Dynamically scalable email content by "tag", instead of hard coding Conditional Logic

[0800-grizzly]

Hi,

In our CRM we started with building stuff for a workflow for one customer area, say "nature". Knowing from the beginning there'd later be a need for other areas too, I put a categorising "tag" in place. So we have the leads and some other key data labelled with tags like "nature", "sports", "food" and "music".

There are a lot of email automation built in for this workflow. The other areas will largely have the process steps and hence hopefully very close to the same workflow.

Starting looking at adding the other three areas to yet only simple email confirmations and reminders (there are more complex automations also) I got a bit stuck. I guess I could build Conditional Logic steps for each of the cases. However, as I now understand it, this would require to also hard code Find Records steps for each case.

As there may need to be some updates and other actions too, I'm afraid I'll run out of steps at some point. It also bothers me to hard code all the cases, since there may be more areas added later, and that would require hard coding them into each automation.

So, I guess I'm looking for a solution where the tag present in a contact's information would trigger finding an email template with a Find Record step based on that tag. I couldn't see a way to use the Find Record steps dynamically in this way, but did I miss something?

I guess this would be doable with a script step, but that would be well outside my comfort zone, so would prefer something I can maintain myself.

Rgds,

Björn

[Mike_AutomaticN]

Hey @0800-grizzly!

I don't think you need scripting for this. You can def use Search Record dynamically. Would you mind sending over a screenshot of your current automation? I'd be happy to take a look at it.

FYI: The limit on actions for a given automation (conditional logic actions included) is 25 :D.

Best,
Mike, Consultant @ Automatic Nation

[TheTimeSavingCo]

Hmm, assuming your data's set up like this:

Then in your Find Record step you'd set the condition dynamically like so:

Which would allow you to do this:

I feel like I'm not understanding something about your setup though

[0800-grizzly]

Thank you @Mike_AutomaticN and @TheTimeSavingCo for looking into this.

I’m not quite sure how I didn’t see these opportunities before your answers :). Maybe because I used separate Find Record steps, one for first finding all mails of relevant type (before choice of tag), and couldn’t see how to chain these dynamically.

Based on your input testing with a Find Record step that combines both of the above I suddenly saw how to work that 😊. With a hard coded “nature” it worked immediately, but trying to use it dynamically I stumble on some Airtable logic I’m (still) not familiar with.

My “tag” is a linked record, I have them in a separate table and re-use across the base. 

I can choose to make a new list of the tag name from the field values when having Tag "is exactly" chosen:

But when I test that setup, I get an error:

The same happens for a "has any of" setup.

If I choose "contains" (which I wouldn't prefer to use compare to "is") I get a "cannot assign list of string to a string" error.

Can you see how to get past this problem?

Rgds,

Björn

PS. @Mike_AutomaticN, yes I know the limit is 25 :). I've hit it in some automations already, and counted that x times (amount of tags) a Find Record + Conditional Logic with some other actions could quickly eat up that limit.

[Mike_AutomaticN]

Hey @0800-grizzly! I'm still not fully getting your set-up, but I see that you are making progress with @TheTimeSavingCo's instructions. That is great!

Is there any chance your "Find Records" is finding more that one record (given the conditions) when it should find/use only one (hence the "list" mentioned on Airtable's error/limitation)?

Best,
Mike

[0800-grizzly]

Nope, when hard coding the tag it finds only the one that I have set up this way (yet):

-------------------------------------------------------------------

To me it seems Airtable almost always gives me the dynamic variable picking only through "Field values -> Make a new list of..". I have wondered about it, whether I'm doing something wrong, but I haven't seen other alternatives.

Rgds,

Björn

[0800-grizzly]

@Mike_AutomaticN and @TheTimeSavingCo, sorry to harass :). Can you think of a reason why linked record don't work and a solution to this? 

I checked that my tags table is linked to 8 different tables, so for manageability I really wouldn't like to have to convert them all to separate single selects in each table.

Rgds,

Björn