How to create and turn on an automation
A client's Flows page has two sections: the scheduled newsletter, which runs on a fixed calendar, and Automation flows, sequences started by subscriber actions. This article covers the second one.
Creating a new automation
Click "Create flow" at the top right and give it a name, for example Re-engagement campaign. The unique identifier is generated for you. Then click "Configure" on the automation card to add its steps. An automation can hold up to ten steps.
Choosing the trigger
In the same configuration panel, above the steps, there is a field called "Trigger". That is where you say what starts the automation. You have four options:
- Manual only (no automatic trigger): the automation sits still until you start it per subscriber, from the Subscribers page. This is what every new automation begins with.
- When a new subscriber joins: starts automatically for anyone who signs up through a form on your site. On a CSV import it does NOT start automatically: the import screen has a separate checkbox, off by default, that you have to check explicitly for the automation to also pick up the people the file brings in.
- When the subscriber gets a tag: asks you for the tag name. Starts when the subscriber gets that tag, both when you add them and later, when you edit them.
- When another flow finishes: you pick the source automation and how many days to wait after the subscriber finishes it. Zero days means they enter the next one straight away.
The activation toggle only looks at whether the automation has steps. Nobody checks the trigger. An automation that has steps and keeps its trigger on "Manual only" reads Active on the card and waits for nothing. If you expect it to run on its own, open Configure and look at what the Trigger field says.
When you type a tag by hand in the subscriber panel, the platform saves it in lowercase. The automation still starts, because matching ignores capitals, but a new duplicate tag stays behind on the Tags page. Pick the tag from the suggestion list under the field and it keeps the spelling you wanted.
The first email leaves right away if step one is a template with no delay. If step one is generated by AI, it leaves at the next scheduled run. And if you wire two automations in a circle, each starting when the other finishes, the second one stops: the platform breaks the loop for you.
Turning it on and off
The toggle on the automation card stays locked until you configure at least one step. Hovering over it shows "Set up at least one step first". The "Skip weekends" toggle is locked the same way.
If the automation has subscribers enrolled, turning it off asks for a confirmation, because it pauses their sequence. Deleting an automation is permanent and cannot be undone.
Turning an automation back on also requeues the enrolments the system paused after three failed send attempts. If you have since fixed the cause, a missing sender address or a deleted template, those subscribers carry on from where they stopped.
Skip weekends
The "Skip weekends" toggle on the automation card moves sends that would land on Saturday or Sunday to the following Monday. Leave it off for the welcome automation and for abandoned cart recovery, so the subscriber gets the email while the interest is still fresh.
Starting an automation for a single subscriber
On the Subscribers page, the Actions column on each subscriber row has a lightning icon, "Start a flow". It opens the list of active automations and enrols the subscriber in the one you pick. It works only for subscribers whose status is active. An automation the subscriber is already in shows "(enrolled)" and cannot be picked a second time.
A subscriber already inside an automation does not restart it, not even if they get the tag again. To run them through the sequence once more, wait until they finish it.
What the automation card shows
- Steps: how many steps the automation has configured, or "Not configured" if it has none
- Emails sent: total sent through this automation
- Active: subscribers currently in the sequence; the number is clickable and lists them
- Completed: subscribers who went through the whole automation
- Open rate and Click rate: this automation's own performance, separate from account statistics
If the numbers read "unread" and a banner says "We could not read the flow stats. It does not mean they are zero.", it means they could not be fetched at that moment. The automation may have sent normally. Click "Try again".
Articles in the same category
- The welcome automation and abandoned cart recovery
Automatically triggered sequences: welcome on signup through a form (not on import, unless you check that box), abandoned cart recovery for clients with a connected WooCommerce store, cancelled automatically if the person buys in the meantime.