Adding contacts to an already active automated email series

[MarieM80]

I want to set up an automated email series for an upcoming course. I'm going to be setting up Zapier to automatically drop new course registrants into a specific Constant Contact list. The course will be open for registration for a couple of months. My idea is to set up a welcome email for the course that sends immediately after new purchasers are added into the list and then about 20 or so emails that are timed to send on specific dates after the course begins. Can I set these all up together as one series or should I set up the welcome email as a separate automated email pulling from that same list so they can still get the welcome email if they sign up after the 2nd email has already gone out? What I am unclear about is: if my automated email series triggers when someone joins that list and people are still registering for the course after the series is activated, will new signups still be able to be added into the series to receive the first email? And also, if I have someone who joins after my course begins and I add them to the list manually, would they still be able to start receiving the emails from the beginning (welcome, 2nd email...)? Or if the 2nd email has already gone out when I manually add someone, would they get added to the series but start receiving from the 3rd email? Thanks in advance for any assistance to help clarify!

[Amanda_G · Accepted solution]

Hi @MarieM80 , 

The automated series feature does not allow for emails to be sent on specific dates - but rather a specific number of days after the contact has joined the list. I would go with your second idea - one welcome email, and then one automated series with the rest of the emails, that you activate after everyone has registered. 

After the automated series is activated, anyone who joins the list going forward will receive the series of emails, as well as the welcome email, if it is still active, so your new signups should still receive both series regardless of the series already being activated. 

If you add a contact to the list manually, they would not receive the welcome email. They need to be added via a signup form to be able to receive the welcome email. Contacts that were already on the list previously would also not be eligible to receive the welcome email. However, this does not apply to the automated series. Contacts who are added manually are still eligible to receive the series.

Anyone who is added (manually or otherwise) after the series has been activated, regardless of what steps the other contacts are on, will start from the beginning of the series at Step 1. 

[MarieM80]

Thank you so much, Amanda! Your answer was really helpful.