📌 Note: Additional automations are available as add-ons. For more information on adding new features please see the add-ons page in your nation.

Table of Contents

You can currently create 3 different types of automation: page-based, list-based, or multiple source. Multiple source automations are the newest format and more flexible than either page- or list-based types. For instructions on multiple source automations see this article.

When you choose a list of people as the source, the emails in the automation will be sent to them. People added to this list after the automation has been run will not be added to the automation.

When you choose a page as the source of an automation, people who take action on that page will be added to the automation. If your page is configured to send an autoresponse, the autoresponse will be displayed in the automation timeline. You can set a Signup, Petition, Event, or Donation (V2) page as the source for a page-based automation (multiple source automations support additional page types).

After creating your automation, you can limit who will be sent the emails in your automation based on the tags on their profiles. Select "Limit enrollment" from the dropdown menu of the page-source bar at the top of the page.

Start typing into the field to view and select tags. People who have any of the selected tags on their profile when they are added to the automation will not be sent emails from this automation. These exclusions will only apply to emails within the automation, not to autoresponses sent by the page.

Once you've created your automation, you'll be prompted to set up the first automated email. Select your Broadcaster, enter the Email name, click Save and Continue and you will be taken to the email editor. (You can start from scratch or you can clone an existing mailing to use as a starting point).

📌Note: All you need to enter is the Email Name. (The slug will be generated for you in the background, and you'll be able to change it later if you need to).

When you click the "Save and continue" button at the bottom of the form, you will be automatically redirected to the email editor. This process will be just like setting up an email blast. However, the banner at the top lets you know that you're configuring this email as part of an automation.

To set up your email in your automation:

📌 The email will not be sent until you actually run the automation and you've finished adding steps to the workflow. There is no "Add Recipients" section (unlike a standard email blast), since you define your audience in the automation settings.

Congratulations! You've set up the first email in your automated series. If you need to edit the email, hover over the "Send an email" section and click "Edit".

Once you've added at least one email to the workflow, you can start the automation by clicking the Run button in the top right. If only have one email in your automation the following message will appear:

📌 Note: An automation must contain at least 1 email to be run. There are 3, 5, or 10 allowed emails per automation for Starter, Pro, and Enterprise plans, respectively.

To add more steps to your automation:

2. You'll be asked to add either a time delay or an action. The time delay represents the number of days (or weeks) you want NationBuilder to wait before sending the next email in the series.

📌 Note: It will be relative to when the previous action in your automation was completed (e.g. when it sent the first email).

3. After defining the desired a time delay, you'll be able to select an action to set up the next email in the series:

Once you're ready to set your automation live — i.e., send the first email and schedule the remaining emails — click the Run button in the top right. You'll be prompted to confirm before the first email is sent. If you're using a List as the source of an automation, your modal will look like this:

Once you confirm, the first email will go out, with the others will be sent out according to the time delay you defined.

Page-based: If you've selected a page as the source of your automation, the prompt will look like this:

Once you confirm, anyone who signs up on the page will be added to the automation.

After you click Run on your automation, you'll notice that there is now an indicator that the automation is running, and the Run button has changed to Pause:

Once emails have been sent as part of the automation, you can navigate to the Email results tab to see engagement metrics for your emails as that data comes in:

On the Workflows dashboard, you'll see your running automation listed:

📌 Note: Once your automation is live, you will only be able to delete emails in the series that have not yet been sent to anyone, and are not currently scheduled to send to anyone. If someone has received an email in the series directly prior to the one you're looking to delete, you will not have the option to delete it.

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