What is an automation?
An automation is a rule that schedules a text for each contact based on a date: their birthday, a custom date like their client anniversary, or a fixed day like the first of every month. You write the message once, pick who it goes to, and the automation queues a scheduled message for each person a few days before it's due.
Nothing sends without a chance to look at it. Every queued message shows up in your scheduled messages list, where you can edit or delete it before it goes out.
Note: Automations are part of the Outreach add-on. If opening Automations takes you to an upgrade page, the add-on isn't on your account yet. See billing and plans.
How do I create an automation?
Automations are built in the web app on a computer.
Step 1. Open Automations
Go to Automations under Outreach in the sidebar and click Add Automation.
Step 2. Pick the number and name it
Choose the phone number the messages will send from and give the automation a name like "Birthday texts". The number can't be changed later, so pick the one your clients know.
Step 3. Pick the trigger
Choose Based on a contact's date or On a set schedule. See below for both.
Step 4. Set the audience
Send to everyone, or only to contacts with certain tags. You can also include the household and add extra numbers like an assistant.
Step 5. Write your message
Write the text, use merge fields like first name, and add a photo or a link if you like. Keep it under 480 characters. Click Send Preview to text yourself a copy.
Step 6. Set your queue window
Choose how many days ahead messages are queued for review. We recommend 3 to 7.
Step 7. Turn it on
Use the switch under Run on the left. The badge changes from Disabled to Active.
Everything saves as you go. There's no save button, and the summary on the left shows when it last saved.
How do triggers work?
Based on a contact's date
Pick the date field: Birthdate, or any custom date field you've created, such as "Client since" or "Anniversary". Custom fields can sync from your CRM. See contacts.
Choose Recurring to send every year, every quarter, or every month on that date, or Once on the specific date.
Choose whether the message goes out on the day, a number of days before, or a number of days after. A week before a client's anniversary is a good time for a review reminder.
On a set schedule
Send Every month or Every quarter.
Pick a specific day of the month, Last day of the month, or a weekday like the first Monday.
Days above the 28th only send in months that have them, so choose Last day of the month if you mean the end of the month.
For both
If the send day lands on a weekend, choose Send on Friday, Weekend is okay, or Wait till Monday. If you move the message off the weekend, you can write a slightly different version for that case.
Pick the time of day. Times use the sending number's business time zone, and there's an Edit my timezone link right there if it's wrong.
Who receives it?
Send to everyone or Send based on tags. With tags you can require all of a set, require at least one of a set, and skip contacts with certain tags. "Send to everyone with the Client tag, but skip anyone tagged Do not contact" is a typical setup.
Household. If a contact has a household, choose to add all members, just the spouse or partner, or nobody. Adding members makes it a group text.
Additional numbers. Add an assistant or a servicing teammate so they're on the group text too.
What happens before a message sends?
The queue window is the safety net. If you set it to 7 days, then a week before each contact's date the automation creates a scheduled message for them. From then until it sends you can:
Open the automation's Activity step to see who's queued, with Show next to send to jump to the soonest.
Find them in Scheduled Messages alongside everything else you've scheduled, marked "from" the automation's name.
Edit the wording or the send time for one person, or Delete it to skip them this time.
Once sent, the message appears in the contact's conversation marked Auto Scheduled, and replies come to you like any other text.
Who gets notified?
By default the workspace admin gets a notification when the automation runs. On the Notifications step you can add other email addresses.
How do I pause, change, or delete an automation?
Pause it with the switch under Run. It stops queuing new messages.
Change it any time. Edits save as you make them and apply to messages queued from then on.
Duplicate it from the gallery to make a variation, for example the same birthday text for a different phone number.
Delete it from the Settings step with Delete automation. This can't be undone. Messages that are already queued still send unless you delete them from the scheduled list, so check there too.
Warning: Pausing or deleting an automation doesn't cancel messages it has already queued. Open Scheduled Messages, filter to the ones from that automation, and delete any you don't want sent.
Automations are managed on the web. In the mobile app you can see and edit the individual messages they queue, but not the rules.