Before you start: Learn how to set up Segments
What is a Segment Trigger? 🤔
Normally, a Journey starts from things like a birthday or a form signup. A Segment Trigger works a bit differently.
Instead, you pick one of your saved Segments (like "Visitors in the last 12 months" or "Haven't visited in 90 days"). Airship will then fire the Journey on its own whenever a guest enters or leaves that Segment.
This means you can build automated emails around any group of guests you've already set up, without having to build the logic again from scratch.
Before you start: things to know ⚠️
This is a new feature, so a few things are worth knowing up front.
Email only for now. SMS is not supported in Journeys with this trigger yet.
Segments don't update instantly. Segments refresh on a schedule rather than updating the second someone joins or leaves. Because of this, the first email in a new Journey might not go out until up to 24 hours after you switch it on.
There's a quiet period overnight. Sends won't go out between 1am and 4am BST.
Don't rename or delete an email that's in an active Journey. Doing this will break the sends for that Journey.
Deleting a Journey doesn't fully delete its triggers. It's a soft delete, so there's no hard delete for Segment Triggers yet.
Instant metrics aren't currently available. You won't be able to see the same stats as you can see in your other Journeys to start with, but this will be coming soon.
Part 1: Creating the Journey 🥳
Start a new Journey
Go to Journeys in the left menu, then click the blue Create New Journey button in the top right.
A pop up appears with four options: Welcome, Birthday, Segment Trigger, and Custom. Click Segment Trigger.
Pick a Segment
You'll land on the Create segment trigger journey page. A note at the top tells you how many Segments are available on your account to choose from.
Under Which audience triggers this journey?, you can either:
Search for a Segment by name using the search bar, which opens a dropdown of every Segment on your account, or
Click one of the quick pick suggestions shown underneath (up to four commonly used Segments)
Once you've picked one, it appears as a card showing the Segment's name and how many contacts are currently in it. If you want to change your mind, click Change, or use the search bar again. You can only pick one Segment per Journey.
Customise the Journey
Underneath, you'll see Step 2: Customise. This is purely for your own reference, so you can spot this Journey easily later on. None of this is seen by guests.
Name: this auto fills based on the Segment you picked (for example, "Visited in last 48 hours — trigger"), but you can edit it if you'd like something different
Icon: choose from the grid of icons provided
Colour: click the coloured swatch next to the hex code box to open the colour picker. You can drag the circle around the gradient to pick a colour, use the strip underneath to shift the hue, or type or paste in a specific hex code if you already know the one you want
Create the Journey
Once you're happy, a bar at the bottom shows a short summary, for example "Triggering on visitors - last 12 months (8 contacts)". The Create journey button stays greyed out until a Segment has been picked.
Click Create journey to confirm.
⚠️ If you click Cancel instead and you've made changes, you'll see a "You have unsaved changes" warning. Choose Discard changes and leave to go back to the Journeys list, or Continue building Journey to stay where you are.
Part 2: Adding your broadcast (email) 📧
Now you need to pick the email you want, set its schedule, and then see the summary of what's been chosen.
Step 1: Choose and personalise the email
Under Choose a saved email, search or select from the dropdown. This is the same list as your Emails → Saved emails section on your account.
Once picked, a preview appears on the right showing the subject, from name, from address, reply to, and the email design itself. This preview is read only, any changes to the design need to be made back in Saved emails.
Email details lets you set:
Internal name: for your own reference
Subject line: up to 50 characters. Click any of the Insert buttons (Contact first name, Contact surname, Contact title etc) to drop a merge tag straight into the subject line. A box underneath shows how it'll look (for example "Hi John, Welcome to Joiner's Kitchen!"), using placeholder data (real guests will see their own details).
Merge tag defaults: for every merge tag you use, set a fallback to show if a guest is missing that piece of information. You can also tick Leave blank? instead of setting a fallback
Sender details lets you choose between:
One sender for everyone: every guest sees the same From Name, From Address and Reply To (based on your Head Office)
Each location sends as itself: the From Address always matches the guest's own location. From Name and Reply To default to each location too, but you can click Override on either if you'd rather use one set for everyone
The From Address always matches the sending location and can't be changed. A box underneath shows a live example of what one of your locations will actually send as.
Campaign link tracking adds tracking tags to the links in your email, so tools like Google Analytics can tell where the traffic came from. There are three fields:
Traffic source: where the visit appears to come from, defaults to "Airship"
Channel: the type of traffic, defaults to "email"
Campaign name: a name you'll recognise later in your reports, like the Journey or offer name. This one's required
Step 2: Schedule
Segments update overnight, so it's worth thinking about timing here.
Days (after contact enters segment): 0 sends the same day a guest joins the Segment, 1 sends the day after, and so on, up to 365 days
Send at: click to open a time picker (shown in UK time). Scroll or type the hour and minute, toggle AM/PM, or use one of the quick select times
A small timeline underneath shows exactly when the email will go out, for example "1 days (after contact enters segment), 4pm".
Advanced settings (optional)
These are optional, leave the defaults if you're happy with them.
Smart location: choose whether the broadcast applies to all locations (recommended) or selected locations only. Then choose how guests are matched: everyone in the Segment regardless of location (recommended), only guests whose most recent visit was at a selected location, or only guests whose favourite location is a selected location
Tags: optional, these help with filtering and reporting later. Search or type to add a tag, and you can add more than one. If you leave this blank, Airship automatically tags the broadcast "Default"
Existing segment members: a toggle for "Send to contacts already in this segment". Off by default, meaning only guests who join the Segment from now on will get the email. Switch it on, and everyone already in the Segment will also receive it, treated as if they'd just joined right now
Step 3: Review and save
Click Go to summary. Here you can check everything before saving: the Segment, subject, campaign name, sender details, tags, schedule, and whether existing contacts are included. The email preview stays visible on the right.
A note reminds you that the contact count shown is the Segment's current size, the number actually emailed may be lower, since guests are filtered at send time by their own opt-in and marketing preferences, and by your smart location settings.
Click Set status & save. A final pop up asks you to choose:
Activate now: new contacts entering the Segment start receiving this broadcast straight away
Save as inactive: it's saved but paused, and won't send until you switch it on
Click Save broadcast to confirm.
⚠️ Clicking Cancel doesn't ask you to confirm that option. Unlike creating the Journey itself, clicking Cancel on the Email, Schedule, or Summary step takes you straight back to the Journey page with no warning message. Any changes you've made are lost immediately, so make sure you're ready before clicking it.
Managing your broadcasts 🔧
Once saved, you'll land back on the Journey page. The Email Broadcasts section now lists your broadcast, showing:
The delay and next send time
A thumbnail of the email
Its own Active/Inactive toggle, so you can switch a broadcast on or off independently of the Journey itself. Turning it on shows a green "Trigger activated successfully" banner
The subject line, tags, and broadcast schedule in plain English (for example "Sends same day entering segment at 09:00 am")
Click the three dots (⋮) on any broadcast to Edit setup or Delete trigger.
To add another broadcast, for example a follow up email 14 days or a month later, click Add Broadcast again and repeat the steps above.
Questions?
If your Journey isn't sending, it's worth checking:
Is the Journey (and the broadcast itself) set to Active? Both need to be switched on
Has it had time to process? New Journeys can take up to 24 hours to send their first email
Is it currently within the overnight quiet period?
Does the Segment actually have guests in it right now?