Funnels are a powerful tool in email automation. Each step in the sequence is capable of doing much more than just sending an email.
In addition to the list actions illustrated below, you can add a tag or custom field to your subscriber, add or remove your subscriber from a group, send your subscriber to a specific entry, send a information to a webhook, or perform a start date override for your subscriber in another funnel.
How list actions are added to entries works nearly the same for all list actions, this tutorial sticks to using list actions to keep things as simple as possible. As more tutorials are added, they will be linked. This tutorial also dose not fully dive into the power of conditional options as that would take several articles to cover.
You can choose exactly what content your subscriber will receive based on their actions, like clicking a link, reaching a point in a sequence, or even having opened an email.
To change what your subscriber will receive, you can use a tool called list actions. This tool is available in every step in your sequence.
Important: Activity-Based Actions
If you want to create an action based on opens, you must give your subscribers time to act on the email that was sent.
Create a new step in your sequence for the list action with a 1 - 3 day delay.
List actions for clicks can be attached to links directly and do not need a separate step in the series..
How to create list actions in a funnel:
- When a subscriber clicks a link
- When a subscriber opens a specific email
- When a subscriber reaches a specific step in the series
For all of these methods you will start at the funnel dashboard, scroll slightly and click Edit articles and sequencing.
To add a list action when a subscriber clicks a link in an article
Scroll to the article containing the link and click the link,
A new window will appear. This window will offer choices for actions that can be taken when a subscriber clicks a link.
Select Add or remove the subscriber to or from another list.
A new window will appear.
If there are list actions already in place for this article, they would be listed here and could be edited.
Click Add New List Action.
The List Action Editor Window will appear. In the top dropdown, you can choose between Subscribe and Unsubscribe and in the bottom, you can choose the list this will be applied to.
Below your list choice, there is an option to make this list action conditional. This is an advanced feature and will not be covered in this article.
Click Save Changes.
A few seconds after clicking Save Changes, an icon will appear after your link. This indicates that a list action is associated with the link in this article.
You have finished adding your list action when a subscriber clicks a link in a funnel step.
You can now move on to any other task you wish to perform.
How to add a list action for an email open.
Please Note:
Since the release of iOS 15 and Apple's Mail Privacy Protection not all reported opens are opens. FeedBlitz works to differentiate real opens from these, but it is imperfect.
Email opens need time to be reported. Your subscribers, no matter how loyal, are not waiting by their inbox for your email. It may take them hours or days to open your email. For this reason, you should add a delay of 2 or 3 days to a list action based on an open.
From the Sequence Editor of your funnel, determine how many days from the beginning of your funnel your list action will need to be delayed to allow three days to pass after the entry is sent. In this example, we will use Course Email 1 and the delay would be 4 days.
Scroll to the end of your sequence and click New Step.
A window will appear with a default name and a default delay. Give the step a name and change the delay to the one you chose. Click Save.
Navigate to the step you just created. If you have other steps in your sequence, it will be added in the appropriate place, the delay shown will be based on the entry prior to the one you just created.
Use the dropdown arrow to the right of Send Mail to show all available actions and select Change a Subscription.
A new window will appear, choose whether you want a subscriber to be subscribed to a new list or unsubscribed, then select the list from the choices below.
This list action is conditional.
Click New Condition.
More options will appear. Choose Subscriber Activity and click OK.
The window will expand further. Select opened from the first dropdown. Leave On this funnel selected. Choose the entry you want the subscriber to have opened from the second dropdown. Finally click Save Changes.
You will know you have finished your task when the entry now shows your list action with Depends on Conditions to the right of the list's name.
How to add a new subscriber at a specific point in your funnel.
You may wish to add a subscriber to a new list when they reach a certain step in your funnel. You can do this as either a new step or by adding it as an additional action to an existing step. In this tutorial We will demonstrate how to add it as an additional action to an existing step.
In the sequence editor, scroll to the step you wish to add your action to and use the dropdown arrow to the right of Send Mail to show all available actions and select Change a Subscription.
A new window will appear. Select Subscribe to or Unsubscribe from in the first dropdown and the list you want to add or remove the subscriber from in the section. Finally, select Save Changes.
You will now see the step you added the list action to. You will know you were successful in making the change if you now see your list action in the step.
That is how to add a list action when a subscriber reaches a specific point in your funnel.
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