How automations work
What an automation is, who it picks up and when, how people leave it, and where to see what it is doing. Read this before you build one.
- automations
- journeys
An automation is a sequence that runs by itself, one person at a time. The builder also calls it a journey. It starts with a trigger, which is the moment that puts someone in, and then runs the steps you laid out: an email now, a wait, a branch, another email.
Automations need the Creator plan or higher. They live under Emails, on the Automations tab. New automation opens a gallery of templates (Welcome new members, Event run-up and follow-up, Webinar follow-up and more), or you can start with a Blank automation. One automation can hold up to 40 steps.
Who it picks up: members and contacts
Drry keeps two kinds of people. Members have joined your community. Contacts are people you have an email address for who may or may not have joined: a signup, a booking, an event registrant. The trigger decides which kind an automation picks up.
Members: every trigger under Joining and milestones, Courses, Community and Membership and billing, plus Registers for an event, Only the people who attended, and Everyone on a list, timed to an event when you leave the list empty. Owners, admins and editors are never picked up by these.
Contacts: Signed up, didn't join, Joined a list, Books a session, Everyone who registered or showed up, Leaves checkout without paying, Submits a form, and Everyone on a list, timed to an event when you pick a list.
It matters because some questions can only be answered for members. See Conditions: the questions an automation can ask. A Send a message step also reaches members only.
When someone enters
Drry looks for new people every minute. For most triggers, only people who qualify after you turn the automation on come in. Nothing is back-filled. There are two exceptions. The event triggers (Registers for an event, Everyone who registered or showed up, Everyone on a list, timed to an event) also pick up everyone who is already registered or on the list at the moment you turn the automation on. And Joined a list has an Include people already on the list switch.
Turning an automation off and on again moves the starting line to the new moment. People who qualified while it was off are not picked up.
For most triggers each person enters once, ever. Removing someone from a list and adding them back does not start it again. Three things run once per occasion instead of once per person: a journey on Every session of a repeating event runs once per session, Books a session runs once per booking, and Submits a form runs once per submission. Leaves checkout without paying has its own rules, explained in Remind shoppers who left checkout.
Adding people in bulk can start emails, so Drry asks first. If you import a CSV, add people to a list from the console, or add a contact in the iPhone app, and a live automation would take the new people, a note says how many will be emailed and through which automations (for example “This will email 40 people through Welcome journey and Course nurture”). Nothing is written until you agree. It counts only people who would really be emailed: people already on the list, unsubscribed people and anyone already through that journey are left out. On a journey for a repeating event with no session open yet, the note says the emails start from the next session. To import without emailing, turn the automation off first. Your assistant asks you the same question before it imports or adds people.
Contacts have to be subscribed to be picked up, apart from shoppers on Leaves checkout without paying, who follow the consent rules in that article. A member who has opted out of promotional emails still enters, but each email is skipped for them. Someone who unsubscribed from event emails is left out of Everyone who registered or showed up.
How people leave
They reach the end of their path, or an End journey step.
They meet the journey's goal, if you set one with Stop at a goal. For a tag, list or form goal, someone who already meets it when they enter is skipped before the first email. Other goals are first checked after the first step. See Conditions.
On a journey built around an event, the event is canceled or deleted: everyone still in it leaves. On Registers for an event, a member who cancels their RSVP leaves. On Books a session, a canceled booking ends that run.
On Signed up, didn't join, they leave as soon as they join your community.
On Leaves checkout without paying, they leave once they have paid for the item.
They reach an Any time before event step after the event has started, and you did not draw them a path of their own.
Unsubscribing does not remove anyone. They stay in the journey and each email is skipped for them. See The daily email limit and why a step was skipped.
Where to look
The builder shows how many people are in journey, completed and left early, and, when a goal kept people out, how many were skipped, already at the goal (they met it when they entered, so nothing was sent). The iPhone app and your assistant report the same split. Each step card also shows how many people are up next for it, how many emails it has sent and how many it skipped.
The Activity page, titled "Who is in this journey", lists the most recent people who entered: which step each one is on, how many emails they have had, and any emails that were skipped, with the reason.