Getting started with Sequences

Last updated: June 18, 2026

Sequences are how you send a coordinated series of emails to contacts over time. This article covers what a sequence is, the states an enrollment moves through, and where to start.

What a sequence is

A sequence is a multi-step email cadence with timing, conditional logic, and routing baked in. The defining components:

  • Steps — each step is a single email (or a manual task), in order. Steps are connected by delays.

  • Delays — the gap between one step and the next.

  • Routing — which mailbox each step sends from, and which owner to assign tasks to.

  • Send schedule — which days and hours emails are allowed to send, in what time zone.

  • Ruleset — workspace-level rules about re-enrollment, multi-sequence enrollment, and exclusions.

Sequences are launched and managed independently of contacts — you build the sequence once, then enroll contacts into it. Enrollments are what flow through the steps.

The enrollment status labels you'll see

A sequence enrollment progresses through a number of states in the UI. The most common labels:

  • Draft — the enrollment was created but not yet started.

  • In progress / Started — actively sending steps.

  • Queued — waiting for the next allowed send slot (daily cap, send schedule, future scheduled time).

  • Blocked — couldn't send because of a template variable resolution failure or another issue.

  • Paused — the sequence itself was paused; sends won't process until resumed.

  • Finished — completed all steps.

  • Completed — finished, with a reason (e.g., reached the end, was marked complete).

  • Canceled — manually unenrolled or removed mid-sequence by a proactive exclusion.

  • Excluded — matched an exclusion rule at send time and was skipped.

  • Bounced / Bounce stopped — the recipient bounced and sequencing stopped.

A separate Not Enrolled view shows contacts who never started in the sequence because of an enrollment-rule failure (re-enrollment cooldown, exclusion at enrollment time, missing routing target, etc.).

How sequences differ from Plays

A common point of confusion when you're starting out:

  • A sequence is the actual email cadence — the steps, the timing, the templates.

  • A Play is the workflow that decides who enters which sequence, and what else happens around enrollment (CRM sync, AI qualification, Slack alerts, owner routing).

You can run a sequence without a Play (manual enrollment, CSV upload, or one-off enrollment from a contact's record), but at scale you'll usually want a Play feeding the sequence.

Where to start

If you're building your first sequence:

  1. Decide on the cadence first. How many steps? How far apart? Standard B2B cadence is 4–6 emails over 2–3 weeks.

  2. Write step 1 from scratch. This is the most important email — most replies come from step 1.

  3. Make later steps shorter. Steps 2+ are reminders; they don't need to re-pitch the whole offer.

  4. Set up the send schedule. Business days, business hours, in the right time zone. Configure excluded dates if you have known blackout periods.

  5. Configure routing. Which mailbox sends? Which owner gets the tasks?

  6. Enroll a small test cohort first. 10–20 contacts. Watch the first sends land in real inboxes before scaling up.

  7. Watch the Enrollments tab. Filter by status to see if anything is in Blocked, Excluded, or Queued unexpectedly.

What sequences are not great for

  • Long-running nurture campaigns. Sequences are best for 2–4 weeks of outbound; for long-running nurture, use repeated enrollment via Plays or a tool optimized for nurture.

  • Marketing newsletters. Sequences send one-to-one from your mailboxes — they look like personal emails. Use a marketing tool for one-to-many newsletter sends.

  • Transactional emails. Receipts, password resets, etc. Use a transactional email service.

Where to go from here

Once you have a sequence running: