Auto Follow-Up Plans

Here at Pebble, we strive to give you an easy-to-use and streamlined way of following up with your contacts. Want a way to just set it and forget it? Say hello to Automated Follow-Up Plans!

Our Auto Follow-Ups are the answer to getting and staying connected to your most important contacts via email and text. Easily create your drip campaign structure, customize the perfect messaging, and schedule things to go out to whoever you want whenever you want!

In this guide, we'll walk you through the process of setting up text and email follow-ups, ensuring that your contacts stay engaged and informed throughout the deal cycle.

In this article:

How To Create A Follow-Up Plan

To configure your Auto Follow-Up Plan, navigate to Auto Followup at the very end of our menu and click on + Add Plan at the top of the page.

Define The Structure

Now it's time to structure your plan! To do this, you'll need to add a plan name, add your steps, and define the details of each step including which day the communication will be sent, what time the communication will be sent out, and what contact method you'd like to use.

At this stage, enrolling contacts is not possible. Once your plan is fully crafted, you'll be able to enroll any contact to this follow-up plan from your deals page.

1. Add a plan name.
2. Add steps by clicking the New Step button. Steps represent outreach. For example, one step would be equivalent to one outreach (email, text message or mailing). If you wanted 2 emails and 2 text messages to go out in your follow-up plan, you would add a total of 4 steps.
3. To delete a step, click the minus (-) button that appears on the right-hand side of the step. The first step can't be removed.
4. Specify the day number. This is the day that the communication will be sent after you have enrolled the contact in the follow-up plan. If you want something to go out immediately after a contact is enrolled, set the day number to 0.
5. Select the time of day. Your communication will be sent out according to the timezone set in your Pebble profile.
6. Choose your preferred contact method for each step. Choose from text, email, mailing or call reminder.
7. Once you've finished defining the structure of your follow-up plan, select next.

Create The Messaging For Your Texts And Emails

Once you've established the structure of your plan, you can begin creating the content for your follow-up messages. Click "Next" every time you are ready to move on to the next step.

For emails, use the formatting toolbar in the editor to give your emails some character. You can also add dynamic placeholders to personalize your messaging.

In this step, you will also choose from where you'll send the texts and emails. You can decide if you'll only select this during the enrollment of contacts OR select now.

If you have templates saved, you can use them for texts or emails, though this is optional. Just click the "Select template" button on top and select from the dropdown.

For mailers, using a template is mandatory.

Once the template is selected, scroll all the way down and finish the setup. You will need to choose your Mail Options, Envelope Options and add an address. If you have an address saved in Pebble, just click the Select Address button on top and find it in the dropdown.

Once you are satisfied with your setup, click "Save," and you will be redirected to the list of created plans.

Congratulations, your Follow-up Plan is now set up! You can proceed to enroll Contacts to initiate the follow-up process.

Enrolling Contacts with Incomplete Information

Before enrolling any contacts in Follow-Up Plans you need to know that if your plan requires some contact information that is not available, you will not be able to enroll that contact.

For example: if you have a plan that has a Text step and you don't have the phone number of that contact registered in Pebble, you will not be able to enroll that person.

If trying to enroll them manually, the Quick Enroll button will not work out. If using the automation, a small pop-up should show up at the bottom of the page to let you know the enrollment was not possible.

Enroll Contacts In Your Follow-up Plan

To enroll contacts, you have some options.

Option 1 - The first one is in your Boards. Go to Boards, select the Deal Card, navigate to the Contact Section, and in the Follow-up Plan section, click the arrow icon.

That will show you if that person is already enrolled in any plans and also give you the ability to enroll them in a new one. Click the +Enroll button.

Once you've selected the plan, you'll have the opportunity to review it or quick enroll it. The review option allows for any final touches or adjustments before finalizing.

For example, you'll have the option to select or change the phone number you'd like to use to send the text messages as well as the email address you'd like to use to send the emails. You will be presented with a screen for each step in your automated followup sequence asking you to confirm the phone number and email address you'd like things to be sent from.

Just click next step to move through each piece of communication.

Once you have finalized those details, click Save. Your contact is now enrolled in that follow-up plan.

Option 2 - The second option is to do it from your Inbox if you have any communication with that contact.

Go to the Inbox where you received the contact's message or call, select the Conversation, navigate to the Contact Section on the right-hand side, and look for the Followup Plans on the bottom. Clicking in the arrow icon, you can see if that person has been enrolled into any plans already.

Then, click the +Enroll button. Follow the same process as the enrollment via the Boards.

Option 3 - From the Follow-Up Plan Page (fastest for working through a list)

This is usually the quickest way to enroll contacts, especially when you're going through a list one after another.

1. Go to Follow-up Plans at the very end of the menu.
2. Click Enroll Contact.
3. Search or scroll to find the contact you want. As you select a contact, their details (email and phone number) show on the side, so you can confirm they have what the plan needs. Click Select.
4. Choose the plan you want to enroll them in, you can click Quick Enroll or Review Plan.

Option 4 - From the Contact Page:

Enrolling from the contact's own page lets you see all of that person's information before enrolling, so you can confirm they have the email and/or phone number the plan requires.

1. Go to your Contacts database on the menu
2. Open the individual contact you want to enroll
3. Scroll down on the page and find the Follow-up Plans section
4. Click +Add Follow-Up Plan
5. From there you can choose between Quick Enroll or Review Plan

Option 5 - Stage Automations

Finally, you can enroll contacts automatically using a Stage Automation on your Board. When this is set up, every time a deal moves into a specific stage, the contact will automatically be enrolled in the follow-up plan you've connected to that stage. No manual step is needed.

To learn more how to set this up, check out our guide on Stage Automations.

What Happens When A Contact Replies

If at any point the contact responds to any of the automated follow-up communication, the automated follow-up sequence will stop. The status of your campaign will change to paused.

This is intentional, and it's an important part of how follow-up plans work: a reply means the contact is engaging with you, so it's now your turn to step in and continue the conversation personally rather than have the automation keep sending.

Whenever you're ready to pick the automated sequence back up, you can resume the campaign like this:

1. Navigate to the Auto Follow-Up page.
2. Click the Contacts Enrolled tab up top.
3. Find the contact you need by searching their name in the search bar or scrolling down
4. Click the ellipsis (…) button to the far-right of their name.
5. Then, select Resume.
6. A pop-up will show up. Click Resume Enrollment.

Removing Contacts From Your Follow-Up Plan

To remove contacts from your follow-up plan, follow these steps:

1. Click On Follow-Up Plans
2. Click on Contacts enrolled
3. Find the contact you'd like to remove by searching their name in the search bar or scrolling down
4. Click on the ellipsis on the far right-hand side then click delete or pause
5. If you choose delete, click Delete Enrollment to finalize the deletion

Deleting A Plan Does Not Stop Active Enrollments

This is an important one to keep in mind.

Follow-Up Plans work like templates. Therefore, deleting a plan does not stop or unenroll the contacts who are already enrolled in it. Those enrollments will keep running, and your contacts may still show as In Progress even though the plan itself no longer exists.

To actually stop messages from going out, you'll need to manually pause or remove each enrolled contact. Deleting the plan on its own will not do this.

If you have any questions, reach out to our team here: hello@pebblerei.com. We're happy to help!