Segment entry and exit-based automation is a flexible and powerful feature that allows you to create targeted and personalized workflows for your subscribers.
By utilizing segments in your automations, you can reach out to customers who are newly added, re-added, or have recently dropped out of a segment. This helps you stay connected with your audience and provide tailored content and offers that meet their needs and interests.
Before You Begin
Automated workflows can be used on all the Omnisend plans. You can find more information on Omnisend pricing.
All user roles, except for the Analyst, can access automation workflow settings.
Starting March 12, 2024, we will discontinue the retrigger workflow feature (see image below). This change will impact how workflows are triggered:
For users who kept the re-trigger workflow toggle on:
No changes will occur. Workflows will still be triggered every time a contact enters the segment, regardless of whether it is the first or subsequent times. This will remain the same unless the Frequency settings are enabled.
For users who kept the re-trigger workflow toggle off:
We will enable the Frequency settings with the option "At any time." This means that the workflow behavior will not change and will be triggered only once.
Automation Setup
To set up automation based on the customer entry or exit of a particular segment, you will need to:
create a segment with the rules you prefer;
setup automation with the entry/exit-based trigger.
You may set up this type of automation by going to Automations → Create Workflow → pick Create from Scratch option or change the trigger for any preset automation.
Automation Trigger Settings
You can trigger the automation for customers based on the fact that they enter or exit the segment of your choice. Here are a few essential facts about this trigger.
This automation won't be triggered for the customers that were added to the workflow before you enabled it. But you may remove and push them back to the Segment; find the instructions here.
To trigger the workflow for contacts that are re-added to the segment, you need to turn off the Frequency settings. Frequency settings define when customers who have already been in this automation can trigger the automation again.
Only customers who enter the Segment organically enter the sequence automatically. Jump to the manual import impact on automations with the segment rules section for more details.
Exit Conditions
It is totally up to you whether you want to add the Exit conditions to the automation flow, but we want to emphasize that you can use both Customer enter/Customer exit sequence rules there.
Adding an exit condition, "contact exits the segment," is recommended when you want to prevent customers from going through the workflow if they are no longer in the segment.
In this case, the exit condition is necessary because only with this exit condition the customer who is not in the segment anymore will immediately exit the automation while going through the sequence.
You can find more information on the Exit conditions set up in the corresponding article.
Frequency
By changing the Frequency setting, you may choose whether to trigger the sequence when the customer is re-added or removed from the segment. If you leave Frequency disabled, the same contact can retrigger the workflow multiple times; otherwise, it will skip the contacts who have already been in the automation.
Let's simplify and say we have a segment based on the customer's city. One of our customers is from London. We then create a segment with the rule that the city is set to be in London. This customer qualifies with the rule - he enters the segment, and the automation gets triggered.
After some time, the customer updates the city to New York (exits the segment) and, after some time, changes it back to London (re-enters the segment). This is where your Frequency settings click in and define whether the automation should be sent repeatedly.
Editing Segment Used In Automation
When you update a segment that is linked to an active workflow, it can have significant effects on how the workflow behaves. Here's everything you need to know.
1. Impact of Segment Updates on Workflow Triggers
Changes in Segment. Updating existing segment rules can cause customers to re-enter or exit the same segment. If the segment is tied to a workflow with a trigger "contact enters/exits the segment," the contact may re-trigger the workflow.
Risk of Duplicate Messages. Contacts who re-enter/exit a segment may receive messages they've already received in the past.
2. Avoiding Duplicate Messages
To prevent duplicate messages when editing segments:
Enable the Frequency Setting in the workflow associated with the segment. This ensures that a contact can only trigger the workflow within a specified time frame or just once.
Open the workflow associated with the segment.
Click on the Trigger Block.
Scroll down to the Frequency Setting section.
Enable the toggle and select one of the following options:
Anytime in the Past: Ensures the contact will not trigger the workflow again.
In the Last X Hours, Days, or Weeks: Prevents re-triggering within your specified time frame.
3. Recommendations for Editing Segments
Review Associated Workflows. Before making changes to a segment, check which workflows are triggered by the segment.
Enable Frequency Settings. Apply the Frequency Setting to any workflows where you want to prevent re-triggering.
Manual Import & Automation Trigger
Automation workflows with segment-based entry or exit triggers can be affected when customers are manually imported or updated. If the imported or updated customers match the criteria for the segment linked to the workflow, they will automatically enter the workflow and may receive messages they’ve already gotten in the past.
Consider this when importing customers who match a segment linked to an automation workflow:
If Frequency is Disabled: All imported contacts matching the segment criteria will trigger the workflow, regardless of whether they’ve triggered it before. This could result in duplicate messages being sent to existing contacts (if you re-upload the same customer list with new information, etc).
If Frequency is Enabled: Only new contacts who have not triggered the workflow before (or within the set time frame) will enter the workflow. This ensures that existing contacts won’t re-trigger the workflow unnecessarily.
Enable the Frequency Setting in the workflow to prevent re-triggering while still allowing new customers to enter the automation.
The same applies to automatically imported contacts (from your store) and contacts added after filling out a form. Those are considered organically added to a segment, and automation for them is sent automatically.
Re-triggering Automation
Suppose you wish to re-trigger the automation for the customers added to the segment already. In that case, look through the instructions below.
1. Disable the Frequency setting in the Automation workflow
When disabled, it allows a re-trigger of the automation for the customers who have entered the sequence already.
2. Remove contacts from the segment
Before we can push your contacts to re-enter the segment and re-trigger the workflow, we need to remove them from the segment. We suggest adding a fake rule that none of them follow to remove contacts.
For example, you may add a date parameter set to the date when your store isn't connected to Omnisend. Since your contacts will not meet this rule, they will be removed from the segment. Or add a different rule that you know your contacts will match, like Last Name is X.
Once you apply the rule, you need to click on the Update button.
3. Re-add contacts to the Segment
To re-add contacts to the Segment, you only need to remove the fake rule we added in the previous stage. However, at this point, we also need to let this change affect your automation performance.
Have any questions? Please email us at [email protected].