If you’re tired of chasing leads by hand or reminding yourself to follow up with prospects, you’re in the right place. This guide is for anyone who wants to put their follow-up process on rails—sales, support, small business owners, or anyone else who lives and dies by their inbox. We’ll walk through how to use triggers in Postdrips to automate follow-up sequences. No fluff, just real steps and what actually works.
Why Automate Follow-Ups Anyway?
Let’s be honest: nobody likes sending the same “just checking in” email over and over. Manual follow-ups are tedious, you forget stuff, and—let’s face it—most people don’t respond to the first email. Automation solves all that. Here’s what you actually get:
- Less stuff falling through the cracks
- Consistent timing—no more “sorry for the late reply”
- More time for actual conversations
But automation isn’t magic. It won’t fix a bad email or rescue a dead lead. It just makes sure your “good” follow-ups go out, every time.
Step 1: Map Out Your Follow-Up Sequence
Before you touch any software, sketch out what you want to happen. Trust me, a five-minute outline saves hours of fixing later.
Ask yourself: - How many follow-ups do you want after the first email? - What triggers the next email? (e.g., no reply, link clicked, reply received) - How much time should pass between steps? - Should you stop the sequence if someone replies?
Pro tip: Start simple. A sequence with 2–3 steps covers most cases. You can always add more later.
Example: 1. Initial email 2. Wait 3 days—if no reply, send follow-up #1 3. Wait 5 days—if still no reply, send follow-up #2 4. Stop if they reply at any point
Write this down, even if it’s just a bulleted list.
Step 2: Set Up Your Sequence in Postdrips
Once you know what you want, head into Postdrips and get ready to build.
A. Create a New Sequence
- Log in and go to Sequences.
- Click Create New Sequence.
- Name it something you’ll recognize—“Demo Request Follow-up” or whatever fits.
B. Add Your Steps
- For each step, add your email content.
- Use personalization tokens if you want (like
{{first_name}}). But don’t overdo it—automation gets awkward when it sounds robotic. - Set the delay between each step (e.g., “3 days after last email”).
C. Choose Your Trigger for Each Step
This is where Postdrips stands out. You can set triggers so emails only go out if certain things happen (or don’t happen).
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Common triggers:
- No reply
- Link clicked
- Email opened
- Custom event (more advanced)
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How to set:
- When adding a step, look for the “Send if…” or “Trigger” option.
- Pick “No reply” for classic sequences. For more advanced flows, you might use “Link clicked” or your own custom trigger.
Honest take: Don’t get too clever with triggers at first. “No reply” covers 90% of use cases. The fancier stuff (like “clicked link but didn’t reply”) is great in theory, but often just adds complexity.
Step 3: Set Up Your Contact List and Entry Trigger
Now decide who gets these emails and when.
- Upload or select your contacts. Make sure emails are clean—bad addresses kill your deliverability.
- Set the entry trigger: This is when someone starts the sequence. You can trigger based on:
- Manual add
- Form submission
- Tag added in your CRM
- API call (for the techy crowd)
Pro tip: Start by adding a few test contacts (including yourself). Never blast your whole list until you’ve run through it as a recipient.
Step 4: Test Your Sequence (Don’t Skip This)
This is the step most people rush—and then regret. Run a test with yourself and a colleague if possible.
- Add yourself as a contact and trigger the sequence.
- Check:
- Timing between emails
- Personalization (nothing like “Hi {{first_name}}” to make you look amateur)
- Triggers (does it stop if you reply? Does the next email go out if you don’t?)
- Make sure links work, images load, and nothing lands in spam.
What can go wrong? - Wrong delays (emails sent hours apart instead of days) - Broken personalization - Triggers not firing right (e.g., follow-ups keep coming even after a reply) - Typos or awkward copy
It’s way easier to find these now than after 100 prospects have seen your mistake.
Step 5: Activate and Monitor
Once you’ve tested, flip the switch. But don’t set it and forget it—watch how things behave for the first week.
- Are people replying?
- Are emails getting opened?
- Are follow-ups stopping as expected?
Postdrips gives you stats, but use your own eyes too. If you’re getting a bunch of “please unsubscribe” replies, your sequence needs work.
What works: - Keeping emails short and to the point - Sounding human (read your emails out loud—if you wouldn’t say it, don’t send it) - Spacing out emails (don’t be the person who follows up every day)
What doesn’t: - Over-automating (people can tell) - Ignoring replies (make sure you actually respond when someone writes back) - Complicated triggers unless you have a real use case
Optional: Advanced Triggers and Branching
If you’ve got the basics down, Postdrips lets you set up more advanced triggers:
- Conditional branches: Send different follow-ups if someone clicks a link vs. just opens the email.
- Custom events: Integrate with your app or CRM for “real world” triggers (like “demo booked” or “invoice paid”).
- Pause or skip steps: If someone replies halfway through, you can automatically pause or end their sequence.
Warning: This stuff is powerful, but easy to overcomplicate. Only use it if you can explain (in one sentence) why you need it.
Quick Troubleshooting
If things aren’t working, here’s what to check first:
- Emails aren’t sending: Double-check your triggers and contact status.
- Follow-ups keep going after a reply: The system may not be recognizing replies—make sure reply tracking is enabled.
- Personalization fails: Look for missing or misspelled tokens.
- Low open rates: Check your subject lines and sender reputation, not just the automation.
If all else fails, reach out to Postdrips support. Sometimes it’s a bug, sometimes it’s a setting you missed.
Wrapping Up
Automation should make your life easier, not more complicated. The best follow-up sequence is the one you actually use and can tweak as you go. Start simple, test with real contacts, and watch how people react. If you’re not sure about a fancy trigger or branching rule, skip it for now. You can always add complexity later—once you know what works for your audience.
Remember, the goal isn’t to be clever. It’s to get more replies with less effort. Keep it simple, iterate, and let the software handle the boring stuff.