NOTE: Newsletter Plan users can set up one basic Visual Automation. Unlock unlimited Visual Automations by upgrading to our Creator or Creator Pro plans.
There's almost no limit to what you can automate with Visual Automations. Here's everything you need to get started.
About Visual Automations
Often called funnels, Visual Automations help you send well-timed, targeted content to your audience so you can stay focused on what matters most: growing your online business.
Visual Automations help you:
Create powerful, automated funnels
Customize your communications with subscribers based on their actions
Send targeted content to subscribers at the right time
Automatically tag and segment your audience based on their customer journey
You can use Visual Automations to survey your audience, launch a product, host a webinar, pitch your services, and so much more.
Manage your Visual Automations
Find your Visual Automations by going to Visual Automations under Automate in the navigation.
My Automations
The Visual Automations page's My Automations tab shows all your Visual Automations.
At the top left is a status filter that lets you filter your Visual Automations by their status: "Active," "Inactive," or "Paused."
To start a new Visual Automation, click the + New automation button at the top right.
Below the + New automation button, there are:
A search bar for searching for Visual Automations by name
A sort function for sorting your Visual Automations by options like "Alphabetical," "Newest," and "Oldest"
View functions for viewing your Visual Automations in a grid or list format
The My Automations tab shows up to 25 Visual Automations per page by default. Scroll to the bottom of the page to go to the next page of Visual Automations (if available) or change the number of Visual Automations shown on the page.
Templates
The Visual Automations page's Templates tab shows templates you can use to create new Visual Automations for various use cases.
Visual Automations glossary
Here's a quick overview of various Visual Automation steps:
Entry points
Entry points are the events that trigger your Visual Automation to start running. These can be:
When a subscriber joins a certain Form or Landing Page (or any Form or Landing Page)
When a certain Tag is added to a subscriber
When there is a change to a subscriber's custom field value
When a subscriber purchases a certain product
Visual Automations can have up to five entry points. This helps you reuse them for scenarios where subscribers enter the Visual Automation in different ways but then progress through the same automated actions.
If you're starting a new Visual Automation from scratch, add its first entry point by clicking the Start building button.
Otherwise, if your Visual Automation already has at least one entry point, you can add more by clicking the (+) to the right of the rightmost entry point.
NOTE: If you need more than five entry points for your Visual Automation, you can either:
Duplicate your Visual Automation to create an identical new Visual Automation, and then replace the new Visual Automation's entry points with its new ones
Combine multiple Form entry points into a Tag, and then use that Tag as your Visual Automation's entry point
Actions
Actions are the backbone of Visual Automations. Actions are commonly used to:
Send subscribers automated Email Sequences
Add or remove Tags from subscribers
Delay subscribers' progress through the Visual Automation for a certain number of days or until a certain date
Set the values of subscribers' custom fields
Move subscribers in and out of Visual Automations
Unsubscribe subscribers
Events
Events pull subscribers forward in your Visual Automations. Events are commonly used to move subscribers to a certain stage of your Visual Automation when:
Certain Tags are added/removed from them
When they purchase products
When certain dates occur
When there are certain changes to their custom fields' values
Conditions
Conditions are the Visual Automation equivalent of a fork in the road. Conditions split subscribers into the appropriate paths based on whether they meet conditions like:
Having certain Tags
Having certain custom field values
Meeting certain advanced filters
Having opened any email within a certain timeframe
Getting started with Visual Automations
If you're ready to build your first Visual Automation, these guides will help you:
How to create your first Kit Visual Automation: Learn how to start your very first Visual Automation in this tutorial.
Visual Automations library: Create a Visual Automation with our collection of templates to use and share.
How to use Visual Automation templates in Kit: Check out this tutorial on how to create Visual Automations using our downloadable templates.
Become a Visual Automations pro
When you're ready for more advanced automation, these resources will get you going:
Visual Automation statuses: Active, Inactive, and Paused: Learn about the various Visual Automation statuses, which affect whether subscribers can enter and progress through your Visual Automation.
How to manually add subscribers to an automation: Set up a Visual Automation too late? Learn how to retroactively pull subscribers into an automation.
Viewing and removing subscribers in Visual Automations: Learn where to find your subscribers at each step of your Visual Automation, as well as manually remove them from the automation if needed.
How to remove a step from a Visual Automation: How to delete steps from your Visual Automations when you no longer need them.
Delay progress in a Visual Automation until a custom date: Learn how to customize the duration of a delay in your Visual Automation using custom fields.
Looping subscribers: Here's how to send subscribers back into a Visual Automation where they left off.
Remove purchasers from a sales sequence once they buy: Learn how to automatically remove customers from a sales sequence once they make a purchase.
Combine Visual Automation entry points into a Tag: Reached the maximum number of entry points for your Visual Automation? Here's how to merge them into a single Tag.
Adding notes to Visual Automations: Here's how to add notes for your own reference to your Visual Automation nodes.
Share a Visual Automation: Learn how to share a Visual Automation with your clients directly from your Kit account (perfect if you're an affiliate or online educator).
FAQs
The difference between a Visual Automation and an Email Sequence
An Email Sequence is a series of one or more automated emails, with delays that tell our system how long to wait before sending the next email in line. Email Sequences won't send on their own, though—you'll add them to a Visual Automation so they send when subscribers reach that stage.
A Visual Automation is the bigger flow: a string of steps that can send Email Sequences, add Tags to subscribers, and route subscribers down different paths when they meet certain conditions.
Subscribers are "waiting" in my Visual Automation instead of progressing through it
There are a few things you can check when this happens. Visit our troubleshooting guide for when subscribers are "waiting" in a Visual Automation.
Subscribers are getting unsubscribed from Email Sequences in my Visual Automation
When subscribers get added to an Email Sequence via a Visual Automation, they'll be marked as having completed the Email Sequence when they receive all of the Email Sequence's published emails.
The Visual Automation then unsubscribes these subscribers from that Email Sequence (but not from your list altogether), and then moves them forward to the next step in the Visual Automation. This is unless you're holding the subscribers in an evergreen Email Sequence.
NOTE: In contrast, if you have an Automation Rule that subscribes subscribers to an Email Sequence, these subscribers will not be unsubscribed from the Email Sequence when they've received all of the Email Sequence's published emails. They'll still be an active subscriber in this Email Sequence.
If you were to add an email to this Email Sequence later on, subscribers who were added via the Rule will get that new email you added.
Editing a Visual Automation
Yes, you can edit Visual Automations—and if they're active, pause them before making changes so subscribers don't move through unfinished paths.
For the full steps, see our guide on how to edit a Visual Automation.