How to send automated email sequences using Node.js and Candymail

Automated email sequences are an incredible marketing tool for any startup. An email inbox is one of the few 1:1 marketing channels at your disposal. Use it well.

The Candymail NPM package allows you to send marketing email sequences directly from your Node.js server from a single JSON file. Think of it as a _**__docker.yaml*__***_ but for email marketing.

Full docs — https://candymail.saasbase.dev

Let’s say we are building a brand new video editor for the web and looking to delight our new users. We can set up an _**__Onboarding*__***_ email sequence that welcomes our users and slowly introduces them to the platform.

Let’s get started.

Step 1: Define the Onboarding Email Sequence

Here are 3 emails I would add to my sequence to onboard a new user:

Welcome the user immediately when they sign up

Subject: Welcome to VideoMaker+

Thanks for joining! You’re officially a part of the VideoMaker+ family! Join 100’s of passionate filmmakers like you making a difference in everyday life by making the most wonderful content.

1 day later — Show the user the most basic way to get started with the platform

Subject: How to edit your first video?

Ready to get started? Here’s how you can add subtitles to your first video and add some flair:

1. Record 1-min video of you talking into the camera
2. Import the footage into VideoMaker+ app
3. Click on Effects > Retro
4. Turn on: Automatic Subtitles
5. Export!
  And that’s it. You now have a retro-looking video with auto-generated subtitles ready to be shared with the world!

3 days later — Check up on how they’re doing and gather feedback

Subject: A friendly check-in from VideoMaker+

Looks like you’ve been using VideoMaker+ in the last few days — and we love that! I just wanted to quickly check-in and how your experience has been with our service.

1. How did you hear about VideoMaker+?
2. What do you like/dislike about VideoMaker+?
3. What can we do to improve your experience?

Now that we know what the content is going to look like. Let’s create our automation file.

Step 2: Create a new automation file

Candymail uses a single JSON file to describe the automation sequence. The above definition can be encoded into a candymail.automation.json like so,

{
  "workflows": [
    {
      "name": "onboarding",
      "description": "Onboard new VideoMaker+ users",
      "trigger_name": "onboarding",
      "emails": [
        {
          "trigger": "time",
          "sendDelay": 1,
          "subject": "Welcome to VideoMaker+",
          "body": "<div style='text-align:left'><p>Thanks for joining!<br/><br/>You're officially a part of the VideoMaker+ family! Join 100's of passionate film makers like you making a difference in everyday life by making the most wonderful content.</p></div>",
          "from": "sender@gmail.com"
        },
        {
          "trigger": "time",
          "sendDelay": 24,
          "subject": "How to edit your first video?",
          "body": "<div style='text-align:left'><p>Ready to get started? Here's how you can add subtitles to your first video and add some flair:</p><br/><p>1. Record 1-min video of you talking into the camera<br/> 2. Import the footage into VideoMaker+ app<br/> 3. Click on Effects &gt; Retro<br/> 4. Turn on: Automatic Subtitles<br/> 5. Export!</p><br/><p>And that's it. You now have a retro looking video with auto-generated subtitles ready to be shared with the world!</p></div>",
          "from": "sender@gmail.com"
        },
        {
          "trigger": "time",
          "sendDelay": 72,
          "subject": "A friendly check-in from VideoMaker+",
          "body": "<div style='text-align:left'><p>Looks like you've been using VideoMaker+ in the last few days - and we love that! I just wanted to quickly check-in and how your experience has been with the app.</p><br/><p>1. How did you hear about VideoMaker+?<br/>2. What do you like/dislike about VideoMaker+?<br/>3. What can we do to improve your experience?</p></div>",
          "from": "sender@gmail.com"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Note: Remember to change the sender@gmail.com to your own sender email address.

Step 3: Set up a basic Express Server

Create a new folder.

Let’s initialize our project by creating a package.json

npm init -y

Install dependencies with a quick,

npm install express

Add another file named app.js

const express = require('express');
const port = 3000;
const app = express();
app.get('/', async function(req, res, next) {
	res.send('Hello World!')
});
app.listen(port, () => console.log(`Listening on port ${port}!`);)

We can now run our simple server by running,

npm start

Our application should be live at http://localhost:4242.

Step 4: Install Candymail

Import the candymail.automation.file to the root level of the project directory.

Let’s install Candymail by running,

npm install --save candymail

In app.js,

require('dotenv').config();
const candymail = require('candymail');
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
const port = 3000;
const automation = require('./candymail.automation.json') candymail.init(automation.workflows, {
	mail: {
		host: 'smtp.gmail.com',
		port: 465,
		secure: true,
		auth: {
			user: process.env.MAIL_USER,
			pass: process.env.MAIL_PASSWORD,
		},
		tls: {
			rejectUnauthorized: true,
		},
	},
	hosting: {
		url: process.env.HOSTING_URL
	},
	db: {
		reset: true
	},
	debug: {
		trace: true
	},
}).then((e) => {
	candymail.start();
	app.get('/', async (req, res) => {
		res.send('Go to /start to trigger the first workflow');
	});
	app.listen(port, () => {
		console.log(`Learn about our new features at <http://localhost>:${port}`)
	});
})

Step 5: Add env vars

Create a file at root called .env

MAIL_USER=email@gmail.com
MAIL_PASSWORD=password
RECIPIENT_EMAIL=user@gmail.com
HOSTING_URL=http://localhost:3000

MAIL_USER and MAIL_PASSWORD: Credentials from your SMTP email service. You can use your Gmail to test it out.

Using Gmail to send emails in Production is not recommended. Use a transactional email service like Mailgun.

Let’s set up an /signup endpoint to capture when a user successfully signs up.

app.post("/signup", (req, res) => {
  const user = process.env.RECIPIENT_EMAIL;
  candymail.runWorkflow("onboarding", user);
  res.send("onboarding started");
});

Perfect! Now when the user abc@gmail.com signs up, they will receive a sequence of 3 emails as part of the onboarding process.

But what if the user doesn't want to not receive the emails anymore? Fear not, every email is sent out with an _**__Unsubscribe*__***_ link in the footer that makes a GET request to the /unsubscribe endpoint on your hosting server.

Step 7: Set up Unsubscribe

app.get("/unsubscribe", (req, res) => {
  const { email } = req.query;

  candymail.unsubscribeUser(email);
  res.send(`Sent an unsubscribe request for ${email}`);
});

Step 8: Test it out

npm start

Let’s fire up Postman and make a POST request to

/signup

. This will start the automation sequence - \

**__Onboarding*__***

. We are also printing out the scheduled messages to be sent out at what time. Notice that the time listed is in UTC.

We should expect 3 emails to be sent — 1 at the top of the next hour, the next one in 24 hours, and the one after that in 72 hours.Here’s the first email I received in my inbox.

Every email comes with an unsubscribe link that the user can click on and they will stop getting future communications.

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