This article explains the email signup trigger and how to use it to build a workflow.

When using our automation tool, there are multiple trigger types to choose from: date-based, contact import, field change, link click, custom API event, and email signup. An email signup event triggers a workflow when someone signs up to receive your emails from a form, integration, or is manually added to the audience, but not imported.

In this article How to use the signup trigger Signup source All Your signup forms Apps and integrations API calls Summary Additional resources

How to use the signup trigger

To select the signup trigger, follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to your Automation tab.
2. Click on the Create new workflow button.
3. Click on Choose your trigger event.
4. In the panel on the right, select Email signup.
5. Click on the Next button.
6. Select your signup source. More information about this step below.
7. Click on the Confirm button.

Signup source

The signup source panel allows you to choose between three options for feeding contacts into the workflow: All, Your signup forms, and Apps and integrations.

All

If you select All as your signup source, then contacts are eligible to trigger the workflow if they:

• Fill out any of your existing or future forms
• Are added to your audience manually through the Add button in the Audience tab
• Are added to your audience through either the POST /members/add or the POST /members/signup API calls
• Fill out a custom form or form created by a third party integration, as long as the form uses either the POST /members/add or the POST /members/signup API calls

Ⓘ

Choosing All as your signup source does not necessarily mean that every single contact who signs up for your account will truly be eligible to trigger the workflow. Contacts must meet both the audience criteria and the trigger criteria in order for the workflow to fire. Thus, if a contact fills out a form, but is not in the group or segment that's connected to the workflow, then they will not be able to trigger the workflow.

 

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When using All as your signup source, contacts will only be eligible to trigger the workflow when they are brand new, meaning that they have never existed in your Emma audience. If a contact exists in your audience, they will not be eligible to trigger a workflow whose signup source is set to All, even if they meet all other criteria. The only exception is for contacts who are added through the POST /members/signup API call.

Your signup forms

You can select a specific form, or several specific forms, so that only contacts who fill out those Emma forms are eligible to trigger the workflow. If you select a specific form or forms, contacts can trigger the workflow multiple times. This means that a contact who exists in your audience can trigger the workflow. As a result, if you want existing contacts to be eligible for a signup workflow, choosing a specific form or forms is a good way to accomplish that.

Ⓘ	Only forms created in Emma will be visible in this section.

Apps and integrations

The Apps and integrations will only show integrations that were built by Emma - it will not show any third-party integrations. Additionally, some integrations that were built by Emma do not use the POST /members/add or the POST /members/signup API calls and thus are not eligible for the signup trigger and will not be shown here.

If you want to use a third-party integration to trigger an email signup workflow, then you will need to choose the All signup source. If you want to use a custom form to trigger an email signup workflow, then you can either use the All signup source or a specific form; however, a specific form can only be used if you use the the POST /members/signup API call to build the form and include the signup_form_id parameter.

API calls

There are two API calls that can trigger signup automation: the POST /members/add call and the POST /members/signup call. There are a few key differences between the two:

	/members/add	/members/signup
Signup sources	All	All or specific signup forms. Specific signup forms can be used as a source if the optional signup_form_id parameter is included in the call.
Eligible contacts	New contacts only	New and existing contacts. Contacts can re-enter the workflow using this call and the All source if they’re being added to a different contact group.
Send plaintext confirmation email?	No	Sends by default. Suppress using the optional opt_in_confirmation parameter
group_ids syntax	Array of integers	Array of strings

Summary

Signup source	Signup method	Eligible contacts
All	Emma form	New contacts only
All	Manually added	New contacts only
All	POST /members/add API call	New contacts only*
All	POST /members/signup API call	New and existing contacts*
Your signup forms	Emma form(s)	New and existing contacts
Apps and integrations	Emma integrations	New contacts only

 

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*To our knowledge, all third-party signup integrations use the POST /members/add API call. As a result, only new contacts are eligible to trigger signup workflows when they are added through a third-party signup integration. For details about the POST /members/signup API call, please refer to the API calls table above.

Additional resources

• How to use the automation workflow builder
• How to edit an automated mailing
• Trigger events: Contact import
• Trigger events: Date-based
• Trigger events: Field change
• Trigger events: Link click
• Trigger events: Custom API event