Understanding sequences

Overview

Front allows you to send automated sequences to a list of email addresses. Here’s what you should know before creating sequences. When you're ready, see how to create a new sequence.

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How it works

Create individual and shared sequences

• Individual sequences can be sent from any individual inbox containing an email channel.
• Shared sequences can be sent from any shared inbox as long as it’s an email channel. We don’t support SMS, chat, etc.

Sequences can range from 1-10 stages

• Each stage will be a reply to the previous stage
• Subject line is the same for each stage (except with a “Re:” after the first stage)
• You cannot edit the subject line after sending Stage 1
• Once you’ve started a sequence, you can add a new recipient and click Save to send them Stage 1 immediately
• Each stage has a sending delay that will trigger if the recipient has not replied within a certain number of days. This sending delay will apply to the time of the most recent stage sent. For example, if you wanted to send a follow-up once a week for three weeks, you would select "Follow up in 7 days if no reply" for Stages 2, 3, and 4.

Upload a CSV file of contacts to send a campaign to

• You will be limited to 200 addresses. You can upload a single CSV of up to 200 addresses. If it’s more than 200, you will get an error message. You can also upload multiple CSV files. If the total number of recipients exceeds 200, we will ask you to delete the additional recipients at the time you start the sequence
• The first column in your CSV file must be email
• You can have other columns of data (up to 20 custom variables/columns are supported)
• Delete any blank rows and columns in your CSV. After you upload your CSV file for the sequence, you should see no blank columns.
• You cannot manually create a column. Additional columns can only be created by uploading a CSV.
• You can delete a recipient row by ticking the checkbox and clicking Delete.
• You can manually edit any field (Name, Company, etc.) but the change will only apply to this sequence. It will not sync to your Contact Manager.
• If an email address is missing from a row on your CSV, the row will be deleted, and you will not receive a warning. If other fields are missing, we will highlight it in yellow, but you will still be allowed to continue.
• If there are duplicate email addresses, we will use the data from the latest row.

Utilize your Contact Manager to send a campaign

• You can send a sequence to contacts or contact lists that are saved in your Contact Manager. When you start typing a recipient in the Email field, Front will auto-complete with matching contacts or contact lists. If you pick a contact list, then all the individuals in that list will be added to the sequence.

Use variables in your sequences

• To automatically insert names and other information from the fields in your CSV file (like a mail merge), type {{ to trigger a variable dropdown.
• If a variable does not exist in every row of your CSV, you can define a fallback. When defining a fallback, make sure you surround it with single quotes {{variable |‘fallback’}}
• Typing {{ in the subject line won't trigger the dropdown options, but if you type out the variable (i.e. {{name}}) it will autofill with the variable.
• Standard and custom fields are supported as variables (type {{ and all possible fields will appear in a list).
• To pull from CSV-uploaded contacts, use the variables starting with {{sequence...}} and not {{recipient...}}.

Signatures are not yet supported in sequences

• You can manually type your signature in the body of the email.

How to stop a sequence

• If you want to stop a sequence, you can delete that sequence from the menu of sequences.
• To pause a sequence for one recipient, delete the recipient.
• If recipient replies, sequences will automatically stop for that recipient (auto replies like "Out of office" messages will not result in the sequence being stopped).

When two people edit a sequence at the same time

• If two people are editing a sequence at once, the latest change will be used.
• Recipient list changes are cumulative - if A and B both add 2 recipients each, you’ll see 4 recipients.
• Drafts are shared. The latest change will be used.

Message sending speed

Front will add a short delay between each outbound message to ensure no rate limits are exceeded with your email provider. This delay is currently:

• 7.5 seconds between emails for Gmail and Office 365 channel types
• 1 second for other email channel types

A sequence containing 200 recipients can take up to ~25 minutes to send completely.

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Instructions

See this article for step-by-step instructions on creating a sequence.

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Pricing

This feature is available on the Growth plan or above. Some legacy plans with different names may also have this feature.