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Triggers

Every automation has a built-in trigger: the event that starts the automation for a contact. There are three types of automations, each with its own trigger.

Product automation​

Trigger: A contact purchases the corresponding product.

A product automation starts the moment someone buys that product. Use it to welcome new members, send them what they need to get started, or guide your customers through their first steps with the program.

Buying a bundle starts the bundle's own automation and the automation of each product it contains.

Tag automation​

Trigger: A specific tag is assigned to a contact.

A tag automation starts the moment a contact receives the matching tag: automatically through a sign-up form or a purchase, or by hand from your dashboard. So you can start it at any step of your contacts' journey.

Use cases:

  • A free email course sent over 5 days (tag added when someone signs up through a form)
  • A series of emails to stay in touch with people on a waitlist (tag added from a web page)
  • An automation to get back in touch with contacts who attended a webinar (tag added by hand)

New Contact automation​

Trigger: Any new contact is added to your list, regardless of source.

The New Contact automation starts automatically whenever someone new joins your audience: through a form, a purchase, or a manual import. When you import a CSV file, it starts for every person the import adds to your list for the first time, even with the Trigger the automation switch off. People already in your contacts don't receive it again. Use it to introduce yourself and tell people what to expect. It's also the right moment to share your best content with every new person who finds you.

How triggers fire​

As soon as the trigger event occurs, TinyPages enrolls the contact in the automation and sends the Day 0 email immediately. The next emails are scheduled and go out automatically on the days you picked.

Do imported contacts get your automated emails?​

Automations are part of the Pro plan: on the Free plan, imported contacts receive no automated email. On Pro, some of them do. When you import a file:

  • Your New contact automation starts for every person the import adds to your list for the first time, Day 0 email included.
  • The automations of the tags you add only start if you turn on Trigger the automations, which is off by default.
  • People already in your contacts don't receive New contact a second time.

Adding tags in bulk without triggering automations​

When you import a list or add a tag to many contacts at once, those tags would normally start their automations for everyone involved. With an existing list, that's rarely what you want. Picture uploading 500 past customers and tagging them "customer": you don't want all 500 to suddenly receive the welcome automation you wrote for brand new customers.

So on these bulk actions, automations stay off by default. Before you confirm, TinyPages shows you exactly which automations the tags you picked would start, and how many emails each one sends. For members you import, it also counts the automation tied to the product they're getting access to. Then you choose:

  • Leave it off (the default) to apply the tags and sort your contacts without starting their automations. For members, the product access email is held back too.
  • Turn on "Trigger the automations" to start the automations for everyone involved. On an import, it works exactly as if each person had just subscribed. When you tag existing contacts in bulk from your contact list, the Day 0 email is skipped: their automation starts with the Day 1 email.

The choice applies only to that action. If you later remove a tag from someone and assign it again, their automation runs normally from that point on.

This switch only covers the automations of your tags and products. Your New contact automation starts whatever you choose, Day 0 email included, for every person an import adds to your list for the first time. The summary doesn't list it. Before importing people who already know you, check what your New contact automation sends.

When you add a single contact, you see the same summary of which automations their tags will start. Here the switch is on by default: turn it off if this person shouldn't receive those emails. A tag you add from the card of an existing contact works differently: it starts its automation right away, Day 0 email included, without any summary to confirm.

See Paid course launch and Evergreen launch for complete examples of automations in action.

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