Automatic follow-ups (flows)

A flow is a set of steps that runs for each person on it - for example, three emails a few days apart, stopping as soon as they reply.

Making one

1. Open Flows and start a new one.
2. Give it a Name.
3. Choose when it Starts: Only when I add someone, When a tag is added, or When a contact is added. For a tag, type which one under Which tag.
4. Under Add a step, add what should happen: Send an email, Put it on my list (a task), Add a tag, Write a note, or Split the path.
5. On each step, set how many days after the last one it runs, and fill in what it says. In emails, {{first}} becomes their first name.
6. Tick Stop when they reply for follow-ups - nobody wants a third reminder after they have answered. A reply by text counts too.
7. Under Send from and As the name, choose the address and the name the emails come from. The note beside them tells you the name people will actually see.
8. Tick On and press Save flow.

Branches and conditions

A step can run Always, or only if something is true: only if they have not replied, only if tagged, only if not tagged, only if they opened an email, or only if they clicked a link. Split the path sends people down a yes or a no route.

Arranging the steps

Use ↑ and ↓ on a card to move it, or drag it by its top bar and drop it on another card to put it in front. Turn it sideways lays the flow out left to right.

Sending gently

Tick Only send Monday to Friday and emails and texts due at the weekend wait for the next working day (Eastern time).

At most, a day caps how many emails the flow sends in a day, so a big list goes out a little at a time. 0 means no limit.

Whatever the number, the emails are spread through the day rather than sent in one batch: the CRM sends a few every quarter of an hour between about 9am and 7pm Eastern, so 30 a day leave in ones and twos. That reads like a person writing, and it is kinder to your sending reputation. Nobody is dropped - anything left waits for the next day.

Putting someone on a flow

On a contact's page, press Add to a flow…, choose the flow and press Start it. The Automations tile then says which flow they are on now, and which ones they were on before. Stop it takes them off.