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Drip sequences: follow up automatically

8 min read

A drip sequence is a series of messages that sends itself over days or weeks. Most enquiries are lost to nobody following up rather than to a decision, and this is the part of that problem you can automate.

A drip sequence open in Pingly, showing its trigger and toggles, enrolment counters, and its three steps with the delay before each.
A sequence: its trigger, its steps and their delays, and the enrolment counters.

Building one

Open Drip Sequences and create one.

  1. Name it and choose the trigger
    The trigger decides who gets enrolled — see below.
  2. Leave it inactive while you write the steps
    An active sequence starts enrolling people as soon as it matches. Switch it on last.
  3. Add your steps
    Each step has a delay from the previous one, and a message — free text, or an approved template.
  4. Set the two toggles
    Pause on reply and Respect business hours. Both should normally stay on.
  5. Activate it
    Trigger-based sequences now run by themselves. For a manual one, use Enroll Contacts. The header shows the trigger and both toggles as chips, so you can confirm at a glance what it will do.

Triggers

TriggerEnrols someone when
ManualYou pick them and enrol them yourself.
On tag addedA tag you name is added to a contact. The most useful one — tag on import and the follow-up begins by itself. See Contacts.
On opt-inA contact opts in.
On lead createdA new lead is created, including one from Group Leads.
On conversation resolvedA conversation is closed — for a follow-up or a satisfaction check.

The two settings that matter

Pause on reply

If the contact answers, the sequence stops. Leave this on for anything conversational: a person who has replied is now talking to a human, and a reminder arriving on top of that reads as nobody being home. Turn it off only for something like a fixed appointment reminder.

Respect business hours

A step due outside your opening hours waits until you next open instead of arriving at 3am. The hours come from your workspace settings.

When a step fails

A failed send stops that person’s enrolment and records the reason, shown against the enrolment along with which step it died on. That distinction matters: failing at step 1 means the customer never heard from you at all, while failing at step 4 means something changed part-way through.

Common reasons:

What it saysWhat to do
WhatsApp Direct session not connectedThe number is not linked. Check Settings → Numbers.
The template this step uses has been deletedEdit the step and choose another template.
This step has no message to sendThe step was saved empty — add text or pick a template.
A 24-hour window messageUse an approved template for that step instead of free text.

Writing a sequence people do not mute

  • Three steps is usually enough. A useful nudge, a reason to act, and a polite last word.
  • Give each step a job. If step 2 says nothing step 1 did not, delete it.
  • Say it is the last one. “Last note from me” performs better than a fourth reminder, and costs you nothing in goodwill.
  • Make replying easy. The point is to restart a conversation, not to deliver a monologue.

Next steps

More in Reach customers at scale