How to build an automated event segmentation and welcome system
This guide is based on the What Happens When You Feed AI 21,000 Emails and Ask What to Do Next webinar, published on the AI Lab by ActiveCampaign.
Get the quick-start guide
What will I accomplish with this guide? By the end, you’ll have an ActiveCampaign setup that automatically tags and segments people based on how they engaged with your events, plus a personalized welcome sequence that onboards new subscribers one at a time. It’s based on the system Evan, Marketing Director at Scrappy ABM, walked through in this webinar—the same workflow that took his team from manually segmenting audiences until 2:00 AM to tagging that runs on its own.
Before you start, you’ll need:
- An ActiveCampaign account with automations and segments enabled
- A webinar or event platform that integrates with ActiveCampaign (Scrappy ABM uses Demio)
- A clear naming convention you’ll use for event tags before you create the first one
- A few short welcome emails written in a personal voice (Scrappy ABM’s come from the founder)
Quick reference
- Total time: 2–4 hours for the initial build, less once your naming convention is set
- Tools needed: ActiveCampaign, an event platform with an ActiveCampaign integration (Demio)
- Key output: Event attendees auto-tagged by engagement level, routed into segment-specific follow-up, and new subscribers moving through a personalized welcome sequence
Watch this section
For full context on the following topics, watch these sections of the webinar:
- Event segmentation and the Demio integration—[14:34]–[16:47]
- The personalized welcome sequence—[16:47]–[18:28]
- Tags, segments, and naming conventions inside the account—[21:51]–[23:37]
The workflow
Phase 1: Set your tagging foundation
After this phase, you’ll have: a consistent tag naming convention your whole team can read at a glance.
- Decide your naming convention first: before creating any tags, agree on a format so a tag tells you the event, date, and engagement level at a glance.
- Create event tags for each engagement level: registered, attended, stayed through the offer, and took the offer.
- Build separate tags per event: keep workshop tags distinct from webinar tags so you can tell who attended which.
Phase 2: Connect your event platform and auto-tag attendees
After this phase, you’ll have: attendee engagement flowing into ActiveCampaign automatically, with no manual spreadsheet work.
- Set up the Demio integration: connect your webinar platform so registration and attendance sync to ActiveCampaign in both directions.
- Map engagement signals to tags: configure the integration so registering, attending, and watch time apply the right tags as people engage live.
- Confirm attendance data syncs: check that “attended” and “didn’t attend” land on contacts without you touching a spreadsheet.
Phase 3: Group tags into segments and route follow-up
After this phase, you’ll have: each attendee group receiving content matched to how they engaged.
- Build segments from grouped tags: combine tags and conditions into segments rather than sending to a single tag.
- Create a post-event follow-up automation: send different content to each segment based on engagement—one path for no-shows, another for people who stayed for hours.
- Keep your sends targeted: use segments like a podcast-focus list or a monthly newsletter list so you can send often without sending everything to everyone.
Phase 4: Build the personalized welcome sequence
After this phase, you’ll have: a five-to-six email welcome flow that feels written for one person and onboards new subscribers before they hit complex content.
- Trigger the sequence on subscription: start the flow when someone requests a newsletter, template, or resource.
- Add five to six onboarding emails: each tied to a specific theme or pillar, written in a personal voice rather than dense topic content.
- Invite replies in every email: ask how people are doing, share a free resource, and make each email feel like a one-to-one conversation.
- Hold new subscribers in the sequence: segment so they only get welcome emails and nothing else until they finish, then commit to replying to anyone who responds within 24 hours.
We want it to be personalized. We don’t want this to be a microphone, we want this to be a conversation that’s happening one-to-one.
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