Add Post-Sending Actions to Automation Emails

When you create an automated email, you can use post-sending actions to manage the contacts who receive it. Automatically update your contacts' audience fields, move them into different groups and segments, or archive them. Choose the post-sending action you want, and Mailchimp will take care of the rest.

In this article, you'll learn about post-sending actions for automation emails, and how to use them.

Before you start

Here are some things to know before you begin this process.

• This process applies to classic automations only. To learn how to add actions to a customer journey automation, check out Create a Customer Journey.
• Each email in an automation can only have one post-sending action. The action will be applied to all contacts who receive that email.
• If you send an automation series with multiple emails, you can apply a post-sending action to each email.
• Some automated campaigns, such as order notifications, do not support post-sending actions.

All the post-sending actions

Whether your automations are educational series, new customer onboarding, or product promotions, post-sending actions can help you meet your goals. After someone receives your automation email, we can perform any one of these post-sending actions.

• Update Merge Field
  We'll update your contacts' information in a chosen audience field.
• Join Interest Group
  We'll add contacts to a group in your audience.
• Leave Interest Group
  We'll remove contacts from a group in your audience.
• Add to a Tag
  We'll add a tag to contacts.
• Remove from a Tag
  We'll remove a tag from contacts.
• Unsubscribe
  We'll unsubscribe contacts from your emails, but keep them in your audience so you can target them with other types of marketing.
• Archive from Audience
  We'll archive contacts from your audience. Learn more about archiving.

Example uses

Here are some ways you can use post-send actions to manage your contacts and the content they receive.

Keep track of people who finished your automation

Change your contacts' audience, segment, group, or subscription status, depending on whether or not they've completed your automation series.

Example
Change a student's data in your audience from "student" to "alumni" after they finish an educational course automation.

How to do it
Set up an education automation series. On the final email, use the Update Merge Field post-sending action to update your contacts' audience field to "alumni."

Later, you can send them additional offers or invites to alumni events.

Link one automation to another

Use groups to easily funnel contacts from the end of one automation into the beginning of another automation.

Example
Target people who might be interested in setting up a new membership or subscription for your services after they successfully complete a re-engagement automation.

How to do it
To do this, set up your automation and use Join Interest Group on the final email. People who finish the automation will be added to a certain group. Your second automation can be triggered to send to contacts whose group info matches group you chose earlier.

Remove inactive contacts

Remove contacts from groups, segments, or your marketing audience depending on how they interact with your automation.

Example
Keep your audience clean by archiving inactive subscribers who don't interact with your automation.

How to do it
Set up an automation series to re-engage inactive contacts. For the final email, set the post-sending action to Archive from Audience. (Tip: Include a link to your signup form to the final email in case people change their mind).

This can help keep your audience clean and potentially reduce your monthly bill.

Add a post-sending action

To add or edit a post-sending action, follow these steps.

1. In the classic automation builder, find the email you want to work with. If the email is actively sending, you'll need to pause it first.
2. Find the Post-send action option and click Add or Edit.
3. Check Choose post-send action and set the criteria as needed.
4. Click Update Action.
   
5. From here, edit your automation email further, or go ahead and start sending.

All set! Now, when someone receives your automation email, we'll apply the post-sending action you chose.