A drip campaign is an automated email sequence that sends emails to contacts over time based on delays you configure. Once a contact is added to a drip, they receive emails according to your schedule, without any manual intervention. This article covers how to create a drip campaign, add email steps, configure timing, and customize settings.
Drip campaigns are useful for onboarding sequences, nurture campaigns, educational series, or any situation where you want to deliver a series of emails automatically after someone takes an action.
Creating a New Drip Campaign
Go to Campaigns in the main navigation
Select Drip Campaigns
Click Create Drip
You'll be prompted to configure the basic settings before building your email sequence.
Name Your Drip
Enter a name for your drip campaign. This name is for internal use only and won't be visible to your subscribers. Choose something descriptive so you can easily identify the campaign later.
Select a Sender
Choose who the emails will come from. Your default sender is pre-selected, but you can choose a different one from the dropdown.
If you need to create a new sender, click Add a new sender and enter the sender name and email address. The email domain must already be whitelisted in your account. If it's not, go to Settings > Setup > Domains to add and verify your domain first, then return to create the sender.
Note: The sender you choose applies to all emails in this drip campaign. You cannot use different senders for different steps.
Choose Your Email Editor
Select which editor you'll use to create the emails in this drip:
Drag-and-Drop Editor – Visual editor with templates, content blocks, and design tools
Plain Text Editor – Simple text editor that also accepts HTML code
SendX AI Editor – AI-assisted editor with slash commands and content generation
This choice applies to all emails in the drip. You cannot mix editors within the same drip campaign.
Building Your Email Sequence
After configuring the basic settings, you'll move to the content section where you build your email sequence.
Understanding Drip Steps
Each email in your drip is called a "step." The first step is created automatically. You can add as many additional steps as you need, there's no limit.
Each step has its own:
Subject line
Preview text
Email content
Timing delay
Contacts to exclude
Status (Active or Draft)
Adding More Steps
Click Add Email to add another step to your sequence. New steps appear at the end of the sequence by default.
Configuring Timing for Each Step
Each step has a delay that determines when it sends relative to the previous step (or relative to when the contact was added, for the first step).
First email options:
Send immediately – The contact receives this email as soon as they're added to the drip
Custom delay – Wait a specified amount of time before sending
Subsequent email options:
Set a delay in days, hours, or minutes after the previous email
For delays, you can also specify:
Preferred time – What time of day the email should send (e.g., 9:00 AM)
Time zone – Which time zone to use for the preferred time
For example, if you set step 2 to send "2 days" after step 1 at "9:00 AM EST," the contact will receive step 2 exactly 2 days after step 1, at 9:00 AM Eastern time.
Reordering Steps
You can drag and drop steps to reorder your sequence at any time. Click and hold a step, then drag it to the desired position.
Important: If contacts are already mid-drip when you reorder, they continue from their current position in the new order. For example, if a contact just completed what was step 2, and you move that step to position 3, the contact will next receive whatever is now in position 3 (which could be a different email than originally planned).
Customizing Each Email Step
Click on any step to open its editor and customize the content.
Subject Line and Preview Text
Subject line: Write a compelling subject line for this email. You can use personalization tags by clicking the personalization dropdown and selecting fields like the contact's first name, email, or any custom field.
Example: {{fallback .Email "there"}}, your next lesson is ready
The value "there" is the fallback text used if the contact doesn't have that field populated.
Preview text: This is the text that appears after the subject line in most email clients. It gives recipients additional context about the email content. Adding preview text is optional but recommended.
Email Content
The editor you selected when creating the drip will load here. Design your email using:
Content blocks – Drag text, images, buttons, dividers, and other elements into your layout
Saved rows – Reuse rows you've saved from previous campaigns
Templates – Choose from the template library with thousands of pre-designed options organized by category
Each step can have completely different content. You might use a simple text-focused design for step 1 and a more visual template for step 3.
Preview and Test
Before activating a step, you can:
Preview – See how the email looks on desktop, tablet, and mobile, plus light and dark mode
Send test email – Enter your email address to receive a test copy in your inbox
Managing Step Status
Each drip step has a status that controls whether it actually sends:
Active – The email will send to contacts when they reach this step
Draft – The email is skipped entirely
When you first create steps, they start in Draft status. You must manually set each step to Active for it to send.
This gives you flexibility to:
Build out future emails while only activating the first few
Temporarily disable a step without deleting it
Prepare a longer sequence and activate steps over time
Example: You create a 5-email drip but only want to send the first 2 emails for now. Set steps 1 and 2 to Active, leave steps 3-5 as Draft. Contacts will receive emails 1 and 2, then exit the drip. Later, you can activate more steps.
Note: There's no way to delete a drip step once created. If you no longer want a step to send, set its status to Draft.
Drip Settings
Click on Settings to configure additional options that apply to the entire drip campaign.
Skip Weekends
Enable this option to prevent emails from sending on Saturdays and Sundays. You'll select a time zone to determine when weekends occur.
If an email is scheduled for Saturday morning in your selected time zone, it will instead send out on Monday morning at the same time.
This is useful for B2B drips where contacts are less likely to engage with emails over the weekend.
Google Analytics Tracking
Enable this option to add UTM parameters to links in your emails automatically. This lets you track drip campaign engagement in Google Analytics.
Previewing Your Drip Sequence
Before activating your drip, use the Preview option to see how the entire sequence will unfold.
Click Preview
Select a contact from your list (search by name or email)
Optionally set a start date to simulate when the drip would begin
The preview shows you:
Which emails will send (only Active steps)
The exact dates and times each email would go out
Which steps are skipped (Draft status)
You can also choose to send the entire drip sequence to yourself as test emails. This lets you verify the actual content arrives correctly in your inbox.
Saving and Activating Your Drip
Once you're satisfied with your drip campaign:
Click Save to save the drip
Toggle the drip status to Active
A drip must be Active for contacts to receive emails. If the drip is saved but not Active, contacts can be added to it but won't receive any emails until you activate it.
Editing After Activation
You can edit your drip campaign at any time, even while contacts are going through it:
Click Edit to modify any settings, steps, or content
Changes apply immediately to all future sends
Contacts already mid-drip will receive the updated content for any steps they haven't completed yet
How Contacts Move Through a Drip
Once a contact is added to an active drip (through a form, automation, or manual action):
They receive the first Active email according to its timing
After each email, the system waits for the delay configured on the next step
The contact receives each Active step in order
Draft steps are skipped entirely
After the last Active step, the contact exits the drip
One-time enrollment: Each contact can only go through a drip campaign once. If a contact has previously been enrolled in a drip, whether they completed the sequence or were removed mid-drip, they cannot be added to the same drip again.
Unsubscribes: If a contact unsubscribes while mid-drip, they're immediately removed and won't receive any remaining emails.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a limit to how many emails I can add to a drip?
No. You can add as many steps as you need.
Can I use different senders for different emails in the drip?
No. The sender is set at the drip level and applies to all emails. However, each email can have its own subject line, preview text, and content.
Can I delete a drip step?
No. If you no longer want a step to send, set its status to Draft. The step will be skipped for all contacts.
What happens if I reorder steps while contacts are mid-drip?
Contacts continue from their current position in the new sequence. If a contact completed step 2 and you move step 2 to position 4, they'll next receive whatever is now at position 3.
Can the same contact go through a drip multiple times?
No. Each contact can only be enrolled in a drip campaign once. Even after completing the sequence or being removed, a contact cannot be re-enrolled in the same drip.
What's the minimum delay between emails?
You can send emails immediately back-to-back with no delay if needed.
What happens if the drip is not Active?
Contacts can still be added to the drip, but they won't receive any emails until you activate it.
Can I edit a drip that already has contacts going through it?
Yes. Any changes you make apply to future sends immediately. Contacts who haven't yet received a step will get the updated version.