Subsequences: branch on reply intent

Draft — written from product facts + domain knowledge; UI labels to be verified before publishing.

A reply ends the main sequence for that contact, but not every reply is a meeting. "Not now, try me in Q1", "wrong person, talk to Priya" and "send me more info" each deserve a different next message. Subsequences are short follow-on sequences that start automatically when a reply is categorised with a given intent, so the right response goes out without you triaging every inbox by hand.

OutreachFox's AI reply categorisation (Campaign Settings → Reply Categorization) assigns each reply a category such as Interested, Not Interested, Out of Office, Wrong Person or Later. Subsequences hook onto those categories.

Prerequisites

Reply categorisation enabled with the default categories, or your own categories created with a description and sentiment.
A campaign that is already receiving replies.

Steps

Open the campaign and go to the sequence editor.
Click Add Sequence and choose Subsequence.
Name the subsequence after the intent it handles, for example Out of office – retry.
Set the trigger: pick the reply category that starts it (for example Out of Office). Optionally set a delay before the first step, such as 7 days for out-of-office replies.
Add steps exactly as in a normal sequence: subject or same-thread reply, body, wait time. Keep it to one or two steps.
Click Save.
Repeat for the other intents you want to automate. Common set: Out of Office (retry in 7–10 days), Later (check in after 30–60 days), Wrong Person (ask for the right contact once), More Info (send the one-pager and a question).
Leave Interested replies out of automation. Those should be answered personally from the inbox.

What you see afterwards: when a reply is categorised, the contact leaves the main sequence and enters the matching subsequence. The campaign's Contacts tab shows the subsequence a contact is in.

Tips

Check the categorisation accuracy on the first 50 replies before trusting a subsequence to send automatically. Adjust category descriptions if replies are mislabelled.
Subsequence emails should reference the reply ("Thanks for letting me know you're away") so they never read as automated.
Do not put a hard sell in a Not Interested subsequence. Either skip it entirely or send one polite close.
Set a generous delay on Later subsequences; a follow-up 30 days after "ask me next quarter" is fine, 3 days is not.
Only one subsequence should be able to fire per category. Overlapping triggers cause double sends.

Troubleshooting

Subsequence never starts — the trigger category does not match the one the classifier assigned. Check the reply's category on the Contacts tab and compare.
Subsequence started for an auto-reply — the auto-reply was classified as Interested or More Info. Refine the category descriptions under Reply Categorization.
Contact received both a main-sequence step and a subsequence step — the main step was already queued when the reply arrived. Shorter daily batches reduce this window.

AI reply categorisation guide
Add follow-up steps and delays to an email sequence
Follow-ups in the same thread vs a new thread
Check lead statuses in a campaign

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