Automations

Create automated email sequences triggered by specific actions or timeframes with Brew

What are Automations?

Automations are triggered email sequences that respond to specific user actions, behaviors, or timeframes. They deliver the right message at exactly the right time, without manual intervention.

When to use Automations

Use Automations when you need to:

• Welcome new subscribers with introduction emails
• Nurture leads with a sequence of helpful content
• Re-engage inactive contacts automatically
• Guide users through your product with onboarding sequences
• Send milestone messages for birthdays or anniversaries
• Follow up automatically after specific user actions
• Recover abandoned carts or incomplete actions
• Deliver educational courses or multi-part content
• Send renewal reminders or subscription notifications
• Gather feedback at specific points in the customer journey

Creating your first Automation

1. Describe your automation

   Tell Brew what you need:

   “Create a 3-email welcome sequence for new subscribers that introduces our product features and includes helpful getting started tips”

   The more specific you are about purpose, length, and content, the better your automation will be.

2. Review the generated automation

   Brew does 99% of the work by automatically:

   • Building the entire flow structure
   • Setting up the appropriate trigger
   • Creating optimal timing between emails
   • Writing all email content
   • Adding conditional logic where helpful

   Simply review what Brew has created and make any adjustments if needed.

3. Customize if needed

   While Brew creates a complete, ready-to-use automation, you can still:

   • Adjust trigger conditions
   • Modify email content
   • Change timing between messages
   • Add or remove branches

   Most customers find minimal edits are needed as Brew follows email marketing best practices.

4. Activate

   Once you’re satisfied:

   • Toggle the status to “Active”
   • The automation runs automatically when trigger conditions are met

Understanding Automation nodes

Automations consist of four types of nodes that Brew arranges intelligently based on your requirements:

Send email

Send an email to the specified audience with fully customizable content and design. Brew automatically writes compelling copy based on your Brand Voice.

Timer

Wait for a specified amount of time between actions. Brew recommends optimal timing based on best practices.

Audience filter

Filter the audience based on their properties to create targeted experiences for specific segments.

Branching

Split into multiple parallel branches to send different content to different segments.

Learn about Triggers

Understand the different ways to start your automations

Managing your Automations

The Automations dashboard displays all your email sequences in an organized view:

Understanding Automation status indicators

Each Automation has a status indicator showing its current state:

• Draft (Gray): Automation is created but not yet activated
• Active (Green with pulsating dot): Automation is currently running
• Paused (Red with pause icon): Automation is temporarily stopped

You can filter automations by status to focus on specific automation stages.

Creating Automation groups

Organize your automations into logical categories for better management:

1. Click “Add a new group” in the top left corner
2. Provide a descriptive name (e.g., “Onboarding,” “Recovery,” or “Lifecycle”)
3. Drag and drop automations into the appropriate groups

Groups allow you to analyze performance across automation categories and identify which types generate the best results.

Performance metrics at a glance

The dashboard shows key performance metrics for each automation:

• Sends: Number of contacts who have entered the automation
• Opens: Average open rate across all emails in the sequence
• Clicks: Average click-through rate across all emails in the sequence

Group headers display aggregate metrics, showing total sends and average engagement rates across all automations in that group.

Automation status types

Your automation can have one of three statuses:

Draft

Automation is being created or edited and is not yet live.

Paused

Automation is temporarily suspended.

Active

Automation is live and processing contacts.

Change an automation’s status using the dropdown in the top-right corner of the automation editor. You’ll need to save any changes before activating a draft automation.

Analyzing automation performance

Brew provides powerful analytics to help you understand and improve your automation performance:

Get AI-powered insights

Brew can analyze your automation performance in two ways:

1. Ask Brew:
   • Click the “Ask Brew” button
   • Select the automation you want to analyze
   • Ask any question about performance, trends, or improvement opportunities
2. Use the Analyze tab:
   • Go to the Analyze page in the side navigation
   • Use @ to tag your automation
   • Ask specific questions about performance

When asking Brew to analyze your automations, try questions like “Which email in this automation has the highest click rate?”, “How can I improve engagement in this sequence?”, or “What’s causing the drop-off after email #2?”

Common automation examples

A sequence that introduces new subscribers to your product or service.

Sample prompt:

“Create a 4-email welcome sequence for new subscribers that introduces our product, shares success stories, and offers a 10% discount on their first purchase”

A sequence that introduces new subscribers to your product or service.

Sample prompt:

“Create a 4-email welcome sequence for new subscribers that introduces our product, shares success stories, and offers a 10% discount on their first purchase”

A sequence that targets inactive subscribers to bring them back.

Sample prompt:

“Build a re-engagement sequence for subscribers inactive for 60+ days with a reminder of our value, content preference update, and special offer”

A sequence that reminds customers about items left in their shopping cart.

Sample prompt:

“Create an abandoned cart recovery sequence with an initial reminder, followed by social proof, and ending with a 15% discount that expires in 48 hours”

A structured series of emails that teaches subscribers about a specific topic.

Sample prompt:

“Design a 5-part email course on digital marketing fundamentals with one lesson every 3 days and a certificate of completion at the end”

Learn about Brew Recommendations

Discover AI-generated automation suggestions

Set up Branching

Create personalized paths for different segments

Need support?

We’re here to help!

Scheduled support

Book a call with the founders — we have time slots open most days

Book a call

Immediate support

Call us on [phone] or emails us on [e-mail]

Email us now

We’re more than happy to help you create effective automations. Ping us on Slack (we should have connected with you by now) or through one of the mechanisms above.