Tags in automations: what they can and cannot do
How tags work inside automations: adding and removing them, branching on them, and the things a tag cannot do, like starting an automation.
- automations
- tags
A tag is a label on a person: vip, refunded, attended-webinar. Inside an automation tags are useful for remembering something and for branching on it. They have limits that catch people out, so here is the whole picture.
What a tag can do
Be added or removed by a step. Use Tag someone, choose Add a tag or Remove a tag, and pick a tag or type a new one. Tags are not case sensitive, so VIP and vip are the same tag, and commas and semicolons become spaces.
Be asked about. Has a tag works in an If / else, a Split paths, a Wait until set to a condition, and as the journey's goal. It works for members and contacts alike.
Be the audience for an email. You can send a broadcast to everyone with a tag, or to a segment that has a tag rule.
Be set late. A Tag someone step still runs for a person who joined an event journey too late for its emails, so you keep a record even when the sends were skipped.
A person who is both a member and a contact has one set of tags, and a branch sees all of it. Removing a tag takes it off everywhere that person carries it. A tag step does not send anything, so it does not count toward your send allowance.
What a tag cannot do
Start an automation. No trigger watches a tag. A list can start one, through Joined a list.
Narrow an event trigger. The event triggers take a list, or nothing. They cannot be limited to a tag.
Be added automatically. Nothing tags someone when they RSVP, register or attend. Add a Tag someone step if you want it.
Belong to a session. A tag sticks to the person. On a repeating event, a tag added in week one is still there in week two unless a step removes it.
How to get a tag to start something
Put the tagged people on a list and let the list start the automation. You can add them to the list yourself, or have a step do it: Add to a list puts someone on a list, and a journey triggered by Joined a list picks them up from there. For a weekly event, see Run an automation for every session of a recurring event for a way to check a tag at the start of each session's run.