How to Create Automation Workflows in Drip

Automation Workflows are a powerful feature in Drip. But how exactly do you set them up? That’s what we’re covering in this tutorial.


Creating automation workflows is an easy way of mapping out your email funnels. Before creating a workflow, you should have an understanding of the difference between workflows and rules.

Creating the Workflow

To set up an automation workflow in drip, click on Automations (in the top menu) and select Workflows.

This will take you to a list of all the workflows you’ve already created, or if this is your first automation.


Click on the “New Workflow” button.

Give your workflow a name. For this one, I’ll name it Demo Workflow

Create Drip Workflow

Then, click on the “Create Workflow” button. 

Now it’s time to build out your workflow. 

This is where it makes sense for us to talk about thinking through your workflows. Workflows can be simple or complex. 

Every workflow is gonna be unique to your unique situation, so it’s important to think about the journey you want your subscribers to go on. Here are some questions I would encourage you to answer for each new workflow.

Name Your Automation Workflow in Drip

Questions to Answer

Question 1: Who is this workflow for?

Is it for new visitors to your site who just signed up for your free course? Is it for someone who just became a customer? Or is it for Someone who indicated that they are interested in a specific topic. It’s important to know who the workflow is for because this set’s the foundation for everything else.

Question 2: What is the goal of this workflow?

Is it to engage your audience simply to get them more bought into your brand? Is it to get them to buy a specific product? Or is it for your customers to learn about the product they just purchased.

Being clear on this will help you with the next question.

Question 3: What’s the most logical way to get them to that goal?

Here are some answers I came up with for this demo funnel we’ll be setting up.

1. This funnel will be for anyone who signed up for a specific lead magnet I created – a content calendar spreadsheet. This is a spreadsheet to help them plan out their content for the entire year.

2. The goal is to get them to sign up for my coaching club.

3. The best way to get them there is by first giving them what they signed up for is by giving them some more value to help them use the content calendar spreadsheet to come up with the best content for their blog.

Then, if they aren’t already members of my blogger coaching club, I can send them through a series of emails that educate them on the value they get by being a part of the club.

Fortunately, I already created a campaign that has a series of emails that do just that.

Now, if they are already members of my coaching club, I don’t want them to be sold on that again. Instead, I can have them get another series of emails I have called my action tips, where they get valuable tips each and every Friday on how to build a business with a blog.

So, I’ve answered the three questions, and now - it’s time to set this baby up.

Defining the Trigger(s) and Goal

The first thing I need to do is set a trigger. This is what will cause this campaign to start.

I have a campaign set up for my Blog Content Calendar Spreadsheet, so I can use that.

I don’t want this to start until that is finished, so I’m gonna click on “Define your trigger” and select “Completed a campaign”.

Then I’ll select the campaign “Content Calendar Spreadsheet”.

I want this trigger to apply to everyone who completes the campaign, but if I wanted to be more selective, I could indicate that.

Define Your Automation Workflow Trigger

For this example, I’ll keep it set for everyone and click on “Update Trigger”

You can have multiple trigger conditions. If I click here on the plus icon, I can define another trigger. 

Add a Trigger for Your Automation Workflow
Add Another Trigger or Action

Then, I want to add a goal.

So I’ll click on the + icon and select “Goal”.

For this goal, the trigger event will be Subscribed to a campaign. And the campaign I’ll select is Coaching Club Members.

When someone joins my coaching club, they are automatically subscribed to that campaign, so I know they have accomplished my goal.

Then, click on “Update Trigger”


What this now means is that if they subscribe to this campaign, it doesn’t matter where they are in this funnel, they will jump to this goal and Exit the campaign.

I’ve now set who I’m targeting and what my goal is for them.

It’s time to create the journey. This is where I want to determine whether or not they are a member of my coaching club.

I know that when someone joins my coaching club, I tag them as a member.


That’s something I can use as an if-then condition. If they are tagged as a member, I can trigger an action. If they aren’t, I can trigger another action.

Setting up Decisions

To do this, click on the + icon and then select “Decision”.

Now it’s asking me to define the decision. I’ll select “Tags”, leave it as “include” and then choose the tag “Coaching Club”

Then I’ll click on “Update decision”.

Now you see it’s asking the question – is that subscriber tagged with Coaching club?


If yes – then I can define an action. If no, I can define a different action. Let’s start with the “no” side and tell Drip that I want it to perform an action.

The action that I want it to perform is to Send a Campaign. The Campaign I want it to send is my “Two-week Sales funnel”.

I don’t need them to send a double opt-in confirmation, because I know they double opted in when they signed up for my spreadsheet.

Drip Workflow Decision

I don’t want them to Restart the campaign when this action fires because I only want them to go through that specific funnel once. If they already went through it before, they can skip it.

I also don’t want to continue sending these emails even if they achieve the goal.

Once they join the coaching club, they no longer need to be sold on the coaching club.

Then I’ll click on “Update Action”

Then, I’ll come over to the “Yes” side and click the + icon to add the action to take if they are a coaching club member already.

I’ll set another action, and it’s still going to be “Send a campaign”. But this campaign will be my Action Tips. 

Drip Edit Action

The only difference here is that I’m gonna say – Yes continue sending this campaign if the goal is achieved.

Because this is just valuable info for any blogger.

Then I can click ”Update Action”.

Reviewing the Automation Workflow

So, I’ve set up a very simple workflow that starts when someone completes the Spreadsheet campaign.

It’s gonna check to see if they are coaching club members. If they are, it’s gonna start sending them my action tips.

If they aren’t, it’ll take them through my 2-week sales funnel.

If at any point, they accomplish the goal of joining the coaching club, they will exit this workflow.

Except that we specified that they will still continue to get the action tips campaign if they went through this side of the workflow.

Now as you can see, this can get quite advanced and complicated. But if you simply answer the three questions I asked at the beginning, it will simplify the process for you.

You have all kinds of trigger conditions, actions, and goals that you can use in each workflow.

QUESTION: What, is the most exciting feature about workflows? I’m curious to know your thoughts. Go ahead and leave your answer to this question in the comments area below.