Sequences and branching

A sequence sends the right email at the right moment, for each subscriber, without you. In this lesson you build a welcome sequence, decide how people enter it, and branch it on what they do.

How a sequence works

A sequence is a list of steps. The first step is always the Entry Point, which you cannot delete. Every subscriber moves through the steps on their own clock. Someone who joins on Monday is on step one while someone from last week is on step four.

You add a step with the + button under any step. There are eight step types:

1. Send Email
2. Add Delay, for a fixed time
3. Delay Until Time, such as 8:00 AM the next day
4. Add Condition, the branching step
5. Move subscriber to sequence
6. Add tag(s) to subscriber
7. Remove tag(s) from subscriber
8. Make subscriber inactive in this channel

Build a welcome sequence

1. Open Sequences and click New Sequence.
2. Open Settings and give it a clear name, such as “Welcome series”. Here you also choose the email server and whether to track opens and clicks.
3. Open the step editor. Under the Entry Point, add a Send Email step. Write the welcome, or pick a saved template under Use a template.
4. Add an Add Delay step of two days.
5. Add a second Send Email with your most useful content.
6. Keep going, but keep it short. Three to five emails is a good first sequence.

A delay is a minimum. The next step can run 30 to 60 seconds later, depending on the load on your server. Delay Until Time needs a time zone. Broadcast works out the next matching time when the previous step runs, and waits until then.

Decide how people enter

Click the Entry Point step to set the triggers. There are four ways in:

1. By hand: Add Subscriber on the sequence’s page.
2. Tag trigger: a single tag, exact match. A subscriber enrolls when they get the tag and leaves if it is taken away. People who already had the tag when you set the trigger are not added.
3. Segment trigger: pick a segment. Broadcast checks every 15 minutes and enrolls people who now match.
4. The API: your app adds the subscriber to the sequence.

For a welcome series, the cleanest route is a tag. Set your opt-in form’s Add Tags to welcome, and use welcome as the tag trigger. Every new signup enrolls, with no code. The segment trigger guide covers the other route.

Branch on behaviour

An Add Condition step splits the sequence into a “true” branch and a “false” branch. It tests one of four things:

1. Any email from this sequence was opened.
2. The previous email was opened.
3. Any email from this sequence was clicked.
4. The previous email was clicked.

Each condition has its own delay before it is checked, so the behaviour has time to happen. A condition with a 24-hour delay after an email gives people a day to click. Do not put an Add Delay step right before a condition unless you want both delays: they add up.

When a condition needs open or click data, Broadcast turns on open and click tracking for the sequence for you.

A pattern that works: send the welcome email, then a condition “previous email clicked” with a 3-day delay. On the true branch, add the tag engaged. On the false branch, send a shorter follow-up. The tag then feeds a segment, and the segment becomes the audience for your next broadcast.

Keep each sequence small

The docs recommend simple sequences. For a bigger flow, build several small ones and connect them with Move subscriber to sequence. A condition decides who moves where. Because tag steps and sequence moves are steps too, the pieces compose: a condition tags someone, and that tag enrolls them in another sequence.

Make subscriber inactive in this channel is a last resort. It sets the subscriber inactive in the whole channel, not only in this sequence. Use it at the end of a re-engagement sequence for people who never respond.

Who leaves a sequence

Unsubscribed and inactive subscribers receive no more sequence email. Suppressed addresses are skipped. A hard bounce deactivates and suppresses the subscriber and ends the enrollment. You can also remove someone by hand, or by taking away the trigger tag.

Under Excluded segments in the sequence settings, tick segments whose members must never get its emails, however they enrolled.

When a sequence seems stuck

Check in this order:

1. Is anyone enrolled? An empty list means the trigger never fired.
2. Is a delay still running? “Next week” can be longer than it reads.
3. Is everyone waiting at a condition that cannot be true yet?
4. Are background jobs running? If every sequence stalls at once, look at Application → Jobs.

See sequence not advancing and Email sequences.

What you learned

• A sequence starts at the Entry Point and moves each subscriber on their own clock.
• People enter by hand, by tag, by segment (checked every 15 minutes) or through the API.
• A condition tests opens or clicks, after its own delay, and splits into two branches.
• Build big flows from small sequences joined with Move subscriber to sequence.