What options are available in advanced automations? (triggers and actions)
Our advanced automation feature allows you to create various scenarios using multiple options.
Triggers
Automation must start with a trigger. It determines which contacts will get included in it. Currently, you can choose from the following options:
- Contact subscribed – automation will start when a new contact subscribes to the list connected to your automation. You can choose if you want to include imported contacts, too.
The above trigger will start the automation only for newly-added contacts on your list – existing subscribed contacts won't trigger it.
- Contact field updated – automation starts for a contact who had one of their fields updated with a new value. You can specify what it should be exactly or make the trigger work regardless of the updated value. This trigger doesn’t work when a field value is assigned the first time – for example, when people sign up.
- Contact tag added – automation starts when a new or existing tag is assigned to a contact.
The above is a convenient option to choose when you'd like some of your existing contacts to trigger your automation. Learn how to tag contacts in bulk here.
- Contact tag removed – opposite of the above trigger – automation will start when a selected tag is removed from a contact.
- Manually via another automation – automation will trigger for contacts who reach a specific Action step in another automation.
- Manually via the API - list contacts enter the automation once they are triggered via an API call
Automations will only get triggered if they're active, so make sure that you start your automation before you add new contacts or add/edit tags and custom fields that work as triggers.
Trigger filters
You can also add a trigger filter – this way, only contacts who match the specific filter settings will trigger the automation. Contacts who match the trigger, but don't match the filter won't enter the automation, which means they'll be able to trigger it later in the future.
Steps
Then, you can add multiple steps from available options to create the scenario that you need:
- Send email – sends an automated email to your subscribers when they reach that step
- Wait – contacts entering that step will wait for a selected amount of time before moving to the next step. The time range could be set in hours or days.
- Condition – a unique step that creates branching paths for contacts who met the conditions you chose and for those who didn’t. Just like in our segmentation feature, you can choose from multiple conditions based on contact details, activity, merge fields and tags. It’s possible to use multiple filters at once if you want to be very specific, and you can set the condition to check if contacts met all, any or none of the selected filters.
- Action – use this step to perform various actions on contacts who pass through it: update their custom field, add or remove a tag, unsubscribe them from a connected list or trigger another automation.
Automation is a very flexible feature that allows you to connect various triggers, conditions and actions. If you're in doubt whether the automation you created will work as intended, or you're not sure how to create a specific scenario, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We're happy to help!