A Visual Automation is a series of automated steps that your subscribers go through when they meet certain conditions.
For example, you can use a Visual Automation to:
Send subscribers a series of welcome emails when they subscribe to your Form or Landing Page
Send different emails to subscribers depending on whether they have been added to a certain Tag
Send emails to subscribers on your product launch day—and not earlier or later
Visual Automations differ from Sequences, which are sets of automated emails. However, Sequences don’t send themselves—you’ll need to add your subscribers to a Sequence for them to start receiving your Sequence's emails.
☝️ Visual Automations let you automate the process of adding subscribers to Sequences.
Ready to put your emails on autopilot?
Let’s get into how to create a Visual Automation in ConvertKit.
1. Create a new Visual Automation
Go to Automations under the Automate tab in the top navigation. Then, click the + New automation button.
You'll be taken to a page where you can choose whether to build your Visual Automation:
Using one of our Visual Automation templates, or
From scratch.
For this guide, let's assume you're creating a Visual Automation from scratch. As soon as you click the Start from scratch button, your Visual Automation will be created, and you'll need to pick your first entry point.
2. Add an entry point
A Visual Automation's entry point is the event that will trigger it to start running.
Your entry point can be one of the following:
Joins a form: When a subscriber signs up via a certain Form or Landing Page (or any Form or Landing Page)
Is added to a Tag: When a subscriber is added to a certain Tag
Custom field: When there are changes to a subscriber’s custom field
Purchase: When a subscriber makes a purchase from an ecommerce store you’ve integrated with ConvertKit
You can also add more than one entry point (up to five) to your Visual Automation—just click the ➕ button to the right of your entry point(s) to do so.
NOTE: We autosave your Visual Automation setup as you go along, so you don’t have to worry about losing any of it! 💪
3. Set up your Visual Automation steps
Next, click the ➕ button below your entry point. This will create a new step to specify what should happen to subscribers who enter the Visual Automation.
Your Visual Automation step can be one of these:
Event: Hold the subscriber in place until a specific thing happens. For instance, you can move subscribers forward on a certain date, or if they purchase a product. Events function in the same way as entry points, except they apply only to subscribers already in the Visual Automation.
Action: Take a certain action with the subscriber, such as adding them to a Sequence or Tag.
Condition: Check if the subscriber meets certain conditions to decide their next steps in the Visual Automation.
Check out this quick guide for more on how to use a Visual Automation!
For example, to send a subscriber a series of welcome emails after they’ve signed up for your newsletter, you could set up your Visual Automation like this:
Add your newsletter Form as the entry point
Set up an Action to add subscribers to a welcome email Sequence
Go ahead and create all the steps you need to get your Visual Automation to work as intended.
4. Activate your Visual Automation
Finally, click the Active toggle at the top right of the builder to turn your Visual Automation on.
Don’t skip this step, or else your Visual Automation will not work.
Congrats—you’ve just created your first Visual Automation!
Check out this next article for a further look into Visual Automations, as well as templates you can use next! 👇