Ever had someone reply to your follow-up email with “I already bought this”? That’s what happens when a workflow keeps sending reminders after someone has moved on. And a person who left checkout needs a different message from someone who downloaded your free guide but never looked at your offer.
Funnel marketing automation helps you tell those contacts apart. Tags mark where each person stopped, so your workflows can send a tailored follow-up instead of treating every drop-off the same.
Tag the Drop-Off Point Before You Write Any Email
Before building your follow-up workflows, decide which drop-off points you want to track. You can create a tag for each situation, using a name that describes what happened, like the following example:
- Opt-in-no-purchase: joined your list but never reached checkout.
- Dropped-checkout: started checkout but didn’t complete purchase.
- Replay-no-booking: watched your webinar replay but didn’t book a call.
Keep the names plain enough that anyone opening your contact list knows what they mean. ClickFunnels suggests picking one naming style and sticking with it.
Before you can follow up with someone who abandons checkout, you need their email address. A two-step checkout captures it before they reach payment, so it’s worth considering if your current order form collects everything at once.
Collecting an email address doesn’t establish that someone abandoned checkout. They could have completed the purchase. The workflow needs to distinguish between those outcomes before applying the appropriate tag.
One way to organize follow-ups is to use two workflows: one identifies the drop-off and applies a tag, and the other starts when that tag is added. In ClickFunnels, the Tag Contact step applies the tag, and the Applied Tag trigger starts the follow-up workflow. It monitors one tag at a time, so you’ll need to add a separate trigger for each tag.
In GoHighLevel, the Add Contact Tag action applies tags, and the Contact Tag trigger starts a workflow when a specified tag is added. HighLevel also offers a more direct option for certain stores. If you sell through a HighLevel store or Shopify, its Abandoned Checkout trigger can identify shoppers who entered an email but didn’t complete payment within a set time.
Build the Exit Before You Write the Message
It only takes one buyer receiving a reminder to finish checking out for your follow-up to look careless. Before sending another email, your workflow needs to know whether that person has already bought.
A simple version looks like this:
- The tag is added.
- The workflow waits a little.
- It checks for a purchase.
- If there’s no purchase, it sends the email.
Repeat the wait-and-purchase check before each additional email. Sales funnel software like ClickFunnels and GoHighLevel lets you build these checks into your workflows.
In ClickFunnels, a Conditional Goal can move someone past the remaining follow-up steps when they buy. Place it at the end of the sequence so no more reminders go out. A Conditional Split Path works differently. It checks a condition when the contact reaches that step, then sends buyers down one path and non-buyers down another.
GoHighLevel’s Goal Event works similarly. Set it to a successful payment or an added buyer tag, and it moves the contact to the goal step when that event happens. Make sure the workflow ends after that step. If you’d rather check right before each email, add a Wait action followed by If/Else to separate buyers from non-buyers.
How long should the first wait be? Long enough for people to finish checking out. ClickFunnels’ own team usually starts around 15 to 20 minutes,1 and HighLevel suggests 15 to 30 minutes for lower-priced offers and longer for expensive ones.2 For someone who opted in but never reached checkout, a day or more is a reasonable start.
Write Each Message for the Segment It Reaches
Each tag needs a different message. Otherwise, someone who downloaded your free guide could get a reminder about a checkout they never started.
For contacts tagged opt-in-no-purchase, send something useful first, such as the next lesson or a short guide, before mentioning your offer. For dropped-checkout contacts, answer a question that might be holding them back, such as refund terms or payment options. You could say, “Still have questions about what’s included? Here’s a quick breakdown.” For replay-no-booking contacts, keep the message short and put the booking link near the top.
Whichever tag it is, keep the email focused. Explain what’s relevant, answer one question, and give a clear next step. For abandoned checkouts, ClickFunnels’ team usually keeps the sequence to three to five emails.¹ If you mention a deadline, make sure it’s real and say why it’s there, like a price increase scheduled for Friday.
Keep Segments From Overlapping
Ever gotten two emails from the same business on the same afternoon? That’s what overlapping tags can do to your list. A contact who opted in last week and dropped out of checkout today could have both opt-in-no-purchase and dropped-checkout tags. Both workflows may then email them.
The fix is to give the later stage priority. When dropped-checkout is added, remove opt-in-no-purchase. In ClickFunnels, the Tag Contact step can remove tags.
In GoHighLevel, use the Remove Contact Tag action. Removing the tag alone won’t necessarily stop a sequence that’s already running, though.
In ClickFunnels, use a Conditional Goal to skip the remaining emails when the later tag appears. In GoHighLevel, use a Goal Event for the same purpose. End each workflow after its goal.
Do the same when someone buys. Remove their drop-off tags and make sure any unfinished follow-ups end. A workflow triggered by a successful purchase is a good place to handle it.
Also decide what happens if the same person drops off twice. Should they get the whole sequence again? In GoHighLevel, Allow Re-entry controls whether a contact can enter again after finishing or leaving a workflow. In ClickFunnels, you can set a workflow to run only once per contact.
One more GoHighLevel setting is worth considering: Stop on Response. If a contact replies to a message from that workflow, it ends their sequence. That way, nobody who writes back with a question gets another automated reminder while they wait for your answer.
Send Only to Contacts You Have Permission to Contact
Before a workflow goes live, check that each contact agreed to hear from you on that channel. Having someone’s phone number doesn’t automatically mean you have permission to text them.
In the US, commercial email falls under the CAN-SPAM Act.3 Business texts sent from US 10-digit long-code numbers also come with A2P 10DLC registration requirements.4 Check your platform’s compliance guidance before you switch anything on.
Make it easy for people to stop hearing from you, too. In GoHighLevel, Do Not Disturb blocks messages to a contact. The Contact Changed trigger can react when it’s turned on, so you can stop any follow-ups still running.
Test With a Contact of Your Own
Go through the funnel the way a visitor would. Shorten the waits while you test so you’re not sitting there for a day, then restore them before going live.
Drop off. Open your order page in an incognito window, fill in step one with your own email, and click through to step two. Leave without buying, then check that the follow-up arrives after the delay you set.
Next, buy. Use a different test email to complete the purchase, and use test mode if your checkout has one. No reminders should arrive afterward.
Then, test re-entry. Once the first run has ended, try the same email again without buying. Check whether the sequence restarts as specified in your re-entry settings.
Repeat the test with your other drop-off tags to make sure each one starts the right follow-up. In GoHighLevel, use a fresh contact that hasn’t been through the workflow before, and check the execution logs if a step doesn’t run. Menu names change as these tools update, so confirm the labels in your own account.
Match the Message to Where They Stopped
Most awkward follow-ups come down to one of two things. Either the workflow didn’t know where someone stopped, or it didn’t know when to stop. Tags fix the first. Purchase checks and workflow exits fix the second. Set both up before you write the emails.
1https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c9gE7KX_iI
2https://help.gohighlevel.com/support/solutions/articles/155000007380-workflow-triggers-abandoned-checkout-trigger-for-e-commerce-stores
3https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business
4https://www.twilio.com/docs/messaging/compliance/a2p-10dlc#who-needs-to-register-for-a2p-10dlc