Series lets you build cohesive campaigns with all of Intercom’s Outbound channels. This flexibility, combined with nuanced targeting based on your customer data makes for the ultimate contextual messaging experience.

The visual builder makes it a breeze to orchestrate even the most dynamic messaging journeys.

There are four kinds of block:

You can have a simple linear path like: Entry rule for Non-premium users - Intro Post message - Has clicked a link in the 'Intro Post' rule - Feature Tour

Multiple separate paths like: Entry rule for Non-premium users - Intro Post message - Wait for 3 days - Feature Tour or Entry rule for Premium users - Intro Chat message - Has replied to the 'Intro Chat' message - Tag Replied to intro

Or, paths that diverge and converge as needed:

This means it’s easy for customers to enter the series for different reasons, get relevant and contextual messages, and exit at the right time. 👌

First, go to Outbound > Series and from the main menu and click + New Series in the top right corner.

You can choose to start from scratch, or get started quickly with a pre-made template.

For this example, we’ll start from scratch. The first step to take is adding the entry rules. This is the set of filters a customer must match to enter the series and start receiving messages. Just drag and drop a rule block from the sidebar on the right:

Then click on the rule block to open its settings. Here you can choose the filters a customer must match to enter the Series:

In this example, we’re targeting all users who don’t yet have the ‘Premium’ plan, so we can encourage them to upgrade.

Next, let’s add our first piece of content; a post message sent in your app. You can drag and drop a message block from the right hand menu, or just hover over the previous block and add it like this:

Then, open the message to create its content:

For each message block, you can define how long a message should try to send for, as your customers might not be online to receive it right away. By allowing them a little more time to log in and receive it, your messages can be sent in exactly the right order.

Click this section to set the time period you’d like to attempt to send the message for. After this period, anyone who hasn’t come online to receive the message will be disengaged with this path in the Series:

Or, you can create a path for anyone who doesn’t receive it in the specified time period:

For all the users who do receive the message, you can add specific rules based on how they interacted with it. E.g. you could target everyone who clicks the upgrade link in the message. Just hover over “When delivered” for all the options:

Select the behaviour you want to target (in this example ‘Clicked link’) and it’ll automatically add a rule block:

This allows you to direct users down separate paths based on whether or not they match the rule. You can also define exactly how long they have to interact with the previous message by editing the Try to match rule.

When it comes to matching times on Rule blocks within a Series:
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"Try to match for x time" means it will wait up to that amount of time for the person to match the rule. If they match sooner, they'll move on sooner. If they don't match in that time, they will either progress down an "if not matched" path (if you have one set up) or disengage from the path (if none are set up).
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"Try to match once" means that if the person does not match the rules as soon as they reach that node they will leave the path or progress down an "if not matched" path.

In this case, they have three days to click the link after receiving the email:

Let’s do the same for the fallback email, so we can capture everyone who engages with the offer, and direct them to the same next step:

In this case the next step will be a product tour, to demonstrate all the value the customer can get out of the ‘Premium’ plan. To connect one block to another, just drag and drop the connecting arrow:

Series lets you automate more than just messaging, so let’s automatically tag everyone who upgrades their plan after progressing through this Series. To do so, we need one more rule block which targets any customer who received the Product Tour, and is now on the ‘Premium’ plan:

Then, add a tag block:

And, for those that haven’t yet upgraded, we’ll add one more email as a fallback, and link that to the same tag block if it causes an upgrade:

Now, let’s take a step back and look at this Series in its entirety.

To encourage customers to upgrade their plan, there’s a Post message sent in your app, followed up with an email, both of which direct to a Product Tour. After customers take the tour, if they upgrade their plan they’re tagged automatically. If not, they’ll receive one last email to try again.

It is important to note that when you create a rule block, the try to match rules only apply to the user matching the audience rules and not the triggers you have set.

If for example, you have a rule block with an event and 'try to match once', the user matches the audience rules but they will have to wait at this block until they trigger the event:
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We will expire the user if they don't trigger the event within 30 days of reaching the block. At this time, they will go down the "did not match" pathway or disengage.

If you wish the user to progress in the Series if they have already triggered the event in the past, you should add the event as an audience rule instead:
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If you only wish them to progress if they triggered the event very recently, you can use the rule "event last occurred less than X days ago".

The “Wait’ block enables you to add spacing between 2 messages.

You can set two conditions to trigger the next message:

For each message block, you can define how long a message should try to send for, as your customers might not be online to receive it right away. Or, you can create a path for anyone who doesn’t receive it in the specified time period.

For users who have interacted with your message you can add specific rules based on how they interacted with your message (eg: completed the bot flow) and then target the users who match that rule with a new message.

For these rule blocks you can define a time period the Series will check to see if a user matches the rule. Or you set it to try and match once (without setting a time period):

Teammates will be able to use the tag block to tag or untag (remove tags) any users in Series, based on the actions they take:

Tag blocks can be used for example for:

Tags can then also be used to enter or exit customers from other Series, filter your reports, define segments or build custom Help Desk views.

To properly gauge how effectively your Series is encouraging customer action, you should add a goal for anyone who enters. Do this under ‘Show settings’:

Then choose the right filters and how long a customer has to meet the goal:

On the same tab you can define overall exit rules for your series:

If a customer’s data is updated to match the filters in this rule they will exit the series completely, and cannot re-enter.

For a simple way to manually remove specific customers from a series, just add an exit filter for all customers with a certain tag, then you can apply it as needed to anyone who should exit the series.

Customers can also exit a Series if they reach the end of a path, hit the series goal or don’t engage with messages for a set time.

Read more about when customers enter and exit a series in this article.

With your messages, entry rules, exit rules, and a goal in place it’s time to set your Series live 🚀

As soon as you set the Series live, customers will start to enter if they match your entry rules, and you can easily measure how they’re progressing:

To learn all about measuring the performance of your Series, read this article.