Overview  

This doc walks you through:

• The three groups of Action components: Engagement, Productivity, and CRM actions

• Configuring each Action component

• The branches an Action can generate, and what triggers each one

• Behavior you should know about before you build with these Actions

What are Action components  

Action components live in the Workflow Builder's component panel, under the Action tab. You drag one onto the canvas, connect it to the step before it, and configure it in a side panel.

Every Action node has a three-dot menu with Clone and Delete, so you can duplicate a configured step instead of rebuilding it, or remove one you no longer need.

A preview icon lets you preview the email, SMS or WhatsApp content. This icon only appears in the Send Email, Send SMS and Send WhatsApp action components after the content is configured.

Actions are organized into three groups:

• Engagement: Send Email, Send WhatsApp, Send SMS

• Productivity: Add to List, Remove From List, Assign Tag, Remove Tag, Update Contact Field, Update Contact Score, Send Internal Email, Subscription Management, Time Delay, Wait Condition, Webhook, Move to Another Workflow, Remove From Workflow

• CRM actions: Push Data, Create Task

Engagement actions  

Engagement actions send something to the contact: an email, a WhatsApp message, or a text.

Send Email  

Send Email creates or attaches an email campaign that fires when a contact reaches this step.

1. Click on Create Email Campaign.

2. Under Recipients, select the Topics the email should go out under. This is required.

3. Fill in Email Details: From Email, From Name, Reply-to, Subject, and an optional Preheader.

4. Pick a template from Content: My Saved, Gallery, Layouts, previously Sent emails, or start From Scratch. You can also build your own with Import HTML, the Plain Text Editor, or the HTML Editor.

5. Under Other Configurations, toggle Track Replies if you want responses forwarded to your Reply-to address, and use Attach Files to add supporting documents. Attachments accept JPG, PDF, CSV, and TXT files, up to 2 MB.

Configuring the send  

Click the edit icon on the node to open the send settings:

• Apply frequency capping to this send. Stops this email from going out if it exceeds your account's frequency capping limits. Frequency capping for this component is enabled by default. However, if frequency capping for Workflows is disabled in Global Settings, you will have to enable it for it to work here. 

• Allow contacts to receive this email multiple times. Only relevant if Workflow re-entry is on. When checked, a contact gets this email again each time they loop back through this step.

• Select branches to add. Choose which outcomes should split off as their own paths: Delivered, Opened, Any Link Clicked, Replied, Specific Link Clicked, and Skipped. Checking Specific Link Clicked opens a Select link dropdown so you can branch on one particular link.

Note: The Select link dropdown for Specific Link Clicked only lists links that already exist in the email's content. If the email has no links yet, it shows "No options found."

Click Preview campaign icon to see the email as your contacts will, with a toggle between desktop and mobile views. If you haven't added content yet, the preview shows an empty state instead: "You haven't configured the email content."

Send WhatsApp  

Send WhatsApp works the same way as Send Email, but for a WhatsApp campaign. If your WhatsApp Business account isn't already linked to Zoho Campaigns, connect it first.

1. Click Create WhatsApp Campaign.

2. Choose the From number.

3. Check Credits in Wallet to see how many WhatsApp credits you have. Click Manage Credits to top up.

4. Pick a template from My Saved or start with Create New.

Configuring the send  

Click on the edit icon to Apply frequency capping and Allow contacts to receive this WhatsApp message multiple times options as Send Email, plus a longer list of branches:

• Apply frequency capping to this send. Stops this campaign from going out if it exceeds your account's frequency capping limits. Frequency capping for this component is enabled by default. However, if frequency capping for Workflows is disabled in Global Settings, you will have to enable it for it to work here. 

• Sent, Delivered, Failed, Read, Any Link Clicked, Specific Link Clicked, Replied (selects and replies to a message)

• Quick Replies: activates when a contact taps a pre-defined template button in the menu to respond instantly, rather than typing a reply.

• Matches Keyword: activates when a contact's reply matches keywords you set, using Exact Match or another match type from the dropdown, and the keywords you type in.

Important: Read receipts depend on the recipient's WhatsApp privacy settings. If a contact has read receipts turned off on their end, the Read branch won't fire even though they've opened the message.

Note:

Failed only covers delivery failures on WhatsApp's side (invalid number, opted-out contact, and so on). It doesn't cover content or template rejections from Meta.

Replied and Matches Keyword both listen to the same incoming message. If you're using Matches Keyword to route contacts by what they type back, make sure your keyword list is specific enough that it doesn't overlap with a generic Replied branch you're also using.

Click Preview campaign to see the message rendered in a WhatsApp-style chat bubble.

Send SMS  

Send SMS creates a text message campaign for this step. Before you create and send an SMS campaign, make sure your sender ID is registered and your credits are in place. Read more.

1. Click Create SMS Campaign.

2. Choose a Sender.

3. Write your message under Compose Message. Zoho Campaigns automatically appends an opt-out link to every SMS. This is required and can't be removed.

4. Watch the SMS Parts and character counter as you type. Going over 160 characters splits the message into multiple parts.

5. Use Test SMS to send yourself a preview. Click Test SMS, enter a number under Send Test Message, and click Send.

The Content Preview panel and a phone-style mock-up update, so you can see exactly what the recipient will see.

Productivity actions  

Productivity actions update contact records, manage list and tag membership, pause the Workflow, or hand contacts off elsewhere.

Add to List  

Adds the contact to one or more mailing lists when they reach this component.

1. Click Select lists.

2. Search and select existing lists, or click Create List to make a new one on the spot.

3. You can select a maximum of 10 lists. To remove a selection click on X.

4. Click Save.

Remove From List  

Removes the contact from one or more mailing lists when they reach this component.

1. Click Select lists and choose from your existing lists. You can select a maximum of 10 lists.

2. To remove a selection click on X.

3. Click Save.

Note: Unlike Add to List, there's no Create List option here. You can only remove contacts from lists that already exist.

Assign Tag  

Assigns one or more tags to the contact.

1. Click Select tags in the Assign Tags panel.

2. Choose from your existing tags, shown as their assigned colors, or click Create Tag to add a new one. You can select a maximum of 10 tags.

3. Click Save.

Remove Tag  

Removes one or more tags from the contact. It uses the same tag picker as Assign Tag, including the Create Tag shortcut.

1. Click Select tags in the Assign Tags panel.

2. Choose from your existing tags, shown as their assigned colors. You can select a maximum of 10 tags.

3. Click Save.

Note: Unlike Assign Tag, there's no Create Tag option here. You can only remove contacts from tags that already exist.

Update Contact Field  

Changes the value of a single contact field when contacts reach this step.

1. Click Select field and choose the field you want to update.

2. Enter the new value in the field that appears. The input adapts to the field type you picked. For most fields you can either update or append. The value entered will become the new value of the selected field when you choose Update. And the value entered will become the value of the selected field while retaining its previous value when you choose Append.

3. Alternatively, check Clear field value to blank out the field instead of setting a new value.

4. Click Save.

Update Contact Score  

Increases or decreases a contact's score by a set amount.

1. Enter a number under Modify Fit Score by, or use the up and down arrows.

2. Use a positive number to raise the score, or a negative number to lower it.

3. Click Save.

Send Internal Email  

Notifies someone on your team when contacts reach this stage.

1. Enter a Subject.

2. Under Email, select one or more recipients from your organization's users. Click on X to remove an email.

3. Write the Email content. Click @ to insert contact personalization fields like First Name, Last Name, Company Name, Phone, Address, or City.

Personalizing

Instead of picking a fixed email, click Personalize next to the Email field.

• This replaces the Email field with a merge field, for example CRM lead owner email.

• A new required field, Alternative Email Address, appears. This is the fallback address used if the merge field comes back empty for a given contact, for instance if a contact has no owner assigned in CRM.

• Click Remove Personalize to switch back to picking a fixed email.

Subscription Management  

Manages what marketing topics a contact is subscribed to. Pick one of four modes:

• Assign Topics. Select the topics to assign under Topics, grouped by category. You must also choose a Lawful basis for communication: Not Applicable, Consent, Legitimate Interest, Contract, Public Task, Legal Obligation, or Vital Interest. Lawful basis for communication appears only when GDPR is toggled on in Global Settings. 

• Remove Topics. Select topics to remove. Contacts stop receiving emails tied to those topics.

• Mark as Non-Marketing. The contacts are marked as non-marketing. They stay in the Workflow.

• Unsubscribe from All Topics. Unsubscribes the contact from all topics and removes them from the Workflow.
  

Note:

Mark as Non-Marketing and Unsubscribe from All Topics sound similar but behave differently. Mark as Non-Marketing keeps the contact moving through the Workflow. Unsubscribe from All Topics ends their journey through it.

Pauses contacts for a set amount of time before they continue to the next step.

1. Enter a number After, and choose Day(s), Hour(s), or Minute(s). 

2. Choose a Resuming option:

• Resumes immediately after above specified delay.

• Resumes between, where you set a start and end time (for example, 09:00 and 17:00). Contacts whose delay ends outside that window wait until the window opens.

3. Pick a Timezone from the searchable list.

4. Under Only on, toggle which days of the week the delay is allowed to resume on.

Wait Condition  

Pauses contacts until they meet a condition you define.

1. Build your Segment filter. In Group 1, choose a field, a modifier, and a value:

• Fields are organized under Contact Attributes, Account Attributes, Associations, Topics, Email Engagements, SMS Engagements, WhatsApp Engagements, Deal Attributes, Form Attributes, Event Attributes, Webinar Attributes, E-commerce Attributes, Workflow Attributes,  and Scoring Attributes.

• Modifiers depend on the field type, and include options like is equal to any of, is not equal to any of, contains any of, doesn't contains any of, starts with any of, ends with any of, is empty, and is not empty.

• Click the + icon to add another condition to the same group.

2. Click Add a Group to create additional groups, and use the AND or OR toggle between groups to control how they combine.

3. Check the Criteria Pattern field at the bottom. Click Change Pattern to edit this expression directly.

4. Set the Wait Duration, in Day(s), Hour(s), or Minute(s). 

Wait Condition always produces two branches: Time out, for contacts who never meet the condition within the wait duration, and On condition met, for contacts who do.

Webhook  

Sends contact data to an external URL.

1. Enter the Webhook URL.

2. Choose a Request Type: POST, PUT, or DELETE.

3. Under Contact Fields, choose All Fields to send every field, or Selected Fields to pick specific ones from a searchable list.

Note: Contact Email is always included when you choose Selected Fields and can't be removed from the list.

4. Optionally enable Authentication, and choose Basic Authentication (User Name and Password) or Auth Token.

5. Optionally enable Custom Headers and add one or more Key and Value pairs. Click the + icon to add rows, or the trash icon to remove one.

6. Optionally enable Custom Data to send additional information as key-value pairs. Click the + icon to add rows, or the trash icon to remove one.

Move to Another Workflow  

Moves the contact into a different Workflow.

1. Click Select workflow.

2. Choose a Workflows from the list.

3. Click Save.

Remove From Workflow  

Removes the contact from the current Workflow the moment they reach this step. There's nothing to configure and no outgoing connection: this is always an endpoint.

CRM actions  

CRM actions push contact data into Zoho CRM. Both actions in this group show your connected Zoho CRM Account and Organization as read-only context at the top of the panel.

Push Data  

Sends the contact's information into a Zoho CRM module.

1. Choose a CRM Module: Leads, Contacts, Organization Modules or Team Modules.

2. Review the field mapping under Zoho Campaigns Fields and Zoho CRM Fields. Some fields come pre-mapped by default, and the defaults differ by module.

3. Adjust any mapping, delete a row with the trash icon, or click the + icon to map an additional field.

4. Turn on Map custom source to send a value that isn't a standard Zoho Campaigns field. Enter the source name and pick which CRM field it should land in.

Create Task  

Creates a task in Zoho CRM for the contact.

1. Choose a CRM Module: Leads, Contacts, Organization Modules or Team Modules.

2. Click View Mapped Fields to adjust the field mapping.

3. Enter a Subject and Description.

4. Choose a Set Due type:

• Due Date opens a calendar so you can pick a fixed date.

• Active Date replaces the calendar with a text box. The task's due date is calculated as that many days after the contact reaches this step, rather than a fixed date.

4. Set a Status: Not Started, Deferred, In Progress, Completed, or Waiting for Input.

5. Set a Priority: Normal (default), High, Highest, Low, or Lowest.

6. Choose how to Assign Task:

• Assign all tasks to an owner. Pick one person under Assignee.

• Select owner in a cyclic manner for each task. Distributes tasks in rotation across the assignees you pick.

• Assign Task to existing CRM Owner. Uses whoever already owns the record in CRM. The Assignee field is disabled here.

Use cases  

• SaaS trial follow-up: A software company uses Send Email plus a Wait Condition on "Specific Link Clicked" to hold trial users until they click a pricing link, then routes them into a sales-assisted Workflow.

• Restaurant loyalty: A restaurant group uses Update Contact Score to add points every time a contact opens a promotional email, then uses a Wait Condition on the score field to trigger a free-dessert offer.

• B2B lead routing: A manufacturing company uses Push Data to send qualified contacts into Zoho CRM as Leads, then uses Create Task with "Assign Task to existing CRM Owner" so the right rep follows up.

• Retail win-back: An online retailer uses Time Delay to wait 30 days after a purchase, then uses Subscription Management to move dormant contacts to a lower-frequency topic instead of unsubscribing them outright.