Sequences

A sequence is an ordered list of email steps and time delays. Once a contact is enrolled, Mailmark sends each email step automatically, waiting the configured delay before moving on to the next one.

Common use cases include:

• Cold outreach with automatic follow-ups if there is no reply
• Onboarding drips that guide new users through your product
• Re-engagement campaigns for inactive contacts
• Post-purchase follow-up and upsell flows

Unlike a one-off campaign, sequences are contact-centric: each enrolled contact progresses through the steps at their own pace. If a contact replies, the sequence can be marked as replied and no further steps are sent.

Sequences are created from the Mailbox view. Open any mailbox, navigate to the Sequences tab, and click New Sequence.

Step types

A sequence is built from two types of steps:

Example sequence structure

Step 1: send_email  -- Initial outreach (sent immediately on enrollment)
Step 2: delay       -- Wait 3 days  (3 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000 ms)
Step 3: send_email  -- First follow-up
Step 4: delay       -- Wait 5 days
Step 5: send_email  -- Second follow-up (final)

You can add as many alternating send/delay steps as needed. There is no hard limit on sequence length.

After creating a sequence, enroll contacts one at a time or in bulk via CSV import from the Sequences tab.

Enrollment rules

• A contact can only be enrolled in the same sequence once at a time. Attempting to enroll a contact already in active status returns an error.
• A contact who previously completed or was cancelled from a sequence can be re-enrolled.
• Enrollment starts immediately -- the first send_email step is scheduled as soon as the contact is enrolled.

Enrollment statuses

Personalise sequence emails with contact-specific data by passing merge fields at enrollment time. Merge fields are arbitrary key-value pairs that get interpolated into the email subject and body when each step runs.

Syntax

Use double curly braces in your email subject or HTML body:

Subject: Hey {{firstName}}, quick question

Body:
<p>Hi {{firstName}},</p>
<p>I noticed {{company}} recently expanded into {{market}}.</p>
<p>We help companies like yours with email deliverability...</p>

Providing merge field values

Supply the values when enrolling the contact. Any key used in the template must be present in the merge fields object, otherwise the placeholder is left as-is.

// Example enrollment with merge fields
{
  "contactEmail": "alice@acme.com",
  "mergeFields": {
    "firstName": "Alice",
    "company": "Acme Corp",
    "market": "Southeast Asia"
  }
}

Sequence statuses

Pausing and resuming

Pausing a sequence prevents any pending steps from firing. When you resume, scheduled steps continue from where they left off -- contacts do not restart from the beginning.

Completing a sequence

Marking a sequence as completed immediately cancels all active enrollments. Use this when a campaign is permanently finished. This action cannot be undone.

Editing steps

Step content (subject, body) can be edited while a sequence is active. Changes apply to future step runs only -- emails that have already been sent are not affected. Pausing the sequence first is recommended before making significant edits.