Building Automated Email Sequences

Sequences are automated series of emails that send to subscribers in a defined order over time. You might know them as drip campaigns, autoresponders, or email workflows. Once you set up a sequence, it runs on autopilot — every subscriber who enters it receives the same carefully crafted experience, whether that is an onboarding flow, a product education series, or a multi-week nurture campaign.

How Sequences Work

Every sequence starts with an Entry Point step. This is the first thing that happens when a subscriber enters the sequence. From there, subsequent steps run in order — one after the other — following whatever timing and logic you define.

Think of a sequence as a conveyor belt: subscribers get on at the beginning and move through each step automatically. You control what happens at each stop along the way.

Creating a Sequence

  1. Navigate to Sequences in the main menu
  2. Click New Sequence
  3. Your new sequence opens with a default name — head to Settings to rename it to something descriptive

That is all it takes to get started. From here, you build out your sequence by adding steps.

Duplicating Sequences

Already have a sequence that is close to what you need? Duplicate it instead of starting from scratch.

When you duplicate a sequence, you can choose whether to include or exclude existing subscribers. The duplicated sequence always starts in an inactive state so you can review and adjust it before going live. The name will be prefixed with “Copy of” to keep things clear, and Broadcast tracks the parent/child relationship between the original and the copy for your reference.

Step Types

Sequences support eight step types that you can combine in any order.

1. Send Email

The core of any sequence. Configure a subject line, optional preheader text, and your email body. You can compose from scratch or start from a saved template. When browsing your sequence steps, hover over a Send Email step to see a quick preview of the content.

2. Add Delay

Pause the sequence for a minimum amount of time before the next step runs. For example, “wait 3 days” before sending the next email. Keep in mind that there may be a 30 to 60 second lag beyond the specified delay due to job processing. If a delay step is followed by a conditional step, the delay gives subscribers time to interact with your emails before the condition is evaluated.

3. Delay Until Specific Time

Instead of waiting a relative amount of time, pause until a specific time of day. For instance, “wait until 8 AM the next day” ensures your email lands in inboxes at a consistent hour. This step requires a timezone setting so Broadcast knows exactly when to proceed.

4. Add Condition

Branch your sequence based on subscriber behavior. You can check whether any email or the previous email in the sequence was opened or clicked. The condition creates two branches — a true path and a false path — so you can send different follow-ups depending on engagement.

A best practice is to place a delay step before a condition. This gives subscribers enough time to open or click before the condition is evaluated. Without a delay, the condition might run before the subscriber has even seen the email.

5. Move to Sequence

Chain sequences together by moving a subscriber into a different sequence. This is a powerful way to keep individual sequences simple and focused while building complex, multi-stage automation flows. For example, after an onboarding sequence finishes, you could move engaged subscribers into a product tips sequence.

6. Add Tags

Automatically tag subscribers as they pass through a step. Tags are useful for tracking where subscribers are in your funnel, triggering other automations, or building segments based on sequence progress.

7. Remove Tags

The counterpart to Add Tags. Remove tags from subscribers at a specific point in the sequence — for example, removing a “new-subscriber” tag after they complete your welcome series.

8. Make Subscriber Inactive

This step sets the subscriber as inactive across the entire channel, not just the current sequence. Use it as a last resort — for example, at the end of a re-engagement sequence where the subscriber has not responded to any of your emails.

Sequence-Level Settings

In the sequence Settings tab, you can configure:

  • Email server selection — Choose which email server sends the emails for this sequence. This is useful if you have different sending domains or providers for different types of email.
  • Open and click tracking — Enable or disable tracking at the sequence level. Disabling tracking means conditional steps based on opens/clicks will not have data to evaluate.

Adding Subscribers to a Sequence

There are several ways subscribers enter a sequence:

  • Manually — Add individual subscribers from the subscriber detail page or in bulk from a list view.
  • Tag trigger — Automatically enroll subscribers when a specific tag is applied. The trigger uses exact match on a single tag. When a subscriber receives the matching tag, they enter the sequence.
  • Segment trigger — Attach a segment to the sequence and any subscriber who matches the segment rules will be enrolled. Segment triggers sync approximately every 15 minutes, so there may be a short delay before new matches are added.
  • API — Use the Broadcast API to programmatically add subscribers to sequences from your application or external tools.

Removing Subscribers from a Sequence

Subscribers can leave a sequence in several ways:

  • Unsubscribe — If a subscriber unsubscribes from your channel, they are automatically removed from all active sequences.
  • Manual removal — You can manually remove a subscriber from a sequence at any time.
  • Tag removal — If a subscriber entered via a tag trigger and that tag is removed, they will be removed from the sequence.
  • Set as removed — Mark a subscriber’s sequence enrollment as “removed” to stop them from receiving further steps without affecting their channel subscription status.

Best Practices

Keep sequences simple. A sequence with 5 to 8 steps is much easier to reason about than one with 30. If your automation logic is getting complicated, break it into multiple sequences connected with “Move to Sequence” steps.

Use multiple sequences for complex flows. Rather than building one massive sequence with many conditional branches, create focused sequences for each stage of your subscriber journey. Chain them together for a clean, maintainable automation pipeline.

Add delays before conditions. Give subscribers at least 24 hours (ideally 48 to 72 hours) to interact with an email before checking whether they opened or clicked it. Evaluating too soon leads to inaccurate branching.

Test before activating. Add yourself as a subscriber and walk through the sequence with shortened delays to verify the flow, content, and logic before turning it on for your full audience.

Name your steps clearly. When you have multiple Send Email steps, give each one a descriptive name so you can quickly scan the sequence and understand the flow at a glance.

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