condition, and the builder won't let you put one there. The condition itself waits: each contact gets 3 days from receiving the welcome email to open it before landing on the No branch.

Step 5: The Yes branch

On the Yes side, add Send an email labelled Here's where to start. These contacts are engaged, so build on it.

Then add an Operation below it:

Field	Value
Select Operation Type	Copy to another list
If Duplicates Found	Skip duplicate
List Name	Engaged

You now have a self-maintaining list of engaged contacts.

Step 6: The No branch

On the No side, add Send an email labelled Did you miss this?.

Change the subject line: the whole point is that the first one didn't land. Keep tracking on so you can see whether the second attempt worked.

Step 7: Test, then go live

The condition takes 3 days to decide, which is slow for a test. So test a copy first:

1. Build the same journey as Welcome Journey (test), pointed at a small test list, with Select Delay Time set to 5 minutes.
2. Switch it on and add a contact with an address you control to the test list.
3. Check that the welcome email arrives and that its unsubscribe link works. In the message source you'll find the List-Unsubscribe header.
4. Don't open it. After the 5 minutes, and a few minutes more, check that the "Did you miss this?" email arrives.
5. Repeat with a second address, opening the welcome email this time. Check that "Here's where to start" arrives and the contact appears in Engaged.

Then switch the real automation's Status on, in the Automations list or in the builder's side panel, and delete the test automation.

Watch the first real contacts

After going live, open Automations Stats for the automation. The tree view shows how many contacts each step has handled, so you can see the journey filling up and where contacts go at the condition.

Recipe: birthday greeting

Sends a greeting on each contact's birthday, every year.

1. The list needs a date custom field holding each contact's birthday, filled in. See Custom Fields.
2. Trigger: Date based Automation → Based on profile date field, and choose the list.
3. Under Apply Filters, choose the birthday field and Is Today.
4. Switch Excluded Year on.
5. Add a Send an email step with your greeting. Switch on Select specific time to execute this email and pick a time, such as 09:00.

Excluded Year is the whole trick. A birthday field holds a full date, including the year of birth, which as a literal match comes true only once. Excluding the year compares the day and month only, so it fires every year.

The specific time matters too. Date-based automations are checked just after midnight UTC, so without a send time the greeting goes out in the middle of the night for many contacts.

Recipe: renewal reminder

Warns contacts a week before their renewal date.

1. The list needs a renewal date custom field.
2. Trigger: Date based Automation → Based on profile date field, pointing at that field.
3. Under Apply Filters, choose Occurring after and enter 7 Days.
4. Leave Excluded Year off: a renewal is a specific date, not an annual one.
5. Add Send an email with the reminder, at a specific time of day.
6. Optionally add a Wait of 5 days and a second, more urgent reminder.

For a follow-up after a date, such as three days after a purchase date, use Occurred before with 3 Days instead.

Recipe: click-driven sales alert

Tells your sales team when a contact clicks a high-intent link.

1. Create the automation with the trigger When a contact clicks on a link.
2. Under Select Broadcast, choose Selected broadcasts and pick the broadcast that contains your pricing link.
3. Under Link, choose Selected Link and pick the pricing URL.
4. Set the expiry, Automation will expire after the specified duration., to the campaign's useful life, such as 14 Days.
5. Add Notify admin, with To Email set to your sales address, such as sales@example.com, and a subject like Pricing click. In Message, insert the dynamic tag for the contact's email address.
6. Optionally add an Operation copying the contact to a Hot Leads list.
7. Switch the automation on, then send the broadcast with Track Clicks on.

Because the trigger matches only the pricing link, a click on any other link doesn't raise a false alarm.

Common mistakes

Mistake	What happens	Fix
Condition after an untracked email	The condition can't be set up, because the email isn't offered under Select Workflow Email.	Switch on Track Opens (and Track Clicks for a click condition) on the email above the condition.
Wait before a condition	The builder doesn't offer the condition after a wait.	Put the condition straight after the email and use its Select Delay Time as the wait.
Condition delay too short	Contacts who would have opened land on the No branch.	Give opens a couple of days.
Editing without pausing	The step's settings are greyed out.	Pause, edit, switch it back on, and keep the pause short.
Automation switched on after the broadcast went out	Open and click triggers ignore engagement with that broadcast.	Switch the automation on before sending the broadcast.
Sender Info. left on Sending Node	The email has no proper From address.	Choose Contact List or Custom.
Birthday automation without Excluded Year	It never fires, because nobody's birth date is today's full date.	Switch Excluded Year on.

Next steps

• Automations Stats: measure the journey you just built
• Troubleshooting: when something doesn't fire