Walkthrough: Creating a welcome email automation

Step 1: Create and name your custom automation
Create a new custom automation.

1. In the top navigation bar, click the Automations tab.
2. On the Automations page, hover your mouse over New, and click Custom automation.You are automatically redirected to the Automations page.
3. On the Automations page, in the left pane, click Edit.
   
4. In the New automation field, enter a name for your automation and click Save.

Step 2: Define the trigger that activates the automation
Define a trigger then add steps that follow when the trigger condition is met.

1. Click Select your trigger. The Select a Trigger window appears.
2. In the Select a Trigger dialog, click List Engagement in the left menu.
3. Click the arrow beside the When someone subscribes to any list trigger.
4. In the Trigger only once? drop-down list, select the Yes - Trigger only on the first subscription option. This is the best option because you want to welcome your new subscribers the first time they subscribe to one of your lists.
5. Click Save .
   

Step 3: Create the email campaign
Create the campaign you want to use for your welcome email.

1. Click + below the trigger to add steps to your automation workflow.
   
   
2. In the Select action dialog, click Actions in the left menu.
    
3. Click the arrow beside the Then send email campaign action. The Then send email campaign dialog appears.
   
4. In the Subject line field, enter the text that you want to appear in your recipients' inboxes.
5. In the "From" name field, select the sender of your campaign. This is the name and email address that your subscribers see in their inboxes. Make sure to use a name that is easily recognizable to them.
6. Select the campaign content to send using the available options. See the different options in creating the campaign content for your automation for details.

7. Under Emails per day, select the maximum number of emails sent by this action, per day

8. Click Save.

Step 4: Specify the wait time
Set the time or date to wait before you send a welcome email to new subscribers.

To specify the amount of time you want to wait:

1. On the Automations page, click the + symbol below the action.

2. In the Select action dialog, click Conditional/Control steps and then click Wait a specific time interval.
   
   
   

3. In the Wait a specific time interval dialog, click Wait for some time and then specify the amount of time in minutes, hours, days, or months.

4. Click Save.

To specify the a specific date:

1. In the Wait a specific time interval dialog, click Wait until a specific date.

2. Specify the hour, minute, and time zone.

3. To make this action recur on a specific day, set the Recurrency by day toggle switch to Yes and then select the day that you want this action to recur on.

4. To make this action recur on a specific date, set the Recurrency by date toggle switch to Yes and then in the drop-down menu select the day of every month, that you want this action to recur on.
   Note: If you do not select a day, the action recurs every day.
5. Click Save.

Step 5: Filter the new subscribers to see who opened the email
Filter new subscribers to see who opened your welcome email.

After waiting for enough time for your subscribers to open your welcome email, you can split your subscribers based on whether they opened the message or not.

1. On the Automations page, click the + symbol below the Wait control step.
   
   
2. In the Select action dialog, click Conditional/Control steps and then click Filter (If condition/Else).
   
   
3. In the Filter (If condition / Else) dialog, in the Apply this set of filters to field, select the mailing list that this set of filters applies to. In this case, it is the list that the new subscribers signed up to.
   
   
4. Click Add a condition and a row of drop-down fields are displayed. 
   Tip: The first field is a list of criteria that can be used to filter your automation. For your Welcome email automation, you need to determine if each new subscriber opened the welcome email message that you sent to them.
5. In the first drop-down list, select the Specific Campaign Opened criterion.

6. In the second drop-down list, select is.

7. In the third drop-down list, select your welcome email. This filter separates the new subscribers into two groups:
   

   • • Yes - the ones who opened the welcome email message. You can tag these for future reference.

     • No - the ones who did not open the welcome email message. You can follow up on these by sending them a second email message.

8. Click Save.

Step 6: Tag the new subscribers who opened the welcome email
Add a tag to your subscribers who opened your welcome email.

1. On the Automations page, click the + symbol below the Yes condition.
   
   

2. In the Select action dialog, click Actions.
   

3. Click the arrow beside the Then set custom field value action.

4. In the Then set custom field value dialog, in the Custom Field field, select the field that you want to update.

   If the mailing list does not have a suitable field, you can create a new custom field.
   
   

5. In the Custom Value field, enter the value that you want the custom field updated with - in this case Opened.
6. In the Create Member field, specify if you want to create a new member. The options are:
   • Yes - Create the member if it does not exist
   • Yes - Create the member if it does not exist as verified, I have consent from an external source
   • No - Do not create a new member
7. Click Save.

Step 7: Send a follow-up email message to those who did not open the email 
Send an email to Add a tag to your subscribers who opened your welcome email.

1. On the Automations page, click the + symbol below the No condition.
   
2. In the Select action dialog, click Actions.
3.  Click Then send email campaign.
4. In the Then send email campaign dialog, create the follow-up email by entering all the appropriate values.
   
   
   • Subject line - The title of the email message.
   • "From" name - The address that the email message is sent from.
   • Add the content that suits you - Create a new email content or select one from an existing campaign.
   • Emails per day - The number of email messages sent by this action every day.
     
5. Click Save. You have now created the Welcome email automation. 
6. To activate the automation, in the My Automation Workflows list, set the toggle switch to Active.