Loop builder

Loops let you send emails based on something happening, like a contact property updating, a new contact being created or an external event happening in another platform.

Getting Started

To start building your Loop, select a template or start from scratch.

Templates are added often and we’re always open to taking suggestions!

Building a Loop

A Loop is an email sequence that can be triggered by different events, and containing emails, delay timers and branches.

You can add new nodes to your loop by hovering over an arrow between nodes and clicking the + button.

More complex loops can be built by adding branches.

Mailing lists

You can make a loop send to a specific mailing list by using the dropdown in the top right of the loop builder.

By selecting lists from this dropdown you can make sure that only contacts from those lists are added to the loop.

When using the Contact added to list trigger, this option is removed and you can instead select the list from the trigger node.

Nodes

There are five types of nodes available in loops:

• Trigger
• Email
• Timer
• Audience filter
• Branch (read more)
• Experiment (read more)

Triggers

The first node to add to a loop is the trigger. This is what will send new people into the loop.

There are four trigger options:

• Contact added: Triggered whenever a contact has been added to your audience.
  Only contacts who have been added via a form, the API or an integration will be added based on this trigger. Contacts added individually to the audience table will not be included. Contacts added or updated via CSV will only trigger if you select the Trigger loops toggle during upload.

• Contact updated: Triggered whenever a contact property changes from one value to another. Can also conditionally trigger only if the previous property matches the inputted value.
• Contact added to list: Triggered whenever a contact is added to a certain mailing list. You can select the list from the trigger node.
• Event received: Triggered when a certain event is sent to Loops by the API or an integration. With this trigger you can start a loop based on interactions in your app. Common custom events are signUp, canceled and activated.

You can read more about triggers here.

Emails

You can add emails at any location inside your loop, giving you flexibility to send mail immediately after the trigger or after a delay. You can also send to specific contacts by adding an audience filter, or by branching your loops.

You can add unlimited emails to each loop.

To edit an email, click on the email node, then Edit email.

When a loop is active, you cannot edit the email. Click Pause to pause the loop and make changes to your email (and any other nodes). While paused, new contacts will be queued for up to 24 hours; they will enter your loop as soon as you save your email by clicking Resume.

You can copy emails from other loops by clicking the Copy existing email button after creating a new email node. This will bring up a dropdown of emails from other loops that you can insert into your loop.

Timers

A timer adds a fixed time period between two nodes in the loop.

For example, you could add a “3 day” timer after a “Contact added” trigger to send an email three days after a signup.

You can select the “Immediately” option to bypass the timer or any increment of time to extend the duration of the Loop.

You can add multiple timers to your loops, to add delays in different parts of your workflow.

Audience filters

Audience filters let you create fine-tuned Loops to target specific contacts.

For example, you can check in with contacts that have not signed up as a paying user 3 days after signing up by setting the Custom Event to signup the Timer duration to 3 days and the audience filter to paid equals false.

There are two options for applying audience filters:

• Next node only: this will apply your filter before contacts reach the next node. This is a one-time filter and any changes to the contact’s value after the filter will not be taken into account.
• All following nodes: this will apply the filter when contacts reach every following node. If a contact’s value changes at any time after the filter and they no longer match the filter’s audience, they will be removed from the loop.

Brancing loops

Learn how to branch loops using audience filters.

Metrics

Click over to the Metrics tab to view simple metrics inline within the builder.

Click View details to view detailed metrics for your Loop.

Testing Loops

You can test if a Loop works as expected by using email addresses with @example.com and @test.com domains (for example [e-mail] and [e-mail]).

First, add these as contact in your audience, then depending on how your Loops are set up, you can add and update properties, or send events to these email addresses to see how contacts move through your Loops.

Emails will not be sent to @example.com or @test.com email addresses so this is a good method to test emailing contacts without affecting your sending domain’s reputation.

You can also send test emails for each of the emails in a loop. Click on an email node and then the Send a preview airplane icon above the preview that appears.