Turn on your first flow

A flow is an email that sends itself when something happens. Somebody leaves a basket, and two hours later they get a reminder. Somebody joins your list, and they get a welcome. You set it up once and it runs without you.

Flows are in the sidebar under Flows: "Emails that send themselves when something happens."

Nothing you build sends anything until you turn it on. Every flow arrives switched off.

Take one from the library

1. Go to Flows and press Create flow in the top right. (Or press Turn on your first flow on the Home checklist.)
2. You land on the library: "Start from a flow that already works." Underneath: "Every one of these is switched off until you turn it on. Nothing here sends anything today."
3. At the top there is a Recommended flows for [your brand] strip, chosen from your connected store or your lists. Below that, everything, grouped:
   • Prevent lost sales — "Somebody was about to buy and did not."
   • Nurture subscribers — "They joined a list. Turn them into a customer."
   • Build customer loyalty — "Say thank you, and mark the dates that matter to them."
   • Remind customers to purchase
   • Encourage repeat purchases
   • Update customers on their order status — "The mail a shop owes a buyer. Not marketing."
   • Other
4. Click a card. A panel slides in from the right showing What it does (every step, top to bottom) and What it needs.
5. Read What it needs. It lists things like "One email design" or "A list of contacts", each with a ✓ or a —. If something is missing the panel says "Make the missing piece above first, then come back." and the button will not press.
6. Press Use this flow.

The note above the button says it plainly: "It is created switched off. Nothing goes to anybody until you turn it on."

The ones most shops start with

• Welcome series — "Three emails introducing the brand to somebody who has just joined a list."
• Abandoned cart — "Three reminders to somebody who left a cart — and it stops the moment they buy."
• Browse abandonment — "Two emails to somebody who looked at something expensive and did not buy it."
• After they order — "Thanks them, then treats a small order, a middling one and a big one differently."
• Win them back — "Waits 40 days, checks they really have not ordered, then asks them back."
• Sunset the quiet ones — "Two last emails to people who never engage, then stops marketing to them."

There are around twenty-five more, including abandoned checkout, birthdays, first-purchase anniversaries, out-of-stock reminders, review requests and VIP tagging.

The trigger, and why it locks

The trigger is what puts somebody into the flow. "They left a cart." "They joined this list." "They ordered."

Once a flow has been saved with a trigger, the trigger cannot be changed. The editor says why:

⛔ To use a different trigger, create a new flow. Everyone already inside this one was enrolled by this trigger, and swapping it would leave them in a sequence nobody chose for them.

If you picked the wrong one, make a new flow. It takes a minute and nothing is lost.

What you can still change: which people the trigger applies to, who is filtered out, when somebody leaves early, and whether they can go through more than once. All of the emails, waits and splits stay editable too — as long as the flow is switched off.

Editing the emails

A flow does not contain its emails. It points at designs, and the designs live in Designs. That means one design can be used by several flows, and editing it in one place fixes it everywhere.

1. In the flow editor, click the email step you want to change.
2. In the panel on the right, under Which design, pick one. If you have none, the note says "⛔ You have no designs yet. Build one first — a flow cannot send an email that does not exist."
3. Subject line (optional) — leave it empty and the design's own subject is used. Fill it in when the same design goes out twice in one flow.
4. Press Save in the top bar.

To actually change what an email says, open Designs in the sidebar and press Edit on the design. That opens the full-screen builder. It saves as you go — the clock in the top bar reads Saving…, then Saved just now — and there is a Save button too.

Switch it on

1. Open the flow and press Update status in the top bar.
2. A box appears: "Turn this flow on?"

   From the moment you do, anybody this happens to enters the flow and starts getting these emails. ⛔ It does not go back over the past — nobody who did it yesterday is enrolled. Save any unsaved changes first: turning it on runs the version that is stored, not the one on your screen.

3. Press Turn it on.

You get back: "On. Only things that happen from now on can put anybody into it."

To pause it later, press Pause on the flows list, or Update status → Turn it off in the editor. Turning it off is gentle: "Nobody new enters it. Anybody already inside stays where they are and carries on when you turn it back on."

What can stop it going live

If something is missing, the box says "Not ready to go live" and lists what to fix. The commonest is "Pick a trigger first".

The other thing that stops it is your plan:

• On the free trial, everything works, flows included.
• After the trial with no plan: "Your trial ended. Pick a plan to keep sending."
• On Starter: "Flows are on Standard and up. Move up a plan to turn this on." Starter has campaigns but no flows.
• If a card failed and the seven-day grace ran out: "Your card didn't go through. Update it to keep sending."
• If you have used your month's emails: "You've used your 20,000 emails this month. Move up a plan or talk to us."

If it didn't work

• "This flow has no trigger yet, so nobody can enter it." Press Select a trigger on the canvas and pick one.
• "Turn the flow off to edit it." A live flow cannot be edited, because people are standing inside it on the steps as they are today. Press Turn it off, make the change, turn it back on.
• You turned it on and nobody entered. Flows do not look backwards. Only things that happen after you switch it on enrol anybody. Give it a day. The report page will say "Nobody has been through this yet — as soon as somebody enters, their whole path shows up here."
• People entered but no email went out. You have no verified sending domain. Nothing can send — not even a test — until one is verified.
• Somebody shows as "Held back". That is the safety net working. The trail says why: "they marked you as spam", "we have no proof they said yes", "no open, click or order in 12 months", "that address no longer exists", or "you asked us to stop mailing them".
• You cannot delete a flow. "Turn it off first, then delete it." And if people are still inside: "3 people are still in this flow. It can be deleted once they finish."
• The trigger is greyed out and you need a different one. It is locked for good. Make a new flow.
• "Your role cannot switch flows on or off." Ask an owner or admin on your team.
• Revenue shows a dash. Nothing has been credited to that flow yet. It fills in once people who got the email buy something.

Still stuck? Email support@aminoengine.com — we answer within one business day.