Articles on: Selling Tools: Buyers & Outreach

Automated buyer follow-up (email series)

An email series sends buyers a set of emails you wrote and approved, timed from the day they join or from their go-home date. Nothing sends until every step is approved and you select Activate, and you can pause it at any time.


Create the series


  1. Open Dashboard, choose the Selling tab, then Email series and New series.
  2. Choose the Sender: you, or an organization you own or co-own. Buyers get the emails from this account. They must already have an application, reservation or invoice with it.
  3. Enter a Series name. Buyers don't see it.
  4. Choose a Species if you want starter wording for one kind of animal.
  5. Choose an Auto start trigger: Application accepted, Deposit captured, Balance paid or Pickup confirmed. Keep Manual only to start each buyer yourself.
  6. If you like, choose a group in Limit to group. Groups are listed under the account that owns them. A group from a different sender is refused.
  7. Select Create series.


New email series form with sender, series name, species, auto start trigger and group limit


Write the steps


Each step is one email. Use Add step on the series page. While the series is empty, you can select Draft starter steps instead to add four draft emails that you then edit.


Each step has:


  • An Anchor: Series start (the day the buyer joins) or Go-home date (the day the animal goes to its new home).
  • Offset days before or after that anchor. Series start with 1 sends a day after the buyer joins. Go-home date with -7 sends a week before pickup.
  • A Subject and Body.


A go-home step waits until that buyer has a go-home date.


To make an email personal, use tokens, words in curly brackets that Creatures swaps for the buyer's details: {buyer_first_name}, {animal_name}, {go_home_date}, {breeder_name} and {group_name}. If a buyer has no value for one, such as no animal yet, it is left blank. A misspelled token, like {buyer_name}, is refused when you save. Your text stays in the box so you can fix it.


Help me write can draft a body for you. Select Save step, then open Preview in email layout to see it with sample details.


Open email step that needs review, with the Approved box, anchor, offset days, subject, body and the list of available tokens


Approve and activate


When a step reads right, tick Approved and select Save step. The Activation gate counts approved steps. Once every step is approved, select Activate.


Activation gate showing 2 of 3 steps approved, with sending stopped until the last step is reviewed


Adding a step to an active series pauses it, because new steps start unapproved. Unticking Approved or deleting the only step pauses it too. To resume, approve the step, save it, and select Activate again. Delete asks you to confirm, then removes that email, including copies waiting to send.


Start buyers


To start buyers by hand, use Enroll buyers on the series page. It lists people with a current application, reservation or invoice from this sender, in the chosen group if you set one. Select Start. The button is off when the buyer is already in the series, has unsubscribed from this sender, or the series isn't active.


You can also start one buyer from their card in the buyer pipeline. Limit to group doesn't apply there.


Under Enrollments, enter a buyer's Go-home date and select Save, or select Stop to end the series for that buyer.


Enrollments with Rowan Avery's go-home date of November 24, 2026, a Save button and a Stop button


Pause safely


Archive asks you to confirm, then stops sending right away. Emails that were waiting are kept. If you activate the series again, overdue emails go out from that day, no more than one per buyer per day.


Before you bring back an old series, check its steps so buyers don't get stale advice. Under Enrollments, select Stop for anyone who shouldn't hear from it again.


Why an email didn't send


Creatures checks active series about every 10 minutes. Each buyer gets at most one series email a day from the same sender. Any extra email waits for the next day.


An email is also skipped when:


  • the buyer was stopped or unsubscribed;
  • the reservation was cancelled or refunded;
  • the invoice was voided or refunded; or
  • the buyer's account has no email address.


Every series email has an unsubscribe link. It stops series emails from that sender only. Invoices and account emails still arrive.


A questionnaire series starts on its own after pickup, so its page says "Starts after pickup" instead of listing buyers. See Buyer questionnaires (post-purchase check-ins).



Updated on: 29/10/2026

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