Build your first flow
Last updated 1 August 2026
We will build the automation most teams want first: a welcome journey that follows up on new leads from a form, and stops as soon as the lead converts.
1. Start with the trigger
Create a flow and choose the Form submitted trigger, then select which form. The trigger is what enrols a record; everything after it happens to that record.
Triggers are also available for record created and updated, deal stage changes, campaign engagement, meetings and chatbot events — but start with one you can test easily.
2. Send the welcome email
Add a send-email action and pick a template. Merge tags pull from the record that was enrolled, so the message uses the person's real name rather than "there".
3. Wait before following up
Add a one-day wait. If your follow-up should not land on a Saturday, use a business-days wait instead — it skips weekends rather than counting them.
You can also add an execution window so that customer-facing emails only go out between, say, 9am and 5pm on weekdays. Steps that come due outside the window hold until it reopens rather than sending at 3am.
4. Branch on what happened
Add a branch on whether the welcome email was opened. Send an enthusiastic follow-up down the opened path and a different-angle nudge down the not-opened path. Branching on behaviour is what separates an automation from a mail merge.
5. Set a goal
Set the flow's goal to Deal created. Anyone who converts leaves the flow immediately and stops receiving the remaining messages.
This matters more than it sounds. Nothing undermines a follow-up sequence faster than continuing to send "just checking you saw this" to someone who already bought.
6. Test before you activate
Use Test to run a real record through the flow and watch which path it takes and why. This is a simulation — no email is sent and nothing is written to the record — so you can run it as many times as you need.
When the path looks right, switch the flow live. New submissions start enrolling from that moment; the flow does not retroactively enrol people who submitted before it existed.