Build a welcome automation

Open your automations

Start on the Automations screen, where every flow lives. Each one carries a status so you can see at a glance what is live and what is still a work in progress.

• Draft means Not live yet, Active means Running, Paused means it can be resumed, and Completed means it has finished.
• Use the status filters and the name search to find a flow, then open the one you want to work on.

When you are ready, create your first flow.

Open your automations in Mailsoftly

Start from a template

You do not have to build from a blank canvas. Opening the create dialog shows a gallery of ready made flows grouped into Onboarding, Retention and win-back, Engagement, and Lead capture.

• For a welcome flow, pick Welcome new contact, which greets each new contact, waits a few days, then follows up.
• Preview shows the steps first, then Use this template drops a working draft into the builder with the trigger and steps already wired.
• Prefer to build your own? Start blank opens an empty canvas instead.

A template gets you to a working draft far faster than starting from scratch.

Map the flow in the builder

The builder shows your flow as a trigger at the top followed by a vertical list of steps you can drag to reorder. The trigger decides who enters and when.

• Open the trigger to see "When should this automation start?". For a welcome flow the answer is usually "Trigger when a contact is created.", "Trigger when a contact is added to a contact list." or "Trigger when a form response is received.", depending on how people reach you. There are thirteen to choose from, so the next two steps are about nothing else.
• Add a Condition step to branch the path. It asks a yes or no question, such as "Was the email clicked?", and splits into a green YES path and a red NO path. Read the flow top to bottom and confirm both branches lead somewhere sensible.

Pick the trigger that matches how people reach you

Thirteen triggers sit behind that question, sorted into five groups. Read the group heading first, then the line beside each trigger, and you will land on the right one without opening them all.

Contact Events, for something that happens to a contact record.

• "Trigger when a contact is created." Use this when everyone who lands in your account should be greeted, however they got there.
• "Trigger when a contact is updated." Use this when a field change is the news: a plan tier moves up, a renewal date finally gets filled in.
• "Trigger when a tag is added to contact." Use this when your team already sorts people by hand with tags. You choose which tag.
• "Trigger when a contact is added to a contact list." Use this when one list is the real front door and the rest of your account is not.

Engagement, for something a contact does.

• "Trigger when a form response is received." Use this when a signup form is how people join. You pick the specific form, and the response has to carry an email address.
• "Trigger when a campaign is sent." Use this for the follow-up you always send after a broadcast. It runs for every recipient once that campaign finishes sending.

Date & Time, for the calendar rather than an event.

• "Start at a specific date and time." Use this for a one-off: a launch, an event reminder, a closing notice. You pick the moment, the time zone and the list it goes to.
• "Start on a date from each contact (anniversary, renewal…)." Use this when the date lives on the contact. Pick the date field, choose On the date or up to thirty days either side of it, and turn on Repeat every year for anything annual. It sweeps once a day, around 9:00 in the time zone you chose.

Contact Status, for how a contact stands with you.

• "Trigger when it’s a contact’s birthday." Use this for a birthday greeting, and see the note at the end of the next step for the small notification flow it carries.
• "Trigger when a contact becomes Active again." Use this to welcome back someone who has opened or clicked after a quiet stretch.
• "Trigger when a contact becomes Unresponsive." Use this for a re-engagement attempt. You set how long the silence has to last, and forty days is the shortest Mailsoftly will accept.
• "Trigger when a contact unsubscribes." Use this for the housekeeping that follows an opt-out: tag them, take them off a list, tell another system.

Integration, for an event that happens somewhere else entirely.

• ‘Trigger when data is received from a "Webhook Endpoint".’ Use this when your store, your booking tool or your own back end is the thing that knows. Create the endpoint first, then choose it here. Receive data with a webhook endpoint covers the whole setup.

Read the trigger’s fine print, then add extra ways in

Pick a trigger and its own settings open underneath, along with two hint lines: an amber Heads up carrying the thing that catches people out, and a quieter When it runs. They are worth the ten seconds. These are the ones that cause the most head scratching.

• "Trigger when a contact is created." does not fire for an import, or for a contact a form created. If your subscribers arrive by CSV, this trigger will look broken when it is doing exactly what it says.
• "Trigger when a contact is added to a contact list." fires during an import only for contacts that already existed. The brand new rows the import creates do not count.
• "Trigger when a tag is added to contact." will not fire again if the contact already carries that tag.
• "Trigger when a contact is updated." ignores changes made by a CSV import, and anything in the first five minutes of a contact’s life. Even with re-entry allowed, the same person can only come back through every ten minutes.
• "Trigger when a contact unsubscribes." skips every email step for that person, by design. Build it out of tags, lists, webhooks and internal drafts rather than a message.
• "Trigger when a contact becomes Unresponsive." is not instant. A periodic check does the marking, so expect a lag between the silence and the flow.
• "Start at a specific date and time." runs once and stops. To use it again, set a new date and activate the automation again.

Two more controls sit below the settings, and they apply whichever trigger you chose.

• Run only once per contact decides whether somebody can come back through. On, and each person enters at most once, ever. Off, and they enter again every time they match.
• "Also start when…" adds parallel ways in, so a contact arriving by any of them runs the same flow. Six events are on offer here rather than the full thirteen: a contact is created, a contact is updated, a tag is added, added to a contact list, a form is submitted, a contact unsubscribes. Reach for it when one welcome should cover two doors, say a website form and a tag your team adds after an event, instead of maintaining two near identical automations.
• Pair extra start events with the Condition "How did the contact enter?" to send each door down its own path, so form arrivals and tagged arrivals get different first emails. Anything you add has to be complete before the automation will activate.

Configure each action

Every step is an action you can shape. The add action panel groups them into Messaging, Tags & Lists, Contact Data, Integration, and Flow Control.

• Messaging holds Send Email, which picks the template and subject line to send, and Create email draft, which stages a draft without sending anything.
• Tags & Lists covers Add tag, Remove tag, Add to selected lists, and Remove from selected lists, so your audience stays organized as people move through.
• In Flow Control, Wait sets how long to pause before the next step, measured in days, hours, or minutes, "Wait until" pauses until the contact opens or clicks the last email or matches a condition, and Stop ends the flow for that contact.
• A step flagged with a missing fields badge is not finished. Complete the highlighted fields before you try to go live.

Small, clear actions are easier to test and troubleshoot later.

Activate, then enroll the people the trigger will miss

When the flow reads the way you want, activate it. Mailsoftly checks first that the trigger and every step are complete, and warns you if another live automation shares the same trigger.

• You choose whether each contact enters only once or can re-enter every time they match the trigger.
• Open the Contacts tab to confirm real people are enrolling and to see where each one sits in the flow.
• On that same tab, Add Contacts to the Automation runs the flow for people the trigger will never catch: everyone who joined before you built it, or a handful you want to start today. Search and filter down to them, tick the ones you want, then choose Run the automation for selected contacts.

Seeing contacts flow in is your signal that the automation is working.