Features

Email Automations

Email automations go out on their own: when someone joins your waitlist, a set time after they join, or when they reach a number of points or referrals. Your welcome email is one of them.

Getting Started

Finding Your Automations

1. Navigate to your waitlist dashboard
2. Click "Automations" under Emails in the sidebar navigation
3. You'll see every automation on the waitlist, each with its own switch

Your Welcome Email

Waitlists created in the dashboard start with an automation called "Welcome email", switched off and ready for you to customize.

If your waitlist already had a welcome email, it's now that automation, with the same content, sender and stats, and it's on or off as it was before. Emails it sent before the change aren't listed on its Sent tab, but they still count in its stats and show on each subscriber's page.

Plan Limits

The limit is how many automations each waitlist can have switched on at once.

Automations that are switched off don't count, so you can keep drafts ready. A waitlist can hold up to 25 automations in total. If you move to a plan with a lower limit, your oldest automations stay on and the rest are switched off.

Creating an Automation

1. Click "New automation"
2. Give it a name. Only you and your team see this
3. Choose when it sends
4. Click "Create and edit email" and design your email
5. Switch it on

When It Sends

• When someone joins: Right away, or a number of minutes, hours or days later, up to 30 days. If you change the delay, the new one applies to people who join after the change.
• When a subscriber reaches a number of points: Points come from signing up, referrals and social tasks. The email is sent once, when they get there. Referrals only add points while referral rewards are on.
• When a subscriber reaches a number of referrals: Referrals are people who joined through their link. The email is sent once, when they get there.

Who Gets Them

• With double opt-in on, automations start after the subscriber confirms
• Subscribers added by CSV import don't get automations. To reach them, send a broadcast
• Unsubscribed subscribers and addresses that can't receive email are skipped

Designing Your Email

The email editor gives you control over the content and appearance of your email.

Basic Settings

1. Sender Name: The name that will appear as the sender in recipients' inboxes
2. Sender Email: The email address that will be used to send the email
   • You can use your default Waitlister domain
   • On the Growth plan and higher, you can also send from a verified custom email domain
3. Reply-To Address: An optional email address where replies will be directed (if different from the sender)
4. Subject Line: The subject of your email

Email Content

The block editor lets you design professional-looking email content visually.

1. Blocks: Stack text, image, button, divider, spacer, and custom HTML blocks — hover between blocks and click the + button to add one, and select any block to edit its content and styling in the sidebar, or start from a prebuilt template or one of your own emails
2. Design Settings: Set the email's background colors, content width, font, and link color once for the whole email
3. Template Variables: Insert personalized elements like the subscriber's name, referral link, or position in the waitlist from the text toolbar
4. Device Preview: Toggle between desktop and mobile views while you design

Your design is compiled to email-safe HTML when you save, so what you see in the editor is what lands in your subscribers' inboxes.

If a subscriber's Name field is empty, the name variables use a custom field or API value called name, first_name or last_name instead. Other custom fields work as {{subscriber.metadata.company}}, with your field's name in place of company.

With the referral program on, positions refresh every 15 minutes, so a position in a points or referral email can be slightly behind.

Managing an Automation

Open an automation from the list to see its three tabs.

1. Content: A live preview of your email, its stats and its switch. Click "Send test" to receive it in your own inbox, with template variables filled in with example values
2. Scheduled: Emails waiting to go out and when they're due. Click "Cancel" to stop one
3. Sent: Everything due so far: sent and failed emails, plus any that were skipped or cancelled. Skipped emails show why

Switching Off and Deleting

• When you switch an automation off, scheduled emails that come due while it's off aren't sent
• When you delete an automation, its scheduled emails are dropped. Emails already sent stay on your subscribers' pages

Every automation email counts towards your plan's monthly email limit. Emails that come due after you reach it are skipped, and they don't go out once the limit resets.

Troubleshooting

Email Not Sending

• Check that the automation is switched on
• Look at its Sent tab: a skipped email shows why it wasn't sent
• With double opt-in on, nothing is sent until the subscriber confirms
• Signing up again with an address already on the waitlist doesn't create a new sign-up, so nothing is sent. Delete the subscriber first, or test with a different address
• Check that you haven't reached your monthly email limit
• Make sure your account has at least the Launch plan activated

Poor Deliverability

• Avoid spam trigger words in your subject and content
• Keep your email size under 102KB for optimal delivery
• See the email deliverability guide for more

Display Problems

• Test on multiple devices to ensure responsive design
• Avoid overly complex HTML that might not render correctly

Help and Support

Need assistance with your automations? We're here to help.

• Contact us via the public contact form
• Access the "Help" page in your account dashboard