Sequences and automations

The big picture#

Good sales work is mostly following up. Most people forget, or do it late. Sequences and automations do the remembering for you.

• A sequence is for messages. You plan, say, a first email today, a second email four days later, and a WhatsApp message a week after that. Then you enrol a contact, and Hubtoll sends each step on its day.
• An automation is for jobs. It is a rule: when this happens, and if these things are true, do this. No one has to click anything.

Where everything lives#

In the left menu under Customer Relationship Management:

Sequences#

Before you start#

• Every email step needs a saved email template.
• To send emails you need a connected mailbox. See Connect your mailbox.
• Every WhatsApp step needs an approved WhatsApp template and your company's WhatsApp channel connected. This depends on Meta approving Hubtoll's connection, so check with your administrator first. See chat channels.

Build a sequence#

1. Open Sequences and click New sequence.
2. Type a Sequence name, for example New lead nurture. Add a Description (optional).
3. The first step is already there. In Send, type how many days after enrolment it should go. Type 0 to send it straight away.
4. Pick the Channel (Email or WhatsApp) and the template.
5. Click Add step. For this step, type how many days to Wait after the previous step, then pick its channel and template.
6. Drag a step by its grip to put the steps in a different order.
7. Click Save.

Each step waits the number of days you set after the step before it, not from the start. A sequence with waits of 0, 3 and 4 sends on day 0, day 3 and day 7. Click a sequence to see The Cadence: a timeline that says Day 0, Day 3, Day 7 with the template for each.

A sequence can only fill one blank in a WhatsApp template: {{1}}, which is the contact's name. A template that needs more is refused with a message that says so.

Enrol contacts#

1. In the Sequences list, click the Enrol contacts icon on the row. (You can also open the sequence and click Enrol contacts.)
2. If the sequence has email steps, choose Send email steps from (your mailbox).
3. Under Contact, pick a contact. Click Add contact for more. Each contact starts at step 1.
4. Click Enrol.

Hubtoll quietly skips a contact who is already active in that sequence, or who is marked Do not email. You will not see an error. The skipped contact does not appear in the list.

You can enrol contacts only while the sequence is Active. If it is paused, Hubtoll says: Activate the sequence before enrolling contacts.

When a sequence stops by itself#

An enrolment ends in one of three ways, shown as its status:

• Completed: every step was sent.
• Stopped: it was stopped before the end.
• Active: still going.

Hubtoll stops an enrolment by itself when:

• The contact replies. Any reply stops that contact's active sequences, by email or chat. Nobody keeps getting follow-ups after answering.
• The contact is marked Do not email. This stops the whole sequence for them, including WhatsApp steps.
• The sending mailbox or WhatsApp channel was disconnected.
• You stop it. In the sequence, find the contact and click Stop sending. Hubtoll asks Stop enrolment? and says no further steps will be sent.

If a step's template has been deactivated, that step cannot go out. Hubtoll waits and tries again later. Turn the template on again and it carries on.

Pause, edit and delete#

Each row in Sequences has icon buttons: Enrol contacts, Edit, Pause (or Activate) and Delete.

• Pause stops sending for everyone in the sequence. Their place is kept. When you Activate it again, sending resumes within about an hour.
• Edit is blocked while contacts are active in it. Hubtoll says: This sequence has active enrollments. Stop them before changing its steps.
• Delete is blocked in three cases. Each message says what to do: This sequence has active enrollments. Stop them or deactivate it instead of deleting, This sequence has enrollment history. Deactivate it instead of deleting, and This sequence is in use by an automation. Deactivate it instead of deleting. Deleting cannot be undone.

Automations#

An automation reads like a sentence: When this happens (and only if these things are true), do this.

Build an automation#

1. Open Automations and click New automation.
2. Type an Automation name, for example New deal: task the owner. Add a Description (optional).
3. Under When This Happens, choose the Record type (Deal, Contact or Lead) and the Trigger.
4. Under Only If, add conditions. Leave it empty to run for every matching record.
5. Under Do This, pick an Action, fill it in, and click Add action for more. Actions run in the order you list them. You need at least one.
6. Click Save.

Triggers#

For Scheduled (time-based), set Rerun cooldown (days). It stops the rule from running again on the same record inside that many days. The default is 30 days. At most 500 records are handled per check.

Conditions: Only If#

Use the same filter box you know from lists. You can pick fields of the record, such as Status, Amount, Expected close date, Owner, Stage, Source, or Do not email for contacts. Combine them with and/or.

If the stage you chose in a trigger has since been deleted, the rule's View page says That stage no longer exists, so the rule can't fire until it is re-pointed. Edit it and pick a new stage.

Actions: Do This#

A Lead automation cannot send, text or enrol, because a lead has no contact yet. Convert the lead first. Hubtoll says so when you try.

Automations send as the mailbox owner, so you can only pick your own mailbox. If you pick someone else's, Hubtoll says: This mailbox belongs to another user. Automations send as the mailbox owner, so pick your own.

See what an automation did#

Click a row (or its View action) to open the rule in plain words:

• When This Happens, Only If and Do This, written as sentences.
• Recent Runs: the last 25 times it ran, newest first, with Status, Record, What happened and When.

A run has one of these statuses:

When an action is skipped, the note says why. Common reasons: mailbox not connected, template deactivated, template not found, no contact email, no contact phone, contact opted out, WhatsApp channel not connected, template not approved, and SMS channel not connected.

Pause, edit and delete#

• Pause switches a rule off without losing it. Activate turns it back on.
• Edit opens the same window as New automation. People who can only look see the View window with no Edit automation button.
• Delete asks Delete automation? and warns that it stops running for new records. Deleting cannot be undone.

Opt-outs#

The Do not email switch on a contact is respected by Send template email and Enrol in sequence: they skip that contact and record contact opted out. Send WhatsApp template and Send SMS do not check that switch, so keep those actions for people who agreed to hear from you that way. See Opt-outs.

Who can do what#

People with only CRM_MANAGEMENT_INITIATOR can look but not change. If your CRM seat lapses, everything becomes read-only. See Roles and the permission reference.

Common questions#

To see how your follow-ups turn into results, build a report. See CRM reports and dashboards.