Learn / Automations

How to set up a branching welcome series

A welcome series that branches on whether they engaged, so the people who read the first email get something different from the people who did not.

The workflow

1. 1Send email: no campaign chosen yet
2. 2Delay: 1 day, held to 09:00 their time
3. 3Send email: no campaign chosen yet
4. 4Delay: 3 days, held to 09:00 their time
5. 5Condition: splits the flow in two
6. 6Tag: "engaged"
7. 7Send email: no campaign chosen yet
8. 8Exit flow

Before you start

The branch is the only reason to build this instead of a plain series. Somebody who opened the first two emails does not need the "did you see this?" nudge, and sending it anyway tells them you are not paying attention. Write the quiet-path email as if it is the first thing they will read, because for them it is.

You will need: a list, three campaigns.

How to set it up

1. 1Choose the Advanced welcome email template and set the trigger to your signup form.
2. 2Assign a campaign to the first two sends.
3. 3Leave the condition at opened-within-four-days unless you publish much more often.
4. 4On the yes path the template tags them engaged. Rename that tag to whatever your segments use.
5. 5On the no path, assign the nudge campaign. Keep it short and lead with the single best thing.
6. 6Activate.

What goes wrong

• Making the quiet-path email a copy of the first one. They have already had it, and resending it is what makes somebody unsubscribe from a welcome sequence.
• Branching after one day. Plenty of people read email weekly, so a one-day window sorts your readers by inbox habit rather than by interest.