When it comes to email automation, you have several options. Sometimes, you just want to automatically send new subscribers a pdf (or another incentive) and no further emails. Other times, you want to send subscribers an entire email series after they've signed up (for example a mini course or drip campaign).
If you want to send a pdf when someone signs up, follow these steps: Go to Forms, choose a Form type and click the Create button or use an existing form. Make sure double opt-in is switched on, then click on the Double opt-in email tab. Edit the email as preferred. The user is first subscribed after clicking the confirmation button.
Now click on the Double opt-in thank you page tab. This is where the customer lands after the confirmation and a good spot to insert your pdf file. You need to host your pdf on an external server, like Google Drive or Dropbox, and use the weblink. You can edit the page or insert the URL to your own landing page right below the editor.
To create a sequence of emails or “Workflows” as we call it in MailerLite, head to to Automation tab. Here you'll see all your automated series connected to the specific form you're editing at the moment. Click Create new automation to create a new email sequence related to that signup form.
The trigger is automatically set. You can change the trigger to for example "When subscriber joins a form," "When subscriber joins a group" or "When subscriber clicks a link." In the video, we look at all the different triggers. When you've chosen the right trigger, click Save and start building your workflow.
To add an email to the workflow (for example containing your pdf file), click the plus button. Add a subject line and enter the sender details. Use Google UTM support tags if your site supports that and choose your preferred language.
For designing the email, you can use our Drag & drop editor, custom HTML editor, or Rich Text editor. Select a recent email from sent, a draft or even another automation to begin with. For this tutorial, we’re using an existing email from the sent folder. This is the email your subscribers will receive immediately after signing up.
If you're happy with your workflow, don't forget to activate it.
In the Automation tab, you'll see all the different automations you've created. You can filter, sort and group them to keep things organized.
With the orange button upper right, you can Create a new workflow. Add a name and select a trigger for this workflow. For this workflow, we'll choose the most common trigger when a subscriber joins a group. Choose the group, whether the workflow should repeat itself every time someone unsubscribes and subscribes and optionally, e-commerce tracking. When you are done editing, click Save and start building your workflow.
Clicking the plus icon allows you to add 4 different types of steps.
If you want the person to get the email 2 days later, you can add a delay. This is the second step in our 4-step-process. Click on Delay, add a number of 2 days, and click Save.
Then add a New email. Edit it to your liking and click Done editing. You can add as many emails and delays as you need.
You also have the option to create a condition. You can add up to 5 conditions at the same time. Use the All rule when the subscriber needs to adhere to all the different conditions, or the Any rule when just 1 condition needs to be true.
Choose from these conditions:
Campaign activity (e.g. has opened a certain email)
Workflow activity (e.g. has opened a certain email)
Custom fields (e.g. country contains US)
Group membership (subscriber needs to be part of group)
Segment membership (subscriber needs to be part of a segment)
For the readers that, for example, did open the email(s), you can add an action. In the actions condition you can:
Update a custom field
Copy subscribers to a new group
Move subscribers to a new group
Remove subscribers from a group
Mark subscribers as unsubscribed
Move subscribers to another step
We’ll choose to copy subscribers to a group called “Engaged," as they opened the emails.
If they haven't opened the emails, you can add another action under the Red thumb. In this video, we'll choose unsubscribe.
Make sure to add a delay before adding an action (if needed). For example, add a delay when you put the unsubscribe action directly after a condition that says "Subscriber opened an email." Why? If you don't, our system immediately checks after an email is sent out whether the email is opened, giving subscribers no time to open the email.
Feel free to add more emails, conditions, etc. Make it as easy or complicated as you wish!
If all of the steps are completed, the workflow can be activated. While the workflow is on, you can click on any step to edit it or view the report of a specific email.
However, to add or delete steps, you have to turn the workflow off first. When deleting a condition, for example, you have the option to delete both branches, delete only the Yes branch or only the No branch.
When you add a workflow that starts with the trigger "When subscriber joins a group" and you also want the existing subscribers in that group to receive the workflow, you need to select this manually. Click in the workflow editor on Add subscribers to workflow on the right-hand side. In the pop-up you'll see how many subscribers will be added and you can choose from where you want these subscribers to start (the beginning or a specific step).
Once you're done, activate the workflow again.
To view all of your workflows, click on Back to automation. From this view you can:
Organize your workflows into folders
Filter and sort workflows
Hover over to see the email in the workflow
View or edit the report
Delete the workflow altogether
When you click on a particular workflow, you'll see a detailed overview. Here you can see your stats and activities, where subscribers are currently in the workflow, what emails are in your workflow, e-commerce information and the history of your changes. You can also restore older versions.
To learn more, you can read this article which explains how to create an automation workflow.