Get started with Automation

(information)

Requires the Advanced Marketing Campaigns package

To access this feature, upgrade to Advanced Marketing Campaigns from Your Products.

To send a recurring email or drip series to contacts at a defined cadence, create an Automation series. Once you create an Automation, the messages trigger when you add recipients to a linked list or segment.

With Automation, you can build email campaigns to:

Welcome new contacts when they join your list with a warm message and introductory tips.
Engage contacts who've downloaded an asset from you with follow-up content.
Promote an upcoming event to a list of invitees with a series of reasons to attend.

To work with Automations, log in to the Twilio SendGrid console.

Prerequisites

Complete the following tasks before you create an Automation:

Add a notification email
Create Unsubscribe Groups
Add a sender
Add a contact list

Create an Automation

Twilio SendGrid provides two types of Automations: Welcome and Custom.

To receive messages from your Automation, you must add contacts to the chosen list or segment for entry criteria after you enable the Automation.

Custom AutomationWelcome Automation

To create a Custom Automation:

Go to Marketing > Automations.
Click Create an Automation.
Under Custom, click Select.

Define the automation workflow and settings.

Question	Properties	Action
What is the name of this automation?	Automation Name	Enter a human-readable name for this Automation series.
When will your contacts enter the automation?	Entry Criteria	Choose the list or segment that this series targets. Any contact added to this list or segment gets sent the messages in the series. Change the default value of All Contacts. Otherwise, any contact you add also gets added to this Automation series, resulting in additional unwanted email messages.
When will your contacts leave the automation?	Exit Criteria	Choose the condition that removes a contact leaves the workflow:
		Contacts have received all emails in the automation: The contact exits the Automation series after they receive every message in the series.
		Contacts no longer meet the entry criteria: Before sending an email message in your series, Twilio SendGrid checks that each contact belongs to the entry criteria list or segment. Any contacts on the list or segment get removed from the next send.
		Contact meets following criteria: To filter and remove contacts from your Automation, you can build a specific condition. Recipients that meet this condition exit the Automation series within 24 hours. Twilio SendGrid limits each parent account and subuser to 15 exit criteria across all Teammates. When you reach that limit, you can't duplicate, save, or enable Automations using Contact meets following criteria.
What Unsubscribe Group and Categories would you like to assign to these messages?	Unsubscribe Group	Choose the group into which Twilio places recipients who unsubscribe from your email series.
	Categories	Choose or create one or more self-titled topics that help organize and track your email series.
	IP Pools	If you have dedicated IP addresses grouped into IP Pools, choose a pool through which Twilio sends messages in the Automation series.
What email(s) are included in your automation?		Define either a single message or a workflow for a series of messages. Choose when each message gets sent. Keep workflows to 10 messages, longer workflows risk server timeouts and save failures.

View parameters and operators for criteria

Grouping	Parameter	Data type
Contact Profile	First Name	String
	Last Name	String
	Email	String
	Address Line 1	String
	Address Line 2	String
	City	String
	State Province Region	String
	Postal Code	String
	Country	String
	Phone Number ID	String
	External ID	String
	Anonymous ID	String
	Date Added	Date
	Last Updated	Date
Email Activity	Last Clicked	Date
	Last Opened	Date
	Last Emailed	Date
Single Sends	Single Send Activity	Event
Automation	Automation Activity	Event
Custom Fields		String

Warning about categories and personal information

To design your email message, click Add Email Content. The Select a Design page appears.
1. Choose from either Your Email Designs or SendGrid Email Designs.
  As you hover over each design, text appears under the design indicating which editor, if any, someone used to create the design. You can choose a different editor, but Twilio recommends the editor displayed.
2. Hover over your chosen template and click Select. The Select Your Editing Experience page appears.
3. Click Select in either the Code Editor or Design Editor box.
4. Design the email message using the editor.
5. Click Save.
6. To return to the Automation series, click ←.
To add more emails to this automated series, click Add an Email. This adds a timing block and email message to the Automation.
1. To edit the send timing from the previous email message in the series, click ✎ (edit button) for the added message. The Select Send Time panel appears.
2. Change the number of units of time in the box and the units of time in the dropdown menu. From this dropdown, choose day(s) and hour(s).
3. Click Update.
4. Repeat the previous step and this step until you have added all email messages to your Automation series.
After creating all of your emails for the Automation, click Save.
Click Automation Options, then Set Live.

The pre-built Welcome Automation provides a template for creating your tailored welcome series. To create a Welcome Series:

Go to Marketing > Automations.
Click Create an Automation.
Under Welcome, click Select.

Define the automation workflow and settings.

Question	Properties	Action
What is the name of this automation?	Automation Name	Enter a human-readable name for this Automation series.
When will your contacts enter the automation?	Entry Criteria	Choose the list or segment that this series targets. Any contact added to this list or segment gets sent the messages in the series. Change the default value of All Contacts. Otherwise, any contact you add also gets added to this Automation series, resulting in additional unwanted email messages.
When will your contacts leave the automation?	Exit Criteria	Choose the condition that removes a contact leaves the workflow:
		Contacts have received all emails in the automation: The contact exits the Automation series after they receive every message in the series.
		Contacts no longer meet the entry criteria: Before sending an email message in your series, Twilio SendGrid checks that each contact belongs to the entry criteria list or segment. Any contacts on the list or segment get removed from the next send.
		Contact meets following criteria: To filter and remove contacts from your Automation, you can build a specific condition. Recipients that meet this condition exit the Automation series within 24 hours. Twilio SendGrid limits each parent account and subuser to 15 exit criteria across all Teammates. When you reach that limit, you can't duplicate, save, or enable Automations using Contact meets following criteria.
What Unsubscribe Group and Categories would you like to assign to these messages?	Unsubscribe Group	Choose the group into which Twilio places recipients who unsubscribe from your email series.
	Categories	Choose or create one or more self-titled topics that help organize and track your email series.
	IP Pools	If you have dedicated IP addresses grouped into IP Pools, choose a pool through which Twilio sends messages in the Automation series.
What email(s) are included in your automation?		Define either a single message or a workflow for a series of messages. Choose when each message gets sent. Keep workflows to 10 messages, longer workflows risk server timeouts and save failures.

View parameters and operators for criteria

Grouping	Parameter	Data type
Contact Profile	First Name	String
	Last Name	String
	Email	String
	Address Line 1	String
	Address Line 2	String
	City	String
	State Province Region	String
	Postal Code	String
	Country	String
	Phone Number ID	String
	External ID	String
	Anonymous ID	String
	Date Added	Date
	Last Updated	Date
Email Activity	Last Clicked	Date
	Last Opened	Date
	Last Emailed	Date
Single Sends	Single Send Activity	Event
Automation	Automation Activity	Event
Custom Fields		String

Warning about categories and personal information

The pre-built Welcome series includes three placeholder emails by default.
Perform the following tasks for each email:
1. Click on the Subject or From Sender links. The Edit Inbox Details panel appears.
2. Update the email subject from the Subject box.
3. Choose a sender from the Sender dropdown menu.
4. Click Update. The Edit Automation page appears.
5. Click Save.
To add more emails to this Automation series, scroll to the end of the Automation series and click Add an Email. This adds a timing block and email message to the Automation.
1. To edit the send timing from the previous email message in the series, click ✎ (edit button) for the added message. The Select Send Time panel appears.
2. Change the number of units of time in the box and the units of time in the dropdown menu. From this dropdown, choose day(s) and hour(s).
3. Click Update.
4. Update the subject and sender for the added message.
5. Click Add Email Content. The Select a Design page appears.
6. Choose from either Your Email Designs or SendGrid Email Designs.
  As you hover over each design, text appears under the design indicating which editor, if any, someone used to create the design. You can choose a different editor, but Twilio recommends the editor displayed.
7. Hover over your chosen template and click Select. The Select Your Editing Experience page appears.
8. Click Select in either the Code Editor or Design Editor box.
9. Design the email message using the editor.
10. Click Save.
11. To return to the Automation series, click ←.
Click Save.
Click Automation Options, then Set Live.

Manage Automations

To edit, delete, or duplicate your Automations, return to the Automations page.

Duplicate an Automation

To duplicate an Automation:

Go to Marketing > Automations.
Find the Automation you want to duplicate.
Select the Action Menu to the right of the Automation.
Click Duplicate.
Once you create the duplicate, the Automation will open to the edit page. From here, you can change any or all of the settings within the Automation.

Edit an Automation

You can edit the content, subject line, and sender for any emails in your Automation. To edit an Automation:

Go to Marketing > Automations.
Select the series you want to edit.
From the list of Automations, choose an existing Automation.
Click Edit on each email you'd like to modify. To create a template from an existing email within your Automation series, click ⋮ (action menu) next to the email you'd like to reuse and selecting Create Template.
Make your changes in the editor, then click Save.
Click the arrow in the upper left-hand corner.
The edited email displays an alert that changes have not yet been applied to the live Automation.
1. If you want to apply the changes, click Save and Apply.

Disable an Automation

When you disable an Automation, your Automation stops sending messages from its series to the contacts in its linked lists or segments. While your Automation remains disabled, you can't add contacts to its linked lists or segments.

To disable an Automation:

Go to Marketing > Automations.
Find the Automation series you want to disable.
Click ⋮ (action menu) next to the Automation.
Click Disable Automation.

Re-enable an Automation

When you re-enable the Automation, contacts might resume receiving email messages from where they left off in the series. This depends on the timing of the interval between email messages:

If the interval hasn't elapsed, contacts receive email messages from the series.
If the interval has elapsed, contacts don't receive email messages from the series.

When Automations in a disabled state, don't add contacts to their entry criteria lists. These contacts don't get added to the Automation.

To re-enable a disabled Automation:

Go to Marketing > Automations.
Find the Automation series you want to re-enable.
Click ⋮ (action menu) next to the Automation.
Click Set Live.

Automation use cases

To illustrate how you would use an Automation series, consider the following examples.

Segment-triggered nurture series

Automations can encourage your free customers to upgrade to paid customers. Consider a drip campaign.

This type of Automation sends messages to free users until they meet one of two conditions:

They reach the end of the email sequence
They upgrade to paid

Create a segment called Free customers.
Set the target condition to contacts with the custom field Plan Type set to Free.
Create an Automation.
Set What is the name of this automation? to Free Customers.
Set When will your contacts enter the automation? to:
1. The first time a contact Free customers.
2. Choose is added to a segment
3. Select the Free customers segment.
Set the exit criteria as Contacts no longer meet entry criteria.
Draft a series of emails that encourage contacts to pay for your service.

Whenever you add a contact who has the Free plan type, this Automation adds them to the relevant segment and enters them into its series. If they upgrade their plan during the drip series, Automation removes them from the series.