A visual automation is a series of automated steps that your subscribers will 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 sign up 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
Visual automations differ from email 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 emails.
☝️ Visual automations enable you to automate this 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 the Automations tab by clicking on Automate > Visual Automations from the top navigation bar. Click on the + New Automation button to create a new visual automation.
You'll be taken to a page where you're given the choice to start:
Using one of our visual automation templates, or
From scratch.
For the purposes of this guide, let’s assume that you’re creating an automation from scratch. As soon as you click the Start from Scratch button, your automation will be created and you'll need to pick your first entry point.
2. Add an entry point to your automation
An automation's entry point is the event the system will use to trigger the automation for a subscriber.
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 e-commerce store you’ve integrated with ConvertKit
You can also add more than one entry point (up to five) to your automation—just click the ➕ button to the right of your entry point(s) to do so.
NOTE: We autosave your automation setup as you go along, so you don’t have to worry about losing any of it! 💪
3. Set up your automation steps
Next, click the ➕ button below your entry point. This will create a new automation step to specify what should be done to subscribers who enter the automation.
Your automation step can be one of the following:
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 the same to entry points, except they only apply to subscribers already in the automation.
Action: Take a certain action with the subscriber, such as adding them to an email sequence or tag.
Condition: Check if the subscriber meets certain conditions to decide their next steps in the automation.
Check out this quick guide for more on how to use a visual automation in ConvertKit!
For example, to send a subscriber a series of welcome emails after they’ve signed up through your newsletter form, 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 automation to work as intended.
4. Turn your automation on
Finally, unpause your automation to turn it on. Don’t skip this step, or else your automation will not work.
Congrats—you’ve just created your first visual automation in ConvertKit!
Check out this next article for a further look into visual automations, as well as templates you can use next! 👇