Introducing Automations 2.0 👋

Automations are a powerful secret weapon to build a world class newsletter… and beehiiv’s automation tool just got a massive update.

The tl;dr

• The all new workflow builder is sleek, dynamic, intuitive and performant.

• And the all new overview dashboard is customizable and allows you to derive valuable insights about your automations.

I mean, just look at it 😍 

Plus we’ve added additional conditions, actions, metrics, and more. Let’s dive in…

Workflow Builder

I could list out the 40+ features and enhancements we built for the workflow builder, but I’d rather just show you them in action.

The goal: create a custom welcome series for new subscribers who signed up via a lead magnet. I’ll also try to upsell our NewsletterXP Course for those who complete a form.

Step 1 — Set Trigger

When creating a new automation, the first thing you’ll need to do is create a trigger. A trigger is an event that enrolls qualifying subscribers into the automation.

By clicking the new Set trigger button you’ll be prompted to choose from one of many options:

• Signed Up

• Email Submitted

• Survey Form Submitted

• Upgraded

• Downgraded

• Manual

• Unengaged

For this example, I want to select the Signed Up trigger which will enroll anyone who signs up to my newsletter into this automation. But I also want to specify only people who signed up via my lead magnet form.

When editing my trigger I can select to Edit Conditions which opens up a side menu. There I’ll specify the conditions that must be met for a subscriber to qualify for the trigger.

Each trigger has the ability to granularly specify conditions, built on top of our powerful segmentation engine 💪.

In this example, I want to specify that they signed up from my Lead Magnet 1 embed form, which is a custom subscribe form I set up prior to building this automation here.

After saving, you can see my automation starts with a Signed Up trigger, which has a single additional condition.

By the way — you can add up to 3 triggers for a single automation. Here’s an example where I added an Email Submitted trigger (with 2 conditions) and an Upgraded trigger.

Step 2 — Send Welcome Email

Using the all new side menu, I can drag and drop new steps into my workflow. For this one I’ll want to add the Send Email step.

Just click the edit icon in the top right corner of the step to create the email, set the time delay, and add any custom conditions.

I delayed the email to be sent 3 minutes after the signup occurs. I also created a beautifully crafted welcome email that incentivizes them to complete a quick survey form about their newsletter.

As a reminder: beehiiv has a fully integrated Survey Form feature that allows you to create custom surveys and collect information about your readers. All responses are saved on the subscriber’s profile as a custom field.

Step 3 — Flow Control

Again using the all new side menu, I’ll drag a True/False Branch over to the workflow which bifurcates the journey based on some custom conditions.

For this step, I’m going to delay 1 day to allow readers ample time to receive the welcome email and submit the form. But the primary purpose of this True/False Branch is to determine if they completed the form in the previous welcome email.

• If they did → I’m going to upsell to our NewsletterXP Course based on their responses

• If they didn’t → I’m going to nudge them once more to complete the survey

If they submitted the survey, they would have a custom field biggest newsletter challenge. My True/False branch is just checking to see if that exists for the subscriber (shown above).

Step 4 — The Upsell

First I’m going to add a Wait Until step that will specify I only want this email to be sent at 5:05pm ET, Monday through Friday. I think my audience is more likely to purchase after work hours during the week.

Next I’m going to send a personalized email that addresses them by their first name and specifically mentions one of their answers from the survey.

I’ll also add a button to drive traffic to our NewsletterXP Course.

By the way — you can customize any email by using merge tags, which populate with the subscriber’s custom field values. For example, here’s me using a merge tag to populate your email address: {{email}}.

As for the other side of the True/False Branch, I’ll send a follow up email encouraging them to submit the survey so I can target and upsell them at a later time.

In just 10 minutes I was able to spin up an incredibly powerful automation that welcomes new readers to my newsletter and upsells them to drive revenue to my business.

In summary…

• Custom webpage to create a lead magnet

• Subscribe embed form to convert traffic into subscribers

• Automation triggered by new signups via that embed form

• An automated email to welcome them to my newsletter

• A Survey Form to collect information about my reader

• A True/False Branch step to add additional logic to my automation

• A personalized email using merge tags to upsell my product

And for those who don’t like reading, here’s a video tutorial 👇️ 

Overview Dashboard

The all new Overview dashboard is beautiful and insightful ✨.

Above the fold you’ll see important metrics like the # of steps in a workflow, the # of subscribers currently enrolled and who have previously completed the automation, completion rate, and more.

Under Automation Overview you’ll see two tabs: Journey and Performance

Journey

Displays the enrollment, progression, and completion of all subscribers who have entered into the journey, broken down by day.

You can edit the time frame associated with the data being displayed to derive more meaningful time-dependent insights.

Performance

Displays all metrics and data associated with the emails within the automation — both in aggregate and specifically for each individual email.

Again you can customize both the time frame associated with the data and also the specific email data you want displayed on the charts.

The Overview dashboard is remarkably customizable and insightful to track the on-going performance of your automations.

Advanced Settings

Just one week ago we launched Re-entry Settings… but it’s worthwhile flagging here once again.

Re-entry settings allows subscribers to re-enter into an automation additional times after initially completing it.

You can select between three options:

• No re-entry

• Unlimited re-entry

• Conditional re-entry

And the conditional re-entry setting allows you to specify:

• The maximum # of times a subscriber can re-enter the automation in their lifetime.

• A minimum amount of time required to pass prior to a subscriber qualifying to re-enter.

Re-engagement Campaigns

One of the most common use cases for email automations in the newsletter space is building re-engagement campaigns.

Using beehiiv's automations — you can build a fully automated re-engagement campaign to proactively remove dormant subscribers and keep your list squeaky clean 🧽🫧.

The result: boost the deliverability and engagement of your newsletter.

And here’s a video tutorial showing you exactly how 👇️ 

We’re giving away a brand new 14-inch MacBook Pro to the beehiiv Partner with the most net new sales between now and November 30th.

Plus, all partners receive 50% of revenue for 12 months for everyone they refer (always).