Build automated email sequences with branching

Connect your email. Emails send from a connected Gmail or Outlook mailbox, so the sender needs their email account connected to Hook. See Connect Your Email to Hook.

A way to identify the campaign audience. This can be customer-level data, such as a field in the Customers table or Customer details (a custom field set to the campaign name, a lifecycle stage or a product), or user-level data, such as a field in the Users table (a user type, role or activity).

A way to detect the behaviour change. Pick the field or metric that shows the customer did what you wanted, for example a feature-enabled flag or a usage metric above zero. It must appear in the Customers table (or the Users table for user-level behaviour).

The data you want to show in the emails. Anything you want to insert as a variable, such as reservations by channel in the last 90 days, must already exist as a field or metric in Hook.

A language field. Each customer or user needs a preferred language stored in Hook so you can route them to the right version.

Email templates. Create one template per email per language in Email templates settings. See Create Email Templates.

Go to Organisation settings > Automations and click Create automation.

Enter a descriptive name and click Next step: Choose type.

Select Based on customer activity. The type cannot be changed once the automation is created.

Click the + on If... and select Customer filters are met.

Hook adds a default filter of Customer status: Active. Use Add filter to narrow the audience to your campaign, for example a custom field set to the campaign name, a lifecycle stage or a product.

Click These filters will match [number] customers to see a filtered view of the Customers table and check the audience is right. Use your browser's back button to return to the automation.

Click Create.

Click the + on Then... and select Send an email.

Under From, select the sender's role (for example Account Manager) and choose a Backup mailbox for accounts that have no one in that role. A backup mailbox is required, and it comes from the email aliases set up in your profile settings.

Under Send to, choose Include contacts, Include users, or both. Use Users filter if you only want specific people to receive the email.

Choose Compose email and write the Subject and Email, or choose Use saved template and pick a template.

Leave Include sender's email signature ticked if you want the sender's signature added. Tick Require approval before sending if you want the emails created as Actions that your team reviews before they go out.

Under When to resend, choose Never. Each customer then receives this email once, however many times the automation checks them.

Click Create.

Once the first email is saved, click the + below it. This adds a step with a Wait... setting and a Progress... setting.

Use the − and + buttons to set how many days to wait. The default is 7 days. Choose a gap long enough for someone to act on the first email.

Under Progress..., select Split. Hook creates two paths: an If... path and an Otherwise... path, which applies to all other customers.

Click the + on If... and choose a trigger that describes the behaviour change you want to see. For example, choose Customer filters are met and filter on the field or metric that shows the feature is now on, such as a usage metric greater than zero. You can also use triggers based on a trend in customer data, signals, subscriptions, engagement level changes or external activity.

The If... path is for customers who have changed their behaviour. Give it an action that does not email them, such as Populate a custom field to record that they have completed the campaign. Every path needs at least one action before the automation can be finalised.

The Otherwise... path is for everyone else. This is where the next email goes.

On the Otherwise... path, click the + on Then... and select Send an email. Set the sender, recipients and template as you did for the first email, and set When to resend to Never.

Click the + below the second email to add another Wait... step and set the days between emails 2 and 3. Select Split under Progress....

Set the If... path to the same behaviour check, with a record-keeping action as before.

On the Otherwise... path, add Send an email for the third and final email.

Select the Active toggle at the top of the automation when you are ready. You can only activate an automation once it is complete, and the Incomplete badge shows while any step still needs an action.

While composing an email in the automation, or when creating an email template, click Insert variable.

Search for or scroll to the field you want. The list starts with variables for the action itself (recipient first name, last name, full name and email address, and sender first name), followed by fields from the Customers table, including metrics and custom fields.

Select the field. It appears in the email as a code such as {{accounts.field_name}}, and Hook replaces it with each recipient's own value when the email is sent.

Send yourself a test using the Email preview section at the bottom of the action. This needs a sender email address set up in your profile settings.

Build and test the full sequence for your main language first, using the steps above.

From the automation menu (the three dots at the top of the automation), select Duplicate automation.

Rename the copy to include the language, for example "Feature campaign - French".

Edit the trigger or the Users filter so it only matches that language: use a customer filter if the language is stored on the account, or a users filter if it is stored on the person.

In each Send an email step, select the translated template for that language, so the first, second and third email each use the matching version.

Repeat for each language, then set each automation to Active.