Building Workflows

The automation builder is one canvas. The automation's name sits at the top; everything else — the trigger and every step — is a node on the flow below it.

The trigger is the first node. Click it to choose what starts the automation and whether contacts may repeat; click any step to configure it. Both open in the same panel under the canvas, so the flow itself stays readable.

Nodes are laid out for you. There is nothing to drag into position: the canvas arranges the flow, and you pan, zoom and fit to width to move around it.

Draft from a brief

Where the assistants are switched on for your workspace, New automation offers Describe it: say what starts the automation, what it sends and how far apart, and a recipe comes back — a trigger, a sequence of emails, waits and tags — which you resolve exactly like a gallery recipe, choosing the list, form or tag it names, and import as a draft. Nothing runs until you activate it, and every email is yours to edit first. Each plan includes a daily allowance of drafts.

Starting from a recipe

New automation opens a gallery: a blank canvas, or one of eight recipes that already have the trigger, the steps and starter copy in place — a welcome series, a tag hand-off, a birthday email, a renewal reminder, re-engagement, post-purchase follow-up, form → sales follow-up and a signup anniversary. Open one and it shows exactly what it does before anything is created: the trigger, every step in order (both branches of a condition), and how repeats will be set.

A recipe cannot know what your workspace calls things, so the same screen asks for each thing it needs — the list a welcome series watches, the tag a hand-off keys on, the Date field a birthday email reads. For each you pick an existing item (one of the same name is pre-selected), create it now (a tag or list by name; a field with the right type, declared under Settings → Custom fields), or, for a tag, list or form, choose later. A slot left for later opens in the editor marked as still to choose, and the automation cannot be activated until it is filled — or until you say "use any tag" on purpose, because "any tag" would be a different automation from the one the recipe describes.

Every import is a draft. The copy is a starting point: change it on the canvas, then activate. Recipes are also available through the API (GET /api/v1/automation-recipes, POST /api/v1/automation-recipes/{slug}).

Creating a new automation

Follow these steps to create a new automation from scratch (choose Blank in the gallery):

1. Navigate to Automations in the left sidebar and click New Automation in the top-right corner.
2. Enter a descriptive name (e.g., "Welcome Series — Newsletter") and, optionally, a description. Both are for internal reference only and are never visible to contacts.
3. Click the trigger node at the top of the canvas and choose what starts the automation. There are fourteen trigger types, and you can add up to three — a contact matching any of them enters. See the Triggers page for a full breakdown.
4. Pick the tag, list or form the trigger watches — or leave it on "any" to fire for all of them. Date triggers take a date field and an optional offset. Only this workspace's tags, lists and forms can be chosen; through the API a reference to another workspace's template, tag, list or form is refused with a 400 that names the offending field.
5. Decide whether a contact may go through more than once. This is off by default, except for an anniversary trigger, which starts yearly — see Letting contacts repeat.
6. Draw the flow (see below), then save. The automation is created as a Draft.

Building the flow

Every connector carries a +, starting with the one directly beneath the trigger. Click it, choose a step type, and the step is inserted at that point with whatever was below pushed down beneath it.

Click a step's card to open its settings underneath the canvas. The card itself shows a summary — the subject line, the tag's name, "3 rules, match any" — so you can read the flow without opening anything. A card outlined in amber is missing something it needs, and will do nothing until you fill it in.

A Condition grows two connectors, Yes and No, and you build a branch under each. Two branches may end at the same step, so a shared ending is only built once.

Moving and deleting steps

Use the ⋮ menu on a card:

• Move step — every connector turns into a target; click where it should go. Nothing is dragged, so this works on a phone as well as a desktop.
• Delete step — the gap closes and the steps on either side join up.

Example: 3-email welcome series

Here's how to build a classic three-email welcome series that introduces new subscribers to your brand over five days:

1. Set the trigger to List Joined and select your main newsletter list.
2. Add a Send Email step and select your "Welcome" template. This is the first email the contact receives shortly after subscribing (on a double opt-in list, shortly after they confirm).
3. Add a Wait step and set it to 2 days. This gives the subscriber time to read the welcome email before the next one arrives.
4. Add a second Send Email step with your "Top Tips" template — content that delivers immediate value and sets expectations for your emails.
5. Add a Wait step and set it to 3 days.
6. Add a third Send Email step with your "Special Welcome Offer" template. This final email includes a time-sensitive discount or invitation.
7. Optionally add an Add Tag step at the end to apply a welcome-series-complete tag. This makes it easy to see who has finished the series, and can trigger the next sequence.

Your completed workflow should look like this in the builder:

• Trigger: List Joined — Newsletter
• Step 1: Send Email — Welcome
• Step 2: Wait — 2 days
• Step 3: Send Email — Top Tips
• Step 4: Wait — 3 days
• Step 5: Send Email — Special Welcome Offer
• Step 6: Add Tag — welcome-series-complete

Anyone who unsubscribes during the two waits leaves the sequence automatically, so no status checks are needed.

Saving and activating

Click the save button when you are done. The builder does not auto-save, so save before leaving the page. Saving creates the automation as a Draft and opens its detail page.

When your workflow is ready, click Activate (the play button) on the detail page. SendBeam checks that your account has a free slot within its plan's live-automation limit (1 on Free, 5 on Starter, unlimited on Pro and Business); if not, it tells you to pause another automation or upgrade.

Once active, the automation begins enrolling contacts as its trigger fires. Event triggers run the first steps at once; a wait, or a date trigger, is honoured by the scheduler within about a minute.