Build a sequence

Build a sequence once and every person you add gets the same steps at the right time, in their own timezone. You only step in when a call, an email you send yourself or a to-do comes due. This page walks through it in order: create, add steps, set timing, write the emails, choose what a reply does, then turn it on. The Sequencer is in early access, on Enterprise, Enterprise+ and Admin seats for teams in the early access program. Time: about 10 minutes. Before you start: connect a mailbox if your sequence will send email.

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Build it step by step

You’re done when: the sequence shows as on, with every step in place and no warning in the banner above the steps.

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Step types

Call and to-do steps carry a note for the rep (What to do) and a priority: high, medium or low. Medium is the default. Priority sets the order in Tasks. The step’s Name and its What to do note can hold variables, so each rep’s task names the person. See Calls and to-dos that name the person.

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Timing

Set the timing under Step timing in the sequence’s Settings. It can’t be changed once the sequence has steps.

• Days after the previous step (the default). Each step waits a set time after the previous step finished, that is after the email was sent or the task was done. The first step waits from the moment the person is enrolled.
• On specific dates. Each step has a calendar date. Use it when everyone should get the same email on the same day, such as an event invite.

Whatever the wait says, a step never runs outside the sending window. A step due at 2 AM in the prospect’s timezone moves to the next open hour.

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Sending window

The sending window is the days and hours steps may run. Out of the box it is Monday to Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM. Change the team default under Settings › Sequencer settings › Default sending window. To give one sequence its own window, turn on Only send on certain days and hours in its settings. Once a sequence has its own window, you can edit it but not remove it.

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Tasks nobody gets to

A call or to-do step can carry Skip if not done within (days). If the task is still open that many days after it came due, it expires and the person moves on. One busy week does not stall a whole group of prospects. Snoozing a task moves this deadline by the same amount.

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Write the email

Open an email step to write its email. On the left, The email holds the subject and the body. On the right, Preview shows the email as one real person in the sequence will get it, and Ready for N people? sums up what everyone will get. Click Add step on a new step, or Save step on one you are editing (or press ⌘ Enter). An Email (you send it) step can be left empty. The rep writes it when the task comes up.

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Add variables

Variables fill in each person’s details when the email goes out, such as their first name or their company. To add one:

• Type / at the start of a line or after a space, or type {{ anywhere. Pick from the list, or keep typing to narrow it.
• Click + First name, + Company name or + Job title under the subject.
• Click All variables to browse every variable by group.

A variable shows in the email as a chip with its name. In the list, each one has an example and how many people in the sequence have it, such as 176/240. Low. Add a fallback when you use it. means fewer than half of them have it. Behind each chip is a code in double curly braces, such as {{first_name}}. You see it when you click the chip, and you can type it yourself.

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Every variable

Person, from the person’s record: Company, from the account the person belongs to: You, from the profile of the rep each person is assigned to, so each rep’s emails carry their own details: Custom fields are your team’s own fields. Find them on the People page (under Records in the left sidebar), under Settings › Fields. A field on the person is {{custom.<field name>}}. A field on their company is {{company.custom.<field name>}}, and shows in the list with (company) after its name. Capital letters in the field name do not matter. Columns you upload in a CSV become custom fields too. See Enroll people. Written by Ari lines, such as Opening line and Reason to reach out now, are written by Ari for each person on a step Ari personalizes. An icon in the line under the step’s title shows whether it does. If Ari can’t write the line, or the step isn’t personalized, the email waits for you to write it. See AI personalization.

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Fallbacks

Click a variable’s chip to choose what people without it get. The panel shows how many people have it and asks, for example, If someone has no first name, write. Type a word, or pick a suggestion such as there. The panel shows the line both ways before you click Done.

• Leave it blank puts nothing in that spot, and that variable never holds the email. Use it only when the sentence still reads well without the word.
• Clearing the box removes the fallback. Then the email’s choice for empty variables applies.
• Remove variable takes the chip out.

A fallback is a few plain words, up to 64 characters. In the code it follows a bar: {{first_name|there}}. A blank fallback is {{first_name|}}.

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When a variable is empty

Each email has one choice for a variable that is empty and has no fallback, under When a variable is empty and has no fallback: Emails saved before this choice existed work as Send it anyway until someone changes them. An email that waits lands in the Tasks of the rep the person is assigned to, marked Waiting for you, with what is missing, for example Waiting for you: no company size (Number of employees). Open it, replace each gap such as [Number of employees] in the draft, and send. Salesfinity won’t send it while a gap is left. The person’s sequence waits until the email is sent or skipped. The person’s timeline shows what happened: Waited for you: … for an email that waited, or Sent without: Industry for one that went out with a gap.

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Typos can’t be saved

A variable that doesn’t exist, such as {{fisrt_name}}, turns red. Click it to see why, for example fisrt_name isn’t a variable. Did you mean First name? Click Use First name to fix it, or Remove variable. While a red variable is in the email, you can’t save, and the top of the step says Fix the red variable first. The same check runs when the email is saved, so a misspelled variable never reaches a prospect. It also catches empty braces, braces that don’t pair up, a fallback longer than 64 characters, and a custom field your team doesn’t have (custom.funding isn’t one of your fields.). A custom field counts when it exists under Settings › Fields on the People page, or when a person or company on your team already has it. An email saved before this check that still has a typo is not sent, whatever its choice for empty variables. It waits for you, and the task names the typo: Waiting for you: {{fisrt_name}} isn't a variable.

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Check before saving

Click Check before saving at the top of the step to see the email as three people from the sequence will get it, one for each outcome. With nobody in the sequence yet, it uses a sample person. It shows:

• What N people will get: how many emails go out As written, With a fallback, With a gap, or Wait for you. In a big sequence these are estimates from a sample.
• Every variable in this email: how many people have each one, what the rest get, and Add fallback on any variable that makes emails wait.
• Caught before saving: every typo, with a Did you mean fix you can click.

Click Back to the email to keep writing. Your changes stay as they were. You can also save straight from the check. All variables opens the full list on the same page. Pick a group (Person, Company, You, Custom fields or Written by Ari) or search across all of them, then click Add to put a variable where your cursor was. A line at the top names the variables few people have. Need a field you don’t have? Click Add a custom field. It opens the Fields page in a new tab. Add the field there, and it shows up in the list right away.

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Attach files

Click Attach files under the email. An email can carry up to 3 files, 10 MB in total: PDF, PNG, JPG, GIF, WebP, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, CSV or TXT. A file’s contents must match its name. Files upload as soon as you pick them, and the step can’t be saved until they finish. How the files reach the prospect depends on where the email sits in its thread: Saved templates carry files the same way. The person’s timeline shows each file that went out as Attached or Sent as a download link. The links keep working after the email is sent. If a file can’t be found when the email sends, the email is not sent. An automatic email marks the person Failed, with Not sent: the file ”…” can’t be found. Remove it from the email and send again. Remove the file from the email, then click Retry on the person. An email you send yourself stays in your Tasks with the same message.

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A/B test with saved templates

In the line under the step’s title, switch Write it here to Saved templates / A/B test to pick saved templates instead. A step can hold up to 10 templates, each with a weight. Salesfinity picks one at random for each person, in line with the weights. That gives you an A/B test without a second sequence.

• Weights are relative. Templates weighted 1 and 3 send the second one three times as often.
• A weight of 0 takes a template out of rotation without deleting it.
• Sends, opens, clicks, replies, bounces and opt-outs are counted per template and per step.

Each template is written in the same editor, with the same variables, the same choice for empty variables, and its own files.

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AI personalization

Ari can write each person’s email for them on an Email or Email (you send it) step. Ari starts from the step’s email and works from the person’s record, their company, and your team’s calls, notes and replies with them. Written by Ari lines are filled in for each person. An email without them is rewritten for each person, following the step’s instructions. Personalization is turned on per email step through the API, with instructions for that step: the goal, the angle to take, what to avoid. See Add a step and Update a step. It can’t be turned on in the app or by asking Ari. On a personalized step, the sparkle icon in the line under the step’s title is highlighted, and hovering it says Ari personalizes this email for each person. What reps see:

• On an Email step, each email sends itself, like any automatic email. If the step is set for a rep to check every email first, each one lands in the rep’s Tasks as a drafted email to read, edit and send instead.
• On an Email (you send it) step, the task’s draft is the email Ari wrote. See Drafted emails.

When Ari can’t write an email, for example because the team’s daily personalization budget is used up:

• An email without Written by Ari lines goes out as the step has it (on an Email (you send it) step, it becomes the draft), with each person’s details filled in.
• An email with Written by Ari lines never goes out with them blank. It waits for you in Tasks, with a reason such as Waiting for you: Ari couldn’t write the opening line. Write it yourself, then send.
• A variable that is empty and has no fallback still holds the email when the email is set to Wait for me, personalized or not.

Each personalized email uses part of the team’s daily personalization budget. Once it is used up, personalized steps work as above, without Ari, for the rest of the day.

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Threads

By default, every email step after the first one sends as a reply in the same thread as the email before it (“Re:”), so the prospect sees one conversation. A reply has no subject of its own: the step shows the thread’s subject instead. Turn on New thread in the line under the step’s title to send a fresh email with its own subject. The first email always starts a thread.

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Calls and to-dos that name the person

A call or to-do step’s Name and its What to do note take variables too. Type / or {{, or use the buttons above the note. When the task is made, both are filled in for that person: a step named Call {{first_name}} at {{company}} lands in the rep’s Tasks as Call Dana at Brightline Freight.

• With no value and no fallback, the task shows the variable’s name in brackets, such as [First name], so the rep sees what is missing. Nothing waits.
• What the rep sees, under the note, shows the task as one person in the sequence will read it. Pick someone else from the menu to check others.
• A task keeps the text as it was filled in when the task was made.
• On the dial list the step is the same for everyone, so its name shows each variable by name, such as Call [First name] at [Company name].
• Written by Ari lines are for emails only. A call or to-do can’t hold one.
• An email step’s name is the same for everyone, so it takes no variables. Saving one is refused with Email step names are the same for everyone. Remove First name.
• A typo in a name or note is refused on save, as in an email. Only a name or note you changed is checked, so an older one never stops you editing the rest of the step.

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Reply actions

When they reply decides what a reply does to that person’s sequence: This applies to replies read as interested, meeting requests, and replies that could not be read. Out of office, not interested, wrong person, unsubscribe and automatic replies are handled the same way whatever you pick. See Replies and auto-send. Your team’s rules of engagement run on top.

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Tracking and the unsubscribe footer

Track opens and Track link clicks are on for every new sequence. Turn either off for a sequence that should send plain, untracked email. A custom tracking domain is set per mailbox. Every sequence email ends with an unsubscribe link. Set its text under Settings › Sequencer settings › Unsubscribe footer.

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Limit how fast people are added

These limits count per owner, that is per rep the enrollments belong to:

• Max people added per day: how many new people one owner can add to the sequence in a day, counted from midnight in the sequence’s timezone.
• Max people in the sequence at once: how many people one owner can have waiting, active or paused in the sequence.
• Pause adding people: refuses everyone new until you turn it off, without turning the sequence off.

People over a limit are refused, and show on the Not added tab as This sequence is at capacity or This sequence hit its daily add limit. The limits never touch people already in the sequence.

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Turn on, turn off, archive, delete

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See results

The Results tab shows delivered, opened, clicked, replied, bounced, opted out, failed and scheduled counts, how many people were contacted and replied, and how many are in each state. Click a number to see the people behind it. The counts refresh every 15 minutes, so they can trail the timeline a little. The Not added tab lists everyone who was turned away, and why.

For developers: API names

Step types over the API are auto_email (Email), manual_email (Email (you send it)), call and task (To-do). Timing is interval (with interval_seconds) or date. The reply action is primary_reply_action (finish, pause or continue) with primary_reply_pause_duration in seconds. Limits are throttle_max_adds_per_day, throttle_capacity and throttle_paused; skipping the footer is transactional; the task deadline is task_autoskip_delay in seconds. See the Sequencer API quickstart.

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Next steps