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Email Automation and Branding with Custom Properties

Updated

Overview

This guide explains how to automate personalized email communications by combining custom properties, status triggers, and email templates. With this setup, you can ensure that leads receive the right message at the right time — tailored to their unique attributes and progress through your pipeline.

Automated emails help streamline your sales process, improve lead engagement, and maintain consistent branding — all without manual effort.

You’ll learn how to:

  • Trigger emails based on lead status changes
  • Dynamically send the appropriate email based on lead property selection
  • Configure automated follow-up sequences
  • Apply custom branding for each custom property value

How Email Automation Works

Email automation is driven by three key components:

  1. Custom Properties – Dropdown fields that define specific lead attributes. These properties help categorize leads and serve as the foundation for triggering tailored automation rules.
  2. Status Triggers – These initiate automated emails when a lead transitions to a new status or remains in a status for a specified duration.
  3. Email Templates – Predefined messages that use dynamic fields (placeholders) to personalize content for each lead.

Together, these tools allow you to create smart automation — no coding needed.

How to trigger an email on lead status change

The status-based trigger feature allows you to automate actions—like sending emails—whenever a lead enters a defined status, helping reduce manual effort and ensure timely follow-up.

In this example, we'll demonstrate how to set up a trigger that automatically sends an email when a lead reaches the "Merchant Approved By Processor" status.

Here's how to set up the trigger step-by-step.

  1. Go to Manage → Leads → Status States & Triggers.
  2. Locate the Merchant Approved By Processor status and click the trigger icon to open the status trigger configuration page.  
  3. Next, open the Trigger on Status Change tab, click Add New Trigger, and select the Send Email to Lead checkbox to open the email settings. 
  4. In the email settings, choose the email field and the email template to send (e.g. the Merchant Welcome Email), and click Add. 
  5. Your trigger is now saved. Use the Actions column to edit or remove it later. 

How to Configure Email Triggers Based on Lead Property Selection

To make your emails more personalized, you can send different templates based on a custom property—like the assigned Processor.

For example, you might set up your logic like this:

  • If the lead’s Processor is Fiserv, send the Fiserv Merchant Welcome Email
  • If the Processor is TSYS, send the TSYS Merchant Welcome Email

Here are the steps to set this up. 

  1. Navigate to the "Merchant Approved By Processor" status, then click the pencil icon to edit the email trigger you created in the previous step. 
  2. In the popup window that appears:
    • Select the "Custom Property for Alternate Template" checkbox
    • Select "Processor" for the custom property
    • Select "Fiserv" for the first value
    • Select the "Fiserv Merchant Welcome Email" template
  3. Click Add to configure the next value, and then repeat the previous step but this time select the TSYS value and the "TSYS Merchant Welcome Email".
  4. Once you've finished, your settings should match the example shown in the screenshot below. Click Save to apply your changes. 
  5. Your configuration is now complete. The email trigger will display the selected custom properties and corresponding email templates in the Email Template column for easy reference. 

How to Create Threaded Follow-Up Email Automations

To keep your leads engaged beyond the initial outreach, you can automate follow-up emails—eliminating the need for manual reminders or check-ins.

Continuing with our trigger example, here's how to set up follow-up emails within the same thread:

  1. Access the "Merchant Approved By Processor" email trigger settings again
  2. Click the Active Follow-Ups checkbox
  3. In the New Follow-Up section that appears:
    • Select delay time (e.g. 7 days)
    • Choose the email template (e.g. Merchant Success Tips)
    • Click Add Follow Up
  4. Repeat as needed to build a follow-up sequence.
  5. Click Save to apply your changes.

How to Configure Email Branding Based on Custom Properties

The Custom Property feature also supports dynamic branding for outgoing emails, allowing you to tailor the sender details and visual identity based on the selected property value.

For each Custom Property value, you can define a specific sender name, sender email, and logo image. When an email is triggered based on that value, it will use the configured branding instead of the default sender settings (which typically pull from the group, acting user, or a designated fallback).

These branding fields—sender name, email, and logo—are also available as placeholders in your email templates, so you can easily personalize the content of your messages.

To fully enable custom-property-based branding, the setup includes three parts:

  1. Updating the Custom Property values with the appropriate branding details (sender name, email, and logo).
  2. Modifying the email template to use the corresponding branding placeholders where needed.
  3. Configuring the email trigger to match custom property values to appropriate email templates.

The following sections break down each of the three steps in detail.

1. Updating the Custom Property values

  1. Go to Manage → Leads → Custom Properties
  2. Click Add/Remove Values on your chosen property (e.g., Processor)
  3. Click the branding icon next to each value.
  4. In the branding popup:
    • Enter Sender Name and Sender Email
    • Upload a Logo (optional)
    • Save changes.

2. Updating your email template

  1. Go to Manage → Email & SMS→ Email Templates.
  2. Open the desired template.
  3. Click Insert Field or type @ in the email body.
  4. Search for "Custom Properties" and insert relevant placeholders into the email body.
  5. When finished, click Save to apply your changes. 

3. Updating your email trigger settings

  1. Open the email trigger settings for the "Merchant Approved By Processor" status.
  2. Check Use Custom Property for Sender.
  3. Select the Processor property.
  4. Click Save. 

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Can I update the email branding after the trigger is already live? Yes, changes to branding settings are reflected immediately for future sends.
  • Is it possible to test the email before it goes out? Yes, you can send test emails from the Email Template editor before attaching them to a trigger.

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