Skip to content
Campaigns & sequences

Build a sequence: steps, delays and conditions

Every step type, yes/no conditions, what happens when an invite isn't accepted, and editing a live campaign.

Updated 2 min read

Steps

  • Visit profile, Like their latest post, Endorse and Follow: light touches before you ask for anything. (Follow is skipped on real accounts today.)
  • Connection request, with or without a note (up to 300 characters, or 200 from a free LinkedIn account).
  • Message: for people you're connected with.
  • InMail: for people you aren't connected with. Open profiles accept InMail for free; others use the sender's InMail credits, so you can limit InMail to open profiles.
  • Find email: looks up the lead's work email so later email steps can use it.
  • Email: from your own mailbox. Follow-ups go out as "Re: …" in the same thread.
  • End: stops the sequence for that lead.

A sequence can have up to 40 steps. Each step has a delay before it runs.

Conditions

A condition splits the sequence into a Yes and a No path. You can check whether the lead is connected, has an open profile, has an email address, has replied, or has seen your last message. Conditions can be nested up to 3 levels deep.

After both paths, the lead carries on with the steps after the condition, unless a path ends with End.

If the invite isn't accepted

On a connection request, choose what happens if it isn't accepted in time: end, withdraw the invite, continue anyway (for example to an InMail or email), or withdraw and continue.

LinkedIn, email or both

Mix LinkedIn and email steps in one sequence, or build an email-only campaign, which doesn't need a LinkedIn account. Pick the senders and mailboxes in the campaign's settings: leads are rotated across them, and each lead keeps the same sender.

When a lead stops

  • A reply wins. With Stop when someone replies on (the default), a lead stops the moment they answer on LinkedIn or by email.
  • Out of office: an automatic "I'm away" reply doesn't count. The sequence picks up again 3 days later.
  • Do-not-contact: leads on the list are skipped and stopped everywhere. Do-not-contact.
  • You can put any replied or failed lead back into the sequence from the campaign's lead list.

Templates and live edits

Start from 18 built-in templates (connect and follow up, LinkedIn + email, warm up first, existing connections and more), or save your own sequence as a template and share it with every workspace in your organization.

You can edit a running campaign. Leads already in it carry on from the step they're on; nobody restarts. To be safe while editing, pause the campaign first.

Ready to try it?

Sign in, or start a free trial of Outember (no card).

Something missing or out of date in this guide? Tell us and we'll fix it.

Still stuck? Talk to a person.

Tell us what you're trying to do and where it went wrong. A person on our team answers, usually within two business days.