Onboarding Automation for a Different Segment with a New Opt-In Email

Answering the question from Tak

March 12, 2025 • Buzzing Time: 4 minutes

Hello, busy bee 🐝

In today’s Unbee-lievable, we are answering a question that Tak and many others have asked before.

Question: Is there a way to do an onboarding with a different segment of subscribers but includes an entirely new opt-in email? Is this an automation?

🧠 Context

This is a super relevant question if you're building audience funnels and want to tailor the onboarding experience based on how a subscriber enters your world.

Maybe you're promoting a lead magnet on social media, or maybe you have a niche landing page—each entry point deserves its own welcome flow.

But how do you actually do that in Beehiiv?

🛠 How to Use This in Beehiiv

There are two ways to achieve this, depending on how your subscribers are entering your ecosystem:

✨ Option 1: Use a Subscriber Form Trigger

If you’re using a dedicated subscriber form (like a form on a custom landing page or embedded on your site), you can set up an automation triggered by form enrollment.

✅ Steps:

  1. Go to Automations → Click New Automation

  2. Choose Trigger: Email Submitted

  3. Select the specific form tied to your campaign

  4. Set your onboarding emails in the automation sequence

➡️ Tip: Make sure you name your forms clearly so it’s easy to identify them during setup.

🔍 Option 2: Use a Segment-Based Trigger

If you're sending traffic from multiple sources (e.g., ads, UTM links, or partnerships), you can create a Segment based on those parameters (like source, tag, or campaign).

✅ Steps:

  1. Go to Audience → Segments → Create Segment

  2. Define your rules (e.g., UTM source = "Instagram")

  3. Head to Automations → New Automation

  4. Choose Trigger: Subscriber joins Segment

  5. Select your segment and add the onboarding flow

➡️ Tip: Create a dynamic segment. As new subscribers meet the criteria, they’ll auto-enroll in the automation. See the screenshot #3 to get an idea for the segment.

🚨 Limitation: At the time of writing, beehiiv still doesn’t automatically update the dynamic segment instantly. That means the enrolment into an automation through dynamic segment will happen only on a daily basis or unless you explicitly re-calculate the dynamic segment.

See it in action

Option 1: Use a Subscriber Form Trigger

🔍 Option 2: Use a Segment-Based Trigger

A dynamic segment with UTM Source that contains Instagram or IG. You can add more conditions like FB or Meta.

I frequently use shots.so to create awesome looking screenshots like the above images.

That’s it!

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— Keyur
Your chief at unbee-liveable.

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