A sequence is a series of follow-up steps spread over days: a reminder on day one, a case study on day three, a final offer on day seven. What sets it apart from a flow is that it does not wait for a reply and its steps advance on a calendar. A contact enters once, and the system carries the rest.
⚠️ Sequences are a plan-dependent feature. If your plan does not cover them, the Add to sequence step can still be placed in a flow, but the run stops there and the reason is written to the log.
What a sequence is for
A flow does its work while the person is talking. Once they go quiet, all a flow can do is wait. This is exactly where a sequence comes in: it keeps making planned contact after the conversation has ended.
Typical uses:
Sales follow-up — Reminders 1, 3 and 7 days after a quote was sent.
Welcome series — An introduction spread over three days for a new customer.
Appointment preparation — A checklist before the appointment.
Win-back — A staged return to someone who has been quiet for a while.
What a sequence is made of
A sequence has a name and between 1 and 20 steps. Each step has three settings:
After how many minutes — How long to wait after enrolment (or after the previous step). 1,440 minutes is one day.
Message — The text to send. Placeholders are allowed. It may be left empty.
Start automation — The step can start an automation at the same time. Complex work (conditions, buttons, data collection) belongs in that flow, not here.
A step can send only a message, only start an automation, or do both. A step with an empty text that only starts an automation is perfectly valid.
A sequence has two general settings:
Status — Whether the sequence is on. Switch it off and pending steps are not sent.
Stop the sequence when the person replies — On by default. The sequence stops the moment the person writes to you, so follow-ups do not rain down while you are talking.
How a contact enters a sequence
There are three ways:
With a flow action. Put Add to sequence into an Action step.
With a general rule. Write a rule such as "when this tag is added, enrol in the sequence".
Remove from sequence works the same ways; pending steps are then not sent.
If the contact is already in that sequence, they are not restarted. To send the same series to the same person again, you have to remove them first and add them back.
Entering and leaving are events in their own right: you can build general rules on Entered sequence and Left sequence.
How steps are delivered
When a step falls due it is executed in the background, the message is sent, and the enrolment moves on to the next step. Once the last step has gone out, the enrolment is marked done.
Channel rules apply here too: if the person has not written to you in the last 24 hours, the message cannot be sent. In that case the step is not delivered but the sequence does not stop; the enrolment moves to the next step and the reason is logged. This is why long sequences go quiet in practice when the person does.
For the automation a step starts to actually run, that automation must be live. If a draft or switched-off automation is selected, the step only sends its message.
Beside each sequence in the list you see three numbers: how many people are in progress, how many finished, and how many stopped.
Reading a sequence's state
Beside each row in the sequence list there are three numbers: how many people are in progress, how many finished and how many stopped. A high "stopped" count is not a bad sign; usually it means people wrote in and took the conversation over.
The main reasons an enrolment stops:
The person replied — The normal case while "Stop the sequence when the person replies" is on.
The sequence was switched off — Pending steps are not sent while its status is off.
No step left — If the sequence was edited and a step removed, the enrolment halts.
The contact was deleted — The enrolment cannot continue.
The portfolio was scheduled for deletion — No sequence step is sent in a locked portfolio.
When a step's message cannot be sent because of the 24-hour window, the enrolment does not stop: it moves to the next step and the reason is logged.
Sequence, flow, or scheduled trigger
All three are used to "send a message later", but they are different:
Sequence — The person enters once and the steps advance one after another. It is for follow-up series.
The Wait step inside a flow — For a short pause within a single flow. The rest of the flow continues after the wait.
Scheduled trigger — Tied to a moment on the calendar: a specific date, a date field on the contact card, or the same day every year. The person does not need to be in any sequence.
As a rule of thumb: if you are saying "three messages after this event", you want a sequence; if you are saying "one message on this date", you want a scheduled trigger.
A concrete example
A training provider follows up enquirers like this:
When someone writes "info", a flow sends the brochure and an Action step adds them to the Applicant follow-up sequence.
Sequence step 1 (after 1,440 minutes): "Did you get a chance to read the brochure? Write to us if you have questions."
Step 2 (after 2,880 minutes): the text is empty; it only starts the Enrolment call automation, which offers day choices as buttons.
Step 3 (after 5,760 minutes): "Places are filling up this week."
If the applicant writes at any point, the sequence stops by itself and an adviser takes the conversation over.
Common mistakes
Turning off "Stop the sequence when the person replies". With it off, follow-ups keep going even while the customer is asking you a question.
Setting the first step to 0 minutes. If the flow already sent a message, the person receives two messages back to back.
Using a sequence where a flow belongs. A sequence has no conditions, buttons or data collection. You get those by starting an automation from a step.
Attaching a draft automation to a step. An automation that is not live is never started.
Forgetting the 24-hour rule. A sequence message does not reach someone who has gone quiet; on Instagram you have to wait, on WhatsApp you need a template.
Trying to add the same person again. If they are already in, nothing happens; remove them first.