> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://crevio.co/docs/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Email sequences > Send a series of emails that goes out on its own: a welcome for new subscribers, a follow-up after a purchase, or a short course delivered over a few days. 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](https://crevio.co/docs/features/email-marketing.md#send-a-broadcast-or-newsletter) instead. ## 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. **1. Tell Crevio what you want** For example: "create a five-email welcome sequence for my new subscribers that ends with an offer for my course", or "after someone buys my guide, send a thank-you the next day and a tips email three days later". **2. Check who joins and when** Crevio picks who joins (see [How people join](#how-people-join) below) and how long each email waits after the previous one. For the first email, the wait counts from the moment someone joins. A wait of 0 sends the first email straight away. **3. Read the emails** Crevio writes each email's subject, an optional preview line, and the message, and shows them to you. Ask for any change, such as "make the second email shorter". **4. Turn it on** A new sequence is off. Nothing is sent and nobody joins until it's turned on. Crevio asks for your approval before turning it on or adding anyone to it. ## Personalize your emails Put these in a subject, preview line or message, and each person gets their own version: | Write | Becomes | | - | - | | `{{ customer.first_name }}` | The person's first name. | | `{{ customer.last_name }}` | Their last name. | | `{{ customer.email }}` | Their email address. | | `{{ product.name }}` | The product they bought, in a sequence that starts when someone buys. If they bought several at once, it's the first one in their order that the sequence starts on. | | `{{ product.url }}` | A link to that product's page. | | `{{ order.product_names }}` | Everything in their order, like "Toddler Sleep and Potty Training in 7 Days". | | `{{ tag.name }}` | The tag that added them, in a sequence that starts when someone gets a tag. | | `{{ form.name }}` | The form they signed up through, in a sequence that starts when someone new signs up. | | `{{ customer.fields.company }}` | A custom field you keep on the person, here one called `company`. See [Custom fields](#custom-fields). | | `{{ business.name }}` | Your business name. | 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. ### 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](https://crevio.co/docs/developer/guides/email.md#variables) 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. > [!NOTE] > > Some people sign up with only an email address. For them, Crevio uses the first part of their address as their first name, so `{{ customer.first_name }}` can read like "Jsmith42". A default doesn't help there, because the name isn't empty. ### 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. ## 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: | The customer | Product, order, tag and form details come from | | - | - | | Is in the sequence | What they joined with, the same as their real emails. | | Isn't in the sequence but has bought | Their latest order. | | Isn't in the sequence and hasn't bought | Nowhere, so those details are empty. | 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](#daily-email-limit). You can send up to 5 tests a minute. ## How people join Each sequence has one way in: | Who joins | What it means | | - | - | | **Only people I add** | Nobody joins on their own. You ask Crevio to add people. | | **Someone new signs up** | Anyone who becomes a new lead, for example through one of your [forms](https://crevio.co/docs/features/forms.md). | | **Someone gets a tag** | Anyone who is given the tag you pick. | | **Someone buys** | Anyone who pays for an order. Pick products to include only those, or leave it empty for any purchase. | 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](https://crevio.co/docs/features/email-marketing.md#send-a-broadcast-or-newsletter) 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](https://crevio.co/docs/features/email-marketing.md#who-you-cant-email). ### 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. ## 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". ### 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. ### 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. ## When people leave early Everyone leaves after the last email. These rules stop someone sooner: | Reason | What happens | | - | - | | **They unsubscribe** | Every email includes an unsubscribe link. Unsubscribing stops every sequence they're in and adds them to your suppression list. | | **Their address bounces or they mark you as spam** | They stop, and they're added to your suppression list. | | **They buy** | Ask for the sequence to stop if they buy anything, or only if they buy certain products. Only purchases made after they joined count, so the order that started a sequence never stops it. Subscription renewals count as purchases. | | **They get a tag** | Name one or more tags. | | **They reply** | Ask for the sequence to stop when they reply. Any email from them that reaches your Crevio inbox after they joined counts, including automatic out-of-office replies. | | **You remove them** | Ask Crevio to remove them. They can't be added back later. | > [!TIP] > > For any sequence that sells something, have it stop when they buy. Nobody likes getting the sales pitch for something they just paid for. ### 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](https://crevio.co/docs/features/email-marketing.md#your-inbox-inside-crevio) like any other email. ## 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. ## 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. | State | Sends emails | New people join | | - | - | - | | **Off** (not turned on yet) | No | No | | **On** | Yes | Yes | | **Paused** | No | No | ## 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. ## 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. > [!NOTE] > > Opens and clicks work the same way as for broadcasts. Click numbers stay empty until you connect your own domain, and Apple Mail makes some opens look like reads. See [See how it performed](https://crevio.co/docs/features/email-marketing.md#see-how-it-performed). ## 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](#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. ## If something goes wrong > [accordion] Someone I expected never got the first email > > Ask Crevio whether the sequence is on and whether they're in it. Nobody joins while it's off or paused. If they aren't in it, check that they joined after you turned the sequence on, that they aren't on your suppression list, and that the tag or purchase came from a real order rather than an import or a test order. > [accordion] Someone is stuck on Waiting to confirm > > They haven't clicked the confirmation link in the email your form sent. They get nothing from the sequence until they do. > [accordion] An email went out later than its wait > > It probably fell on a day the sequence doesn't send on, or you reached your daily email limit. In both cases it goes out at the next chance, without being skipped. > [accordion] I can't turn the sequence on > > Add at least one email first. ## Related > [card] [Email your customers](https://crevio.co/docs/features/email-marketing.md) > > Broadcasts, your inbox, and who you can't email. > [card] [Forms & lead capture](https://crevio.co/docs/features/forms.md) > > Collect sign-ups and tag them so they join a sequence. > [card] [Tags & segments](https://crevio.co/docs/features/tags.md) > > Tag customers to start or stop a sequence. > [card] [Customers](https://crevio.co/docs/features/customers.md) > > See who's on your list. This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.