Automation Workflow Basics

Your funnels capture leads and present offers. But funnels without follow-up are just fancy websites. Workflows are what turn leads into students.

In this lesson, you’ll learn the building blocks of GHL’s workflow system.

Where Workflows Live

Go to Automations > Workflows in your GHL dashboard. This is your automation command center.

Click “Create Workflow” and you’ll see the visual builder — a canvas where you drag elements and connect them in a flow.

The Four Building Blocks

Every workflow is made of four types of elements:

1. Triggers (The Starting Line)

A trigger is the event that starts the workflow. GHL offers dozens of triggers:

Trigger Type	Example
Form submitted	Someone fills out your opt-in form
Tag added	You manually tag a contact, or another workflow adds a tag
Appointment booked	Someone schedules a sales call
Appointment status	Appointment completed, canceled, or no-show
Email opened	Contact opens a specific email
Link clicked	Contact clicks a specific link in an email
Pipeline stage change	A lead moves to a new stage in your sales pipeline
Purchase made	Someone buys your course
Course progress	Student completes a module or lesson
Inbound message	Contact sends an SMS, email, or chat message
Custom event	Triggered via API or webhook
Date/time	Runs on a schedule (daily, weekly, specific date)

Choose one trigger per workflow. The workflow runs every time that trigger fires for a contact.

2. Actions (What Happens)

Actions are the things the workflow does:

Action Type	What It Does
Send email	Deliver a personalized email
Send SMS	Send a text message
Add tag	Categorize the contact
Remove tag	Remove a categorization
Update contact	Change a field (name, phone, custom fields)
Create task	Assign a to-do to a team member
Add note	Add a note to the contact record
Add to campaign	Enroll in an email campaign
Remove from campaign	Unenroll from a campaign
Create appointment	Schedule a meeting
Internal notification	Alert your team (email, SMS, or in-app)
Move pipeline stage	Change the contact’s stage in a pipeline
Start/stop another workflow	Chain workflows together
Webhook	Send data to an external tool

3. Conditions (Branching Logic)

Conditions create different paths based on who the contact is or what they’ve done:

If/Else branches:

• If tag “purchased” exists → send welcome email
• If tag “purchased” does not exist → send nurture email

Common conditions:

• Has a specific tag? (or doesn’t)
• Has a specific custom field value?
• Opened a previous email?
• Clicked a previous link?
• Is in a specific pipeline stage?
• Submitted a specific form?

Conditions let you build one workflow that handles multiple scenarios instead of creating separate workflows for every situation.

4. Wait Steps (Timing)

Wait steps control the pacing of your workflow:

Wait Type	Example
Wait X minutes/hours/days	”Wait 24 hours, then send next email”
Wait until specific time	”Wait until 9:00 AM in contact’s timezone”
Wait until specific date	”Wait until [launch date]“
Wait until event	”Wait until they open the email” (with a time limit fallback)

Pacing matters. Send three emails in one hour and you’ll get unsubscribes. Space them out over days and you build trust.

How They Connect

Here’s a simple welcome workflow:

TRIGGER: Form "lead-magnet-opt-in" submitted
  → ACTION: Add tag "lead-magnet-downloaded"
  → ACTION: Send email "Here's your free guide"
  → WAIT: 24 hours
  → ACTION: Send email "Did you get it?"
  → WAIT: 48 hours
  → ACTION: Send email "Want to go deeper?"
  → CONDITION: Did they click the sales page link?
    → YES: Add tag "sales-page-visited"
    → NO: Wait 24 hours, send "Last thing..."

Each element connects to the next with a line. You can branch, loop back, and create as many paths as you need.

Best Practices for Workflows

Keep Workflows Focused

One workflow = one goal. Don’t build a single workflow that handles welcome, nurture, sales, and re-engagement. Build separate workflows that connect via tags:

• Workflow 1: Welcome (triggered by opt-in) → ends by adding “nurture” tag
• Workflow 2: Nurture (triggered by “nurture” tag) → ends by adding “pitch-ready” tag
• Workflow 3: Pitch (triggered by “pitch-ready” tag)

Test Before Activating

GHL lets you test workflows with internal contacts. Always test before going live:

1. Create a test contact with your own email
2. Manually trigger the workflow
3. Walk through every step as a recipient
4. Check timing, links, and personalization
5. Fix issues, then activate

Use Naming Conventions

Name your workflows clearly:

• welcome-lead-magnet-optin
• nurture-5-day-sequence
• launch-cart-open-sequence
• post-purchase-onboarding

Future you will thank present you.

In the next lesson, we’ll build the most important workflow: your welcome sequence.