Sequences

this article covers how to create and use sequences in ashby sequences let you reach out to candidates and automate emails to gauge their interest in a role sequence overview sequences let you create personalized email templates to send to individual candidates or in bulk schedule initial outreach and set time intervals for follow up stages streamline sourcing by contacting candidates from the ashby chrome extension while on a candidate’s linkedin profile track email opens, clicks, and responses from the candidate’s side sequences are primarily built for reaching out to leads to gauge interest if you’d like to trigger emails automatically when candidates reach a certain stage in a job pipeline, use automated activities docid\ mtfnbycncvnb4mtdsgeqb instead sequence access use sequences to reach out to leads and candidates, but access is controlled by user permissions and sequence settings access role has access to view shared sequence information? can enroll candidates in a sequence? limited access ❌ ❌ agency user ❌ ❌ elevated access external recruiter (not linked with an agency) ✅ ❌ elevated access analyst ✅ ❌ elevated access hiring team member ✅ ❌ elevated access hiring manager ✅ ✅ elevated access admin ✅ ✅ elevated access admin (private) ✅ ✅ organization admin ✅ ✅ limited access users and users linked to an agency cannot see any sequence data or enroll candidates in sequences to enroll candidates in sequences, you need elevated access or higher elevated access users can enroll candidates in non confidential sequences if those candidates do not have any job considerations, or are considered for a job (or jobs) where the user has hiring manager access or higher if you don’t want elevated access users to view data for certain sequences, you can set sequences to personal or confidential personal sequences if you create a sequence with personal access only you, organization admins , and elevated access users with a direct link to the sequence can view the sequence view sequence data enroll candidates in that sequence confidential sequences if you create a confidential sequence only you as the creator can view the sequence and its data enroll candidates in the sequence confidential sequences are available on legacy plus , plus , and enterprise plans creating email sequences to get started with sequences, you first create a sequence template you can access sequences from sourcing > sequences from here, you can create and edit multi stage templates with customizable tokens you can use from the ashby app or the chrome extension to create a new email sequence navigate to sourcing > sequences select + new enter a title for your sequence choose whether access is shared , personal , or confidential optionally link the sequence to a job (more about this in sequence linking docid\ b2gy2rhnnoylkbhwcwou4 ) select create sequence to open the template editor and configure your stages once you create the template, ashby automatically saves it so you can immediately start enrolling candidates you can return to the sequence manager at any time to edit the sequence template editor the template editor lets you build and manage each stage of your sequence name – view and edit the name of your sequence sender – confirm the sender of your sequence if different stages use different senders, multiple email addresses appear here instead of a specific user’s email address you cannot select a no reply address or default as a sender stages – view all stages in the sequence and when each will send if you enroll a candidate now use the trash can icon to delete a stage add stage – add additional stages to your sequence x error(s) – shows how many issues are preventing candidates from being enrolled in the sequence error – when viewing a stage, this banner explains what needs to be added or changed so candidates can be enrolled type – choose the stage type email prompt to send a linkedin inmail prompt to send a linkedin connection request more on linkedin inmail and connection request stages in sequences at sequences inmail and connection request stages docid\ qbf62 usxyctmqzhe07ha send – set when this stage should send relative to the date and time the candidate is enrolled from – choose who the email is sent from or who receives the prompt to send the linkedin message subject – enter the subject line of the email or linkedin inmail body – write the content of the email, inmail, or connection request note you can use tokens to personalize subject lines and body text with fields like candidate name, company, or sender details file attachments and links from the formatting menu below the body tokens are a quick way to personalize messages without manually editing common properties to add a token, select the t icon (hover text “personalize with token”) and choose a property there are additional guides with a full list of substitution token docid\ p8ax 2lzye5qh7grothr6 options details on ai tokens in outreach emails docid\ ggqq4vkh ynmutuxv43ha refer to those if you need more advanced personalization once you exit the editor, the sequence template will auto save and you can immediately start to enroll candidates you can also return to the sequence manager at any point to edit the sequence linking a sequence to a job you can link a sequence to a job so ashby can automatically manage your outbound pipeline when a sequence is linked to a job leads are automatically moved to the reached out interview stage when they receive the first sequence email they are moved to the replied stage when they reply they are archived in the linked job when you mark them as not interested they can be automatically archived after a delay if they never reply based on settings you configure when setting up a sequence, link it to a job by selecting the job from the job dropdown once set, you can configure the sequence template to adjust when and how candidates are archived enrolling candidates in an email sequence once you’ve created an email sequence template, you can enroll candidates right away the most common path is via the ashby chrome extension while on a candidate’s linkedin profile, but you can also enroll from the candidate profile in ashby and from the sequence manager organizational admins can set outreach limits so that candidates do not receive too many emails in a short amount of time these limits can be set by navigating to admin > sourcing > outreach frequency policy with an outreach frequency set, candidates who have been contacted within a set number of days will not be enrolled in sequences one off emails are still allowed policy is based on the organization’s timezone enrolling a candidate from the ashby chrome extension you can add candidates to ashby and enroll them in a sequence directly from the ashby chrome extension reason for outreach and other custom fields before sending a sequence, populate details in the reason for outreach and other custom fields https //app ashbyhq com/admin/organizational settings/custom fields?objecttype=candidate you create if you have tokens in your sequences that rely on information added into custom fields, then this will ensure that information is populated to enroll a candidate from the chrome extension open the candidate’s public linkedin profile open the ashby chrome extension add or update fields like reason for outreach and any relevant candidate custom fields select draft sequence in the draft sequence dialog choose a sequence template from the template dropdown select the candidate’s email address from the email dropdown choose whether to start the sequence immediately, or review the stages before sending if you select review , you can review each stage adjust subject lines, bodies, or delays confirm the sender and timing when you are ready, select start to begin the sequence if you close the dialog without starting the sequence the sequence is saved as a draft on the candidate’s profile you can start it later from within ashby if you enroll a candidate in a sequence via the chrome extension, that enrollment is treated as an individual sequence and cannot be edited in bulk with other enrollments enrolling a candidate from their ashby profile to enroll a candidate from their profile in ashby open the candidate’s profile select more > enroll in sequence enrolling a candidate from their ashby profile choose a sequence template from the dropdown review and personalize the stages as needed select start 1 sequence to kick off the first stage for that candidate enrolling candidate(s) from the sequence manager you can enroll one or multiple candidates from the sequence overview page to enroll from the sequence manager go to sourcing > sequences select the sequence template you want to use to open the sequence manager select enroll to open the enrollment manager in the add candidates field, search for the candidates you want to enroll and add them to the list any existing sequence drafts for those candidates will also appear here when your list is complete, select edit sequences ashby opens the sequence editor with a candidate level draft for each enrollment from here you can customize each candidate’s stages fix any issues flagged in the left hand panel (for example, missing emails) choose whether to include an unsubscribe link in the email stages when you’re ready, select start x sequence(s) to start the sequences for all selected candidates stopping or cancelling an email sequence for a candidate ashby automatically stops a candidate’s sequence if they reply to one of the emails in that sequence to manually cancel a sequence that is in progress go to sourcing > sequences and open the template select the in progress tab check the box next to the candidate(s) whose sequence you want to cancel select cancel sequence in the bulk action dialog that appears, select start to confirm the cancellation note once a sequence has started, you cannot delete the record of that enrollment from the sequence details canceling a sequence stops further sequence stages , but does not affect any non sequence emails already scheduled separately for that candidate sequence reporting once you start enrolling candidates in a sequence, ashby automatically tracks email activity and provides reporting to help you manage outreach and measure sequence effectiveness sequence pipeline each sequence has a pipeline overview on its sequence manager page that shows current and historical enrollments at the candidate level to view the pipeline for a sequence go to sourcing > sequences select the sequence you want to view using the sequence pipeline to manage sequence progress and effectiveness ashby groups enrollments into the following stages enrolled – all candidates you’ve enrolled to date, including those with active, completed, and canceled sequences in progress – candidates currently enrolled in active sequences use this stage to find all active enrollments or to cancel active sequences in bulk completed, no reply – candidates whose sequence ended without a reply these may require a different email or sequence to re engage replied – candidates who replied to at least one email in the sequence replies may or may not indicate interest; review the response and manually set the response status interested – candidates you’ve determined to be a potentially good fit and who have expressed interest these are good prospects to nurture or move into a specific job pipeline converted – candidates who have been added to a job opening and are now in the job pipeline this count indicates how successful the sequence is at sourcing candidates who proceed into the pipeline important candidates are filtered into these stages based on their current state if a candidate is marked interested on your sequence but is later archived from the job consideration linked to that sequence, they no longer appear in the interested segment sequence metrics ashby also tracks sequence level metrics, including open rate – the percentage of recipients who opened a specific email reply rate – the percentage of recipients who replied click rate – the percentage of recipients who clicked any embedded links you can view metrics for a specific sequence on the top right of the sequence pipeline overview page get a broader view of sequence activity from sourcing > home the top chart shows weekly sequence activity for the past three months you can switch the report type to sequences sent sequence reply rate (% of candidates who replied) conversion rate (% of candidates who were converted and added to a job) you can toggle between mine and everyone to change scope selecting a chart value drills down to candidate level details sequence metrics like open rate, reply rate, and conversion rate faq is there a limit to how many recipients can be added to a sequence at once? yes, 500 recipients can be added to a sequence at one time can i copy or duplicate a sequence? you can yes to duplicate a sequence navigate to sourcing > sequences click on the sequence you would like to copy click more , then copy determine the type of copy you're looking to make; a shared copy, a personal copy or a confidential copy the more option on a sequence, with the copy action highlighted and the pop up to confirm the copy type can i limit how frequently candidates are contacted? yes organizational admins can set an outreach frequency policy that prevents candidates who have been contacted in a certain number of days from receiving emails from sequences one off emails can still be sent access these settings at admin > sourcing > outreach frequency policy i enrolled a bunch of recipients into a sequence, how long will it take to send? to avoid email provider rate limiting, ashby adds an incremental delay when emailing more than 10 recipients sends emails in batches of 10 once they’re queued this means large batches take longer to fully send than small batches c an i disable email tracking? individuals have the option to disable email tracking on the email settings https //app ashbyhq com/settings/email page in personal settings tracking is only supported on sequences and doing so will impact the open and click stats on the sequence overview can ashby automatically classify a lead’s response to a sequence as ‘interested’ or ‘not interested’? yes! this is one of ashby’s ai features that can be opted in to and enabled within opt in features in admin you can also set your preferences within the email settings section of personal settings you can opt to enable the automatic reply status option, disable it (regardless of the organization wide settings) or use the organization default the person who initiated the sequence will receive a notification email with the option to change the reply status when enabled the ai assistant will automatically set the sequences reply status based on the candidate’s email response to a sequence you can override this classification if needed via the set response dropdown for more on ai features, check out ai features in ashby docid 8difxgq3vcqgqlp62dyvo can leads or candidates unsubscribe from sequences? we do now have the option to include an unsubscribe link in your sequence emails on clicking the link, leads can update their subscription preferences and determine whether they’d like to unsubscribe from emails about the current role and/or all future roles you can enable the unsubscribe option in the settings section of your sequence check the include unsubscribe link by default checkbox to add the option to email stages moving forward for this specific sequence candidates on clicking the unsubscribe link in an email will see the following checkbox options current outreach outreach about new roles once they’ve checked or unchecked the boxes based on whether they’d like to receive or not receive future emails, the lead can click save preference when the lead unsubscribes, an activity will be added to their profile showing that they’ve unsubscribed if you try and enroll a candidate in another sequence when they’ve unsubscribed, you will see an error when editing or reviewing the stages of your sequence, confirming that the candidate has unsubscribed this error will show both when enrolling candidates in ashby, and when enrolling via the chrome extension users can also unsubscribe or re subscribe leads and candidates from their profile in ashby, in case the lead reaches out to amend the subscription status for a candidate or lead, click more on their profile, then manage subscriptions from there, you can check or uncheck the sourcing sequences box, then hit save preferences to confirm should a candidate want to re subscribe, they can do so by clicking the unsubscribe link again in their email they can then re adjust their preferences on the following page should a candidate want to re subscribe, they can do so by clicking the unsubscribe link again in their email can i edit a sequence after it has been started? you can! if a sequence has been started and you need to make any amendments (like correcting a typo or adding additional information), you can edit and adjust unsent stages for live sequences edit sequence template for all existing live sequences and future enrolments to amend your sequence template, click edit template when viewing your chosen sequence scroll to any unsent stages and make your edits your changes will be saved automatically if you close out the editing wizard or navigate to another page in ashby, you will see the option to apply your edits to active sequences the details of the active sequences will be listed click apply edits to update the unsent stages of your live sequences if you’d only like the edits to apply to those enrolled in the future, click don’t apply once the sequences have been successfully edited, you’ll receive a confirmation message if any sequences were not successfully edited, click view detailed results to review the sequences that weren’t updated and the failure reason edit the sequence template for all /existing live sequences during a new enrolment after making edits to a sequence during a new enrolment, when starting the sequence and enrolling new leads, you will have the option to save the changes for only future enrolments and/or save the changes for currently enrolled candidates check both checkboxes to save these changes for future recipients and those unsent stages for running or paused sequences if you only want the changes to apply to this current enrolment, leave both boxes unchecked bulk edit live sequences for multiple candidates when viewing sequence data, check the boxes beside the candidates you’d like to amend the unsent stages for from there, click edit sequence please note only those enrolled at the same time can have their unsent stages amended in bulk if you select sequences from different enrolments, ashby will identify the largest group of selected enrolments that occured at the same time and the edits will only be applied to that group click edit included sequences to move forward with editing sequences sent via the chrome extension will be counted as individual sequences, so can’t be amended in bulk the bulk editor will ready the sequences for editing click edit sequences , make your changes in the editing wizard, then click edit x sequences to confirm your changes edit a sequence for a single enrolment click the actions button beside the candidate, then click edit sequence you can then make any adjustments to just the unsent stages of that sequence click edit x sequences to then confirm your changes if other candidates were enrolled at the same time, you will get the option to apply your changes to the unsent stages of those sequences too click apply edits to update the additional enrolments, or don’t apply to only apply the changes to this sequence if you opt to apply your changes to the other enrolments that happened at the same time, you’ll either see a success message or a message highlighting any sequences that weren’t successfully edited click view detailed results to view the sequences and the failure reasons to make further amendments to the failed sequences, click edit failed sequences can i resume a paused sequence? yes, you can when viewing the list of candidates or leads enrolled in a sequence, check the boxes next to the canceled or paused sequences you’d like to resume then click resume sequence , then start on the bulk action wizard the specified sequences will then continue to run if the scheduled date has passed, the next stage in the sequence will be sent immediately all follow up stages will be rescheduled to maintain the initial delay can i resume a canceled sequence? no, this isn't currently possible i s a sequence canceled when a candidate is archived from a job consideration? when a candidate is archived on any job consideration, all running sequences are canceled (even if the sequence is not linked to that job consideration) you will see a warning showing the sequence that will be canceled when selecting your archive reason in the rejection process if you don’t want to archive the candidate from a job consideration but would like to remove them from the sequence, you can opt to stop the sequence for that specific candidate more on this here please note any separate emails scheduled to be sent to the candidate (not within a sequence) will not be canceled automatically can i enroll a candidate in more than one sequence at a time? no, a candidate can only be enrolled in one sequence at a time if a candidate is already enrolled in a sequence and a user attempts to enroll them in another sequence, then they will see the following error message if the user tries to enroll the candidate in a sequence and they are enrolled in a personal or confidential sequence that the user does not have access to, they will see the following error message can i mark an existing sequence as confidential or share a confidential sequence? you can when viewing the enrollments within the sequence template, click more from here, you will be able to either share your confidential sequences with other users, or mark it as confidential please note, you will need to be the creator of the sequence to make these changes what permissions do i need to enroll candidates in a sequence? you will need to have elevated access or higher to enrol candidates in sequences if you are an elevated access user, you will be able to view non confidential sequence data and enrol candidates in non confidential sequences who meet one of the following criteria do not have any job considerations or are considered for a job or jobs where you have a hiring manager access role or higher can i view more details on a specific recipient’s sequence? when viewing the recipient list, you can click on a recipient to get more information on their sequence, including if they’ve clicked links within your sequence in each stage, opens, clicks and replies and when the next stage will be triggered a candidate replied to a sequence, but the email was not logged and the sequence did not stop why? this typically happens due to email visibility settings https //app ashbyhq com/admin/organizational settings/email settings on your ashby account if email sync is disabled for any of the following candidate types, replies from those candidates will not be logged, and ashby will not detect the reply to stop the sequence hired candidates candidates on confidential jobs internal candidates when email visibility is restricted for these groups, ashby cannot record inbound replies or use them as a trigger to automatically stop a sequence what we recommend review your email visibility settings to confirm which candidate types have email sync enabled if you expect replies from these candidates to stop sequences automatically, ensure email visibility is turned on for the relevant group this behavior is expected when email visibility is limited and does not indicate an issue with the sequence itself