Automations

Automations are multi-step workflows that run automatically in response to events. They let you deliver timely, relevant messages at scale without manual effort, turning one-time setup into ongoing engagement.

When to Use Automations

Automations are ideal for recurring interactions that follow a predictable pattern. Common use cases include:

• Welcome series: introduce new contacts to your brand with a sequence of onboarding emails over their first week.
• Drip campaigns: educate leads over time with a series of emails spaced days or weeks apart.
• Re-engagement: automatically reach out to contacts whose engagement has dropped, offering incentives to return.
• Post-purchase follow-ups: send thank-you emails, review requests, or related product suggestions after a conversion.
• Lifecycle tagging: automatically update contact tags based on behavior, keeping your segmentation current.

Triggers

Every automation begins with a trigger that determines when a contact enters the workflow:

• Contact Created: fires when a new contact is added to your organization, whether manually, via import, or through the API.
• Tag Added: fires when a specific tag is applied to a contact. Useful for event-driven flows (e.g., tag "purchased" triggers an upsell sequence).
• Segment Entered: fires when a contact first matches a dynamic segment's conditions.
• Date Based: fires on a recurring schedule. Useful for birthday emails or monthly check-ins.
• Event Triggered: fires in response to a custom event from your website or API.
• Engagement Drop: fires when a contact's engagement score falls below a threshold you define.

Step Types

After the trigger fires, the automation executes its steps in order:

• Send Email: sends an email with the subject, sender, and content you configured. Supports all template variables.
• Wait / Delay: pauses the automation for a specified duration before proceeding to the next step. Common delays range from hours to days.
• Add Tag / Remove Tag: modifies the contact's tags, which can in turn trigger other automations or update segment membership.
• Update Field: changes a specific field on the contact record.
• Condition: branches the workflow based on rules, allowing different paths for different contact profiles.

Suppression Groups

You can assign a suppression group to an automation. When the automation reaches a Send Email step, contacts who have opted out of that group are skipped. They remain enrolled in the automation (non-email steps still execute), but no email is delivered.

Enrollment and Re-enrollment

By default, a contact can only be enrolled in an automation once. If you enable re-enrollment, contacts can re-enter the workflow after completing it, with an optional minimum delay between enrollments. This is useful for recurring flows like monthly product digests or seasonal campaigns.

Pre-built Ecommerce Flows

If you want to get started quickly, Pigeon Perch includes a library of pre-built automation templates designed for common ecommerce scenarios. Welcome series, abandoned cart recovery, post-purchase follow-ups, win-back campaigns, and product alerts are all available as one-click templates. Browse the templates in the Templates tab on the Automations page, click "Use Template", and you will have a fully configured automation ready to customize and activate. See the Automation Flows docs for the full list of available templates and details on each flow.