If you use a form to collect new contacts, you can reach out to new contacts as part of a Welcome Automation. This type of automation is designed for new contacts that were not previously in the database. Using automation, you can thank them for signing up or send them content that you promised for signing up.

However, you may find that you also need existing contacts to have the opportunity to sign up again using the form, for example for a new webinar or your next ebook.

In this article you will find:

Why run automation for subscribed contacts?

How to modify a set process

How to edit a form

How to edit automation

Model example

If you are using contact collection forms that lead to, for example, downloading

an e-book or registering for a webinar, it's a good idea to offer these benefits also to contacts that are already in your contact database.

In the form, you can not only ask contacts to fill in their email address but also fill in additional info that you do not have about your contacts to update them.

The welcome automation is always triggered by the "Signs up to a list" trigger. However, this trigger only applies to new contacts (that are not registered in your database yet). In order to trigger the automation on all contacts (including existing contacts), you need to modify not only the contact collection form but also the automation.

First, you edit the form to identify existing contacts that already fill out the form. In the form settings, simply enable the "Update existing contact" feature. This will allow the form to allow entry and confirmation even for contacts that are already in the database. Without enabling this feature, contacts will receive a message that their contact already exists in the database and cannot be registered.

At the same time, you need to set up a hidden field on the form that will automatically add a defined value to existing contacts that are re-enrolled via this form - this is used to distinguish between contacts.

You can find more info on how to edit automation to enable the registration of already registered contacts in this article.

Whether you are editing already existing automation or starting a new one, you should stick to the template for Welcome Automation.

💡 TIP: To make automations easier for you, we have created preset automations 👍

In addition to the Signs up to a list, add another trigger - the Recurring trigger. This trigger checks if the contact has a special value from the form filled in its own field (hidden field). If it does, the contact will enter the automation, if it does not, the contact will not enter the automation. The Recurring trigger is set to check daily (or, with your set frequency), if any contact has gained the value set within a hidden field. If yes, it runs the automation for them.

The Recurring trigger is an advanced feature that is only available on the Marketer+ plan.

Create/modify a contact collection form.

In the form settings, enable the "Update existing contact" function

Insert a field into your form and set it as a hidden field. Select your previously created custom field for this value, then set the text that will be typed into the custom field as the default value. For this case, we will choose the value ebook.

Once the form is created, save it. Once the entire setup process (including automation) is complete, you can embed the form on your website and start collecting new leads and updating existing ones. To embed the form on your website, use the script found under the Apply Form button.

Create/modify automation

During the initial setup of the automation, select the frequency of running the automation to "Run only once" and select the appropriate list to run the automation.

Set up triggers Subscribes to a list & Recurring trigger.

For the Recurring trigger, set the time when the check of the value in the custom (hidden) field should take place. Also make sure to set up the condition that the custom field has been set as "ebook" (for example).

The trigger is then followed by the action to be performed. Usually, sending an email follows. Make sure to connect both triggers to that action. You can customize the whole scenario according to your requirements.

💡 TIP: If you wish to respond to the insertion of an existing contact's email address more than once per day, use multiple Run Repeatedly triggers. For example, you can set up 6 triggers every 4 hours.

We recommend you test the entire scenario on a test audience.

If you expect a great number of existing contacts to sign up through your forms than new contacts, we recommend exceptionally creating a completely new contact list in which you create a new form and automation. This will allow the Automaton to run for everyone immediately, as all contacts in that list will be new. If you decide to use this procedure, we also recommend as the last step of your Automation to add resubscribe step, which will send all your contacts into one contact list.