Automated Email Sequences (Marketing)

A sequence is marketing that runs itself. Instead of remembering to email every unanswered estimate or every contract about to expire, you set up a sequence once, turn it on, and the system watches for the right moment and emails the right people automatically — with the same unsubscribe and frequency protections as your regular campaigns. Nobody ever gets the same step twice.

Before you start

Your email sending must be set up — a sequence can’t deliver mail until it is.
An email template for the message. Grab a ready-made one from the Gallery, or build your own under Templates. The template’s merged content becomes the email body and its name becomes the subject line.
For a Seasonal push, you’ll also need a saved segment (see Saved Segments) whose record type matches the template’s.

The four sequence types

Type	What it does
Estimate follow-up	Nudges estimates that were sent (or viewed) but never approved or declined.
Renewal reminders	Emails customers on active service plans approaching their end date.
Lead nurture	Follows up leads that still have no estimate.
Seasonal push	Sends a template once to everyone a saved segment matches — and keeps watching for new matches.

Steps

Create a sequence

Go to Tools → Mail Merge and click the Sequences tab.
Click New Sequence.
Under Sequence details:
- Name (required) — e.g. “Estimate follow-up after 5 days.”
- What starts it? (required) — pick one of the four types above. This can’t be changed after the sequence is created; make a new sequence for a different trigger.
- Email template (required) — choose one. Match the template’s type (Customer vs Lead) to the audience.
Fill in the timing card that appears for your chosen type:
- Estimate follow-up: Wait (days) after the estimate was created, and Follow-ups per estimate (1 — a single nudge, or 2 — a second nudge after twice the wait). Use a Customer template for customer estimates or a Lead template for lead estimates.
- Renewal reminders: Send (days before the contract ends) as a comma-separated list, e.g. 60, 30, 14 for three reminders. Each customer gets at most one email per reminder point. Uses a Customer template.
- Lead nurture: Wait (days) after the lead came in. Uses a Lead template.
- Seasonal push: pick the Segment and set a Campaign key (e.g. spring-2027). Each person gets the email once per campaign key; to run the same push again next season, change the key.
Save. The sequence appears in the list, initially Off.

Turn a sequence on (with preview)

You can’t turn a sequence on blind — you always confirm from a preview first:

In the Sequences list, click Turn on… on the row.
A dialog shows how many emails would go out on the first run (within about the next hour) and a sample of recipients. Unsubscribed and recently-emailed people are already excluded.
Click Turn on to confirm. The status pill flips to Active.

Stop or pause

Turn off a running sequence from its row — nothing more sends until you turn it back on.
Delete a sequence — it stops sending and disappears from the list, but its send history is kept.
Individual recipients stop automatically when they unsubscribe or when they’re recently emailed (the frequency guard). A given person never receives the same step twice.

What happens next

Once a sequence is Active, it keeps watching in the background and emails new matches as they appear — you don’t re-run anything. The list row tracks Trigger, Template, Status, Emails sent, and Last send, so you can see it working at a glance. An estimate follow-up stops nudging once the estimate is answered; renewal reminders restart for the new end date when a plan renews; a seasonal push emails each matching person once per campaign key.

Tips & best practices

Start with estimate follow-up. It recovers quotes that would otherwise go cold, with zero daily effort.
Keep renewal offsets sensible — 60, 30, 14 gives customers time to decide without feeling spammed. If you turn a renewal sequence on mid-window, only the nearest reminder sends (never a stack).
Change the campaign key each season to re-send a seasonal push to the same segment next year.
Preview before turning on. The confirmation dialog is your last check that the audience and timing are right.

Troubleshooting

“Turn on…” preview shows 0 emails. Nothing is due yet — that’s fine. The sequence waits and emails matches as they appear.
Trigger dropdown is locked on the edit screen. The trigger can’t change after creation. Create a new sequence for a different trigger.
A seasonal push won’t accept the segment. The segment’s record type must match the template’s (both Customer or both Lead).
Nothing sends after turning on. Confirm your email sending is set up. Also check whether recipients are unsubscribed (Suppressions) or were recently emailed.

Email Campaigns — one-time sends and where templates come from
Saved Segments — required for the Seasonal push type
Marketing Module Overview — the whole marketing toolkit