How to Create Automatic Emails

Automatic Emails vs Email Campaigns

In Get Shouting, automatic emails are always sent by a CRM Journey — not by an Email Campaign (blast). A Journey enrolls each contact when a trigger fires, then runs Send Email, Wait, and optional Condition steps on the Visual Journey Builder canvas (/email/journeys/{id}).

Before You Start

• Email sender configured — From Name and physical mailing address in CRM & Email Settings (Email DNS Setup). Activation is blocked until this is saved.
• Active paid subscription — Trial accounts can explore Journey canvases but cannot activate Journeys or deliver messages (Billing).
• Store triggers (Order Placed, Abandoned Cart, etc.) — Connect Shopify or WooCommerce with Email CRM enabled on the store connection.
• Custom Journey canvases — Creating new Journeys from scratch requires a Pro or Agency plan. All plans can configure built-in Journey templates with Set Up.

Where Journeys Live in the App

• Email → CRM Journeys in the main navigation (list view at /email/journeys)
• Campaigns → CRM Journeys tab in the Campaigns hub
• +CREATE → CRM Journey to start a new custom Journey (Pro or Agency)

Option A: Enable a Built-In Journey

When your store or subscribe form is connected, Get Shouting lists built-in Journey templates (Welcome, Abandoned Cart, Post-Purchase, and others) on the Journeys list. Store webhooks and form events are wired automatically — you choose templates and activate.

1. Open Email → CRM Journeys.
2. Find the journey card (for example, Welcome or Abandoned Cart).
3. Click Set Up.
4. Choose a Design Template (visual frame) and Content Template (copy layout) for each Send Email step.
5. Toggle the journey Active when you are ready to send.

On all plans you can assign templates to built-in journeys. Pro and Agency users can also open the canvas to edit steps, add Wait delays, or mix in SMS. See Automated CRM Journeys for the full e-commerce trigger matrix.

Example: Multi-Day Welcome Series

The built-in Welcome journey is a pre-timed three-email sequence over four days. It fires when someone joins your list (subscribe form signup or manual add). Wait steps between emails handle the day 2 and day 4 delays automatically — you choose templates and activate; you do not set those delays on Basic.

• Email 1 (immediate): welcome + your offer + what makes you different.
• Email 2 (day 2): your story + best-selling products.
• Email 3 (day 4): reviews or social proof + a gentle nudge to use the offer.

Enable the built-in Welcome journey

1. Complete email sender and DNS setup before activating any journey.
2. Open Email → CRM Journeys (or Campaigns → CRM Journeys).
3. Find the Welcome journey card and click Set Up.
4. For each Send Email step, choose a Design Template (visual frame) and Content Template (copy layout). Customize subject lines and body copy to match the three emails above.
5. Toggle the journey Active. New subscribers enroll automatically; the step runner sends email 1 immediately, waits two days, sends email 2, waits two more days, then sends email 3.

Pro and Agency: click the Welcome journey name to open the Visual Journey Builder canvas. You can edit existing Wait step durations (1–30 days), add SMS steps, or change the number of emails before re-activating.

Copy ideas and a subject-line cheat sheet: Academy: Build Your Welcome Series.

Build a custom multi-day welcome (Pro or Agency)

To use your own timing or more than three emails, create a journey from scratch with trigger Contact Added to List:

1. Click +CREATE → CRM Journey and choose trigger Contact Added to List.
2. Add Send Email (welcome) → Wait (for example, 2 days) → Send Email → Wait (for example, 2 days) → Send Email → End.
3. Configure each Send Email step in the Step Editor Panel; add a Wait between every pair of emails (back-to-back sends are blocked).
4. Click Activate when the canvas validates. See Wait step settings (minutes, hours, or days 1–30).

Option B: Create a Custom Journey (Pro or Agency)

1. Click +CREATE → CRM Journey, or on the Journeys list click Create Journey.
2. Enter a name, optional description, and choose a trigger (fixed after creation — see the trigger table in CRM Visual Journey Builder).
3. The Visual Journey Builder opens for that Journey.

Add Automatic Email Steps

1. Click Add step → Send Email.
2. In the Step Editor Panel, set subject, preheader, and body (same rich editor as Email Campaigns).
3. Apply a Design Template and Content Template; personalize with merge tags such as {{firstName}}, {{orderNumber}}, and {{cartUrl}}.
4. Add a Wait step between consecutive Send Email steps (back-to-back sends are blocked).
5. End every branch with an End step. Optional: Condition, Add Tag, or Send SMS when SMS is enabled.

Full canvas reference: CRM Visual Journey Builder.

Activate Your Automatic Emails

1. Confirm your email sender is complete.
2. Click Activate in the Journey header. Status becomes Active; the canvas becomes read-only.
3. When the trigger fires, Get Shouting creates an enrollment and advances the contact through each step. Each Send Email step counts toward your monthly send quota (500 free sends/month on all plans).

To edit a live Journey: Pause → edit the canvas → Activate again. Contacts already enrolled continue their current steps while paused; only new enrollments stop.

How It Works (Architecture)

• Trigger — Listens for events: subscribe form (Contact Added to List), Resend open/click webhooks (Email Opened / Email Clicked), Shopify webhooks, or WooCommerce plugin events when a store is connected.
• Enrollment — Each qualifying contact gets a journey enrollment record when the trigger fires.
• Step runner — Advances enrollments through Wait, Condition, Add Tag, Send Email, and Send SMS steps on the schedule you defined.
• Send Email — Renders your Design + Content templates with merge tags and sends through your configured sender identity (shared or custom domain).

Common Automatic Email Flows

Related Marketing Academy Lessons

Strategy and context for why these steps matter:

• Build Your Welcome Series
• Recover Abandoned Carts
• Keep Customers After They Buy