Email MarketingAll plans
Automation steps explained
The five kinds of steps you can chain inside a journey: emails, waits, branches, splits, and actions.
Five building blocks, endless journeys.
A canvas showing each step type in one journey
1
Emails: the messages your journey sends, built from templates or generated copy.
2
Waits: pauses between steps. Five kinds: Time Delay, Until Date, Random Delay, Wait for Tag, and Email Event.
image
Waits give your journey rhythm.
3
Decision branches: split the path by behaviour, for example Email Opened vs Email Clicked, so engaged contacts get a different next step.
4
Random splits: divide contacts randomly for A/B testing different paths.
5
Actions: things the automation does to the contact: add or remove tags, set or clear a contact field, increment or decrement a counter field, add to or remove from a list, issue a discount code, send a webhook, notify an admin, set do-not-disturb, and add an internal note.
image
Actions let journeys manage your data, not just send email.
Tips and good to know
lightbulb
Actions are what make automations more than email: a journey can tag a contact as engaged, move them between lists, or issue them a discount code automatically.
lightbulb
A common pattern: email, wait, decision branch on opens, then a different follow-up on each path.
Common questions
Did this answer your question?
Contact supportarrow_forward