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Automations

Email automations that react to each signup.

LaunchList automations are waitlist emails that go out on their own when someone joins, refers a friend or moves to a new stage. Each person goes through the steps on their own clock.

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At a glance

Updated

Starts with
One of six events: someone joining, a new signup, a referral credited, a stage change, a survey answered or your launch date
Steps
Emails, waits of minutes, hours or days, tags, stage changes, webhooks, a Yes or No branch and a goal, up to 40 in one automation
Where it lives
In Emails, on the Automations tab, next to Broadcasts, Library and Activity
Sender and look
Automation emails go out from the sender, and in the look, set in your email settings
Plans
From the Launch plan to publish one. You can build and test an automation on any plan
How it works

What it takes to get an automation running.

  1. Pick what starts it

    Start from a ready-made automation or a blank canvas, then choose the event that brings people in. A blank one begins at "Joins", so its first email goes to people who joined your list themselves: they signed up with nothing to confirm, or clicked the link to confirm. People you import never start it.

  2. Lay out what happens next

    Click or drag steps in from the palette and join them by their handles. An "If / branch" step splits the path into "Yes" and "No", and each side gets steps of its own.

  3. Try it, then publish

    "Test flow" walks a real contact or a sample through every step and shows the path they would take, without sending anything. When it looks right, "Publish" switches it on.
Ready-made automations

Automated waitlist emails, already written for you.

Open one from "New automation", change anything you like, and publish it when it fits your launch.

  • Keep signups engaged

    Two days after someone joins, it sends "What to expect". Four days later, anyone who has not referred a friend yet gets "Referral nudge". A new project starts with this one as a draft.

  • Invite reminder

    Two days after you move someone to "Invited", it looks again. If they have not joined yet, they get "Invite reminder"; if they have moved on, they leave without an email.

  • Launch day

    It sends "We're live" to your waitlist on launch day and "Last call" a day later. Its trigger can also start up to three weeks before the date.

When to use it

Signs your launch needs a waitlist automation.

A good fit when

  • People wait weeks between joining and getting in, and you want each of them to hear from you a few days after they join.
  • You reward referrals and want the people who have not shared their link yet to get one reminder, and nobody else.
  • You let people in by invite and want a nudge to reach anyone still waiting to join two days later.
  • You want a tag, a stage change or a call to your own system when someone reaches a set number of referrals.

Not the right fit when

  • You want to send one message to your whole list today. Send a broadcast instead.
  • You want to branch on who opened or clicked an email. Automations offer no open or click conditions.
  • You want the same person to go through an automation again, like a monthly digest. Each contact goes through each automation once.
  • You want to test two versions of an email against each other. The editor has no A/B split step.
The details

Waitlist automation details for once it is live.

  • Branch on what people did

    An "If / branch" step can check whether someone confirmed, has a tag, is in a stage, has referred at least the number you set, where they stand on early access, had a bounce, or got a certain broadcast.

  • Referral milestones

    Start an automation when someone earns a referral, or only once they reach a set number of referrals.

  • Every skip explained

    People can wait days between steps. If someone unsubscribes in that time, their next email is skipped and the reason is written on their timeline.

  • Numbers on each automation

    Each automation shows how many people it took in and how many emails it sent. "View log" lists those emails and whether each one arrived.

  • Steps that send nothing

    Tag people, move them to another stage, or end a path at a goal, with no email involved. These steps still run when your monthly emails are used up.

  • Hand off to your own code

    A "Webhook" step posts the contact to your URL, an "Automation goal reached" webhook fires when someone reaches a goal, and the API reads each automation and the ones a contact is in.

In the docs: how automations work and automations in the API.

FAQ

Before you publish a waitlist automation.

What is a waitlist automation?
A set of emails and steps that a waitlist tool runs on its own when someone does something, like confirming their address or referring a friend, so you do not send each message by hand.
Will a new automation email the people already on my list?
Not at first. An automation takes people in from the moment you publish it, so someone who joined earlier enters only when they next do the thing that starts it. A launch day automation is the exception and reaches everyone you can email.
Can someone go through the same automation twice?
No. A second confirmation or referral leaves them where they are, so nobody gets the same emails twice from one automation.
What happens if I edit an automation people are already in?
They carry on from the step they are waiting on, into whatever you changed after it. If you delete that step, the people waiting on it leave the automation.
Are automation emails part of my monthly email allowance?
Yes, the same as a broadcast. If your monthly emails run out, people wait on their next email step and carry on from the 1st, or as soon as you add extra emails.
What happens to my automations if I change to a plan without them?
Nothing in them runs, not even the steps that send no email, and each person holds their place. When your plan includes automations again, everyone carries on from the step where they stopped.
Which plans include automations?
Publishing an automation comes with the Launch and Grow plans. On any plan you can build one, start from a ready-made one and run "Test flow" on it.

Set up the emails that send themselves.

Start from a ready-made automation, try it on a real contact, and let it run.

Build your waitlist

Free for your first 100 contactsNo credit card needed