Automated Workflows

Automated Workflows are a core feature of Maildrone, designed to help you automate your email marketing journeys. Through visual configuration, you can trigger a series of emails, logical branching, and even external API calls based on user behavior, tag changes, or specific schedules.

Whether you want to build a "Welcome Series" for new users or a win-back campaign for inactive users, Workflows make it easy.

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Core Concepts

A complete automated workflow consists of four key components:

1. Triggers: Determine when and how a contact enters the workflow.
2. Steps: The actions executed sequentially after a contact enters.
3. Exit Conditions: Global interruption rules. If met, the contact immediately exits the workflow and stops receiving further steps.
4. Send Windows: Global constraints ensuring emails are only sent during your specified days and hours.

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1. Triggers

Triggers define the starting point of your workflow. Maildrone currently supports the following trigger types:

• Contact Added (contact_added): Triggered when a new contact is added to an audience list (most commonly used for Welcome Series).
• Tag Changed (tag_changed): Triggered when a specific tag is added to or removed from a contact (e.g., tagged as VIP).
• Contact Unsubscribed (contact_unsubscribed): Triggered when a contact unsubscribes.
• Email Clicked (email_clicked): Triggered when a contact clicks a specific link in a historical email.
• Schedule (schedule): Triggered on a predefined specific date and time.
• API Trigger (api): Triggered actively via external systems calling Maildrone's webhook/API.
• Manual (manual): Manually select and enroll a batch of contacts into the workflow.

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2. Step Types

Once enrolled, contacts move through your configured Steps sequentially. We provide four powerful step types:

Email Step

Send a pre-designed email template.

• Features: Supports custom Subject Overrides and Variable Mapping to dynamically replace template placeholders with contact attributes.

Delay Step

Add waiting time between two steps to create marketing intervals.

• Time Units: Supports minutes, hours, days, and weeks.
• Example: Send the first email, wait for 3 days, then send the second email.

Condition Step

Create logical branches (If/Else) based on contact behavior or attributes. The system evaluates the condition and directs the contact down the Yes or No path.

• Supported Condition Types:
  • opened_email (Has opened a specific historical email)
  • not_opened_email (Has not opened a specific historical email)
  • clicked_link (Has clicked a specific link in an email)
  • has_tag (Contact currently has a specific tag)
• Example: Check if the user opened the first email within 48 hours. If Yes, send an advanced tutorial; if No, resend a reminder.

API Call Step

Gives your workflow powerful system integration capabilities, allowing it to send requests to your own servers or third-party SaaS.

• Features: Supports all mainstream HTTP Methods (GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE).
• Configuration: Customizable URL, Headers, Query Parameters, and Request Body (JSON, Form, Text).
• Example: When a user upgrades and becomes a VIP, call your backend API to update their status in your database.

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3. Global Configurations

To make workflows smarter and better suited to your business scenarios, you can configure the following rules at the workflow level:

Exit Conditions

Once configured, no matter which step the contact is currently on, if they meet the exit condition, they will be immediately terminated and marked as exited.

• Supported Types:
  • link_clicked (Clicked a specific link: goal achieved)
  • unsubscribed (Contact unsubscribed)
  • tag_added (Tagged with a specific tag, e.g., purchased)
  • replied (Replied to an email)

Send Windows

You can restrict all email actions (Email Steps) to only trigger within specific timeframes, preventing users from being disturbed late at night or on weekends.

• Configurations:
  • Days: Allowed days of the week (e.g., Monday to Friday only).
  • Time Range: Allowed hours (e.g., 09:00 - 18:00).
  • Timezone: Timezone setting.

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4. Enrollment Status

Every contact entering a workflow has a clear status record:

• active: Currently in the flow, possibly waiting (Delay) or queuing for the next step.
• completed: Finished all predefined steps successfully.
• exited: Triggered a global Exit Condition and terminated early.
• paused: Manually paused; no actions will be executed during this time.

You can view step-by-step progress (e.g., delivered, opened, skipped) in the status dashboard.

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Common Use Cases

Scenario 1: New User Welcome Series

• Trigger: contact_added
• Step 1: Send welcome email template.
• Step 2: Delay 2 days.
• Step 3: Send core product feature tutorial.
• Global Exit Condition: tag_added (If the user purchases the product during this time and your system tags them as purchased, they will automatically exit and stop receiving tutorial emails).

Scenario 2: Inactive User Win-back

• Trigger: tag_changed (System marks them as inactive)
• Step 1: Send win-back email with a discount coupon.
• Step 2: Delay 3 days.
• Step 3: Condition Step (opened_email)
  • Yes Branch: They saw it but didn't use it, no need to bother them further.
  • No Branch: They didn't even open the coupon email; resend with a more attractive subject line.

Start your automated marketing journey today! Head over to the Workflows page in your dashboard and click "Create Workflow" to try it yourself!