Sequences

A sequence is an automatic follow-up. A trigger starts a contact on a path of messages, waits and decisions. Each contact moves through it on their own. Opting out always stops it.

Before you start

• Connect a WhatsApp number. A sequence that sends needs one.
• Get your templates approved. Outside the 24-hour window, only a template can reach someone.
• Owners, Admins and Managers can build and publish sequences. Analysts can view them.

Build a sequence

1. Go to Sequences, click New sequence, enter a name and click Create.
2. The Trigger step is selected. In the panel on the right, set:
   • Starts when: what starts it. See Triggers.
   • Who can enter: an optional Entry segment, Re-entry and Only contacts opted in to marketing.
   • When they leave: see What stops a sequence.
   • Sending: Send from is the number. Only send at certain times is optional.
3. Click a step in the list on the left. It's added under the selected step and connected to it.
4. Fill in the step's settings on the right.
5. Connect any other exit by dragging from it to the next step.
6. Click Save, then Check. Problems appear on the left. Click one to go to its step.
7. Click Publish.

Triggers

Step types

In text messages, {{name}} is the first name. A step with window closed must have that exit connected, usually to a template. Wait for reply and Condition need both exits connected. With Only send at certain times on, a send outside those hours waits for the next opening.

The Send email step

This step appears only when email is available on your account, and it sends nothing until Email my customers is on in Settings → Email. See Email your customers.

• What kind of email: Marketing (needs email consent) or Service, about something they did.
• Subject up to 150 characters, and the Email text up to 5,000.
• Heading, and a button with a label and an https:// link, are optional.

The sequence carries on either way. Someone with no email address, or who hasn't agreed to marketing email, gets nothing and moves to the next step. WhatsApp consent doesn't count as email consent.

Publish, test and change

Publish checks the sequence, saves it as a version and makes it active. Your plan limits how many sequences can be active at once.

• Test: after publishing, click Test, pick a contact and click Start test. Waits run 60 times faster and messages really go out. Consent rules apply, but the entry segment and re-entry rule don't. Email steps are skipped.
• Change it: edit and click Publish again. New contacts start on the new version. Running contacts stay on theirs. To move them, use the Move them to button under Versions on the Report tab.
• Pause: running contacts hold where they are and new contacts don't enter. Resume carries on.
• Archive: everyone still running leaves. An archived sequence can't be published again.

How contacts enter

Contacts enter through the trigger, or in one of these ways:

• Add contacts on the Contacts tab: one contact, or everyone in a segment, up to 1,000 at a time.
• A form's Start a sequence, or a link's Start a sequence.
• The public API.

Whichever way they come, the same checks run. A contact doesn't enter when:

• the sequence isn't active,
• the contact has been erased,
• Only contacts opted in to marketing is on and they aren't opted in,
• they aren't in the Entry segment,
• they're already running in it (one run at a time), or
• Re-entry is Never: once per contact and they've been through it.

Re-entry can also be Again after finishing or Whenever triggered (one run at a time). Add contacts shows how many were added and why the others weren't.

What stops a sequence

• Opting out, always. An opt-out from any source ends all of that contact's sequences.
• Erasing the contact.
• When they reply, if you turned it on. A reply that a step is waiting for doesn't count.
• When this tag is added, if you set a tag.
• When they leave the entry segment, if you turned it on.
• An Exit step, or a Goal with Leave the sequence when the goal is reached.
• The end of the path. A contact also leaves if a step has no connected exit for what happened. For example, a Send template that's skipped with no failed exit.
• Remove on the Contacts tab, or Archive.

Consent

The rules in Opt-in and consent apply to every message a sequence sends.

• Each message is checked when it's sent, not when the contact entered. A skipped template takes the failed exit, or ends the run if there's none.
• Only contacts opted in to marketing is on by default. It's required if the sequence sends a marketing template: you can't publish without it.
• A sequence of utility messages only, such as appointment reminders, usually needs it turned off. Otherwise contacts without marketing consent can't enter.
• A sequence can't change consent. Only the person can opt in.
• STOP and START messages never start a sequence, and never count as a reply.
• An email unsubscribe stops marketing email. It doesn't end the sequence's WhatsApp steps.

Reports

• Report tab: Entered, Running, Finished and Left early, then a table for each step with Entered, Here now, Sent, Delivered, Read, Replied, Failed, Goals and Left here.
• Versions, on the same tab: each published version and how many contacts are still running on it.
• Contacts tab: filter by Waiting, Running, Finished or Left early. Click a name to see that contact's steps, with the reason if they left.
• Show counts in the builder puts the numbers on the canvas.
• Emails are listed under Recent emails in Settings → Email.

What can go wrong

• Publish is refused. "Fix the problems listed before publishing". Common ones: no number chosen, a template not approved, an exit not connected, or a step nothing leads to.
• A loop is refused. Every loop needs a wait of at least 60 minutes.
• Nobody enters. Check Only contacts opted in to marketing first. New leads from links often have Unknown consent.
• A template step fails for some contacts. A variable has no value and no fallback, or consent doesn't allow it.
• "Contacts are waiting at steps that don't exist" when moving a version. Keep those steps, or let those contacts finish.

A wait lasts at least 1 minute and at most a year. A sequence has at most 200 steps.