Automations

An automation sends emails and SMS messages on its own when someone submits a form on one of your funnel landing pages. The typical use is a waitlist: confirm the signup straight away, then tell the contact when a new session of the webinar opens.

Access: admins and marketers can create, edit, activate, pause and delete automations. Moderators and staff can view automations, their enrollments and execution logs from a webinar's Automations tab; the Automations item in the sidebar is shown only to admins and marketers.

How an automation runs

Each automation has one trigger, belongs to one webinar, and has a list of steps.

1. A contact submits a form that matches the trigger. The contact is enrolled in the automation.
2. The steps run in order, straight away.
3. At a Wait for Event step the contact stops and waits until a new session of the webinar opens. Then the next steps run.
4. After the last step the enrollment is completed, unless Repeat is on.

Steps always run in the same fixed order. There are no conditions, branches or timed delays.

Triggers

Pick the trigger in the When list when you create the automation. Both triggers need a Webinar.

Trigger	Enrolls a contact when
Waitlist form submitted	Someone submits a form on a funnel linked to the webinar while the webinar has no session they can register for, and Waitlist is turned on in the webinar's Settings. The submission is saved as a waitlist signup.
Funnel form submitted	Someone submits a form on a funnel linked to the webinar. Optionally limit it to one funnel with Funnel (optional — leave empty for all funnels).

Things to know about triggers:

• Only forms on your funnel landing pages start an automation. Registrations made on the attendee app's own registration page, entries created by a funnel webhook, entries you add by hand and imported registrations don't.
• A waitlist signup is also a funnel form submission. It starts Funnel form submitted automations for the same webinar as well as Waitlist form submitted ones.
• Only contacts who submit a form while the automation is active are enrolled. Earlier submissions are never picked up.

Only these two triggers enroll anyone

The When list also offers Session opened, Webinar registration and Manual enrollment. Automations with these triggers never enroll a contact: nothing in the product starts them, and the dashboard has no way to add a contact by hand. Use Waitlist form submitted or Funnel form submitted.

Steps

Add steps with the Send Email, Send SMS and Wait for Event buttons. Each new step goes to the end of the list. Remove a step with its trash icon. There is no way to drag steps into a new order, so remove and re-add them instead.

Send Email

Pick the email in Template ID (from Newsman). The step sends the template with that ID from your email provider (see Email Notifications and Integrations). The subject line comes from the template.

Option	Template ID
Waitlist Confirmation	waitlist_confirmation
Waitlist — Session Available	waitlist_session_available
Registration Confirmation	registration_confirmation
Webinar Reminder	webinar_reminder
Webinar Starting	webinar_starting
Replay Available	replay_available

A step left on Select template... fails every time it runs. Whichever template you pick, the automation fills in only these variables:

Variable	Contains
{{name}}	The contact's name
{{webinar_title}}	The webinar's title
{{webinar_date}}	Weekday and date of the webinar's session
{{webinar_time}}	Time range of the session, with the GMT offset
{{webinar_fulldate}}	Full date, time and time zone of the session
{{register_url}}	The webinar's page on your public site, for example https://webinars.yourdomain.com/webinars/your-webinar
{{whatsapp_group_url}}	The webinar's WhatsApp group invite link, if it has a WhatsApp Group Invite Code
{{waitlist_unsubscribe_url}}	One-click link that removes the contact from this automation (see Unsubscribe link)

The date variables describe one session of the webinar: a live session if there is one, otherwise a session open for registration, otherwise a scheduled one, otherwise one in replay. If several qualify, the one whose Featured From time is latest is used, which after a Wait for Event step is normally the session whose opening released the contact. Dates use the webinar's time zone and Locale, or your organization's defaults from General. When someone joins a waitlist there is no upcoming session yet, so the date variables are empty or describe an older session: leave them out of the waitlist confirmation.

TIP

Registration Confirmation, Webinar Reminder, Webinar Starting and Replay Available are built for the regular notification emails. Their personal links (join link, calendar links, preferences) are not filled in when an automation sends them, so those parts come out empty. For automations, use the two waitlist templates or build your own around the variables above.

Send SMS

Pick the text in SMS Template. A new SMS step starts on Waitlist Confirmation. Choose Custom text to type your own message in SMS Text.

In an SMS, the automation fills in {{webinar_title}}, {{register_url}}, {{webinar_date}}, {{webinar_time}}, {{webinar_fulldate}} and {{whatsapp_group_url}}. {{name}} isn't available. Any other placeholder is sent exactly as typed.

The built-in texts are in Romanian:

SMS Template	Built-in text (Romanian)	Meaning	Can you change it?
Waitlist Confirmation	Te-ai inscris pe lista de asteptare pentru {{webinar_title}}. Te vom anunta cand o noua sesiune devine disponibila.	"You've joined the waitlist for …. We'll let you know when a new session becomes available."	No (see the note below the table)
Waitlist — Session Available	{{webinar_title}} - o noua sesiune este disponibila! Inscrie-te: {{register_url}}	"… – a new session is available! Sign up: …"	No (see the note below the table)
Registration Confirmation	Inscrierea ta la {{webinar_title}} a fost confirmata!	"Your registration for … is confirmed!"	No
Webinar Reminder	{{webinar_title}} incepe in {{starts_in}}. Intra: {{register_url}}	"… starts in …. Join: …"	See the warning below
Webinar Starting	{{webinar_title}} este LIVE acum! Intra: {{register_url}}	"… is LIVE now! Join: …"	See the warning below
Replay Available	{{webinar_title}} replay este disponibil. Vizualizare: {{register_url}}	"The … replay is available. Watch: …"	See the warning below

SMS Notifications has Waitlist Confirmation and Waitlist — Session Available cards with a text field, but what you type there isn't saved, so automations keep sending the built-in waitlist texts. To send your own wording, choose Custom text.

Reminder, starting and replay texts

An automation doesn't fill in {{starts_in}}, so the built-in Webinar Reminder text is sent with that placeholder in it. If an admin has written custom texts on the Webinar Reminder, Webinar Starting Now or Replay Available cards in SMS Notifications, automations use those texts instead of the built-in ones, and the {{url}}, {{starts_in}} and {{replay_until}} placeholders in them are sent as typed. For automations, use the waitlist templates or Custom text.

Wait for Event

The only event in Wait until event is Session opened (new session available). The contact waits until any session of the automation's webinar opens for registration, which happens at the session's Featured From time (see Sessions & Lifecycle). The platform checks for opened sessions periodically, so the next step runs within a few minutes of that time.

A session without a Featured From date never passes through the open stage, so it doesn't release waiting contacts.

Repeat

Tick Repeat to keep contacts in the automation. After the last step, the contact goes back to the last Wait for Event step instead of completing, and gets the steps after it again the next time a session opens. Steps before that wait step don't repeat.

With Repeat on, a contact keeps getting the "new session" messages for every future session, even after registering for one, until they use the unsubscribe link or you delete the automation. An automation without a wait step completes normally even with Repeat on.

Create an automation

1. Go to Automations and click Create Automation.
2. Enter a Name.
3. Under Trigger, choose When and the Webinar. For Funnel form submitted, optionally choose a funnel.
4. Under Steps, add your steps and fill in each one.
5. Tick Repeat if contacts should be notified again for future sessions.
6. Click Create. The automation is saved as draft and does nothing until you activate it.
7. Check the steps, then click the play button (Activate) in the Actions column.

TIP

Add at least one step before you activate. An automation without steps marks every contact completed straight away.

Example: a waitlist

1. In the webinar's Settings, turn on Waitlist, so its funnel forms keep accepting signups while it has no session (see Registration & Attendee Experience).
2. Make sure your email provider has templates with the IDs waitlist_confirmation and waitlist_session_available, and put {{waitlist_unsubscribe_url}} in both.
3. Create an automation with When set to Waitlist form submitted and the webinar selected.
4. Add three steps: Send Email with Waitlist Confirmation, Wait for Event, and Send Email with Waitlist — Session Available.
5. Tick Repeat if people should hear about every new session, not only the next one.
6. Click Create, then Activate.

Anyone who signs up while the webinar has no session gets the confirmation right away. When the next session reaches its Featured From time, they get the "session available" email with {{register_url}} pointing to the webinar's page.

Contacts enrolled in a waitlist automation are also what the Waitlist Entry rule in Segments matches, so you can build a segment of everyone on a webinar's waitlist.

Who receives the messages

Step	Sent when	Skipped when
Send Email	The contact has an email address on file.	The contact is Flagged (bounced, spam complaint, global opt-out, or flagged by your team) or Restricted (GDPR restriction of processing).
Send SMS	The contact gave SMS consent, has a phone number, and SMS sending is set up under SendSMS in Integrations.	The contact is Restricted, has no SMS consent or no phone number, or SMS isn't set up.

Automation emails don't check marketing consent. Like confirmation and reminder emails, they're sent to any enrolled contact who isn't flagged or restricted. See Contacts for the Flagged and Restricted markers and SMS Notifications for SMS consent.

In Analytics, automation emails appear in the email sends list with their template ID as the type, for example waitlist_confirmation, and automation SMS messages appear in the SMS sends list with the type automation.

Activate, pause and delete

An automation is draft, active or paused. The Actions column on the Automations page (and on a webinar's Automations tab) has a play button (Activate) for draft and paused automations, a pause button (Pause) for active ones, and a trash button (Delete).

• Activate starts enrolling contacts from the next matching form submission.
• Pause stops new enrollments. Form submissions made while the automation is paused are never picked up later. Contacts who are already waiting stay enrolled, but a session that opens while the automation is paused doesn't release them. The first session to open after you activate it again does.
• Delete asks you to confirm "Delete this automation? This cannot be undone."

Deleting removes every enrollment

Deleting an automation also deletes all its enrollments and execution logs. Waiting contacts get no further messages. If it was a waitlist automation, its contacts no longer match the Waitlist Entry segment rule for that webinar.

Edit an automation

Click the pencil (Edit) in the Actions column of the Automations page. In Edit Automation you can change the Name, the Steps and Repeat, then click Save. The trigger and its funnel are shown but can't be changed; create a new automation to use a different trigger or webinar.

Saving resets the automation's progress

Every save replaces all of the automation's steps, even if you only changed the name. The execution log of every enrollment is cleared, and contacts who are waiting stop moving: they won't get the rest of the messages, and because they are still enrolled, submitting the form again doesn't restart them. Get the steps right before you activate, and avoid saving an automation that has contacts waiting.

Enrollments and the execution log

Click an automation's name to open its page. The header shows the trigger, the status and (repeat) when Repeat is on. The Steps card shows the steps in order; SMS steps are listed as send_sms.

Enrollments shows the total number of enrollments and lists the 50 most recent. Each row shows the start of the contact's internal identifier (not their name or email address), the enrollment status and the date they were enrolled.

Enrollment status	Meaning
active	Steps are running. This normally lasts only a moment.
waiting	Stopped at a Wait for Event step until a session opens.
completed	Went through every step. A contact is completed even when one of the steps failed, so check the log.

Click a row to open its execution log, with the columns #, Step, Status, Executed and Result.

Step status	Meaning
executed	The step ran. A message that was skipped (see Who receives the messages) also shows executed, with skipped and the reason under Result.
waiting	The contact is waiting at this step.
failed	The message couldn't be sent; Result shows the error. The automation still moves on to the next step.
pending	The step started and hasn't finished.

When a contact matches the trigger again:

• While they are active or waiting, they aren't enrolled a second time, so they don't get the first messages twice.
• Once they are completed, a new matching submission enrolls them again from the first step and replaces their previous log.
• If a contact corrects their email address with the change-email option on a funnel's thank-you page, their enrollments in the matching active automations restart from the first step, so the messages go to the new address.

Unsubscribe link

Put {{waitlist_unsubscribe_url}} in every email template you use in an automation. Each link belongs to one contact's enrollment.

Opening the link removes the contact from that automation immediately; there's no confirmation step. The page they see, in English, is headed Unsubscribed and says "You will no longer receive waitlist notifications from" followed by your organization's name.

• The contact gets no further messages from that automation, and their enrollment and its log disappear from the automation's page.
• Other automations, notification emails and the contact's marketing consent aren't affected.
• If the link was for a waitlist automation, the contact drops out of that webinar's Waitlist Entry segment rule, unless another waitlist automation still has them.
• If they submit the form again later, they are enrolled again.

SMS messages have no unsubscribe link.

The webinar's Automations tab

Webinars → (your webinar) → Automations lists the automations that belong to that webinar, with the same columns as the main list. Admins and marketers can activate, pause and delete them here; to create or edit an automation, use the Automations page. When there are none, the tab shows "No automations scoped to this webinar yet." The webinar's Overview also shows how many automations it has.