How to set up campaign sequences: delays and conditions

What is a sequence?

A sequence is an ordered list of steps that WarmySender runs automatically, one after another, for each lead in your campaign. A step can be a cold email, a LinkedIn action (a connection invite, a message, an InMail, a profile view), or a Condition that branches the path. You build the sequence once in the campaign builder, and every lead you enroll travels through the same steps on their own personal schedule — so you set it up a single time and it runs hands-free.

WarmySender is a 4-pillar outreach platform — Cold Emailing, Email Warmup, LinkedIn Outreach, and Multichannel sequences. A sequence can mix email and LinkedIn steps in a single campaign, which is what makes it a multichannel sequence — the same lead can get an email and a LinkedIn touch as part of one coordinated flow.

How step delays work (the Day N timeline)

Every step has two timing fields — Delay (days) and Hours — and they control how long the step waits after the previous step before it runs. The first step is special: Day 0 means it's sent as soon as a lead is enrolled. Each later step then waits its own delay on top of where the lead already is, and the builder shows a running estimate — "Estimated send: ~Day N after enrollment" — under each step so you can see the whole timeline at a glance.

The helper text under the field says it plainly: "When this step runs after the previous one. Day 0 = sent as soon as a lead is enrolled; Delay 2 = two days later." Set Hours when you want a finer gap than a whole day (for example a 4-hour wait between two same-day touches).

Worked timeline example

Say you build a simple three-step email sequence with these delays:

• Step 1 — Initial Outreach. Delay 0 days → sent on Day 0 (the moment the lead is enrolled).
• Step 2 — Follow-up 1. Delay 3 days → runs 3 days after step 1, on Day 3.
• Step 3 — Final Follow-up. Delay 5 days → runs 5 days after step 2, on Day 8.

So a lead enrolled on a Monday gets the first email that day, the second email the following Thursday, and the last email the Tuesday after that. The "~Day N" estimate on step 3 reads ~Day 8 — the delays simply add up down the sequence. Each lead's clock starts from their own enrollment moment, so people who join later are automatically on the same relative cadence.

A few practical notes on timing: delays are measured from when the previous step actually completes, and sends still respect your campaign's sending window, active days, and daily limits — so if a step lands on a paused day or outside your sending hours, it goes out at the next allowed time rather than breaking the cadence. The timeline is your plan; account-safe pacing is always the floor.

How conditions (YES / NO branching) work

A Condition step branches the path on what the lead does. You pick a Condition Type (for example LinkedIn Invite Accepted, LinkedIn Reply Received, or Email Opened) and a wait window, and then you choose two destinations: If YES → Go to Step (the thing happened within the window) and If NO → Go to Step (it didn't). The builder spells it out: "YES = it happened within the timeout; NO = it did not (leave NO blank to simply stop for that lead)."

The condition types you can branch on include:

LinkedIn Invite Accepted

YES once the person accepts your connection request. The classic gate before sending a first LinkedIn message — you can only message a 1st-degree connection, so you wait for the accept first.

LinkedIn Reply Received

YES once the person replies to your LinkedIn message. Use it to stop following up the moment someone responds.

Email Opened

YES once the lead opens your email within the window. Handy for routing openers and non-openers down different follow-ups.

Email Replied / Email Clicked / Email Bounced

Branch on whether the lead replied, clicked a link, or the email bounced — so engaged leads and quiet leads can take different paths.

On a LinkedIn-only campaign the builder shows the LinkedIn condition types; on an email-only campaign it shows the email ones; on a multichannel campaign you get all of them. The wait window (days) is how long the condition waits for the event before it takes the NO path.

Worked LinkedIn example

Here's the most common branch — invite, wait for the accept, then message only the people who accepted:

1. Step 1 — Connection Request (a Send Connection Invite action), Delay 0 → the invite goes out on Day 0.
2. Step 2 — Wait for Accept (a Condition, type LinkedIn Invite Accepted, wait window 7 days). If YES → go to the Follow-up Message. Leave NO blank so the lead simply stops if they never accept.
3. Step 3 — Follow-up Message (a Send Message action), Delay 1 day → a day after the accept, your message lands.

So someone who accepts on day 2 gets your message on day 3; someone who never accepts within 7 days quietly drops out of the sequence with no message sent. That's exactly the behaviour you want — you only message people who connected, and you never pester people who didn't.

The shortcut: start from a proven preset

You don't have to build the delays and the accept-condition by hand — click Use Preset on the Sequence step and pick a proven template, and the whole flow is assembled for you. The LinkedIn 3-Step preset, for example, drops in exactly the flow above: a Connection Request on Day 0, a Wait for Accept condition with a 7-day window already wired to branch YES to the message (and NO left blank to stop), and a Follow-up Message a day later. Then you just edit the wording of the invite and the message and you're ready to launch.

There are presets for the common shapes — a 3-Step Email Drip, a 5-Step Nurture, the LinkedIn 3-Step, and several multichannel flows that mix email and LinkedIn with accept/open conditions already set up. Using a preset is the fastest way to get a correct, account-safe sequence; everything in it stays fully editable, so treat it as a tested starting point rather than a fixed recipe. If you'd rather build from scratch, click Add Step and add steps one at a time instead.

A note on LinkedIn pacing and safety

When your sequence includes LinkedIn steps, keep a comfortable gap — 1 to 2 days — between actions rather than stacking several LinkedIn touches on the same day. WarmySender automatically keeps each connected LinkedIn account within its safe daily limits and eases a newly connected account up gradually over its first few weeks, because account safety always comes before speed — a restricted LinkedIn account is far costlier than a slightly slower sequence.

This also means your delays are a request, not a guarantee of instant sending: if a step would push an account past its safe daily limit, that step waits for the next available slot instead of forcing the action through. You'll never get a burst of catch-up actions after a quiet stretch. For the full picture of how many actions are allowed per day by account type, see LinkedIn sending limits & account tiers and how invite, message, and InMail caps work together. One more good habit: when a Send Message step follows a Send Connection Invite, always put a Wait for Accept condition between them — otherwise the message is skipped for anyone who hasn't accepted yet.

People also ask

Common adjacent questions about delays and conditions in a sequence.

What does Day 0 mean?

Day 0 is the moment a lead is enrolled in the campaign — a step with a Delay of 0 days is sent right then. Every later step's "~Day N" estimate counts forward from that enrollment moment, so Day 3 means three days after the lead joined the campaign.

How do I add a delay between two steps?

Open the step you want to delay and set its Delay (days) (and optionally Hours) field. The delay is measured from when the previous step runs, so a Delay of 2 on step 3 means step 3 runs two days after step 2. The running "~Day N after enrollment" line under the step shows where it lands overall.

What's the difference between a delay and a condition?

A delay only controls timing — how long to wait before the next step. A condition controls which path the lead takes based on what they did (accepted, replied, opened), branching to one step on YES and another on NO. Use a delay for "wait, then send"; use a condition for "if they did X, do this — otherwise do that."

What happens on the NO branch if I leave it blank?

The lead simply stops — they reach the end of the sequence with no further steps. That's the usual choice for a "Wait for Accept" gate: people who accept get the message (YES), and people who never accept within the wait window quietly drop out (NO left blank), so you never message someone who didn't connect.

Can I branch on whether someone replied?

Yes. Add a Condition step with the type LinkedIn Reply Received (or Email Replied on the email side) and send the YES path somewhere that stops following up, while the NO path sends another nudge. This is the standard way to stop your follow-ups the moment a lead responds.

How long should the Wait for Accept window be?

Seven days is a sensible default and the value the LinkedIn presets use — long enough that most people who'll accept have done so, without holding leads in limbo forever. You can set any wait window from 1 to 30 days. Leads who accept earlier move on as soon as they accept; you don't have to wait out the full window.

Do I have to build the accept condition myself?

No — click Use Preset and choose the LinkedIn 3-Step template. It builds the Connection Request, the Wait for Accept condition (7-day window, YES wired to the message, NO left blank), and the Follow-up Message for you. Then you just edit the wording. Everything stays editable afterward.

Can a single sequence include both email and LinkedIn steps?

Yes — that's a multichannel sequence. You can mix cold-email steps and LinkedIn steps in one campaign, and you can branch across channels (for example, send a LinkedIn invite only to people who didn't open your email). The LinkedIn side still respects each account's safe daily limits; the email side respects your sending window and daily caps.