(7 min read)

Automations are workflows that execute automatically and help you streamline repetitive tasks. You can leverage the information you learn about your supporters or donors to create more personalized interactions or you can automate your own workflow to make it easier for you to accomplish more with your time.
Read an overview of Automations


To create Automations, you can either select a pre-designed template and adjust it to your needs or build one from scratch using the Workflow Builder. The templates that are available are designed to help you either automate some of your daily Workflow tasks or to automate your Marketing outreach efforts.

Getting Started

To get started, you can launch the Automation tool from the Sidebar or from Main Menu > Engagement > Automation.

On the Automation overview page, you can create new workflows, search for particular workflows, and see important summary information for each workflow, such as the status and the most recent entry.

To begin a new workflow, select either Build from a template or Start from scratch.

• Build from a template opens a pre-designed layout of steps suggested for that task. You can add or subtract steps as needed to customize your workflow from the template.
• Start from scratch will open a blank workflow creation page where you can add steps one by one.

If you select Build from a template, you’ll see a list of templates that are available to you.
Read more about Automation templates

When you select a template, you can then choose a unique name for the workflow and add a brief description.

Once you are satisfied, you can select Build Workflow to begin customizing the template to your needs.

Understanding the Workflow Builder environment

At the top of the Workflow Builder, you will see a navigation bar with several tabs and dropdown menus. The back arrow will exit the builder and return you to the Automation overview page.

Once your workflow is active, you can use the Performance tab to see an overview of how many contacts have completed your workflow and how many contacts are advancing through various points in the workflow.

On the upper right, you will also see a button with a dropdown menu that toggles between Draft and Run Check to Activate.

Below the navigation bar, you will see a tray containing the Summary information that you selected from the previous dialogue as well as a work area that is pre-loaded with several workflow steps.

To edit any of the Summary information, roll over each entry and use the Edit pencil icon to enter edit mode for that field. You can also dismiss the tray using the X or open it again using the Information button.

Next to the Summary is the workflow layout. If you've selected a pre-configured template, you will see several steps already included in your layout.

You can now begin to customize or add steps by adding your saved searches and selected emails or other actions to each step.

Saved searches are at the heart of our Automation process, so it's important to give some thought before you begin about how to build effective queries that will segment your contacts the way you wish.
 

Building or customizing your workflow

Begin by clicking on the Start step to open it. You will see a dialogue box that lets you select criteria for this step including how often contacts can enter this workflow (one time or unlimited times) and which contacts to include or exclude based on your pre-saved searches or using Create a new saved search. Once you’ve added your search, you will later be able to edit the audience using Edit Search.

Between each step is a plus sign +. You can use this link to add additional steps. 

If you are using a template, you will see several suggested steps already added. You can click into each step to see more details and customize it with your own searches or content. If you are building from scratch, use the plus sign to add your steps.
 

Adding an Action Step

The Action step lets you choose which action to execute. The list of actions includes ALL the possible actions, but the ones you can Publish as part of your workflow will depend on your  permissions. You should speak with your organization's administrator if you aren't sure which permissions you have. You may need to change your User Profile or arrange for a higher-level user to Publish the workflow you've created.



Once you have selected the Action you want to automate, the item will be added to your workflow and you will see a setup screen for that item that will allow you to select your criteria or settings for that step. (This will vary depending on the Action item you select.)

Adding a Wait step

The Wait step lets you determine how long to wait before executing the next step. This is useful for a workflow where a contact will be receiving multiple emails in succession from you. You don't want to send all your emails in the workflow at once! This lets you control the timing of each message to your supporter.

Using Decision steps

The Decision step adds a simple Yes or No step based on a saved search. Any contacts who meet your search criteria will go down the Yes path, while those who don't will advance through the No path. This step will also add an additional endpoint to the workflow.

When you add or open a Decision step, you’ll be asked whether you want to use a Saved search or use the Result of a previous step in the workflow to help you segment your contacts.


Choosing the Result of a previous step will allow you to do a quick segmentation based on how contacts interacted with your last email or mobile message in the workflow. Select which type of Action step you want to use and then select which type of respondents you want to include in your YES path.

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The Result of previous step option will always use the email or mobile messaging step just prior to the Decision step you are using to create a branch. If you change your workflow by adding email or mobile messaging steps above a Result of previous step decision, you may need to update your Decision step to make sure it is referencing the intended step.

If you don’t have an email or SMS Action step in your workflow before your Decision, you will see a warning.


For more sophisticated segmentation, you can add or create a Saved search to determine which workflow participants will continue down your YES path.

While Decision steps are not required, they can help you create a branching workflow with customized responses based on the results of the previous step. 

For example, if you are soliciting certain contacts for a donation, you can Wait a month to see if they respond. You could then use a Decision step with a saved search that identifies all contacts who donated in the last month. Any contacts who did contribute can then go down the Yes path and you can add an Action step to Send an email to thank them. Any contacts who have not yet given would go down the No path and you can add a second email to let them know how important their donation is to you and urging them to give.
 

Reaching your endpoint

Once you have finished creating or customizing all your steps, you can then customize each endpoint in your workflow with a unique title. Once a contact reaches an endpoint, they will finish that particular workflow.

Deleting a step

If you need to delete any of the steps you created, you can open the step and use the Trash icon at the bottom of the dialogue to delete that step.

If the step has child steps after it, you will need to delete each child individually before you can delete the current step.

Activating your Automation

Once you are satisfied with your workflow, Run check to activate from the dropdown menu under Draft. This will make sure your workflow is working properly.


Once all your steps are confirmed to have the required information, you’ll then be asked to choose the Preferred run time for your workflow. The default is Anytime between 9:00 am and 9:00 pm ET. If you wish to change this, you can select an approximate time and time zone preference to run the workflow.



You can also select whether you want contacts in this Automation to be suppressed from your other Targeted Email by default. This prevents contacts from receiving too many emails at once from your organization. You can also oexclude contacts in an automation on an email by email basis in Targeted Email.

Once you confirm your settings, you will then be asked if you are ready to activate your Automation.
 

Editing an active Automation

If you are working on an already existing and active workflow, you will need to put it into Paused mode to halt the flow of contacts through the steps and put it back into edit mode. Once you are finished editing, you can return the workflow to Active.

You can Pause and edit the automation from the action dropdown menu on the Automation list page.
 

You can also Pause the Automation using the dropdown menu at the top right of the Workflow Builder.