Automations

An automation is a flow you set up once and Peakub runs for each reader: something happens (a reader subscribes, upgrades, gets a label), and the flow acts (sends an email, waits three days, adds a label, tells you). A welcome series, a thank-you when someone becomes a paid member and a word to readers who go quiet are the usual first ones.

Automations have their own tab: Studio > Automations. Each automation is Draft, Scheduled, Live, Paused or Archived.

Start one

Choose New automation. You can start from a template, or From nothing. Templates come with their emails written. A template that starts from a segment or a label waits for you to pick it.

Every automation has a trigger at the top and an exit at the bottom, and you add the steps between them. The trigger says when a reader enters, for example Subscribed, Became a paid member, A label was added, Entered a segment or Replied to an email. Some triggers can also add the people who are already in, with an Include current subscribers switch: on, they start at the first step; off, only the people who join from now on.

Add a step

Use Add a step (or the plus on the line between two steps). The window offers two groups.

Flow, what shapes the path:

• Wait: for a while, until a day and time, or for a reply.
• Branch: up to five paths, each with its own condition, and one for everyone else.
• Split test: readers shared between paths, to see which works best.

Actions, what the flow does:

• Send an email: an email you write once, sent to each reader. See Email templates and merge fields.
• Add labels and Remove labels.
• Add to segment and Remove from segment.
• Notify me: a note in your notifications about this reader.
• Send a piece: one of your published pieces, sent to this reader.

A step can be disabled and enabled again, duplicated, moved and removed from its buttons.

Labels

Add labels puts one or more labels on the reader, and Remove labels takes them off. Pick them in the field, which shows each label in its own colour. You can choose up to 20 in one step. The flow's sentence reads, for example, "add the label VIP". See Labels.

Segments

Add to segment and Remove from segment put the reader in, or take them out of, one or more segments. Only a segment picked by hand can have readers put in or taken out, so only those are offered, up to 20 per step. A segment that works by conditions fills itself.

If you have none yet, the step says "Only a manual segment can have readers put in or taken out. Make one here." and New segment makes one without leaving the automation, then picks it for you. See Segments.

An automation that starts from a segment can't take readers out of that same segment. Peakub flags it before the automation goes live.

Branch

A branch sends readers down different paths. On the canvas it is drawn as a small marker on the line where the paths part, with its name, Branch. The paths carry their own names under it.

• Each path has a name and a condition ("Matches"). A reader takes the first path whose condition they meet.
• The last path is always Everyone else: the readers who meet none of the others. You can't use that name for another path.
• Give every path its own name. Two paths can't share one.
• Add a path adds one, up to five plus Everyone else.

A branch with a single path does what a yes-or-no condition did: one path for readers who match, and Everyone else for the others. Flows that already held a condition show it as a branch, with the paths Matches or Replied, and Everyone else.

Before it goes live

Peakub checks the flow when you publish it and says what to fix ("Before the automation can go live"). Edits to a live automation are saved, and readers get them once you publish the changes: people already inside carry on from the step they are on, following the latest version.

Check the automation against the last 30 days (the Check button) shows who would have received what if the automation had been live. Nothing is sent and nobody is added.

Replies

When a reader replies to an automation's email, you read the reply in the automation's Replies section and its insights. See Read and answer replies.