If you collect data about subscribers through a form (via Zapier, the API, or any integration), you can trigger specific automation sequences based on metadata values at the moment of creation.
For example, say you run a 30 Rock fan newsletter and use Zapier to pass data from a Google Form into subscriber metadata — fields like fan_tier: superfan or attended_upfronts: true. You can create an automation that sends a specific email sequence only to subscribers matching certain metadata values.
Setup:
- Create a new automation with the trigger set to "When a subscriber is created." This fires at the moment the subscriber is created, including when created via the API or Zapier.
- Add a filter for the metadata key and value you care about (e.g.,
fan_tierequalssuperfan). - Add one or more "Send an email" actions with appropriate delays for your sequence.
If you need to react to metadata changes on existing subscribers (not just new ones), use the "When a subscriber is updated" (subscriber.updated) trigger instead — this fires whenever a subscriber's metadata or notes change.
You can create separate automations for each metadata value you want to act on (e.g., one for fan_tier: superfan, another for attended_upfronts: true).