Brew automations builder showing flow diagram

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What are Automations?

Automations are multi-step email flows that are automatically triggered by specific contact actions, behaviors, or timeframes. Automations are most commonly used for onboarding new customers, driving product adoption, nurturing leads, retaining customers, upselling customers, and winning back those who have become inactive.

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Common Automation Examples

Introduce your brand and set expectationsSample prompts:
Create a 3-email welcome flow for new leads: first email introduces our brand and value, second shares a customer success story, third sets expectations for future communications. Build a triggered welcome flow for new newsletter subscribers: send a welcome, then a follow-up with top resources, then a check-in asking for their main goal. Create a 3-email welcome flow for new subscribers that introduces our product features and includes helpful getting started tips.

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Creating an Automation

To create an automation, go to the Create page, select Automations from the dropdown in the top left corner, and describe your goal. Brew’s AI handles the heavy lifting—instantly building a flow where both the logic and every email are tailored to your selected audience, written in your brand voice, designed to match your design system, and informed by your knowledge. Review the flow and each email, make any tweaks you want, and launch high-converting automations in minutes.
1

Describe your automation

Tell Brew what you need:
Create a 3-email welcome flow for new subscribers that introduces our product features and includes helpful getting started tips.
The more specific you are about purpose, length, and content, the better your flow will be.
What are merge tags? Merge tags let you insert dynamic content (like a contact’s name or company) into your emails. Brew automatically adds merge tags for you, so every message feels personal and relevant.
For automations tied to customer journeys, use a dedicated contact property (like subscriptionStatus) to trigger onboarding, payment issue, or re-engagement flows. Update this property via API or integrations to automate user journeys and ensure contacts enter the right flows at the right time.
2

Review the generated flow

Brew does the heavy-lifting, creating the entire automation flow—including triggers, timing, branching, and email content. Now you can review and edit it. To do this, you’ll want to understand the main building blocks of an automation: Triggers & Nodes.What are Triggers & Nodes?
  • Triggers are what start your automation flow. They answer the question: “When should this flow begin, and for whom?” For example, a trigger could be when a new contact is added, when someone joins a subscription group, or when a specific event happens.
  • Nodes are the steps that happen after the trigger. Each node tells Brew what to do next—like sending an email, waiting a certain amount of time, filtering your audience, or splitting the flow into different paths (branching).
3

Customize if needed

You don’t have to manually edit your flow—just tell Brew what you want to change, and it will do the work for you. Want to add a new email, change the timing, or split your flow? Just describe it in the assistant and Brew will update your flow instantly.
Editing actions:
  • Add, remove, or rearrange nodes (emails, timers, filters, branches)
  • Edit email content, subject lines, and design
  • Adjust timing between messages
  • Add or remove branches for personalized journeys
  • Copy emails from other flows to reuse content
  • Use audience filters to target or exclude specific contacts
  • Save your changes before activating
Testing & Preview:
  • Preview any email in your flow (send a test to yourself or a teammate)
  • Test your flow using contacts with example.com or test.com domains (no real emails will be sent)
Personalization:
  • Personalize your emails with dynamic content: use contact properties (like names or custom fields) and event properties (data from triggering events) to tailor messages for each recipient. Brew’s AI automatically adds relevant merge tags based on your brand and audience data. Always provide fallback values for merge tags to ensure emails are sent even if some recipient data is missing.
What are merge tags? Merge tags let you insert dynamic content (like a contact’s name or company) into your emails. Brew automatically adds merge tags for you, so every message feels personal and relevant.
Brew automatically applies your brand voice and design system to every automation. You can further customize flows for specific customer journeys—such as onboarding, payment issues, or win-back—by editing content, timing, and branching as needed.
4

Activate your flow

Once you’re satisfied with your flow, activate it to start sending automatically when trigger conditions are met.
StateColor/IconDescription
DraftgrayFlow is being created or edited and is not yet live. You can add, remove, or edit nodes in Draft mode. You must save before activating.
Activegreen with pulsating dotFlow is live and processing contacts. Only flows with at least one Send email node can be set to Active. To make changes, pause or stop the flow first.
Pausedorange with pause iconFlow is temporarily suspended. New contacts that meet the trigger conditions will queue for up to 24 hours and enter the flow when you resume, as long as they still meet all criteria. After 24 hours, new contacts will not queue or enter until it’s active again. Pausing is useful for short-term changes or quick edits.
Stoppedred with stop iconFlow is fully halted. No new contacts will queue or enter the flow while stopped. Any contacts that were queued will not enter when resumed. Use stopping when you want to completely halt all flow activity.
Not sure whether to pause or stop? Pause for quick edits or temporary changes. Stop if you want to fully halt all flow activity and prevent any new contacts from entering.
5

Monitor and analyze

  • Ask Brew: Click the “Ask Brew” button, select the flow you want to analyze, and ask any question about performance, trends, or improvement opportunities
  • Ask AI: Go to the Ask AI page in the side navigation, use @ to tag your flow, and ask specific questions about performance
  • View group metrics: see total sends, average open rate, and average click-through rate for each group of flows
  • View individual metrics: see sends, opens, and clicks for each flow
  • Use these insights to optimize your flows and drive better results

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Managing and Monitoring Automations

The Automations dashboard displays all your email sequences in an organized view. You can filter by status, group automations, and view key performance metrics.

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Pausing, Stopping, and Testing Automations

  • Pausing: Temporarily suspend your automation. While paused, new contacts that meet the trigger conditions will queue for up to 24 hours and enter the automation when you resume, as long as they still meet all criteria. After 24 hours, new contacts will not queue or enter until the automation is active again. Pausing is best for short-term edits or quick changes.
  • Stopping: Fully halt your automation. No new contacts will queue or enter the automation while stopped, and any contacts that were queued will not enter when resumed. Use stopping when you want to completely halt all automation activity.
  • Testing: Use test contacts with example.com or test.com domains to safely test your automations. No real emails will be sent to these addresses, so you can verify your setup without risk.
  • Send preview emails from any node to see exactly what your contacts will receive.
Not sure whether to pause or stop? Pause for quick edits or temporary changes. Stop if you want to fully halt all automation activity and prevent any new contacts from entering.

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Need Help?

Our team is ready to support you at every step of your journey with Brew. Choose the option that works best for you:

Search Documentation

Type in the “Ask any question” search bar at the top left to instantly find relevant documentation pages.

AI Assistant Chat

Click the sparkle ✨ icon next to the “Ask any question” search bar in the top left to chat with our AI assistant that’s been trained on our entire documentation.

ChatGPT/Claude Integration

Click “Open in ChatGPT” at the top right of any page to analyze documentation with ChatGPT or Claude for deeper insights.

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Frequently Asked Questions