Campaign Sequences & Follow-ups
Campaigns support multi-step sequences with automated follow-ups:
Step Configuration:
- Step 1 is your initial email — most important for first impressions
- Add unlimited follow-up steps (most effective sequences use 3-7 emails)
- Each step has its own subject line and body, or can reply to the same thread
- 'Send as Reply' option keeps the conversation in one email thread
Delay Settings:
- Set delay in days and hours between steps (e.g., wait 3 days and 4 hours)
- Delay starts counting from when the previous step was sent
- Random jitter (up to 60 minutes) is automatically added to avoid pattern detection
- The system respects your sending window — if a step's scheduled time falls outside your window, it advances to the next valid time
Stop Conditions:
- Stop on Reply (default: ON) — When a prospect replies, they are automatically removed from the sequence and won't receive further follow-ups
- Stop on Bounce (default: ON) — Bounced emails stop the sequence for that prospect
- Stop on Unsubscribe (default: ON) — Unsubscribed prospects are stopped immediately
- Cross-channel: An email reply can stop a LinkedIn sequence and vice versa in multichannel campaigns
Best Practices:
- Space follow-ups 3-5 days apart
- Keep follow-ups shorter than the initial email
- Add new value or a different angle in each step
- Use A/B testing on subject lines (see A/B Testing guide)
- Most replies come from steps 2-4, so don't give up after one email
Preview Every Email Before Launch:
- In the campaign builder, the preview under each email shows it filled in for a real person in this campaign, including custom fields like {{custom.opener}}
- Use Previous and Next (or pick a name) to go through every contact in the campaign, one by one; the counter shows where you are, e.g. 3 of 43
- Do the same on each follow-up step
- The Preview button opens the full email, with the opt-out line, and has the same Previous and Next buttons
Editing Copy on a Running Campaign:
- Open the campaign, go to the Sequence table and click the pencil next to an email step
- Edit the subject and body in the same editor as the campaign builder (bold, links, variables); a step with A/B variants also shows each variant's weight
- Click Save. The change applies to every email of that step that hasn't been sent yet; emails already sent are not changed
Changing the Sequence Itself (add or remove steps, change delays):
- On the campaign's Sequence tab, click Edit sequence. The campaign editor opens straight on its Sequence step, so you don't click through Basics and Audience first
- You can also click any step name at the top of the editor to jump to it, and press Save changes on whichever step you're on