Send Automated Messages with Rules and Sequences

Location:  Marketing Automation

Overview: You may use either a sequence email sent via sequence, or an automated email message sent via a rule to send automatic emails to a contact based on a trigger performed on the website.

How is an Automated Email Message different from a Sequence Email?

In many instances you may be able to use either a sequence email or an automated email message to send an automatic email to a contact based on a trigger performed on the website. 

Below is a summary of the differences between them that can help you choose the right one to suit your needs. 

Ask Yourself:

Do I need email history checked before send? – The main difference between and automated email message sent out by a rule and a sequence email sent out by a sequence subscription is that for sequence emails we check email history and will only ever send a sequence email one time to each contact—ever.

With automated email messages sent out by rules, we do not check email history before sending the email to the contact—so a single contact can get the same email message each and every time they perform a qualifying trigger.

Also, if you wanted to send a message to a staff member every time the trigger occurs, you would need to set that up via a rule as you need the staff member will need to get the email every time the trigger is performed.

Do I need to schedule the emails? – Another difference is scheduling and adding additional future emails to go out based on the trigger.

If you just need to send one email to your contact immediately, and to have the email go out each time per trigger and do not need any future "follow up" emails to go out based on that same trigger, a rule to send an email message is sufficient.

If you want to continue to have a following up email campaign with the contact based on the trigger they performed, where you send them emails in the future and do not want them to keep getting the same marketing emails again and again, then the sequence is your best option.

We will cover the different ways to send automated emails in more detail in the upcoming modules.

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