Sequences

A sequence is a run of follow-up messages and tasks that goes out over days or weeks: an email on day 1, a text on day 2, a call task on day 7, for as long as you want it to run. You build the run once, and Yapii works through it for every contact on it.

Where to find it

Click Automations in the left menu. Everyone in the workspace can open it.

Yapii used to have two separate tools for this, Sequences and Automations. They've been brought together, so Sequences is now the one place for automated message runs. The menu still calls it Automations, because that's the word most people use.

For one message sent once to everyone with a tag, use Campaigns instead. See Campaign.

What's on the page

Four numbers sit across the top:

	What it counts
Built-in sequences	How many of Yapii's own sequences are switched on, out of the total.
Drip sequences	The ones your workspace has built.
Contacts enrolled	People currently part-way through a sequence.
Journeys completed	People who have reached the end of one.

Under that, Search sequences finds one by name, and two dropdowns narrow the list:

• All sequences, Running or Not running;
• sorted by Most active first or Name (A-Z).

Making a new one

Click New Sequence. The Add a sequence window starts with a line on the difference between the two: a sequence runs on its own for each person you enroll, one step after another over days or weeks, and a campaign is one send to a list you choose, all at once. It then asks you to pick one of four cards:

Card	What it's for
Blank	An empty sequence you fill in step by step. This is the one to use for a cadence you already have written down.
Lifecycle	Birthdays, home anniversaries and post-close milestones. Dates you want Yapii to watch for you.
Drip	Emails, texts and tasks on a fixed schedule, spaced out over days or weeks.
Smart	Adapts to what a contact does: opens, replies, dashboard visits and market signals move them onto different tracks. Email link clicks are not tracked, so a click never moves anyone.

Blank and Drip create a sequence, the other two don't

Blank and Drip both create a new sequence and open it, so you can add the steps. Lifecycle takes you down this page to Built-in sequences, and Smart takes you down to Adaptive sequences. The card tells you where it's about to send you.

Steps

A sequence is a list of steps, grouped by the day they go out. Click Add step and pick a type:

Type	What it does
Email, Text, VM (voicemail)	Sends a message to the contact.
Task for the agent	Gives a person something to do, such as a call.
Condition	Checks something about the contact when the step comes due. A contact who doesn't match stops here and gets none of the later steps.
Add a tag, Remove a tag	Changes the contact's tags.
Change the stage	Moves the contact to another stage.
Add a note	Writes a note on the contact.
Reassign the contact	Gives the contact to another agent.
Start another sequence, Pause other sequences	Moves the contact between sequences.
Add a collaborator, Remove a collaborator	Changes who else works the contact with you.
Stop Claire for this lead, Resume Claire for this lead	Holds Claire off the contact, or lets her carry on. Stop Claire for this lead has an optional box, Pause for this many days, then let her carry on. Leave it blank and she stays off until someone resumes her. Sends nothing. See From a sequence or a custom agent.

The steps that change the contact record send nothing. Each step in the list shows its type, its name and, for an email, its subject line. Click a step row, or focus it and press Enter or Space, to open its editor, the same as the pencil. On a wide screen the At a glance panel stays in view beside a long list of steps; on a narrow one it sits above the steps.

Send a test. When you open an email or text step, Send test email to me or Send test text to me sends that one step, as it would read, to your own email address or phone and nobody else's. It uses the step as saved, so the button is off while the step has edits you have not saved. The message is marked as a test, uses a stand-in contact, and counts against your credits like a real send. Voicemail, task and record-changing steps have no message to read, so they have no test button.

If a step uses a merge field that Yapii can't fill in, the sequence tells you before it goes out rather than sending a message with a gap in it.

Getting contacts onto a sequence

There are two ways:

• Add them yourself. Pick the contacts and put them on the sequence. They start at step 1.
• Give the sequence a trigger. Something happens, and the sequence starts itself.

Set the trigger on the sequence's own page, in What starts this sequence. Under Starts when, pick one of these:

• A new lead comes in, or A new lead comes in from a particular source, such as Zillow (see lead source);
• A tag is added to a contact, one particular tag or any. Tagging lots of contacts at once, or a tag that comes in with an import or from your CRM, doesn't start it;
• It is a contact's birthday;
• It is the anniversary of a purchase, from the contact's closing date;
• An appointment is booked, when an appointment is added for the contact;
• A contact does something on your site, such as viewing a listing or asking what their home is worth;
• A contact's stage changes, one particular stage or any. This is the stage on the contact's own record;
• A deal moves to a new pipeline stage, one particular stage or any. It starts the sequence for the contact the deal is linked to, and a deal with no contact starts nothing. Changing many deals at once does not start it. This is the deal's stage, not the contact's.

Or leave it on Nothing - I enroll contacts myself.

In the same card, whether or not the sequence has a trigger, Stop when the contact replies decides what a reply does (see When a contact replies). Once a trigger is picked, two more switches appear:

• Trigger is on. Turn it off to stop new contacts being started by the trigger. Anyone already part-way through keeps going.
• Only once per contact. When it's on, a contact can go through the sequence once and never again. Turn it off for anything that should repeat, like a birthday, or it runs once and stops.

Older triggers

A high IQ score, a contact going stale and a price change used to be triggers. Nothing starts them any more, so they're no longer offered. If an older sequence still uses one, its page warns you and asks you to pick another.

Who a sequence can take

A sequence with no steps can't take anyone. Enroll an agent's contacts is turned off until you add at least one step, and if you try anyway Yapii tells you: "This sequence has no steps yet. Add at least one step, then enroll contacts."

A sequence with an Email or Text step only takes contacts with a valid email address and a full property address. A sequence whose steps send nothing by email or text, such as tasks, voicemail drops and steps that change the contact record, takes contacts without either.

Recruiting sequences

Like every sequence, a sequence skips contacts whose type is agent, and a sequence with an Email or Text step needs a full property address on the contact. A sequence written to recruit agents is the one exception. On its page, owners and admins can switch on Mark this as a recruiting sequence. The card then reads Recruiting sequence, the sequence can reach contacts marked as agents, and it does not need a property address on the contact. Opt-outs, do not contact and the other checks still apply, and the switch only affects that one sequence. Leave it off for any sequence that is not aimed at agents.

When a contact replies

By default, a reply pauses that contact's sequence. Yapii shows a banner at the top of the app when sequences are paused this way, so you can look at the conversation and decide what to do next.

This is deliberate. Once somebody has written back, they should hear from a person, not from the next scheduled step.

Each sequence has its own switch for this, Stop when the contact replies, in What starts this sequence. It starts out on. When it is on, a reply by email or text stops that sequence for that contact, however they were put on it. Turn it off for a sequence that is itself asking a question, so its remaining steps keep going after a reply. Only owners, admins and team leads can change a sequence, and a built-in sequence's switch can't be changed. The switch affects only that sequence, and it takes effect when you save the card.

Built-in sequences

Yapii ships some sequences of its own. They're listed on the same page with a switch, so you can turn one on or off without building anything. Only owners and admins can use the switch.

Good to know

• Turning a sequence off stops new messages. It doesn't delete the sequence or its history.
• Anyone on your suppression list is skipped, whatever sequence they're on.
• Sequences send on the same rules as everything else, so texting and calling rules still apply.