Sequences
Send single or multi-channel messaging sequences to leads or current customers. Combine email, LinkedIn, tasks, and automations into a single flow, and let Zero handle the scheduling, sending, and response tracking.
Building a sequence
The sequence builder is a flow of steps and waits. Open any sequence to add steps, configure them, and review who is on which step.
Start step settings
Every sequence begins with a Start step. From here you configure the key settings that govern the whole sequence:
Enrollment mode — auto (new contacts added to the sequence start automatically) or manual (you approve contacts before they begin).
Daily start cap and sending window — how many contacts can enter per day, on which days, in which timezone, and during what hours messages may be sent.
Email stagger — minimum minutes between auto-sent emails, to avoid bursty sending.
LinkedIn thread visibility — whether LinkedIn threads created by this sequence are visible workspace-wide or only to the sending user.
The builder UI explains each option in place when you open the Start step, so we don't repeat the details here.
Step types
Send email — send an email from the chosen mailbox. Supports macros, spintax, shared templates, and the AI composer (see AI composer below). Follow-up emails can be sent in the same thread as a previous email step via the Send to same thread toggle.
Send LinkedIn connection request — requires the Zero Chrome extension. The extension creates a draft request in LinkedIn that you confirm and send requests to all queued users with one button click. If the contact is already a connection, this step is skipped automatically. Optionally skip the step if the contact has no LinkedIn data instead of erroring.
Send LinkedIn message — same requirement: the extension prepares the message draft, and you send it from LinkedIn with a button press. Supports the AI composer (see AI composer below). Optionally skip the step if the contact has no LinkedIn data, or if the contact is not yet a 1st-degree connection — useful when a connection request earlier in the sequence has not been accepted.
Add task — create a task (call, to-do, meeting, follow-up) with deadline, priority, assignees, and an optional calendar event. The sequence can pause until the task is done or its deadline passes.
Start automation — trigger a manually-triggered automation from inside the sequence. See Starting automations from a sequence below.
Delay — a wait between steps. Used to space out outreach.
Starting automations from a sequence
You can call automations from the Sequencing tool in two ways:
Start automation if responded — on an email or LinkedIn message step, run an automation automatically when a contact replies.
Start automation step — drop a standalone "Start automation" step into the flow, for example at the end to run an automation for contacts who did not respond.
To create an automation that can be called from sequences:
Create an automation with trigger type Manually triggered.
Under Expected data, click From preset.
Select either Sequence response received or Triggered from sequence step.
The automation then has access to the contact object sent from the sequence, plus additional data such as the response.
Once the automation exists, link it from the sequence by either selecting Start automation if responded on an email/LinkedIn message step, or by adding a Start automation step directly into the flow.
Cloning a sequence
Open a sequence and use Clone to create a copy with all of its steps, settings, and templates. The clone starts with no enrolled contacts, so it's safe to use as a starting point for a new variant or A/B test.
Best practices
Mind your sending domain. Don't send too much volume from your primary email domain — use a secondary sending domain for higher-volume outreach.
Add a connection request before a LinkedIn message if you're not sure all contacts are already connections. If a connection request is sent to someone already connected, the step is skipped and the sequence moves to the next step automatically.
Wait before end-of-sequence automations. If you run an automation at the end of a sequence for non-responders, add a wait (e.g. 5 days) before that final step so late responses have time to land first.
Adding contacts to a sequence
Use the Add to sequence menu wherever contacts are shown:
From a record page — open a contact and add them to a sequence directly.
From any list or record view — select contacts and add the selection to a sequence.
From Lead Search — select contacts in lead search and add them to a sequence.
Email templates
AI composer
Each email and LinkedIn message step can use AI to draft content. You can either let the AI write the entire message from an instruction prompt, or fill in just parts of a hand-written message — useful for personalizing an opening line or tailoring a call-to-action while keeping the rest of the template fixed.
Drafts are generated per contact using the contact's data and any context you provide in the instruction. Review and approve AI drafts from the sequence builder before they're sent.
Spintax
Spintax lets you randomize phrasing inside a single template, e.g. [Hi|Hello] {{contact.name}}. Each contact gets a randomly chosen variant.
Using spintax is recommended when sending similar messages at scale: it reduces the fingerprint of identical content across thousands of emails, which helps deliverability and makes outreach feel less templated.
Macros
Use macros like {{contact.name}}, {{contact.email}}, or {{contact.company.name}} to personalize content. Macros are resolved per contact at send time.
Preview & test send
Previewing messages is the most important step before activating a sequence. From the template editor you can pick an example contact from the sequence and see exactly how the message will render for them — spintax resolved, macros filled in, images in place.
Two ways to preview:
In the template UI — view the rendered preview inline.
Send to your own inbox — send the rendered email to yourself to check how it actually looks in a real email client.
Monitoring sequences
Metrics in the sequence list
The Sequences index page shows headline metrics per sequence — enrolled contacts, replies, and response rate — so you can compare performance across sequences without opening each one.
Metrics in the builder
The top of the builder view shows live metrics for the sequence: contacts waiting for approval, active, queued, ended, plus responses, errors, and response rate. Clicking any metric opens the matching list of contacts in the side panel.
Contacts tab
The Contacts tab shows every contact in the sequence, where they are, whether they have errors, when they are scheduled to move to the next step, and the end time for contacts who have already finished.
You can also open a step in the builder and view the contacts currently on that specific step, with their status.
Per-contact actions
Select a contact from the Contacts tab to:
Push to next step — skip the current wait or step and advance immediately.
Restart sequence — re-enroll the contact from the beginning.
Cancel from sequence — stop this sequence for the contact. Useful when a contact should no longer continue — for example, they unsubscribed or replied via another channel and the auto-stop didn't catch it.
Unsubscribe from all messaging — block all outgoing messages to this contact from any sequence, automation, or bulk email send in Zero. Use this when the contact should be removed from all outreach, not just this sequence.
Messages tab
The Messages tab collects every message sent by the sequence and every response received, in one place. Use it to review outreach and read replies without leaving the sequence.
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