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Marketing Automations

After reading this page, you'll be able to build a multi-step, delayed email/SMS sequence — like a welcome series for new clients or a win-back message for clients who've gone quiet — that runs on its own once you publish it.

Navigation label — Automations: EN: Automations · IT: Automazioni · FR: Automatisations · DE: Automatisierungen · ES: Automatizaciones · PT: Automações · NL: Automatiseringen

Before you start​

Marketing Automations are manager-only — there's no mobile app screen for this at all. Clients never see an automation itself; they just receive the emails or texts it sends, the same as any other message from your studio.

You'll need at least one email template or SMS template already created (Marketing → Email Templates or Marketing → SMS Templates) before you can add a step to a sequence, since every step points at an existing template.

This is different from Email Events and SMS Events. Email Events and SMS Events send one message the instant something happens — no delay, no follow-up (today, only "new client invited" and "password reset" actually trigger a send). A Marketing Automation is for when you want more than one message spread out over time, optionally with a condition that stops the sequence early. If you just want a single instant confirmation email, use Email/SMS Events instead — it's simpler and you don't need this page.

Overview​

An automation has three parts:

  • A trigger — either a point-in-time event (a new signup, a booking, a cancellation, a membership purchase or expiry, a no-show, a check-in) or a recurring condition checked automatically once an hour (a client hasn't booked in a set number of days, or a client just completed their Nth booking).
  • An ordered list of steps — each step is a delay, a channel (email or SMS), and a template. The first step's delay counts from the moment the client is enrolled.
  • An optional stop condition — in this version, the only option is "stop once the client has booked since enrolling."

Once you publish an automation, every client who matches the trigger is enrolled automatically and moves through the steps on their own — you never send anything by hand. A client is only ever enrolled once per automation, even if the same trigger condition becomes true again for them later (for example, if they go inactive, get re-enrolled in a "win-back" sequence, come back, then go inactive again — they will not be enrolled a second time).

Building an automation​

  1. Go to Automations in the left sidebar, under the Marketing section.

  2. Click New Automation.

  3. Enter a Name — this is for your own reference only, clients never see it.

  4. Choose a Trigger Event:

    TriggerFires
    Booking createdThe instant a client books a class
    Booking cancelledThe instant a client cancels a booking
    Membership purchasedThe instant a client buys a membership
    Membership expiredThe instant a client's membership is marked expired (checked daily)
    No-showThe instant a client is marked as a no-show
    Check-inThe instant a client checks in to a class
    Client signed upThe instant a new client account is created
    Client inactive for N daysChecked hourly — enrolls clients who haven't booked in the number of days you set
    Nth booking milestoneChecked hourly — enrolls a client the first time their total booking count reaches the number you set

    If you choose Client inactive for N days or Nth booking milestone, a second field appears for the number of days or the booking count.

  5. Build the Steps list: click Add Step for each message. For every step, set:

    • Delay (hours) — how long after the previous step (or after enrollment, for the first step) to wait before sending. Use 24 for one day, 168 for one week, and so on.
    • Channel — Email or SMS.
    • Template — pick from your existing email or SMS templates for that channel.

  6. Optionally, check Stop this automation for a client once they've booked if the goal is to stop nudging someone who has already taken the action you wanted.

  7. Click Save. The automation is active immediately — matching clients start enrolling right away.

Worked example: welcome sequence​

Goal: greet every new client, then nudge the ones who haven't booked yet.

  1. Trigger: Client signed up.
  2. Step 1: Delay 1 hour, Email, "Welcome to the studio" template.
  3. Step 2: Delay 72 hours (3 days), Email, "Ready to book your first class?" template.
  4. Stop condition: checked — once they book, the nudge in step 2 (or any later step) won't go out.

A client who signs up and books within the first 3 days only ever receives the welcome email — the automation checks the stop condition again right before every send and skips it if they've already booked.

Worked example: win-back sequence​

Goal: re-engage clients who've gone quiet, with an escalating message if they still don't return.

  1. Trigger: Client inactive for N days, set to 30.
  2. Step 1: Delay 0 hours, Email, "We miss you" template.
  3. Step 2: Delay 168 hours (7 more days), Email, "Here's 10% off your next class" template.
  4. Stop condition: checked — a client who books after step 1 never receives the discount email in step 2.

Because this trigger is periodic rather than instant, enrollment for a newly-qualifying client can take up to an hour to appear (the background check runs hourly, not on every booking/cancellation).

Pausing, resuming, and monitoring​

From the Automations list you can:

  • Click View on any automation to see a step-by-step distribution (how many enrolled clients are currently on each step) and a paginated, filterable list of individual enrollments.
  • Click Pause to stop the automation — this holds every currently-enrolled client exactly where they are (no further sends) without cancelling anyone. No new clients are enrolled while paused.
  • Click Resume to pick back up — clients resume from the same step, on the same schedule, as if the pause never happened (pausing doesn't delay or reset their next send time; if it already passed, that step sends promptly on resume).
  • Click Cancel next to an individual client's enrollment row to unenroll just that one client, without pausing the whole automation for everyone else.
  • Click Delete to remove the automation entirely — see below, this is different from pausing.

What if something goes wrong?​

I deleted an automation by mistake Deleting an automation permanently removes it and every one of its enrollments — there's no undo and no history left behind. If you only wanted to stop it temporarily, use Pause instead; it keeps everything intact and resumable. If you already deleted one, you'll need to recreate it from scratch, and any clients who were mid-sequence will not be automatically re-enrolled (recreating the automation only affects clients whose trigger fires again after that point).

A template used by a step was deleted Deleting a template doesn't check whether an automation step still references it. If that happens, the affected step silently fails to send when its turn comes — no error is shown anywhere in the app — and the enrollment still advances to the next step (or completes, if it was the last one) on schedule. To fix it, edit the automation and pick a replacement template for that step. As a general precaution, avoid deleting a template while any active automation still uses it — check each automation's step list first.

I paused an automation — what happens to clients already enrolled? They stay exactly where they are. No messages send while paused, and their position in the sequence (current step, scheduled send time) is preserved untouched until you resume.

A client seems stuck or isn't receiving messages Open the automation and check that client's row in the enrollments table. If their status is "cancelled" or "completed," the sequence has already ended for them — cancelled means someone unenrolled them manually, completed means they finished every step. If they're still "active" but nothing is sending, confirm the automation itself isn't paused, and check whether the client actually has an email address or phone number on file for the step's channel (a step with no client contact info for that channel is silently skipped).

Enrollment for a periodic trigger (inactive days / Nth booking) is slower than I expected That's expected — those two trigger types are checked once an hour in the background, not instantly. Point-in-time triggers (booking created, signup, etc.) enroll immediately.

Frequently asked questions​

Can a client be enrolled in the same automation twice? No. Enrollment is one-time per client per automation, permanently — even if the trigger condition becomes true again later.

Can I edit an automation's steps after clients are already enrolled? Yes, but changes apply going forward to whatever step each enrolled client reaches next — already-sent steps aren't re-sent or undone.

What's the difference between Pause and Delete? Pause is reversible and keeps all enrollment history and progress. Delete is permanent and removes the automation and all of its enrollments with no way to recover them.

Does an automation retry a failed send? No. If a send fails (for example, a missing template or no phone number on file), that step is skipped and the enrollment still advances — it does not retry or hold in place.