# Email Sequences

> Learn how to create and manage email sequences to automate your email marketing efforts with Broadcast.

Source: https://sendbroadcast.net/docs/email-sequences

Email sequences, also known as DRIP campaigns, allow you to send a series of automated emails to your subscribers. This guide covers creating and managing email sequences in Broadcast.

## How Email Sequences Work

Email sequences are made up of a series of steps.

The first step of all sequences is the **Entry Point** step. This step cannot be deleted, and all steps follow this **Entry Point** step.

Following the **Entry Point**, you can add as many steps as you would like. It is, however, recommended that you keep the email sequence simple.

Instead, to design more complex email automations, you should use multiple sequences and design sequences to transfer subscribers from one sequence to another (see below for more information).

## Creating an Email Sequence

To create an email sequence, navigate to the **Sequences** page in the sidebar and click on **New Sequence**.

![Sequences index page](https://sendbroadcast.net/assets/docs/sequences/sequences-index-3555df77.png)

A new sequence will be created with the default name of **Untitled Sequence**.

You will see a subdashboard showing you a list of subscribers to the current sequence.

![Sequence show page](https://sendbroadcast.net/assets/docs/sequences/sequence-show-444dba7c.png)

On the upper right hand corner of the screen, you will see a **Settings** button. Clicking here will open a sidebar where you can change the name of the sequence. It is recommended that you give your sequence a recognizable name (eg. New User Onboarding).

![Sequence settings sidebar](https://sendbroadcast.net/assets/docs/sequences/sequence-settings-09a55d6d.png)

The settings also have **Excluded segments**. Nobody in a ticked segment gets an email from this sequence: each email step is skipped for them and the sequence goes on, however they were enrolled (segment, tag, API or form). The entry segment never enrolls them either. A segment that a sequence excludes cannot be deleted while it does.

(Requires Broadcast 2.50 or later)

The settings also have a **Reply-To** address. When a subscriber replies to an email from the sequence, the reply goes to this address. Leave it empty to send replies to the sender address. A **Send Email** step can set its own Reply-To (see below).

A dropdown menu is also available by clicking on the down arrow beside the **Settings** button. From there you can:

* Edit the steps of the sequence
* Duplicate the sequence
* Delete the sequence

Let's talk about how to manage the steps of an email sequence in the next sections.

### Message Stream (Postmark only)

If the channel sends through Postmark, the settings sidebar also offers a **Message Stream**
choice. Postmark keeps bulk and one-to-one mail on separate streams so that complaints about a
newsletter cannot damage the reputation carrying your receipts and password resets.

Sequences send on the **transactional** stream by default. A sequence step goes to one person and
is triggered by something that person did, which is Postmark's own description of transactional
mail, and it is where sequences have always sent.

Move a sequence to the **bulk** stream when what it says is marketing: onboarding series,
education courses, re-engagement campaigns, product announcements. Those earn unsubscribes and
spam complaints at marketing rates, and you do not want that landing on the reputation that
carries your receipts and password resets. Keep a sequence that services an account where it is: a
password-expiry reminder, or a trial-ending notice you would still send to someone who had
unsubscribed from everything.

Two things to know before switching:

* Postmark **requires an unsubscribe link** on every email sent through a bulk stream. A sequence
  with the unsubscribe link switched off does not belong there.
* Not every Postmark server has a bulk stream, and some use a custom one. If sends start failing
  after you change this, check the server's streams in Postmark.

Duplicating a sequence keeps whichever stream the original used.

The setting does not appear for other providers: AWS SES, SendGrid, Mailgun and the rest do not
separate streams this way, and Broadcast protects reputation there by letting you bind email types
to different servers instead.

## Duplicating an Email Sequence

You can duplicate an existing sequence to create a copy with all its steps. This is useful when you want to create a similar sequence without starting from scratch.

To duplicate a sequence:

1. Navigate to the sequence's show page
2. Click on the dropdown menu (down arrow beside the **Settings** button)
3. Click **Duplicate**
4. A confirmation modal will appear with an option to include subscribers

### Include Subscribers Option

When duplicating a sequence, you have the option to include subscribers:

* **Without subscribers (default)**: The new sequence will be created with all the steps but no subscribers. This is useful when you want to use the sequence as a template.
* **With subscribers**: Active and paused subscribers from the original sequence will be enrolled in the new sequence at the entry point. Completed or removed subscribers are not copied.

### Duplicated Sequence Behavior

* The duplicated sequence starts as **inactive** - you must manually activate it after reviewing the settings
* The sequence name will be prefixed with "Copy of" (e.g., "Copy of Welcome Series")
* All steps are copied with their settings, including delays, conditions, and email content
* Tags on steps are preserved
* The duplicate tracks its parent sequence - you'll see a "Duplicated from..." link on the show page

### Parent and Child Sequences

When you duplicate a sequence:

* The new sequence shows "Duplicated from [Original Sequence Name]" with a link to the parent
* The parent sequence shows a "Duplicated Sequences" section in the sidebar listing all sequences that were duplicated from it
* If the parent sequence is deleted, the child sequences remain intact (the "Duplicated from" link is simply removed)
* Duplicating a duplicate creates a chain - each copy points to its immediate parent

## Managing the Steps of an Email Sequence

When managing the steps of an email sequence, the first step of all sequences is the **Entry Point** step. This step cannot be deleted, and all steps follow this **Entry Point** step.

![Sequence steps editor](https://sendbroadcast.net/assets/docs/sequences/sequence-steps-editor-b3667d46.png)

You can add subsequent steps to this by clicking on the **+** button underneath the step you want to add a new step.

Currently, these are the types of steps you can add:

1. Send Email
2. Add Delay
3. Add Delay Until Specific Time (Next Day, Next Week, etc.)
4. Add Condition
5. Move Subscribers to Sequence
6. Add Tags to Subscriber
7. Remove Tags from Subscriber
8. Make Subscriber Inactive

![Step type selection menu](https://sendbroadcast.net/assets/docs/sequences/step-type-menu-7a4ed495.png)

The names of these steps should hopefully be self explanatory, but we will go over each of them in more detail below.

### 1. Send Email

The **Send Email** step allows you to send an email to a subscriber.

![Send Email step form](https://sendbroadcast.net/assets/docs/sequences/step-send-email-40ff03f2.png)

Here, you can modify the following parts of an email:

* Subject line
* Preheader text
* Email body

#### Using a Template

Instead of writing email content from scratch, you can select an existing template to pre-fill the subject, preheader, and body. Click the **Choose Template** button at the top of the email editor to browse your saved templates. Selecting a template copies its content into the step, which you can then customize as needed.

#### Reply-To

(Requires Broadcast 2.50 or later)

Each **Send Email** step has a **Reply-To** field. Replies to this email go to the address in it. Leave it empty to use the sequence's Reply-To, or the sender address when the sequence has none. The field shows the sequence's address as a placeholder. The Reply-To also applies when the step uses a template.

#### Email Metrics on the Canvas

In the sequence editor, each **Send Email** step shows three numbers under its subject:

* **Sent**: how many emails the step sent. A subscriber who goes through the sequence more than once counts each time.
* **Opened**: how many of those emails were opened, and the open rate.
* **Clicked**: how many had a link clicked, and the click rate.

When emails bounced, the card also shows how many. The rates are over every email the step sent, also those sent while tracking was off, so a sequence that turned tracking on later shows lower rates at first. Mail captured by a test server counts as sent, but not in opens, clicks or the rates. The numbers update about once a minute. Opens and clicks show **Tracking off** when the sequence does not track them and none were recorded. Turn on open and click tracking in the sequence settings to count them.

#### Previewing Email Steps

In the sequence editor, hovering over any **Send Email** step shows a live preview popover of the email content. This lets you quickly review what each step will send without clicking into the editor.

Note that at the **Sequence** level, you can choose which email server to use for sending all emails from this sequence. As well, you can also choose whether to track opens or clicks for sent emails from this sequence. Be aware that if you are using any conditional steps that requires knowing whether an email is opened or clicked, Broadcast will automatically enable open/click tracking at the sequence level for you.

### 2. Add Delay

The **Add Delay** step allows you to add a delay between the current step and the next step.

![Add Delay step form](https://sendbroadcast.net/assets/docs/sequences/step-delay-67530bdc.png)

This is useful for introducing a minimum delay between two steps that affects users, such as sending emails or making a subscriber inactive due to a lack of engagement.

Note that delays are guaranteed to be early, meaning that the delay set is the minimum delay that will be applied. There may be a 30-60 second lag behind the delay set, depending on the load of your server.

The other thing to know about delays is that if the **next step** is a Conditional Step (see below), the delay introduced will be in addition to the delay set in the conditional step. If you do not want to track the delay in both a delay step and an immediately following conditional step, do not add the delay step and just add a conditional step.

### 3. Add Delay Until Specific Time (Next Day, Next Week, etc.)

The **Add Delay Until Specific Time** step allows you to add a delay until a specific time.

This is useful for scheduling emails to be sent at a specific time in the future.

Note that this feature can be a bit confusing, so here is some examples of how this type of delay works:

* If you set the delay to "8:00 AM", the email will be sent at 8:00 AM on the next day after the previous step.
* If the step is the first step in the sequence, and the subscriber was added at 7:50 AM, the email will be sent at 8:00 AM on the same day.

Internally, this delay is calculated as the next available time that you have specified. The calculation happens at the time of the previous step.

You must specify a timezone for this delay during this step so the system knows what timezone we are operating in.

### 4. Add Condition

The **Add Condition** step allows you to add a condition to the sequence.

![Add Condition step form](https://sendbroadcast.net/assets/docs/sequences/step-condition-b35ed6c0.png)

The condition will be evaluated as either being true or false, allowing you to create **branches** within your sequence. This provides a flexibility in allowing you to design complicated sequences.

Currently, there are four types of conditions you can use:

1. Any email opened (ie. any email sent from this sequence was opened)
2. Previous email opened (ie. if the immediately previous email was opened)
3. Any email clicked (ie. any email sent from this sequence was clicked)
4. Previous email clicked (ie. if the immediately previous email was clicked)

With each condition, you can specify the **delay** before the condition is evaluated.

Your use-case will likely vary, but here are some examples:

* Add a condition with a 24 hour delay. If the previous email was clicked, add a tag to the subscriber indicating high engagement.
* In the "false" branch of the above condition, add an additional condition with a delay of 1 week. If the subscriber clicks on the email, move the subscriber to medium engagement.
* Etc.

### 5. Move Subscribers to Sequence

The **Move Subscribers to Sequence** step allows you to move subscribers to another sequence.

This feature is useful for keeping your sequences simple and manageable. Designing complicated sequence flows can be done by creating multiple, simpler sequences and then moving subscribers from one sequence to another. Using this feature with conditional steps allows you to create complicated flows.

### 6. Add Tags to Subscriber

The **Add Tags to Subscriber** step allows you to add tags to a subscriber.

You can add multiple tags to a subscriber in a single sequence step.

(Requires Broadcast 2.49 or later)

The step does not add the tag of a [topic](https://sendbroadcast.net/docs/subscriber-topics) the subscriber turned off. Only the subscriber can turn it back on. The step adds the other tags, and the subscriber's activity says which tag was not added and why.

### 7. Remove Tags from Subscriber

The **Remove Tags from Subscriber** step allows you to remove tags from a subscriber.

Note that you can remove multiple tags from a subscriber in a single sequence step. The system will attempt to remove all the specified tags from the subscriber. The subscriber does not need to have all the tags. This still will just ensure that none of the specified tags are present on the subscriber after this step.

### 8. Make Subscriber Inactive

The **Make Subscriber Inactive** step allows you to make a subscriber inactive.

The subscriber will be set as inactive not just in this sequence, but in the current channel. This will affect all sequences, broadcasts, and transactional emails sent from Broadcast **in the current channel**.

Use this sequence step as sort of a "last resort" to remove a subscriber altogether.

## Adding Subscribers to an Email Sequence

Subscribers can be added to an email sequence in four ways:

1. Manually add subscribers to the sequence
2. Automatically enroll subscribers when a tag is added
3. Automatically enroll subscribers who match a segment
4. Add a subscriber to a sequence with the API

### 1. Manually add subscribers to the sequence

To add a subscriber to the sequence, navigate to the **Sequences** page in the sidebar and click on the sequence you want to add a subscriber to.

There, you will see a table of current subscribers within this sequence.

Click **Add Subscriber** and filter the subscriber list with the name of the subscriber you want to add.

![Add subscriber modal](https://sendbroadcast.net/assets/docs/sequences/add-subscriber-modal-388d882c.png)

If a subscriber is already part of the sequence, Broadcast will filter these out to minimize the list of available subscribers.

### 2. Automatically enroll subscribers when a tag is added

You can also specify whether a subscriber will be added to a particular sequence through a tag.

To specify which tag the system should detect in order to add a subscriber to a sequence, navigate to the Sequence Steps editor and click on the **Entry Point** step.

![Entry Point step form with triggers](https://sendbroadcast.net/assets/docs/sequences/step-entry-point-94284cba.png)

Within the Entry Triggers section, you will see an input field for **Tag trigger**. Input the single tag you would like to use to add a subscriber to the sequence. Note that the system does not support detecting multiple tags. Uses exact match.

Subscribers are added when they are given the tag, and removed if it is taken away. Subscribers who already have the tag when you set the trigger are not added. Removing the tag only takes out subscribers the tag added: anyone you added to the sequence by hand, through the API, a form or a segment stays in.

### 3. Automatically enroll subscribers who match a segment

In addition to tag-based enrollment, you can automatically enroll subscribers who match a specific segment.

In the **Entry Point** step, you will see a **Segment trigger** dropdown. Select a segment from your existing segments to automatically enroll matching subscribers.

Subscribers matching this segment will be automatically enrolled. The system syncs every 15 minutes to check for new subscribers matching the segment criteria.

### 4. Add a subscriber to a sequence with the API

Please refer to the API documentation for details on how to manage subscribers with sequences.

## Removing Subscribers from an Email Sequence

There are several ways to "remove" a subscriber from an email sequence.

1. Inactive or unsubscribed subscribers will not be included in the sequence. As a result, you can unsubscribe a subscriber and they will be removed from all seequences.
2. Subscribers can be removed from the sequence manually, such as in the dashboard.
3. Subscribers can be removed from the sequence when a tag is removed from the subscriber itself. This can be done programmatically using the API or manually in the dashboard.
4. Subscribers can be set as "removed" in the sequence. This is done manually in the dashboard.

(Requires Broadcast 2.49 or later)

A bounce also ends the enrollment. When the SMTP server refuses a sequence email because the address does not exist (for example "550 5.1.1 user unknown"), Broadcast records a hard bounce: the subscriber is deactivated and suppressed, and the enrollment ends as **deactivated**. A bounce or complaint webhook from your email provider does the same. Before 2.49 those webhooks failed for sequence emails, so the subscriber stayed active. See [Suppression Lists](https://sendbroadcast.net/docs/suppression-lists).

Depending on how you intend to manage your email list, pick the one that most makes sense for your situation.

## Subscribers That Stopped With an Error

(Requires Broadcast 2.51 or later)

When a step keeps failing for a subscriber, Broadcast stops the sequence for that subscriber. This happens after five failed attempts in a row, or at once when the email provider rejects the address for a reason other than a bounce or a provider suppression (for example, a malformed To address). A bounce or a provider suppression deactivates the subscriber instead (see above). The subscriber gets the **Error** status and receives no further steps. A red banner at the top of the subscriber list shows how many subscribers stopped this way.

![Subscriber list filtered to subscribers that stopped with an error](https://sendbroadcast.net/assets/docs/sequences/subscribers-errored-a6494bb4.png)

Click the banner text to show only the subscribers that stopped with an error. Each row shows the step that failed and the reason, for example an error from your email provider or a template error. Click **Reset** to show all subscribers again.

Fix the cause first, for example the email server settings or the template. Then pick one of these actions:

* **Retry step** (the arrow button on the row) runs the failed step again for that subscriber. The sequence continues from that step, so earlier emails are not sent again. If your email provider accepted the step's email before the step failed (for example, the provider took the email and then a later part of the step failed), Broadcast asks you to confirm before it retries, because the subscriber can get the email twice.
* **Retry all** in the banner retries every subscriber that can be retried. It runs in the background. It skips subscribers whose email the provider may already have accepted; retry those one at a time. The notice tells you how many subscribers it retries and how many stay in error.
* **Dismiss all** in the banner removes every subscriber that stopped with an error from the sequence. They get the **Removed** status, and the error stays in each subscriber's activity log.
* **Start sequence from beginning** sends the whole sequence again, from the first step.

The **Retry step** button does not show when a retry cannot help: the step was deleted, or the subscriber is inactive or redacted. Use **Start sequence from beginning** or **Dismiss all** for those subscribers. Team members without permission to manage sequence subscribers see the list but not the actions.

You can retry a subscriber whose address is suppressed. Broadcast asks you to confirm first. A sequence skips the email steps of a suppressed address, and the other steps still run: tags are added or removed, the subscriber can move to another sequence, and webhooks are sent. See [Suppression Lists](https://sendbroadcast.net/docs/suppression-lists).

A retry sends the `sequence.subscriber_resumed` webhook with `"reason": "retry"`, and **Dismiss all** sends `sequence.subscriber_removed` with `"reason": "dismissed"`. See [Webhooks](https://sendbroadcast.net/docs/webhooks).