Using workflows to send automated emails

With the Workflows feature, you can create automatically scheduled updates that your customers will receive at designated intervals after their purchase.

See what receiving a workflow is like by getting this free, example product.

Workflows can be used for a variety of situations, including:

• Teaching an online course where learning materials are delivered every three days, for three months.
• Creating a digital monthly magazine where customers receive the latest issue immediately after purchase.
• 24 hours after a customer buys your film, Killer Cosmonauts From Space Sector Zoop, they receive a message asking if they want to executive produce the sequel.
• As both an author and musician, you want to automatically send your e-book customers a free track from your latest album after their purchase. You also want to send buyers of your album a free chapter from your latest e-book.
• Sending a personal thank-you note after each purchase.

How to create a workflow

A workflow can be sent out to the following groups of people: 

• All of your customers
• Customers of a specific product (any workflows will stay in their Gumroad libraries as attached updates)
• All of your followers (learn more about following here)
• All customers and all followers 

The workflow will begin as soon as someone buys a product from you (customers) or follows you (followers). 

Step 1: Set it up

Go to your Posts dashboard and click on the Workflows tab. Click the New workflow button to create a new workflow. 

Give your workflow a name (this is only visible to you), and then choose your Audience. Note that once you start adding emails to your workflow, you won't be able to change your audience.

You can select your Audience. You can send your post to your followers, customers, affiliates, or to everyone!

If you choose to send a post to your  followers only, you can further narrow down that audience by products they have bought, not bought, and a date range. This allows you to target a more specific group of followers, for example, followers who have never bought any of your products, or only your newest followers! 

If you choose to send a post to your  customers only, you can refine that audience by selecting only customers who have bought a specific product, customers who haven't bought a specific product, customers who have paid more or less than a specified amount, the date range in which they became customers, or even their location. You can also refine by versions, variants, or tiers. With the "Trigger" option, you can also set up a workflow to trigger a custom email when a membership subscriber cancels a subscription, and not just when they subscribe. 

Want to notify your affiliates of a big sale coming up? Or thank them for their hard work? Or tell them, Glengarry Glen Ross style, that they need to be better earners? Through the Posts feature you can do that! Select your audience as "Affiliates only" and then specify affiliates of which product (or all products). Write your post, and schedule it or send it immediately. Your affiliates will receive an email from us. 

Step 2: Add emails to your workflow

After making a workflow, click the green Add button, and then click Add email to add the first email. This email will be sent out relative to the time of purchase. If you want your customers to receive an email immediately after they buy a product, set the first email to be sent out 0 hours after purchase.

If you want a workflow to only be sent to new customers, click the Only send to new customers checkbox underneath the Content box. If you leave this box unchecked, your workflow will be sent to customers who have already purchased your product (as long as they fulfil the filters applied and the hours after purchase criteria). Note that once a workflow is marked as "new customers only" and is published, it cannot be changed. 

Your workflow must include a subject and body. You can also add as many files as you want and a call-to-action button that links to a specified URL. 

Step 3: Add additional emails

You can add additional emails by clicking  Save, and your first email will minimize.

Click the  Add email button again to add a second email. Each time you add a new email, you will choose when it will be sent relative to the time of purchase.

Here is an example of a finished workflow. The customer will receive an email immediately after purchase, a second email one day after purchase, and a final email one week after purchase. 

When you're ready to publish your workflow, click the Edit button on each email and click Publish. Click the Cancel button on the top of your edit screen. When you've published all the emails in your workflow, click Cancel button again in the upper-right hand corner to finish editing.

After you've made sales (or gained followers) and your workflow has been sent out, you'll be able to see the open and click-through rates on each message. 

If an email in a workflow is active, it will say Active under the subject line. If you'd like to pause a workflow email, click Edit on the workflow. Then edit that particular email, and unpublish it. 

How it works for customers

Your customers will receive workflows as email messages with links to any files you've attached. The emails will be addressed from you (or whatever you have entered as your Full Name in your settings). These emails are addressed from the Gumroad support email, but if a customer hits "reply" on the email, their reply will be sent to your support email.

Test out the customer experience for yourself by "purchasing" this free example Workflow.

If your customers have Gumroad accounts, all of these emails will be visible in their Gumroad Library.

If your customer is not receiving emails

You can verify that a customer is supposed to be receiving emails or not by searching for their name or email address in your Audience dashboard. Click their name to open their customer drawer. If they have opted out of emails from you, there will not be a checkmark next to the words Receives posts. 

You can toggle their ability to receive updates by clicking through this checkmark.

Should your customers still not be receiving Workflow emails, it is possible that:

1. You have not published specific emails within your workflow. Please go to your workflow, open it, and open each mail to verify that they have been published.
2. Their inbox spam filter is blocking emails from Gumroad.