Sequences
How Zylar sequences work: multi-step campaigns with delays, AI-written copy, personalization, spintax, A/B/C tests with auto-promoted winners and follow-ups.
A sequence is a multi-step cold email campaign. You write it once (or have AI write it), and Zylar sends each step on schedule, in each lead's time zone, across your inboxes, and stops the moment a lead replies. This page covers steps and delays, personalization, A/B tests, reply follow-up campaigns and how sequences end.
Steps and delays
A sequence has up to 10 steps. Each step is an email, and you set a delay before the next step in days or hours.
A typical sequence is an intro email followed by a few follow-ups spaced a few days apart. Leads move through the steps one at a time until they reply, bounce, unsubscribe or finish the last step.
Writing copy
You can write each step yourself or have AI write the copy. AI is built into every layer of Zylar: it writes copy, answers replies and runs follow-ups.
Personalization
Any CSV column can be used as a variable in your copy, with a fallback for leads where that field is empty. Standard lead fields include first name, last name and company, and you can add any custom fields when you import leads. See Leads.
Spintax
Spintax varies the wording across sends so your emails don't all repeat the same pattern. Combined with random gaps between sends, it keeps your campaign from looking machine-generated.
A/B tests and auto-promoted winners
Each step can have up to 3 variants (A, B and C). Use them to test subject lines and bodies.
Zylar picks the winner automatically:
- Set a minimum sample for the test.
- Zylar sends the variants to leads in the step.
- When one variant leads on replies, Zylar promotes it and sends it to the rest of the list.
Track variant performance with the stats endpoint, grouped by variant:
curl "https://api.zylar.io/v1/stats?group_by=variant" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer zy_live_..."See API reference: Stats.
Sending windows
Every step is sent in each lead's own time zone, during business hours only. Zylar also rotates the sequence across your inboxes, respects each inbox's daily cap and leaves random gaps between sends. See Sending and rotation.
When a sequence stops for a lead
A sequence ends for a lead when:
| Event | What happens |
|---|---|
| The lead replies | The sequence stops for that lead. The reply lands in the Unibox. |
| The email bounces | The bad address is removed from every sequence. |
| The lead unsubscribes | The sequence ends for that lead. |
| The lead finishes all steps | The lead's status becomes completed and Zylar emits sequence.completed. |
Out-of-office replies are handled differently. Zylar reads the return date from the out-of-office message, pauses the lead and resumes the sequence the day after they're back.
Reply follow-up campaigns
Stopping on reply is the right default, but not every reply ends the conversation. Reply follow-up campaigns continue the conversation in the same thread as the lead's reply, so the follow-up reads as part of the existing exchange rather than a new cold email. AI also answers replies and runs follow-ups for you.
Pausing and resuming
You can pause or resume a sequence at any time, including through the API:
curl -X PATCH https://api.zylar.io/v1/sequences/sq_q4_agencies \
-H "Authorization: Bearer zy_live_..." \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "status": "paused" }'Set status to active to resume. See API reference: Sequences.
Measuring results
Zylar reports sends, replies, positive replies and meetings. Through the API you can group them by sequence, step, variant or inbox, for any date range (the default is the last 30 days).