The onboarding email sequence recipe can be used to send a series of email campaigns, pausing after each one to check how your recipients respond to it. Did they open it? Did they click on its links? Did they place an order?
Use this information to automatically filter contacts as many times as necessary and clean up your list from non-responsive subscribers. Even better, narrow down your content each step of the way and make for a very personalized experience based on brand-new user data.
If you have already found the onboarding email sequence recipe among the available recipes, and know how recipes are laid out, then let's go right ahead and check its ingredients:
A. Overview
The trigger (1) for this recipe is called When someone subscribes to any list and, as its name implies, it fires up your automation when someone subscribes to one of your mailing lists. Following the trigger is a Wait for 1 minute(s) control step (2), which allows a minute to pass before your new subscribers receive an email campaign welcoming them to your mailing list, by way of the first Then send email campaign action step (3). Right after the workflow is filtered for the first time using the Filter (If condition / Else) conditional step (4), based on whether they have opened your welcome email or not. If they have, (5) they will receive a second campaign after some time, and the recipe will check again to see if they opened the second campaign, further segmenting them and sending a third campaign on each occasion. In the case that they haven't opened your first campaign, (6) they will receive a different second campaign after some time, and the recipe will check again to see if they opened that, further segmenting them. Once more, depending on their action, they will either receive a third campaign or be deemed unresponsive and be automatically unsubscribed from your mailing list.
B. Changing the Recipe
If you are already familiar with how to use Action steps and how to use Conditional / Control steps, you can use that knowledge to change parts of this recipe as you see fit. It's exactly like creating or editing one of your own automation designs: you can add steps, remove steps, or edit the steps already available to fit your design's needs.
You can also save your changes as a custom recipe, and use it at your leisure.
C. Using the Recipe
A recipe cannot be activated as it is. You first need to complete all the incomplete tasks found in the task list and transform the recipe into a fully functional automation workflow. The Onboarding email sequence recipe requires the following tweaks:
1. Click on the Then send email campaign step.
2. Set the appropriate campaign options from the available fields.
This type of action requires that you define a Subject line, the "From" name, the Content as well as set an optional Emails per day cap so that a customer won't get more emails than you would want on the same day. Click on Save when you are done.
3. Click on the Filter (If condition/ Else) step.
4. Set the two remaining filter parameters, using the available drop-down menus.
You will need to define which mailing list this filter should be applied to. Your options are:
- Apply to any mailing list
- Apply to mailing list of the recipient performing the action
- Apply to email list <mailing list>
- Apply to email list <mailing list>
- ...
Additionally, you will also need to define the name of the campaign for which your filter will check to see if your subscribers have opened or not. Click on the Save button when you are done.
5. Continue by setting up the Wait a specific time interval steps for each of the two occasions created by the filter.
6. Set the required time value and measurement unit, using the available fields, for each occasion.
Click on the Save button when you are done.
7. Set up the Then send email campaign steps for each occasion.
Remember, one fulfills the criterion that your subscribers have opened the first campaign, while the other will be dispatched on the occasion that they have not opened the first campaign.
8. Continue your segmentation further by setting up the two Filter (If condition / Else) conditional steps, for the next section of your workflow.
You will need to define the mailing lists and campaign names, similarly to what you did before, for each separate filter.
9. Three of the paths constitute of Wait a specific time interval and Then Send email campaign steps.
Setting each of these pair of steps up requires the same processes described earlier.
10. Click on the Then unsubscribe from list step.
This step is the final step of the path wherein your subscribers have not opened any of your campaigns.
11. Set up the unsubscription using the drop-down menu.
Your options are:
- All email lists and never send again
- Only from list <mailing list>
- Only from list <mailing list>
- ...
Click on the Save button when you are done.
12. Don't forget to activate your automation by toggling the switch to Active.