Sequences and visual automation

Sequences and Marketing Automation solve related but different problems. A sequence is a simple ordered email cadence. Marketing Automation is the richer visual engine for multistep journeys, participant state, engagement conditions, testing, and operational trace history.

#Build a sequence

Open Marketing → Sequences and select New sequence.

Configure:

• Name, used internally in the sequence list
• Status, which can be Draft, Active, Paused, or Archived
• Trigger, currently an operator label for the basic sequence editor
• Steps, each with a delay in days, subject, and email body

Reorder steps with the move controls. The first step's delay is measured from enrollment. Later delays are measured from the previous step.

Only an Active sequence advances through the scheduled runner. Keep a new sequence in Draft until its order, delays, subjects, and body content have been reviewed.

#Enroll a record

Basic sequences accept a lead or contact enrollment. The enrolled record must belong to the same workspace and remain available to the sequence. A duplicate enrollment is not a reason to create another contact.

Use the sequence list to review enrollment counts. The Run due steps action advances steps whose scheduled time has arrived. Normal scheduled execution also depends on the deployed sequence job.

#Understand automation hints

The basic sequence editor can store delay, condition, and branch hints. These are planning notes in the basic sequence model. They do not execute as a branching engine.

Use Marketing Automation when the journey requires actual trigger evaluation, branching, channel activities, or detailed traces.

#Create a visual automation

Open Marketing Automation and choose New automation, or start from a provided template. An automation has a lifecycle status, target audience model, participant list, and connected activities.

A valid journey begins with a BEGIN activity. Add later activities and connect them to their parent. Depending on the editor and installed channel modules, an activity can use email or SMS templates and wait or react to supported engagement conditions.

The list shows each automation's status, activity count, and participant count. An Active automation runs. A Paused automation keeps its definition and participants but does not continue normal execution until resumed.

#Use templates

The template library provides starting points such as welcome flows, commercial prospecting, hot lead handling, scheduled calls, and double opt in flows where available. Review every template before activation because its target model, timing, content templates, and business meaning must fit your workspace.

#Test before activating

Use Test automation in the visual editor. You can select a test contact or enter a raw email where the dialog allows it. Test mode creates test execution state and progressively reveals activity traces without enrolling a normal production participant.

Testing proves the saved graph and configured templates can be traversed. It does not prove that a future provider outage, invalid recipient, or later data change cannot affect a production run.

#Monitor execution

An automation exposes operational destinations for:

Use Traces when a participant appears stuck. A parent activity can be complete while a child is scheduled for a later time. Do not re enroll the person until you have checked the participant and trace identity, because execution is designed to avoid duplicate activity dispatch.

#Pause and change a journey

Pause the automation before making a substantial graph or template change. Review active participants and future traces, make the update, run another test, then resume.

Changing a template affects future use of that template. It does not rewrite the exact message already accepted by a provider for a completed trace.

#Troubleshooting

#Enrollment says to add a BEGIN activity

The graph has no valid root. Add and save a BEGIN activity before enrolling participants.

#A sequence step did not send

Confirm the sequence is Active, the step is due, the enrolled record has a usable email address, and outgoing mail is configured. Then run due steps or inspect the scheduled runner status.

#A visual automation participant is not advancing

Open Participants and Traces. Check the next scheduled time, the parent trace result, template assignment, recipient data, and any engagement condition.

#Test mode works but production does not

Compare the production participant's actual contact data and channel consent with the test target. Also verify provider credentials, entitlement state, and the automation's Active status.

#The simple sequence editor does not branch

Condition and branch hints there are informational. Build the journey in Marketing Automation for executable branching and trace history.