Setting up your sequence in ActiveCampaign

If you're starting out, we don't recommend ActiveCampaign. It has no free plan, and its entry-level Starter plan limits each automation to 5 actions (see below). Systeme.io is a better place to begin. This guide is here for people who already use ActiveCampaign.

ActiveCampaign sends a series of emails with an automation. People are added to a list when they sign up on your form, and joining the list starts the automation. Every step here comes from ActiveCampaign's own help pages, linked at the end of each section. If a screen looks different, the linked page will be the most up to date.

Checked against ActiveCampaign's help pages on 1 October 2026.

Before you start: plans and limits

There is no free plan on ActiveCampaign's pricing page. The plans listed are Starter, Plus, Pro and Enterprise. There is a 14-day free trial, which allows "up to 100 email sends".
⚠️ The Starter plan lists "5 actions per automation". A 5-email series with a wait between each email needs more than 5 steps (5 emails and 4 waits). Check in your account how ActiveCampaign counts actions on your plan before you build. You may need a higher plan, or to split the series across more than one automation.

Sources: ActiveCampaign pricing · Free trial capabilities

Click Website, then Forms, on the left menu.
Click Start from scratch instead.
Type a name for your form and choose a form style. (The styles you can use depend on your plan.)
In the Action dropdown, choose Subscribe to a list. Then, in the dropdown next to Form Action, choose the list for this sequence.
Optional: add a second action, Add a tag, to label these contacts. "You can add as many actions as you like to a form."
Click Create form.
In the form builder, open the Fields tab and drag a Name field onto the form, so your emails can greet people by name. Paste in your words from optin-page.md.
To send people to your lead magnet straight after they sign up: open the Options tab, find On Submit, change Show Thank You to Open URL, and type the link.
Click Integrate to publish the form: as embed code for your website, or (for inline forms) as a direct link.

Double opt-in is on by default for "Subscribe to a list": people get an email asking them to confirm. You can change this under Form Actions.

[SCREENSHOT: the Action dropdown with "Subscribe to a list"]

Sources: Create a form from scratch in ActiveCampaign

Part B: Build the email series (one email a day)

Click Automations on the left menu.
Click Start from Scratch (under the "Generate an automation in seconds" prompt bar), then choose Start from Scratch again on the recipes page.
Click Add a start trigger and choose Subscribes to a list. Pick the list from Part A.
Leave the trigger set to Runs Once, so nobody gets the series twice. Click Save.
Click the + under the trigger. On the Sending tab, choose Send an email, then Create a new email.
Pick an email designer and a template. In the pop-up, fill in the message name, subject line, preheader text (your preview text) and sender details.
Click Edit Design and paste in email 1 (see Part C). Click Next, check the summary, then click Finish.
Click the + under the email. On the Workflow tab, choose Wait, then Wait for a set period of time, and set 1 day.
Add email 2 with Send an email, then another Wait of 1 day, and so on, in day order. No wait is needed after the last email.
When everything is in, click Active to switch the automation on.

Don't use the "Submits a form" trigger with a form from another website. ActiveCampaign says contacts from third-party forms won't enter the automation that way, and recommends Subscribes to a list instead.

[SCREENSHOT: an automation with Send an email and Wait steps alternating]

Test it. Sign up on your own form and check that email 1 arrives. During the free trial, ActiveCampaign says "test emails can only be sent to the trial user's email address."

Sources: Create an automation from scratch in ActiveCampaign · How to troubleshoot your automation · Configure the "Wait" automation action · Free trial capabilities

Part C: Paste in each email

From your download	Where it goes in ActiveCampaign
Subject	Subject line, in the email details pop-up
Preview text	Preheader text, in the same pop-up
Body	The email designer, after Edit Design

Use the email designer, not the text-only builder. ActiveCampaign says "the text-only campaign builder does not support personalization tags", so your first-name tag wouldn't work there.
Remove any "NEEDS YOUR REVIEW" note before pasting.
Replace {{first_name}} (Part D) and {{LEAD_MAGNET_LINK}} as you go.

If you're comfortable with HTML, the designer has an HTML content block and a Code button, and you could paste from the .html files instead. ActiveCampaign notes that you "must be comfortable with HTML and CSS to use this option."

Sources: Create an automation from scratch in ActiveCampaign · Personalization Tags overview · Use HTML with the Email Designer

Part D: The first-name tag

Replace every {{first_name}} with:

%FIRSTNAME%

To make sure the first letter is a capital, ActiveCampaign offers a modifier: %FIRSTNAME|UPPERFIRST%.

If someone signs up without a first name, the greeting would come out as "Hi ,". ActiveCampaign's help pages describe default values for custom fields, but we couldn't confirm a fallback for the standard first-name field. Check this in your account, or make the name field required on your form (click the field in the form builder and check Required).

Sources: Personalization Tags overview · Create a form from scratch in ActiveCampaign

Part E: Can I import the emails from the CSV file?

No. We found no way in ActiveCampaign's help pages to import email content from a CSV file. Copy and paste each email as shown in Part C. If you're unsure, check this in your account or ask ActiveCampaign's support.