Email sequences

A sequence is a series of emails that each person gets one at a time, on a schedule you set. Someone joins, gets the first email, then the next one a few days later, and so on until the last one. Use a sequence when every new person should get the same emails in the same order, whenever they arrive: a welcome series for newsletter sign-ups, tips after someone buys, or a five-day email course. For one email sent to many people at once, use a broadcast instead.

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Create a sequence

The quickest way is to ask Crevio in chat. You can also open Email in your dashboard menu and switch to the Sequences tab to see and change your sequences.

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Personalize your emails

Put these in a subject, preview line or message, and each person gets their own version: When Crevio doesn’t know a value, it becomes nothing. To show something else instead, add a default: Hi {{ customer.first_name | default: "there" }}, reads “Hi Ana,” for Ana and “Hi there,” for someone without a name. Product, order, tag and form details are what they were at the moment the person joined, so a later email still names what they bought or signed up for, even if you rename or remove it afterwards. Each one is empty in a sequence that starts another way. {{ form.name }} is also empty for someone who became a lead without a form, for example by booking with no questions or being added by hand. Anything else in double braces is refused when the email is saved, so a typo can’t reach your customers.

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Custom fields

A custom field is a detail you keep on a customer that Crevio has no box for, like their company, their dog’s name or their plan. Ask Crevio to save one, for example “save Acme as Ana’s company”. Apps connected through the Crevio API can set them too. Write {{ customer.fields. and the field’s name, then }}. The name can use letters, numbers and underscores, and capitals count, so company and Company are different fields. Unlike tags and forms, a custom field is read when each email goes out, so a change reaches every email that hasn’t been sent yet. Forms don’t fill custom fields. A form’s answers stay with the form submission, so a question like “What’s your company?” doesn’t become {{ customer.fields.company }} by itself. To use answers in your emails, ask Crevio to copy them onto your customers as custom fields.

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Add a detail without typing it

Crevio writes these for you when it drafts an email. When you edit one yourself in the dashboard, click the button next to the subject, the preview line or the message. It lists every detail you can use in plain words, like “First name” and “Product name”, followed by the custom fields your customers already have. Pick one and it goes in where your cursor is. First name comes with a default, so it reads “there” for someone without a name.

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Preview and test an email

Ask Crevio to show you an email the way a customer gets it, for example “show me the second welcome email as Ana would see it”, or to “send a test of the second welcome email to my email”. In the dashboard, open the email and click Preview. Under Preview as, pick a customer to see the subject, the preview line and the whole email with their details filled in, including changes you haven’t saved yet. Nothing is sent, and nothing about the customer changes. Below the picker, Crevio says whose details it used: Pick Nobody to see every default. The list shows your 250 newest customers. Click Send me a test to get the email in your own inbox, with “[Test]” in front of the subject and the details of the customer you picked. It comes from the same address as the real email. A test goes only to the email you sign in with, or, when Crevio sends it, to someone on your team. It doesn’t count in the sequence’s numbers, doesn’t add anyone to the sequence, and its unsubscribe link doesn’t unsubscribe anyone. It does count toward your daily email limit. You can send up to 5 tests a minute.

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How people join

Each sequence has one way in: To welcome newsletter subscribers, have the sequence start when someone gets the tag your newsletter form adds. A form only adds its tag once the person has confirmed their address (if the form asks them to), so only confirmed subscribers get the welcome series. Some things to know:

• People join from the moment it’s on. Customers you already had don’t join on their own. Ask Crevio to add them, or send them a broadcast instead.
• Nobody joins the same sequence twice. Someone who finished it, left early, or was removed won’t join it again, even if they get the tag or buy again.
• Importing customers doesn’t start sequences. Tags added by a customer import don’t count, so an import never sends a welcome series to your whole list.
• Test purchases don’t count. Orders made in test mode never start a sequence.
• People on your suppression list can’t join. Someone who unsubscribed, bounced, or marked your email as spam is skipped. See Who you can’t email.

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Adding someone by hand

On a sequence that’s on, ask Crevio to add someone by their email address. They start at the first email. If they aren’t one of your contacts yet, Crevio adds them as a lead. That also counts as someone new signing up, so they join any sequence that starts that way, too.

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When emails go out

Each email waits its set time after the previous one. Waits are exact: “1 day” means 24 hours later, so emails go out at about the same time of day the person joined. You can’t set a fixed send time like “9 AM”.

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Send days

You can limit the days of the week emails go out, for example “only send on weekdays”. An email that comes due on another day waits for the next send day, at the same time of day. For example, with only weekdays on, an email due Saturday at 10:00 goes out Monday at 10:00. Days follow your business time zone.

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Daily email limit

Sequence emails count toward the same daily email limit as your broadcasts. If you reach it, the emails that are due wait and go out after the limit resets at midnight UTC. Nothing is skipped, and the next emails keep their waits from when the delayed one actually went out.

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When people leave early

Everyone leaves after the last email. These rules stop someone sooner:

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Replies

While a sequence stops on replies, replies go to your Crevio inbox, so Crevio can see them. You can read and answer replies in your inbox like any other email.

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Editing a sequence that’s on

You can change a sequence at any time, including while it’s sending. Changes reach the people already in it:

• Adding an email reaches everyone who hasn’t reached that point yet. People already past it don’t get it. An email added at the end reaches everyone still in the sequence, but not people who already finished.
• Removing an email moves the people waiting for it on to the next one. If it was the last email, they finish.
• Moving an email works the same way. Nobody ever gets the same email twice, even if you move one they already got further down.
• Changing a wait updates when the next email goes out for the people waiting for it, counted from their previous email. If the new time has already passed, it goes out right away.
• Changing the subject or message applies to every email sent from then on. Emails already sent don’t change.

A sequence that’s on needs at least one email. To remove the last one, pause the sequence first.

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Pause, resume, and delete

• Pause stops all sending, and nobody new joins. Everyone keeps their place. When you Resume, emails that came due during the pause go out shortly after.
• Delete stops the sequence for everyone in it, for good.

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Double opt-in

If your form asks new sign-ups to confirm their email address, sequences wait for that. Someone who joins before confirming shows as Waiting to confirm and gets nothing. Their first email’s wait starts when they confirm. Someone who never confirms is never emailed.

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See how it’s doing

Ask Crevio how a sequence is doing. It can tell you how many people are in progress, how many finished, and how many stopped early, and for each email how many times it was sent, opened, clicked, and how many people unsubscribed from it. It can also tell you where a given person is and when their next email goes out.

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Limits

• A sequence holds up to 50 emails.
• Each person goes through the same emails in the same order. There’s no branching, such as sending a different email to people who clicked.
• Emails can be personalized only with the details in Personalize your emails. There are no conditions, such as one sentence for buyers and another for leads.
• Nobody can go through the same sequence twice.

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If something goes wrong

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