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Automations- Creating and Managing

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Adding an Automation

1. Go to Automations under the Automation tab in your left Sidebar.

2. Select the white box in the upper right hand corner called "Create new automation"

3. Select the button "+ add a step"

4. complete all appropriate fields and Save changes.

5. Repeat steps 3-4 until all steps of your automation have been added.

 

Conditions on an Automation

1. Go to Automations under the Automation tab in your left Sidebar.

 2. Select the automation you want to add conditionals to

3. Select the settings button at the top of the automation

4. Scroll down the conditions section where you will have 3 options..

 
Always run means that every time a contact enters the automation they will be allowed to go through it assuming of course that you have the settings set to allow the to enter it more then once. 
 
Only run when a contact has a tag means that if a contact is entered into an automation but does not have the selected qualifying tag linked to their name then they will not go through the automation. 
 
On run when the contact does not have this tag is going to be the same thing only the opposite, they will only be allowed to go through the automation in the absence of a tag. 
 
An example of when you might use one of the last two automations is when the automation is being used for a sales funnel or when trying to exclude people from an automation.

 

Automation Wait steps

You have several options for wait steps in an automation.

  • A date specific time (if the date is in the past, the automation will perform the action on new contacts in that step)
  • A general wait time such as a number of days or minutes.
  • A contact field that has a date/time value such as a customers Birthday. - To use this option you will need to be using the birthday or custom date field which can be set up in your form fields, and then added to opt-ins and order forms. 
  • A course start date. This option is only available when it is connected to a product, and a start date has been added on selling tab within the product.
  • Purchase period ends. This option is used when an automation is in conjunction with a subscription purchase. 

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Excluding people from an automation

Is one of your opt-ins linked to a sales funnel automation for a specific product? If so it is likely you don't want people who have already purchased that product to go through that sales funnel. It's a bit redundant since they already bought it and possible it could frustrate them or at the very least not look on your part to them. So how do we remedy this? Below you will find the steps for how to exclude someone from entering an automation.  

1. Go the product you are selling through the sales funnel

2. In the content tab of that product you will add a trigger that adds a tag to the contact upon purchasing

3. Locate or create your sales funnel automation 

4. Go to the settings of your automation

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5. Scroll down to the conditions section

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6. Select the condition "Only run when the contact does not have this tag" and select the tag you added in step 2

  

Want to exclude multiple groups of people?

Are you using your automation as a sales funnel where you are selling more then one product? If so it is likely that you want to exclude people from any of the products being sold so that they aren't being resold a product they already have bought. The conditional option above only allows you to exclude people based of a single Tag. So you could add that same tag to anyone in any of the products being sold. However, If you have used different tags for the different products then you will need to do a bit of extra work. Below are the steps you would need to follow for each of the tags you want to exclude from an automation not covered via the conditionals in settings. 

1. Go the other product(s) you are selling through the sales funnel

2. In the content tab of that product you will add a trigger that adds a tag to the contact upon purchasing

Example I have 2 products I am going to sell in my sales Funnel, Product A, Product B. Product A will be tagged A, Product B will be tagged B 

3. Create your sales funnel automation with all your wait steps and sales emails as you would for someone who has never purchased anything from you.

4. Go to Tags under Lists + Contacts, Locate Tag A

5. Add a Trigger to Tag A that says when {When Tag is removed, Stop Automation, Select the sales funnel automation from step 3}

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for Tag B

7. Open up the sales funnel automation you created in step 3. 

8. Add an action step to remove the tag A and move it to just before you sell Product A

9. Repeat step 8 for Tag B 

Now when a participant goes through the automation If they have purchased one of those two products they will be removed from the automation and never go through any of the steps that occur after their tag has been removed. 

 

 

Editing an Automation

From time to time you may want to update an automation. Maybe you want to add a step, remove a step, make a change to an email that is being sent, or rearrange the steps of your automation. This is not a problem, follow the steps below to edit the automation. But please Note.. when you edit an automation the change will only affect the people who have not yet reached the step where the change is made. 

What does this mean?

If you are editing a wait step- People currently in that wait step will not be affected.

If you are adding step- only people who are in the steps prior to it will receive the additional step.

If you add a step to the end of the broadcast- People who have finished the automation will not be affected.

If you make a change to the broadcast- only people who have not yet received the broadcast will see the new version.

1. Go to Automations under the Automation tab in your left Sidebar.

2. Locate your automation and select it

3. Locate the step you want to edit 

4. Select the red Edit hyperlink within the step box and make edits

 Note: If you make changes on the fly to an automation that's already running, note that the change will only affect the people who have not yet reached the step where you made the change. This means if you are edit a wait time step people who are currently waiting will not be affected by the edit. Or if you add a step people who are already passed the addition will not have that step actioned to them. 

 

Rearrange steps of an Automation

1. Go to Automations under the Automation tab in your left Sidebar.

2. Locate your automation and select it

3. Locate the step you want to move 

4. Select and hold the Arrow plus sign and drag the step to the desired location within the automation

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Editing a step in an automation

1. Go to Automations under the Automation tab in your left Sidebar.

2. Locate your automation and select it

3. Locate the step you want to edit 

4. Select the red Edit hyperlink within the step box and make edits

 Automation-edit-2-large.jpg

Removing a step in an automation

1. Go to Automations under the Automation tab in your left Sidebar.

2. Locate your automation and select it

3. Locate the step you want to remove

4. Select the trashcan simple next to the step

Automation-edit-1-large.jpg 

Adding a step in an automation

1. Go to Automations under the Automation tab in your left Sidebar.

2. Locate your automation and select it

3. Select the button "+ add a step"

4. complete all appropriate fields and Save changes.

5. Select the cross arrows to the right of the step and drag the step to where you want it in the sequence.

 

Notes on an automation step 

You can add a note to any automation step. These are internal notes for your reference. This is a great way to help you remember down the line why you set up a condition on a step, or maybe you run a seasonal course and need to remember to update certain action steps each round. 

Editing an email that is part of an automation

1. Go to your email library found under automations in your left side bar

2. Locate the email you want to edit

3. Select edit

4. Make changes

5. Save

 

Duplicating an Automation

1. Locate and open the automation under Automation-Automations in your Left Sidebar

2. Select the red button at the top right hand corner that says "duplicate"

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3. You will now be redirected into the new automation

4. Select the white "settings" button in the upper right hand corner

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5. update the name of your automation

6. Save changes

7. Update or add steps as needed to the automation

 

Deleting an Automation

1. Locate and open the automation under Automation-Automations in your Left Sidebar

2. Select the red button at the top right hand corner that says "delete"

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The automation will now be removed from your simplero. Any emails that were created within will still exist in your email library. 

 

 

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All the Ways You Can Automate Things in Simplero