Automated campaigns: renewals, unsold estimates, win-backs and more

Overview#

An automation is a plain-language rule: when something happens, if it matches, then do the follow-up. Marketing automations text or email customers at the right moment: an estimate still open after three days, a membership ending in 30 days, a customer you haven't seen in a year. Others create tasks, tag customers or notify someone.

You start from the Campaign Library. Installing a template makes a switched-off copy. You test it, turn it on, and every run is recorded step by step in the Run history.

Before you start#

• Seeing automations, the library and run history needs automations.read. Owners, admins, dispatchers, customer service, accounting and viewers have it. Technicians don't.

• Installing, editing, testing, turning on or off and deleting needs automations.manage. Only owners and admins have it. Other roles see the pages without these buttons.

• Automations that text need texting connected and a texting number. Automations that email need email set up in Settings › Communications › Email Domains.

• An automation runs with the permissions of the person who turned it on. If that person leaves or loses automations.manage, runs stop with a reason until someone turns it off and on again.

Steps#

Pick a template from the Campaign Library#

1. Open Marketing › Campaigns › Campaign Library. The page is titled "Automation catalog".

2. Templates are grouped by Sales, Office, Money, Customers, Reviews and Memberships. Each card shows what it does in one sentence. Cards marked Reaches customers send texts or emails.

3. The marketing-style templates are:

   • Nudge open estimates after 3 days (Sales): texts the options link when a residential estimate is still open three days later.

   • Thank-you text after a visit (Customers): thanks residential customers when the technician finishes.

   • Win back customers not seen in a year (Customers): a tune-up reminder text, every Tuesday, to non-members whose last job was over a year ago.

   • Welcome email for new customers (Customers).

   • Thank-you email after payment (Money).

   • Renewal reminder 30 days out (Memberships): texts members a month before their plan ends.

   • Call members two weeks before renewal (Memberships): a renewal call task.

   • Win back expired members (Memberships): plans a call the day after a membership expires.

   • Tag new members (Memberships).

   • Low rating: manager calls the customer and Tag 5-star customers as promoters (Reviews): run when a customer rates a visit.

4. Click Install on the card. You land on the new automation. It is Off.

The review request itself is not a library template. Turn it on in Settings › Marketing › Customer Portal & Reputation (see Ask for reviews after every job).

Review and edit it#

1. On the automation, open the Edit tab.

2. Check When: the Trigger. Scheduled triggers (Estimate still open, Invoice overdue, Membership ending soon, Customer not seen in a while) also have a days field, Check on (Every day or one weekday) and From (the hour the daily check starts).

3. Check If (all of these): conditions such as Customer type, Business unit, Job type, Customer tag, Amount, Review rating, Lead source or Customer has an active membership.

4. Check Then: the actions. For Text the customer and Email the customer, edit the wording. You can use {{first_name}}, {{company}}, {{job_number}}, {{invoice_number}}, {{amount}}, {{link}} and {{days}}. Missing values are left out, never invented.

5. Set How it runs: Ask first (runs wait in Approvals) or Run automatically (trusted). Customer-facing templates install as Ask first.

6. Set Most runs per day. The default is 50, the most is 500. Runs over the limit are skipped, not saved for later.

7. Click Save changes.

Test it#

1. Click Test at the top of the automation.

2. TradesWork runs it on the most recent matching event from the last 30 days, without sending or changing anything. It works while the automation is off.

3. Open the test run in the run history. It shows each condition and exactly what each action would do, for example "Would text: …" or "Wouldn't be sent: …" with the reason.

Turn it on or off#

1. Click Turn on (on the automation, or in the On/off column on Automated Campaigns).

2. Only events after this moment trigger it. Nothing earlier is replayed.

3. In Ask first mode, each run waits in Approvals with the exact text it will send. Approve or reject it there.

4. When the Trust card says enough runs were approved and none rejected, click Run automatically. Click Ask first again to go back.

5. Click Turn off to stop it. To remove it, open Edit and click Delete automation. Its run history goes with it.

Check the run history#

1. Open Marketing › Campaigns › Automated Campaigns and click the Run history tab, or open one automation to see its own runs.

2. Each run shows When, Automation, Event, Result and Why. Results are Running, Succeeded, Partly done, Failed, Skipped, Waiting for approval, Rejected and Test run.

3. Skipped runs (conditions not met, daily limit) are hidden. Click Show skipped to see them.

4. Click a run's time to see every condition and step.

On Automated Campaigns, owners and admins can click Run now to check for new events right away instead of waiting a few minutes.

Settings that change this#

• Settings › Communications › Customer Notifications: quiet hours. Automated texts wait until quiet hours end.

• Settings › Communications › Email Domains: needed for email actions.

• Marketing › Campaigns › Automated Campaigns › Agents tab: Automated email opt-outs. Enter an address in Stop automated emails to and click Add. People with customers.write can add addresses.

• Settings › Marketing › Follow-Up Sequences: separate texts for unsold estimates on the Follow Up board.

Tips#

• Keep customer-facing automations in Ask first for the first week. Read what they would send.

• Add a condition like Customer type is Residential before texting, so commercial accounts don't get consumer messages.

• Watch Suggested for you on Automated Campaigns. It suggests a template when your team keeps doing the same follow-up by hand. Click Install or Not now.

• Don't run two automations that text the same thing. Each automation sends a customer at most one text per day, but two automations can each send one.

Troubleshooting#

• "Before turning it on: …" → A required field is blank (for example a webhook URL). → Fill it in on Edit, save, then turn it on.

• Test says "Nothing in the last 30 days would have triggered this" → There's no sample event yet. → Turn it on in Ask first mode and review real runs in Approvals.

• A text step says "The customer replied STOP" → The customer opted out. Only they can opt back in by texting START.

• A step says "This customer already got a text from this automation in the last day." → The one-text-per-day safety limit. This is expected.

• An email step says "This address asked not to get automated emails" → The address is on the opt-out list.

• Runs fail with "The person who turned this on is no longer on the team." → Someone with automations.manage must turn it off and on again.

• "Daily limit of N runs reached" → Raise Most runs per day if the volume is expected.

FAQ#

Can I send a one-time blast to a list of customers? Not yet. Automations fire on events and schedules, one customer at a time. One-time campaigns and a segment builder are coming soon. See What's coming for marketing.

Can I build my own from scratch? Yes. Click New automation. It saves switched off, like a template.

Do automations see per-campaign results like calls and revenue? Not yet. Each automation shows runs and failures over 7 days. Revenue by campaign is on Reports.

Coming from ServiceTitan#

• Automated Campaigns and the Autopilot Campaigns library map to Marketing › Campaigns › Automated Campaigns and Campaign Library. They are included, not a Marketing Pro add-on.

• Different: each automation is one readable sentence, every run is logged step by step, and you can require approval before anything reaches a customer.

• Not here yet: direct-mail steps, one-time blasts, an email template designer and per-campaign performance metrics.