Updated: 19.05.2023, by: Laura Tierney
Estimated time to read: 3 - 4 mins.
Update about override flow (19.05.2023)
What is an automation?
An automation is a way of creating generic flows of messages to select contacts. Automations can be triggered in different ways:
By sending a message
Opening a message
Creating and/or updating a contact.
Automations are often set up for onboarding programs and for sign-ups to different events. However, you can use an automation every time you want one or more contacts to go through an automated generic flow of messages.
It is advised to not make automations that are too long, or with too many steps as they will get very complex and should something go wrong, it can be difficult to solve.
How it works
An automation works by combining at least three components - a trigger, a rule and an action - in various ways.
Trigger: The trigger component starts an automation. It can trigger on one of the following: A sent message, opened message, contact created, contact updated or contact created/updated
Rules: Rules control the space in between trigger and action - and between different actions. Rules can be of several types: All quizzes completed, time delay, media played, contact group membership or contact has tags. You can apply one or more rules to guide the actions in your automation.
For example: when all quizzes are completed, this triggers a new message to be sent to the contact that just finished the quizzes or, new group membership triggers a message to the new member of a group.
Action: An action is something that happens at a certain stage in your automation and can be one of the following: Send message, update contact, update contact's groups or modify contact's tags
In this example above, you see a simple automation. It triggers (starts) when a specific message is opened, there is no rule selected in this example, but a rule could be to wait 2 days, and then a new action happens.
Update:
Now by default Creating an automation: “Override control flow” and “continue automation” default on. 💪
Tags: automation, trigger, rule, action, quizzes, flow, onboarding.