Automations
An automation starts when something happens to a contact and then runs its steps for that contact: send an email, wait, take a different path depending on what they did, change their tags or fields, create a task or a deal, and more. Switch on Automations in CRM → Modules, then open Marketing → Automations.
Start from a recipe
Five ready-made automations are one click away. Each is added as a draft, so you can check the emails first:
| Recipe | What it does |
|---|---|
| Welcome series | Three emails over a week for every new subscriber. |
| Lead nurture | Two helpful emails to a new lead, then a call task for the owner if they opened either one. Stops when they become a customer. |
| Quote or booking follow-up | Thanks them at once, tells the owner, follows up after three days unless they have replied. |
| Re-engagement | Asks quiet subscribers if they still want your emails; tags them inactive if they do not open it. |
| Deal follow-up | When a deal reaches a stage, a task for the owner and a nudge email a week later, skipped if the deal is won. |
The editor
The flow reads top to bottom: Starts when at the top, then the steps, then End. Click + between any two steps to add one, and click a step to edit it in the panel on the right. A number on a step shows how many contacts are waiting there right now.
What can start it
Contact added, subscribed to email, form submitted, tag added or removed, joined or left a list, a field changed (optionally changed to or changed from a value), a date reached (a birthday or renewal date field, on the day or days before or after, optionally every year), a task completed, a deal created / moved to a stage / won / lost, a campaign email opened or a link clicked, a reply by email, a support case opened and, with WooCommerce, a purchase (optionally of one product or above an amount). Other extensions can add their own.
Steps
- Send an email: marketing emails go only to subscribed contacts and carry an unsubscribe link;
transactional ones (a confirmation, a reminder) go to anyone with an address. Tags like
{{first_name}}work. - Wait: for a while (minutes to weeks), until a day and time ("next Monday at 9:00"), or until a date on the contact (three days before their renewal).
- If / else: contacts who meet the conditions take the Yes path, everyone else No. Conditions can test tags, lists, email status, lifecycle stage, any field, a segment, the deal's stage, and whether they opened or clicked an email during this automation.
- Random split: path A or B by percentage, to compare two follow-ups.
- Contact: add or remove tags, add to or remove from a list, update a field.
- Team: create a task, notify someone by email, assign an owner in turns (round robin).
- Deals: create a deal, move the deal to another stage.
- Flow: call a webhook, start another automation, end the contact's other automations.
- Goal: when the goal happens to someone still on an earlier step (they book, buy, reply), they jump straight to it, so they stop receiving the chasing emails.
Who goes through it, and when they leave
Under Who and when:
- A contact can go through it: once ever (the default), again once they have finished, or every time it is triggered.
- They leave as soon as: conditions checked before every step, such as Lifecycle stage is Customer.
Safe by design
- Editing a live automation never breaks the people inside it: they finish the version they started, and your changes apply to everyone who enters from then on.
- No endless loops. Automations that set each other off are stopped after a few rounds, and the same contact cannot enter the same automation twice within a minute.
- The same event never starts it twice (a form entry, an order).
- Test run: on the editor page, enter a contact's email under Test run for one contact. The saved steps run straight away: waits are skipped and emails come to you instead of them, but tags, fields and deals really change on that contact.
Activity and progress
Activity on each automation lists everything that happened: who entered, each step done, skipped (with the reason, such as not subscribed) or failed, goals reached, who left and who finished. The list shows each automation's numbers: inside now, finished, and problems. Every contact page has an Automations panel showing which automations they are in and their next step, with a Remove link.
Make the timing exact: a server cron job
WordPress runs scheduled work only when someone visits the site, so on a quiet site a one-hour wait can end hours late. The Automations screen shows whether the scheduler is running on time and, when it is not, the exact line to add to your host's cron jobs (in cPanel: Cron Jobs), for example:
*/5 * * * * wget -q -O - "https://example.com/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron" >/dev/null 2>&1
On a VPS with WP-CLI, run the CRM directly every minute:
* * * * * cd /path/to/site && wp crm automations run --quiet && wp crm queue run --quiet
Then add define( 'DISABLE_WP_CRON', true ); to wp-config.php.