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How to Create an Email Automation
How to Create an Email Automation

In this article I will explain what each function is in the Email Automation and walk you through the steps of creating an email automation

Michael Batalha avatar
Written by Michael Batalha
Updated over a week ago

First things first. Where do I start?
You can get to the email automation area by going to Campaigns from your main menu and choosing Email Automation

You can also start the Email Automation directly from your Dashboard


Ok now that you are in the automation area lets go over what all the automation features are:


Create New Email Automation - This is the 1st step to create an email automation. Click this to start your first Automation. 

Once you click Create New Email Automation you will be asked to name your Automation.

Once you click Create this will name the Automation and you will be brought to options on whether to create your automation based on the following triggers:
New Subscribers added to your list
∙ Start an automation on an Existing List
Tag Match
Field Match

Learn more about the differences of New Subscibers vs Existing List

Once you are have selected the option in which to start your automation you will have multiple menu options available. I'm going to explain them all here:

Email Automation Menu Options

Here are the current menu options as they stand today. 

Save Option Saves your workflow work. You will want to choose save before closing.
Close will bring you back to the Main Automation page where you can create more automations. 

Actions
All these actions are Drag and Drop. You can simply slide them from the right side to the left side or your workflow area.

Send A Message

The Send a Message button is used to create the message that you will be sending. There are multiple parts to this so once you slide this over to your working area you will notice an option with an X and also a notepad on the bottom right of the Option once moved to the working area. 

The X will allow you to delete this option from your workflow.
The Edit Icon which looks like a pencil in a square is how you will initiate the Editing of your message.
Once you click the Edit icon you will notice the SEND MESSAGE action changes color

This also opens additional options on the right side Action Menu under the SEND A MESSAGE Action. 

Global Message Sending Options
Here you now have options to Edit Your Message and to also "Change your global message sending options"
Note: This step is very important. The settings inside here will determine the from address, reply to address and brand urls for your campaign. Here you can also change the campaign name you setup in the first step. Without these settting set you will not be able to send.

How To Edit your Message

Once you click Edit Message you will see what looks like our campaign HTML Editor. We have added some additional items in here for your message.

Friendly Name
The Friendly Name is used to identify your message in the workflow. An example can be something like "Welcome Message" or maybe "Day 1"
Here is how it may look once saved and in the work area.

From Name
From Name is the name your recipients will see in their email like. You can use your company name, personal name or maybe some name that identifies your email. You will notice a plus sign to the right of this. This allows you to use multiple from names. 

Subject Line
Subject Line will be the subject that is show in the email message. You will notice a plus sign to the right of this. This allows you to use multiple subject lines. 

Track individual customer activity
This allows you to track the links in your message. Once you check the box this will enable you to start tracking the clicks from the links in your message. Click the Edit hypelink to the right side to open up a window which will allow you to select which links you want to track and mask. 

The HTML editor is the same as in our regular campaigns. 

Save
Click Save to save your work. Make sure to do this after every update. 

Back
Selecting back is the only way to get back to your automation workflow. 

Change your global message sending options
Once you are back in your workflow click the link under Edit your message on the right side menu that says "Change your global message sending options"

Once clicked a window will popup with settings:
Campaign Name allows you to change the name of this Campaign that we setup when we first started.
From Name allows you to set a default From name for all your messages. This can be useful if you plan to use the same from name for all your messages. If you update it here you wont need to update it in the actual message itself as shown in the previous steps.
Reply-to address is the address that will be used when a recipient clicks reply. In order to add a reply to address you can click the + sign and confirm ownership or if you have already done this you can select from the drop down. Here is more info on how to add a reply to address
Message category is used to identify the category of this message. Just start typing and the autofill will start to populate. We have over 100 categories listed. If you find yours is not listed, please contact us and let us know. This option is useful if you plan to create automations based on category actions.
Use My Own Domain is to use your own From Address. It is important to select this option in order to use your own Domain Reputation. This will help with delivery. Here is more info on setting up My Own Domain
Use My Own Urls is similar to "Use My Own Domain". This is important for delivery as well. This allows you to customize and brand the links and images within your message as your own. This is useful if you are using 3rd party links as this will mask those links as your own. Here is more info on setting up Use My Own Urls
Save will save your settings so make sure to click this once you are done updating your settings.
Close will close out of this window without saving anything. 

The WAIT Action

The wait action allows you to set wait option on the next part of your workflow. You can tell your workflow to wait X Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months.
Similar to the SEND A MESSAGE once moved over to work area you will notice there is an X and also an Edit option. Once you click the Action the default is set to 1 day. 

Once you click the Edit icon you will be presented with the options on the right side menu. 

Once you select your option you are done. 

CONDITIONS

Conditions will allow you to set triggers based on actions. You can set a trigger based on IF Opened, IF Clicked, IF Not Opened, and IF Not Clicked.
Drag the CONDITIONS into your work area. Once you have dragged it into your work area you will see the IF option displayed. 

Once you have options for X to delete the condition and Edit to edit the condition settings. 

Once you click the Edit icon the condition will change color to white and you will notice a menu option display in the Actions menu

Select which condition you would like to use at this step in your workflow. Once selected it will show your action in the menu. 

As a reminder you can only add conditions after a Message and not after the WAIT action. The WAIT action should be applied after the Conditon is set. 

Also at this level you can create multiple IF statements or use all 4. This will allow you to make different branches in your workflow.


MOVE EMAILS

The Moving Emails action is used to move emails from the list you started the workflow from and into another list. You may do this when a lead turns into a customer or maybe when a lead no longer is responding.
Once moved into the work area you will see an X for deleting this Action item or Edit for Editing the settings to which list to move to. 

Once the edit is clicked you will see the Move changes color. 

A menu also will appear on the right side Actions menu. 

Click the Select Drop down menu to view your lists and to select the list you would like to move your subscribers to at this step of the workflow. 

Once selected you are done with this action. 

COPY EMAILS

The COPY Emails action is used to copy emails from the list you started the workflow from and into another list. You may do this when you may want to start another workflow based on this subscribers actions.
Once moved into the work area you will see an X for deleting this Action item or Edit for Editing the settings to which list to move to.

Once the edit is clicked you will see the COPY changes color.

A menu also will appear on the right side Actions menu.

Click the Select Drop down menu to view your lists and to select the list you would like to copy your subscribers to at this step of the workflow. 

Once selected you are done with this action. 

Apply Tags

You can use the apply tags by simply dragging after an action or even after sending a message. Use apply tags to add some custom identifier to a contact or to remove an identifier. Once tags you can trigger to start another automation based on that tag. 


Check Field

You can use the Check Field option to check specific fields tied to your contact. If a field status changes via the API this can trigger to check this field and start sending a particular message based on that field change. Enter the field value you want to check as well as the condition. Conditions can be equal to, not equal to, starts with, doesnt start with, ends with, doesnt end with. 

Also you can check for multiple fields by selecting +Add another field. 


Update Field

You can use this Update Field option to another value at a certain step of your automation. Use +Add another field to check multiple fields. 

Once you are done with your automation you will want to click Save and then Close. I expalined these 2 at the start of the article. The are located on the right side menu. 

Once you click Save and then Close you will be brought back to the main automations area where you can create new automations. 

ENABLE Automation

By default all newly created automations are in disabled status. On your main automations page you will see green "Enable Selected" button. Select your automation by clicking the checkbox to the left of your automation. Then click the Enable Selected button to enable it. Once you do this you will see the Enable Status changed from Disabled to Enabled. 

DISABLE Automation

In your main automations page you will have the opton to Enable to Disable your Automation. The status column will show the status of your automation. To disable your automation select the checkbox to the left of your automation and then select the "Disable Selected" button to disable the automation. This will stop all automations from running on this workflow. This means if new subscribers are getting added they wont receive any messages and if you had triggers in your workflow they also will not trigger any email messages to be sent. This disables the whole automation. 

Once clicked you will see the Status changes to Disabled. 

EDIT
In the main automations ares you will see your automation name. On the right side of your automation you will see the EDIT icon. Cick Edit to enter your workflow. To Actually edit the workflow you will need to disable it as explained in the previous step.

That's it. That wasnt so hard was it? Let us know if you have any feedback or questions. We are always here to help. You can also look for example of workflows we have setup in our help section. 

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