In this article, we’ll cover the steps of creating an automation from scratch. In this example, we'll show you how to build an automation that delivers a welcome email after a contact joins a list. We will tag the contact based on how they interacted with your email. You can also use this to start a nurture series.
These tags help begin (or ending) other automations, create contact segments, and gather analytics.
This is an excellent article to read if you are new to marketing automation: we've made it as detailed as possible and explained why we're suggesting the steps below so that you can understand how to combine various triggers, actions, and logic to create automated workflows.
Take Note
- When building automations, we recommend creating several smaller, manageable automations over one large one. Here is a best practices guide to learn more.
- Learn more about our nurture series recipes
- Learn more about creating follow-up sequence strategies
Watch a video about automations
Create a new automation
- Click Automations on the left menu.
- Click “Create an automation.” A modal window will appear.
- Click "Start from Scratch" then click "Continue."
Add a start trigger
We could begin this sequence in a number of ways, but in this example, we'll show you how to start this automation whenever anyone is added to a list.
To set that up:
- Click the “Subscribes to a list” trigger.
- A modal window will appear. Next, choose the list from the dropdown that will begin the automation. In this example, we're going to choose "Master List."
Since we might be using multiple forms that add people to the Master List, it makes sense to start this automation whenever anyone is added to this list rather than having a different trigger for each form. - To prevent contacts from restarting this automation, which would cause them to receive the same message over and over, make sure this trigger action is configured to run "Once." (This option should be selected by default.)
- “Runs once” means that a contact will only enter your automation once through a specific trigger, no matter how many times they meet the triggering conditions.
- “Runs multiple times” means that a contact will enter your automation through a specific trigger each time they meet the triggering conditions.
- To finish configuring this trigger, click "Add Start."
Add the "Send an email" action to your automation
Once you configure the trigger, we'll present you with a "Add a new action" modal. From here, you can choose which action your contact should encounter first when they enter your automation.
To continue with our example, we're going to add the "Send an email" action to the workflow so we can send an automated "Welcome" email to new subscribers.
We recommend sending a welcome email to contacts as soon as they subscribe to your list. Welcome emails tend to have some of the highest open and click-through rates, so this is a chance to get important messages in front of your contact and present important calls to action.
Note that only contacts who provide an email address can be sent emails.
To configure this action:
- Click the "Send an email" option from the "Add a new action" modal.
- On the next screen:
- Provide a name for the email
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Choose between "Start with a new template" or "Start with a past campaign"
- "Start from a new template" lets you create a new email using a predesigned template. You can also create an email from scratch with this option
- "Start with a past campaign" lets you create a new email based on a campaign (direct or automated) you already created
- Once you make your selection, we'll redirect you to the campaign templates page. Click the template type you wish to use, then click "Continue."
- Hover your mouse over the template you want to use, then click the "Select" option that appears.
- A modal window will appear containing your "Sender Details":
- Confirm that the information contained in these fields is correct
- Provide a subject line for your email. You can change this later if needed
- Click "Continue"
Customize your welcome email
After you configure the sender details for your email, the email designer will open. Now you can start customizing your email by adjusting the layout and adding images and messaging.
To add a new content block to your email, click "Blocks" on the right pane, then drag the desired block to your layout.
To remove a block, mouse over it and click the ellipsis that appears on the right of the block. From here, click the trash icon that appears.
When you click into a block, you’ll see a variety of formatting options appear on the right pane and/or at the top of the campaign layout. Different types of blocks have different options, so spend some time exploring each block and the options available to you.
After you’ve customized the text and formatted the email, click the “Next” button in the upper right corner of the screen. You’ll be redirected to the “Campaign Summary” page.
Review the Campaign Summary page
From the “Campaign Summary” you can:
- Review/edit the message name, subject line, preheader text, and sender information
- Turn on or off “Open/Read Tracking”
- Turn on or off “Link Tracking”
- Turn on or off “Reply Tracking”
- Turn on or off “Google Analytics” tracking
- Send test emails to yourself or other people on your team
- See previews of your message
- See notifications of potential issues with your campaign that might trigger spam filters
If you placed any call-to-action in your email, turn on “Reply tracking.” To do so, click the toggle to its "On" position. This way, you can use the reply to gather data on your contact's engagement as well as the efficacy of the campaign.
Read more about Reply Tracking.
Click "Finish" at the top of the page.
Adding a “Wait” condition
Now we need to plan ahead a little bit. I want to use an “If/Else” condition to divide the contacts going through this automation. If they opened the email, I want them to receive a tag that they opened it. If they clicked the link in the email, I want to tag them that way. And, if they didn’t open it or click a link, I want to tag them accordingly. But I can’t just add the “If/Else” because it will send the email and then immediately check to see who opened and clicked. No one would even have time to open it! This is why “Wait” conditions are so useful. With them, you can give your contacts plenty of time to perform whatever your target behavior is before proceeding on with the automation.
In this case, I am going to give contacts a week to get to the email, but using a “Wait until…” condition, I’ll have the automation proceed when they’ve clicked the link.
To add a Wait action:
- Click "Conditions and Workflow" located on the right menu.
- Drag the "Wait" action below the "Send email" action.
- After placing the “Wait” condition, you’ll be presented with a modal window giving you the option to choose between waiting for a specific period of time or waiting until specific conditions are met. Note that if you choose “Wait… until specific conditions are met,” you still have the opportunity to specify a time limit so you could say, “Wait seven days OR until the link in the email is clicked, then proceed with the automation.”
For our purposes here, the “Wait… until specific conditions are met” option makes the most sense because we can proceed with the automation as soon as they’ve performed the target behavior. - After clicking “Wait until specific conditions are met,” you’ll be presented with the Conditions Editor, which allows you to specify the conditions your contacts must match.
I am setting my conditions to “Actions > Has clicked on a link” in “Welcome email” and am selecting a link I used in my email.
After you’ve set your condition, click “Save.” - You’ll now be asked to specify how long contacts should wait here if they haven’t clicked the link. Seven days should give them plenty of time to get to the email. If they haven’t at that time, my assumption is they probably aren’t very interested, and the message has been pushed down so far in their inbox that they might never get to it.
Click “No time limit” to display the “Up to” option, then click “Up to” and set the amount of time to wait, then click "Save." You are free to adjust that time up or down based on what makes the most sense to you.
Add “If/Else” conditions
Now that we’ve given our contacts adequate time to interact with the message we’ve sent let’s split them up based on what they did and didn’t do and apply tags that we can use to begin other automations, create segments, and for analytics.
- Click the “+” button below the “wait” action to add an “If/Else” action or drag and drop it from the sidebar.
- You’ll be presented with a modal window asking, “How would you like to split this automation?” and you’ll be able to specify the conditions using the same interface we used to create the “Wait until…” conditions.
I set my conditions to “Actions > Has clicked on a link” in “Welcome message” and provided the link in the split action builder. Click “OK” to save the conditions.
Note that the “If/Else” action created a fork in your automation: -
Depending on whether your contact matches the conditions you set, they will proceed down the “Yes” or “No” path.
Under the “Yes” path, which will be the path followed by contacts who did click your call to action link, let’s add an action to “Add tag."
To do so, drag the “Add tag” action to the “Yes” path. - Type the name of the tag into the field provided and click "Save." In this example, we're going to use the tag “Clicked CTA link in welcome email.”
The tag you apply can be wordy and descriptive or short and cryptic. We recommend using a consistent naming convention for your tags and making a note of them in a spreadsheet so you avoid a situation where you can’t recall what a tag means or why you are using it. - Now we want to apply a tag if a user has opened the email (but didn’t click the call to action link). Under the “No” path, add another “If/Else” action. Set the conditions to be “Action > Has opened” and then select the name you gave your email:
- Under the “Yes” path, add an action to “Add tag” and tag them as “Opened welcome message.”
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The “No” condition will contain the contacts that didn’t open the email AND didn’t click the call to action link (because we’ve already separated those contacts out).
Add an action to “Add tag” and tag them as “Did not engage with welcome message” or something along those lines:
Now we have an automation that delivers a welcome email and/or opt-in incentive immediately after someone joins your list. Based on how our contacts interact with that email, we give them a tag. That tag can be used to begin other automations. For instance, you could create an automation that begins when the “Clicked CTA link in welcome email” tag is added. That automation could wait a certain amount of time, and then, if they haven’t purchased yet or proceeded further down your funnel, you could send them a reminder email that uses a different angle to motivate them. In this way, you can create automations that use data collected from other automations to create a follow-up that adapts to your contact's behavior.
To improve this automation
You could:
Add an action to increase your contact’s score as they interact with your messages. You could increase their contact or lead score if they open emails and click specific calls to action.
Send different follow-up messages to the people who didn’t click the link and the people who didn’t open the email. This shouldn’t be the same content because you’ll annoy your contacts. You also shouldn’t follow up endlessly until they do what you want. If you’ve given them 2-3 opportunities and they haven’t followed through, that’s a pretty clear indication that they aren’t interested, and you’d be better off not contacting them instead of pestering them and accumulating SPAM complaints and low email interaction rates (which many ESPs factor into deliverability).
Nurture Series Automation Recipes
Taking new customers through an onboarding process where you can grow your relationship is easy with our pre-built nurture series automation recipes. Before you start, take a look at how to import a recipe from the ActiveCampaign Marketplace.
Here are a few popular nurture series recipes:
Not finding the recipe you are looking for? Search for more recipes in our marketplace.