Automations

Send emails and update subscribers automatically when something happens, such as a new signup or a paid upgrade.

An automation is a journey that runs on its own. Something happens (the trigger), and the subscriber then moves through the steps you set up: send an email, wait, tag them, and so on.

You'll find automations under Tools > Automations.

Create an automation

Go to Tools > Automations and click Create Automation. A new, empty automation opens on its Workflow tab.
Click Add trigger and choose what should start the automation.
Add steps below the trigger. Click a step to open its Properties and fill in the details.
When you're ready, click Publish in the top bar.

An automation can't be published until it has a trigger. Until you publish it, nothing runs and nobody is enrolled.

Each automation has three tabs:

Overview: how many subscribers entered, are in progress, completed or exited, and how its emails performed (opens, clicks, spam reports).
Workflow: the trigger and steps.
Settings: the name, description and enrollment rules.

Triggers

Trigger	When it starts the automation
Email Submission	A new subscriber joins your publication.
Sign Up	A new subscriber joins your publication.
Survey Submission	A subscriber submits one of your surveys.
Poll Submission	A subscriber answers one of your polls.
Referral Made	One of your subscribers successfully refers someone new. The automation runs for the person who made the referral.
Segment Action	A subscriber enters or leaves a Dynamic segment you choose. You pick the segment and, under When a subscriber, choose Enters the segment, Leaves the segment, or Enters or leaves.
Upgrade	A reader buys one of your paid plans on your website.
Downgrade	A reader's paid subscription is cancelled from the Billing tab on their subscriber profile.

Things to know about triggers:

Email Submission and Sign Up fire at the same moment. If your publication asks new readers to confirm their email, they can fire as soon as the reader signs up, before the reader confirms, and again when the reader confirms. Use Limited enrollment (see below) so the journey runs once per person. If your publication is private and you approve readers by hand, they fire when you approve the request.
A reader who unsubscribed and later joins again does not fire Sign Up a second time.
Poll answers only start an automation when the answer comes from someone already on your list.
Survey answers start a Survey Submission automation for everyone who responds. A respondent who wasn't on your list is added to it (they don't receive your newsletter), and they can still receive the automation's Send Email steps.
Segment Action only works with Dynamic segments, and it reacts to the daily update and to new signups. Static and Manual segments never start it, and neither do Recalculate now, imports, or creating or editing a segment.
A reader who goes straight to a paid plan as a new subscriber starts Upgrade only. They don't start Sign Up, Email Submission or Referral Made, even if they came through a referral link. If their card needs an extra security check, Upgrade may not start.
Manual is shown as "Coming soon". To put one person into an automation by hand, see "Add someone by hand" below.

Steps

Step	What it does
Send Email	Sends an email to the subscriber. You set a Subject, Preview text and pick an Email template from your saved templates (Newsletter > Template library > My templates).
Update Subscription Data	Apply tags to the subscriber and Set custom fields to a value.
Webhook	Sends a request to a web address you control, for example to tell another tool about the subscriber.
Wait Until	Holds the subscriber until the next Time of day you set, in the Time zone you choose. Leave Days of week empty: picking specific days doesn't work correctly at the moment, and the subscriber waits about a day instead.
Time Delay	Holds the subscriber before the next step. At the moment every Time Delay waits 1 day, whatever Duration you set.
Branch (Yes/No)	Splits the path in two. Subscribers who match the branch's conditions go down Yes, everyone else goes down No.

Send Email, Update Subscription Data and Webhook steps have an optional Conditions section, and a Branch must have conditions. On a regular step, subscribers who match the conditions carry on to that step, and anyone who doesn't match leaves the automation at that point.

At the moment, only conditions on the subscriber's Email work. Other conditions, such as status, tier, free trial, signup date, custom fields or subscriber tags, never match. On a regular step that sends everyone out of the automation, and on a Branch everyone goes down No.

Turning a single step off

Each step has an Active switch in its Properties panel. When a step is switched off, subscribers skip it and carry on to the next step. A Branch that is switched off is different: subscribers stop there and go no further down that path.

Enrollment settings

On the Settings tab, Enrollment controls how often the same person can go through the automation:

Limited (once per subscriber): the trigger enrolls each subscriber once, even if it happens again. You can also set Max enrollment (optional) to stop the trigger enrolling anyone new after that many people have entered. Leave it empty for no cap. Both rules apply to triggers only: Add to Automations on a profile or during an import can enroll someone again, and doesn't count towards the cap.
Unlimited (re-enroll allowed): the subscriber is enrolled every time the trigger happens.
Conditional: currently behaves the same as Unlimited.

What happens to existing subscribers

Publishing an automation does not go back and enroll people who are already on your list. Only events that happen after you publish start it. For example, a new Sign Up automation only reaches people who join from now on.

To bring existing subscribers in:

Add someone by hand: open the subscriber's profile from Subscribers, open the actions menu and choose Add to Automations.
When importing a list: in Settings > Subscribers Import, turn on Add to Automations and pick the automations. Imported subscribers do not trigger Sign Up or Email Submission automations on their own, so this is how you send them a welcome journey.

The automation must be published for either of these to do anything.

Pausing, editing and deleting

Pause stops new subscribers from entering. Subscribers who are already partway through carry on to the end.
Subscribers who are already partway through follow the workflow as it was when they entered. Changes you make later apply to people who enter after the change.
Duplicate (from the list's row menu) makes a copy that starts switched off.
Delete automation removes the automation and its workflow permanently.

Status

Status	Meaning
Live	Published, with subscribers currently going through it.
Idle	Published, but nobody is going through it right now. It will still enroll people when the trigger happens.
Inactive	Not published yet, or paused. Nobody new is enrolled.

When a step can't finish

Send Email skips the email, without stopping the journey, if the subscriber has unsubscribed, bounced, marked you as spam, or paused your emails. The subscriber moves on to the next step.
If the selected email template has been deleted, the email is not sent and the subscriber leaves the automation at that step.
If you've reached your daily sending limit, the email waits until sending is allowed again (it tries a few times) and is then sent. If it still can't go out, or another sending limit is in the way, the subscriber leaves the automation at that step.
A Webhook that doesn't get a success answer from your address is tried a few more times. If the address keeps failing or rejects the request, the subscriber leaves the automation at that step.
If your publication is suspended, automations don't enroll anyone and don't send.

Your plan

Automations are part of some plans only. If your plan doesn't include them, you can still edit existing automations but can't publish them, and you'll see: "Your plan doesn't include automations. Existing ones can be edited, but can't be switched on." If your plan changes while an automation is live, it stops enrolling new subscribers and runs in progress finish.

Webhook steps also need a plan that includes webhooks. Without it, the webhook step is skipped and the rest of the journey continues.

Why isn't my automation working?

It's Inactive. Open it and click Publish.
The people you expected were already on your list. Automations only react to events after publishing. Use Add to Automations on the subscriber's profile, or add them during an import.
Nobody new has joined yet. Sign Up and Email Submission wait for your approval if your publication is private.
A Segment Action automation never starts. Check that the segment is Dynamic and not paused.
Everyone leaves at a step, or always goes down No. Only Email conditions work at the moment. Remove other conditions.
A delay takes a day instead of what I set. Every Time Delay currently waits 1 day. In Wait Until, leave Days of week empty.
A subscriber only went through once. Check Enrollment in Settings. Limited lets the trigger enroll each person once, and Max enrollment stops new entries from the trigger when the cap is reached.
An email didn't arrive. The subscriber may have unsubscribed or paused your emails, or the step's Conditions may have sent them out of the automation. Check that the step's Active switch is on and that the template still exists.
The Publish button is greyed out. Your plan may not include automations.