Email + LinkedIn campaigns (formerly Sequences)

An Email + LinkedIn campaign combines emails and LinkedIn actions in one flow: for example, an email, then a connection request, then a follow-up email to people who didn't accept. Each person moves through it on their own clock, and a reply on either channel stops everything for them.

These used to be called Sequences. They now sit with every other campaign in Outreach → Campaigns, under the Email + LinkedIn tab. There is no separate Sequences item in the sidebar any more. Some buttons in the builder still say "sequence", for example Launch sequence and Edit sequence.

Emails go out from your connected Google account, exactly like an Email campaign. LinkedIn steps are carried out by the Distro Chrome extension on your own LinkedIn account. See Getting started with LinkedIn outreach.

Email + LinkedIn or an Email campaign?

The Type column in the Campaigns list follows the steps you use: an Email + LinkedIn campaign with only email steps shows as Email, and one with only LinkedIn steps as LinkedIn. A new, empty one shows as Email + LinkedIn. See Which campaign type should I use?

Create an Email + LinkedIn campaign

1. Open Campaigns, click New campaign and choose Email + LinkedIn. Distro creates it and opens its builder. This option appears when Email + LinkedIn campaigns are available on your account, and you need a product set up first.
2. A new campaign starts empty. Under How do you want to start?, pick the first step (Send an email, Connection request, LinkedIn message, Check if connected, View their profile or Follow them), or start from a ready plan: Email first, then LinkedIn, LinkedIn first, then email, Emails only or LinkedIn only. You can change everything afterwards.
3. Add more steps (Add an email, or LinkedIn steps from the + between steps). You can have up to 30 steps.
4. For each step, set who gets it and when:
   • Everyone (first step) or Everyone still in the sequence, Only if connected on LinkedIn, or Only if not connected on LinkedIn.
   • after a number of hours, days or business days, or right after the previous step. Waits can be up to 60 days.
5. Choose the email sender in From. If you see Connect a Google account to send from, connect one in Sending accounts first. The LinkedIn row shows the account the extension uses, with Manage to open it.
6. Click Select recipients and add people from Contact lists (lists and tags), LinkedIn lists, Import a CSV (an email column, a LinkedIn URL column, or both) or Pick contacts.

The builder saves as you go and shows All changes saved.

Step types

Missing a channel? From an email's ⋮ menu you can choose No email address: send a LinkedIn message instead; from a LinkedIn message, No LinkedIn profile: send an email instead. Otherwise the step is skipped for that person.

Settings

LinkedIn steps only run while Chrome is open with the Distro extension, inside your LinkedIn working hours and daily limits. See LinkedIn daily limits, pace and safety pauses.

Preview, test and launch

• Show preview walks through what each kind of person would get (email only, LinkedIn only, both), assuming they don't reply. Send test sends an email step to your own sender address.
• Click Launch sequence. If something needs fixing, you'll see A few things to fix first. Otherwise a summary shows how many people have email and LinkedIn, email only, or LinkedIn only, and when emails go out. Confirm with Launch sequence.
• The first time you send, Distro asks you to accept its responsible-use policy.

After launch: the campaign overview

Once launched, the campaign opens on an overview instead of the builder. At the top you'll find its status and these buttons:

• Pause (or Resume when it's paused).
• Edit sequence, to change steps or settings, or to select more recipients.
• Start new recipients, to start people you've added since launch.
• ⋮: Show preview, Duplicate and Archive (stop for good).

Below are the results: totals (people, emails sent, opened, clicked, replied, connections, LinkedIn messages, bounced, unsubscribed and missed LinkedIn steps), results per step (Done, Opened, Clicked, Replied, Waiting, Missed, Skipped) and every person's progress, filtered by In progress, Finished or Stopped. Open a person to see their timeline, approve or skip waiting messages, or click Stop for this person.

Edit a launched campaign

Click Edit sequence. A notice reminds you that you're editing a live (or paused) campaign: people already in it keep the version they started with, and your changes apply to people you start from now on. Click Done editing to go back to the overview.

Add people later

1. Click Edit sequence and use Select recipients to add more people.
2. Click Done editing, then Start new recipients, and confirm with Start them.

People already in the campaign aren't started twice, and someone who is active in another Email + LinkedIn campaign isn't started.

Pause, resume, archive or delete

• Pause stops everything (no emails, no LinkedIn steps) until you resume. Everyone keeps their place and carries on from there when you click Resume. A paused campaign also shows under Needs you on the Outreach Overview.
• Archive (stop for good) stops it for everyone still in it, so nothing more is sent, and moves it to Archived with its results kept. To run the same steps again, use Duplicate.
• Delete is only offered in the Campaigns list for a draft that never reached anyone. A campaign that already reached people can only be archived, so unsubscribe links in sent emails keep working.

From the row's ⋮ menu in the Campaigns list you can also Open it, View results, Pause or Resume, Duplicate, and Archive or Restore.

Replies, unsubscribes and bounces

• A reply by email or on LinkedIn stops every remaining step for that person, on both channels. Out-of-office and other automatic email replies don't count as replies. Email replies appear in Outreach → Inbox, tagged with the campaign's channels and name. LinkedIn replies show on the person's timeline in the campaign's results.
• Unsubscribes (link, one-click or a reply asking to be removed) stop the person and mark them do-not-contact on every channel, permanently.
• Hard bounces follow your If an email bounces setting.