Email automation
Email automation is any system that sends email based on a trigger, a schedule or a sequence step rather than a person composing and sending each message. In sales it means multi-step outreach sequences that stop when a prospect replies; in marketing it means drip campaigns and behavioural journeys to an opted-in list.
How it works
A workflow defines the trigger that enrols someone, the steps and delays between messages, and the exit conditions that remove them. The exit conditions matter more than the copy: a follow-up that fires after someone has already replied is worse than no follow-up at all.
Why it matters
Most conversions happen after the third contact, and most manual follow-up stops before it. Automation is what makes persistence consistent, provided the sequence knows when to stop.
What breaks first
Deliverability, not logic. Pacing is applied per mailbox rather than per campaign, because the mailbox carries the reputation, and new mailboxes need ramping before they send at volume. Scale by adding mailboxes, not by raising the per-mailbox number.
How Autocloz handles it
Autocloz sequences send from your own Google, Microsoft or SMTP mailboxes, pace against a per-mailbox daily ceiling that warmup traffic counts toward, and cancel remaining steps the moment a lead replies on any channel. Mailbox warmup, DMARC/DKIM/SPF monitoring and inbox-placement tests run underneath.
FAQ
What exit conditions should an email sequence have?
A reply on any channel stops all remaining steps; an out-of-office pauses rather than exits; an unsubscribe or STOP keyword suppresses globally rather than per-campaign; a hard bounce suppresses the address permanently; and a booked meeting or a lost deal ends the sequence.
Does email automation hurt deliverability?
Automation itself does not; volume without reputation management does. Authentication that actually aligns, gradual ramping, a verified list, one-click unsubscribe and pausing a mailbox when its bounce rate climbs are what keep automated sending safe.
Related terms
Cold email deliverability is the share of your outbound cold emails that actually reach the recipient's inbox (not spam, not blocked). It depends on domain authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), sender reputation, mailbox warmup, list hygiene and content — not just whether the email was 'sent'.
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) is an email standard that tells receiving mail servers what to do with messages that fail SPF or DKIM checks — and sends you reports. It prevents spoofing of your domain and is now effectively required by Gmail and Yahoo for bulk senders.
Mailbox warmup is the practice of gradually increasing a new email account's sending volume while generating positive engagement (opens, replies, moving mail out of spam) so mailbox providers build trust in the sender before real campaigns ramp up.
SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is an email-authentication standard that lets a domain owner publish, in DNS, the list of mail servers allowed to send email on the domain's behalf. Receiving servers check the sending IP against that list to help detect spoofing and decide whether to trust the message.