A series that knows when to stop.
The follow-up you never get round to sending, sent anyway.
A drip sequence is a series of messages sent to a contact over days, used for onboarding, reminders and win-back. The part that matters is the exit: a series that keeps sending after someone has replied or unsubscribed is worse than no series at all, because it reads as a business that is not listening.
- Enrol manually, or on a lifecycle change, a tag or an event
- Exits on reply and on suppression, checked at every step
- Waits out a closed conversation window instead of failing
- Each step claimed once, so a retry is not a duplicate send
How it works.
- 01
Define the steps
Write the messages and the delay between them. A sequence is a list of steps, readable by whoever inherits it.
- 02
Choose the entry
Enrol contacts by hand, or automatically when a lifecycle stage changes, a tag is applied, or an event is recorded for that customer.
- 03
Let it run
A scheduler works through due steps. Each one is claimed before sending, so a retry after a failure does not send the same message twice.
- 04
Exit cleanly
A reply, an opt-out or suppression ends the enrolment. A closed conversation window defers the step.
Entry that follows behaviour
You can add someone by hand, or let something they did add them. The second kind arrives while it is still relevant to the customer.
- Manual enrolment for a chosen list
- Lifecycle stage change, such as becoming a customer
- Tag applied to the contact
- A recorded customer event, including order events
Screening at every step
Every step re-checks the world before sending. The state of a contact at enrolment is not assumed to hold days later.
- Suppressed or opted-out contacts exit the sequence
- A reply from the customer exits the sequence
- Instagram and Messenger steps outside the window exit the enrolment
- WhatsApp steps over a frequency cap are deferred, not dropped
Built to survive retries
Message delivery is at-least-once by nature, so the sequence claims a step atomically before sending and only releases it after a set window.
- Atomic claim before dispatch
- A reclaim window so a crashed run recovers
- A bounded number of attempts before a step is parked
- Sends written to the audit record like any other message
Sequences and campaigns together
A sequence handles the individual over time. A broadcast handles the group at a moment. Both draw on the same segments, consent and pacing rules.
- Same segment definitions as broadcasts
- Same consent, suppression and pacing rules
- Replies land in the shared inbox for a person or the agent
What it does not do.
Sequences are a list of timed steps. Branching by condition belongs in automation flows.
Cart abandonment enrolment needs your store connected, so the event has somewhere to come from.
Steps that exit on a closed conversation window do not resume that enrolment later.
Common questions
What triggers an enrolment?
- A manual action, a lifecycle stage change, a tag being applied, or a recorded customer event such as an order.
Does it stop when a customer replies?
- Yes. A reply ends the enrolment, so a conversation that has become real is not interrupted by the next scheduled message.
What happens outside the WhatsApp window?
- A step that would break the window rule is handled like everything else: it needs an approved template once the window has closed.
Can a contact be in two sequences?
- Enrolments are tracked per sequence. Frequency caps and pacing still apply across everything you send that contact.
How often does the scheduler run?
- Within a few minutes of the time you set, not at one fixed hour of the day.
What happens if a step fails?
- It is retried a bounded number of times, then parked. Parked steps stay visible.
Can I use a sequence for order follow-up?
- Yes, where an order event is recorded for the customer. Sequences enrol on customer events, including commerce ones.
Are sequence messages counted in reporting?
- Yes. They are ordinary outbound messages, so they appear in volume metrics and in the audit record.
The reason a customer comes back a second time.