How to build a drip sequence

A sequence sends each subscriber a series of messages, each a set time after the last. This guide builds one from start to finish. The full reference is Sequences.

Before you start. Sequences need the Growth plan or above to go live (any plan can save a draft).

1. Go to Automations, open the Sequences tab and press New sequence (or open /sequences/new).
2. Type a name in Name, e.g. Welcome drip.
3. The steps run down a line, from Someone subscribes. Each step's wait is on the left of the line. Click it (After 1 day on a new step) and set Send, a number and its unit (minutes, hours or days), after they subscribe (0 sends it as soon as they join, and the line then says Right away).
4. Write the first message in the step's message box. Use Insert variable, or type { and pick from the list, to personalise it with a tag such as First Name. A step you've written closes to one line when you come back to it; click that line to open it again.
5. To send something else instead, press Use existing on an empty step, or Replace in a written step's details or its ⋯ menu. The dialog has three tabs: Write a message (the text in the step's box), Send an existing message and Run a flow.
6. Send an existing message: first choose what happens when the automation's message changes — Keep this version (sends the text as it is now) or Follow the latest (sends its latest published message each time) — then click the automation in the list (or move to it with the arrow keys and press Enter). Only live automations can be picked; paused ones say Paused — not available.
7. Run a flow: choose Follow the latest or Keep this version, set If the flow is still running after this many hours, continue anyway (1 to 168; leave it blank for 24), then click the flow. Subscribers on a different channel from the flow's skip this step. The sequence waits for the flow to finish, or for that time limit, before the next step. WhatsApp: if WhatsApp is connected, each message step also has a WhatsApp template list under the message. A sequence step is sent on a timer, so a WhatsApp contact who hasn't messaged you in the last 24 hours can only get an approved template: pick one, and fill in each Body value (merge tags work). WhatsApp contacts who messaged you in the last 24 hours get your message as written; the others get the template. Choose None and WhatsApp contacts skip the step. If Meta later rejects or pauses the template, or it's deleted, the step says so under its template and WhatsApp contacts wait at that step until it can be sent again or you pick another one. Templates are made in Settings → WhatsApp → Message templates (WhatsApp templates), and Meta bills each template delivery to your WhatsApp Business Account.
8. Read the preview beside each open step. Preview as switches between a contact with a name and one without, so you can see how merge tags come out — your workspace variables fill in too. Sent blank for this contact lists only the tags that would really go out empty. It's a simulation — nothing is sent.
9. Press Add a step for the next message. On later steps the wait reads Then wait N … after the previous step. To reorder, hover a step and drag its handle, or use Move up / Move down in its ⋯ menu. Remove a step with Remove step in the same menu (a sequence keeps at least one step), or switch one off with its switch (a step that's off gets a dashed outline). All of this saves by itself, so on a live sequence the next message due already follows it. To rearrange a lot, switch Live off first.
10. Optional: click a step's wait, turn on Only send during set hours, choose the From and Until hours, and click the day buttons (M T W T F S S) to switch days on or off. The hours then show under the wait on the line. They are UTC, and the window must end after it starts on the same day.
11. Check Send times under the steps: pick If someone joins Now or Next Monday, and read when each step would go out at the earliest, in UTC, and what each wait counts from.
12. Flip Live on when it's ready. Nothing needs saving by hand: under the name it says Saving…, then All changes saved; if a save fails, it says Couldn't save — your changes are still here and why, with Try again. Going live checks every step that's on. If the automation or flow a step points at was deleted, an automation it follows or a flow it runs is paused, or a flow it keeps a version of was edited, the save is refused and the step says what to do: Pick other content, Use the current version, Open it or Restore it. A message step set to Keep this version goes live even if its automation was paused or edited since — it sends the text you kept; only a deleted automation stops it.
13. Get people in: subscribe a contact from their drawer in Contacts, or use a rule's or a flow's Subscribe to sequence action.
14. Once people have joined, each step on the line shows Sent, Clicks, Open rate and CTR, all time, and says under its name who is waiting or on hold now. Open Results (in the editor's header, or on the sequence's row) to see, per step, how many people it reached and what happened — sent, blocked, skipped, running, completed, timed out or cancelled — who is waiting or on hold right now, and the people behind each number.

If something doesn't look right

• A step says On hold — see Troubleshooting.
• You reordered steps while people were mid-sequence — what each subscriber gets next is in Sequences.
• "Someone else saved this sequence" — a teammate saved it after you opened it. Nothing was overwritten: choose Reload the saved version or Save my version anyway.