Automations in Connect let you set up a workflow once and have the platform run it for you, every time. Whether that's sending a welcome email to a new contact, alerting your team when a feedback form comes in, or tagging a guest after their first visit, automations remove repetitive manual work and let you scale how you communicate with your contacts. This article explains how automations are put together, so you have a clear mental model before you build one.
Topics
- What is an automation
- The two essential parts of every automation
- What you can do with automations
- What comes next
What is an automation
An automation is a workflow in Connect that runs by itself. You set it up once and Connect handles the rest, executing the steps you've defined every time the conditions you've set are met.
A workflow can be as simple as "send a welcome email when a new contact joins" or as detailed as a multi-step series with branches, delays, and follow-ups. At its core, every automation does the same thing: it watches for something to happen, then performs one or more actions in response.
You'll find all your automations under the Automations tab in Connect, where you can see which ones are enabled, when they last ran, and how many messages they've sent.
The two essential parts of every automation
Every automation needs at minimum two things:
- A trigger, what makes the automation start
- An action, what the automation does
That's it. A trigger plus an action is a complete, working automation, and many of the most useful automations are exactly that simple.
A trigger defines when the automation runs. It can be an event in Connect (like a new contact being added, a form being submitted, or a purchase being recorded) or it can be a date and time (like every Monday at 9am).
An action defines what the automation does. The most common actions are sending an email or an SMS, but actions can also tag a contact, update a field, notify your team, or pause the automation for a set period before continuing.
💡 Tip, there is an optional third element called Criteria that lets you ask yes or no questions and branch the automation into different paths. Your first few automations may not need it. Once you're ready, see Choosing criteria for your automation.
What you can do with automations
The possibilities range from simple reminders to multi-step guest journeys. Here are some of the most common automations venues build in Connect:
Contact lifecycle
- Welcome a new contact when they join your database
- Send a birthday message, or a half-birthday message for a mid-year touchpoint
- Win back contacts who haven't visited in a while
- Ask contacts to share their date of birth so you can send birthday messages later
Sales and loyalty
- Send a thank-you message after a guest makes a purchase
- Reward loyal contacts with a discount code after they reach a spending or visit milestone
- Recover lost sales with abandoned-cart messages (requires an eCommerce integration)
Bookings and reservations
- Send a booking confirmation when a visit is added
- Send a reminder the day before a reservation
- Follow up after a visit to request feedback
- Ask happy guests to leave a Google review after their visit
Staff notifications
- Alert your team when a contact submits a feedback form
- Notify your team when a contact makes their first purchase
- Notify your venue manager when a loyal customer hits a booking milestone
- Send a daily summary of new contacts to your inbox
Data hygiene
- Tag contacts based on their behaviour or details
- Send an "update your details" SMS when an email bounces
- Move contacts between segments based on activity
What comes next
If you're ready to build your first automation, the next article Create your first automation in Connect ; walks you through it step by step using a real example. The reference articles cover the full list of available triggers, criteria, and actions, with examples of when to reach for each. The last article in the series covers how to test, manage, and troubleshoot automations once they're running.
FAQs
Do I need any technical or coding skills to use automations? No. Everything is built in a visual editor by dragging trigger, criteria, and action blocks onto a canvas. No code required.
Can I have more than one automation running at a time? Yes. You can have as many enabled automations as you need, and they can run in parallel. Each one operates independently.
Will an automation send messages immediately after I save it? Only if it's enabled and the trigger conditions are met. New automations are disabled by default, so you can build, review, and test before turning them on.
Do I need Criteria to build a useful automation? No. Many practical automations are just a trigger plus an action. Criteria becomes useful when you want different contacts to follow different paths through the same automation.
Where do I see if my automation is actually running? The Automations tab shows each automation's enabled status, last updated date, the number of messages it has sent, and the number of times it has been triggered.
Related articles
- Create your first automation in Connect
- Choosing a trigger for your automation
- Choosing criteria for your automation
- Choosing an action for your automation
- Manage and troubleshoot your automations
- How-to guides: set up specific automation campaigns, step-by-step recipes for common automations
You now have a clear picture of how automations work in Connect and the kinds of things you can build with them. When you're ready to make one, head to the next article.
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