In this article, we’ll cover the steps of creating an Automation from scratch. Automations are the basic building blocks of a customer journey, and they are composed by 3 main elements: Triggers, Actions and Transitions.
This is a good article to read if you are new to marketing automation: we've made it as detailed as possible and explained why we're suggesting the steps below so that you can understand how to combine various Triggers, Actions, and logic to create automated workflows.
Create a New Automation
- Head to the Automator tab on the top bar navigation menu.
- Click “Create” under Automator Builder on the lefthand side navigation menu.
- Name your automation in the pop-up text box provided. Once saved, the name of your Automation will appear on the top lefthand side of your blank canvas. This name can be edited at any time by clicking the edit icon next to the name.
Add a Start Trigger
Triggers will determine when an Automation will run and perform it’s Actions. Triggers are known as “When this happens”.
A Trigger can be almost any user activity on a Website Source or an External Source. Every workflow requires a Trigger to start. Each workflow can only consist of one Trigger.
To add a Trigger, simply click the Add Trigger node that already exists on the blank canvas of your new automation.
This will open up the Trigger configuration panel on the righthand side of your screen. This is where the detail behind your Automation Trigger will be considered.
You can view a list of all current available Triggers and find out more about configuration requirements for each Trigger type, by exploring the Triggers section of this Knowledge Base.
Be sure to save your configuration details at the bottom on the configuration panel before closing.
Once a Trigger has been defined and saved, the configuration details can be amended by clicking on the Trigger node in the canvas, and simply editing the details that need to be changed in the configuration panel. Any changes will need to be saved using the Save button at the bottom of the panel.
Add an Action
Actions are the part that determines what an Automation will perform after it’s Trigger has taken place. You can attach many workflows to the back of a Trigger to create a cohesive, automated journey.
To add a new action to your automation is as simple as dragging and dropping the actions that you would like to add, onto the canvas and connecting the nodes between Triggers and Actions.
You can view a list of all current available Actions and find out more about configuration requirements for each Action type, by exploring the Actions section of this Knowledge Base.
Be sure to save your configuration details at the bottom on the configuration panel before closing.
Once an Action has been defined and saved, the configuration details can be amended by clicking on the Action node in the canvas, and simply editing the details that need to be changed in the configuration panel. Any changes will need to be saved using the Save button at the bottom of the panel.
An Action in a workflow can be deleted by left-clicking on the Action node, and pressing the X button.
Define your Transitions
Transition types are used to define the nature of the connection between two nodes in an Automation.
When you connect one node to another, a pop-up configuration box will be presented to allow you to define the Transition type that you would like to configure between the two nodes.
You can view a list of all current available Transition types and find out more about configuration requirements for each Transition type, by exploring the Transitions section of this Knowledge Base.
Once a Transition type has been defined and saved, the configuration details can be amended by clicking on the originating node of the transition (the node that the line start from), and simply editing the details that need to be changed under the Transitions section of the configuration panel. Any changes will need to be saved using the Save button at the bottom of the panel.
Once a Transition type has been defined, it can be changed or deleted by left-clicking on the connecting line between two nodes, and deleting.
Activating your Automation
All Automations are Inactive by default.
You can check the activation status of an Automation at any time by viewing the Status Toggle on the top righthand side of the screen.
An Active Automation display a green Active button. An Inactive Automation will display a grey Inactive button.
You can change the Activation status of a workflow at any time by clicking this toggle button.
Deleting an Automation
Should you wish to delete your Automation, or to start from scratch, the CLEAR button on the top righthand side of the workflow canvas will clear all Triggers, Actions and Transitions from the screen; leaving you with a blank canvas to start fresh from.
This cleared work cannot be recovered.
