Skip to content
English
Go to opus1.io
  • There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.

How do I create an ongoing campaign?

An ongoing campaign is a multi-stage drip. Anyone matching your criteria enrolls automatically and moves through Email / SMS, Delay, Manual action, Due for call, Trigger, and Loop back steps. You Activate it rather than scheduling it, and it keeps enrolling new matches until you deactivate it. For a single recital, promo, or newsletter send, use a One Time Campaign instead.

Last updated: September 9, 2026
Applies to: Owner / Manager / Staff
PLUS Feature: Yes
Plan: Opus1 Plus (campaigns). Ongoing campaigns must be enabled for the business. 

Table of Contents

  1. Overview
  2. Why ongoing campaigns exist
  3. Is ongoing the right choice?
  4. Before you create one
  5. Create the campaign
  6. Set who gets in
  7. Build the sequence
  8. Templates, tests, and execution windows
  9. Activate, edit, and pause
  10. A worked example
  11. Permissions
  12. FAQ
  13. Related Articles

Overview

Ongoing is the campaign type for the same conversation, over days, for whoever matches from now on — not for this Friday's recital email.

Typical jobs:

  • Everyone in Prospect (new) or Prospect (trial) gets the same drip
  • New guitar enrollments get a 30-day check-in
  • After a trial sequence finishes, a Trigger moves them to Prospect (trial follow up)

The editor has three tabs: Details, Stages, and Activity. Both who enters and what happens live on Stages — there is no Audience tab, and no one-time-style Report tab.

If you picked One Time Campaign by mistake, do not try to add stages later. A one-time campaign cannot become a drip, so create an ongoing campaign instead.

Location: Settings → Campaigns → Create Campaign → Ongoing Campaign

Why ongoing campaigns exist

A one-time blast is a megaphone. Ongoing is a conveyor.

The megaphone is right for "summer registration is open." It is wrong for "every family who just took a trial," because that group changes every week. If you only send when someone remembers to build a list, cards sit in Prospect (trial) until the teacher who did the lesson is free — which, in a busy studio, is 8pm.

Ongoing exists so that:

  • New matches enroll themselves. A lead who hits Prospect (new) on Thursday gets the same first message as last month's leads.
  • The sequence survives busy weeks. Delays and triggers run while staff are teaching.
  • Messaging matches the pipeline. Trial content stops when a trigger hands someone to Prospect (trial follow up).
  • Staff time is the exception, not the drip. Due for call and Manual action put a human on the board only when a person is genuinely the next step.

Use ongoing when the process should outlive any one Friday.

Is ongoing the right choice?

What you are trying to do Use this Why
Recital, summer promo, newsletter, "we're closed Thursday" One Time Campaign — How do I create an email campaign? One list, one send, then it is over. Ongoing would keep grabbing new people
A drip for Prospect (new) or Prospect (trial), a 30- or 90-day check-in, a review request after someone becomes a Member Ongoing — this article People enter when they match, and you never rebuild the send
Email everyone in one Prospect Board column right now Column ⋮ → Batch Email A blast of whoever is in that column now. No sequence
Start a drip whose audience is already that column Column ⋮ → Create Campaign for status Opens an ongoing campaign with the status rule already set. Come back here for the stages
"Thanks for coming" after a private lesson is marked attended Service follow-up email Tied to attendance rather than campaign criteria, and appointment services only
Put someone in the next CRM column after the drip An ongoing Trigger → Move prospect to stage Messages alone never change Client Status
Invoice, reminder, or schedule-change email Transactional notifications, not campaigns Marketing opt-outs apply to campaigns and not to those

One question usually settles it: will a new person who matches this group next Tuesday need the same messages automatically? If no, use a one-time campaign. If yes, stay here.

A one-time campaign cannot be "left running." It sends once to the list it had, and new people next week are not included unless you send again.

If Ongoing Campaign is greyed out on the create modal, ongoing campaigns are not enabled for your business and you are not the Owner. Ask the Owner to enable it; until then, one-time is the campaign type available to you.

Before you create one

Requirement Why it matters
Opus1 Plus with campaigns Otherwise Settings → Campaigns shows an upgrade path
Ongoing campaigns enabled Otherwise the Ongoing card is disabled for anyone who is not the Owner
Email domain verified, if any stage sends email Activate is blocked until the domain is verified, and partial verification also warns. See Email campaigns: verify your domain
SMS enabled, if any stage sends text The SMS toggle and templates only appear when SMS is on
Templates Each Email / SMS stage needs its own. Create a new one or pick an existing one — the campaign stores a copy. See How do I create an email template for batch emails / email campaigns?
CRM statuses, for prospect drips Criteria such as Prospect (trial) must already exist under Business settings → General → CRM
Draft or Inactive to edit stages You cannot change the sequence while the campaign is Active. Plan it, then activate

Create the campaign

  1. Go to Settings → Campaigns.
  2. Click Create Campaign.
  3. Choose Ongoing Campaign, described as regular, multi-stage messages to a targeted group based on specific criteria.
  4. Click Continue.
  5. Name it for the person who opens it in six months — Trial drip - Prospect (trial), not Campaign 4
  6. Set Tentatively start campaign at.
  7. Create the campaign. You land on Details. Email and SMS are not configured here; they belong on each Email / SMS stage.

Create Campaign for status on a Prospect Board column skips the empty-criteria step, since the status rule is already in place. You still add stages and activate.

Set who gets in

On Stages, when there is no criteria yet, the empty state reads Set a criteria. The sequence itself sits under Start of campaign. People who do not match never enter.

Ongoing criteria have a Criteria type:

Type Use it when
Client The drip is about who they are on the board — status, tags, waitlist, age, campus, teacher
Subscription The drip is about the enrollment — active subscriptions, service type, started after a date. This is how you build 30- and 90-day check-ins, which a one-time list cannot do on its own

Include everyone on a rule means all clients except those you exclude or who fail the other attributes on that same rule. For a recital promo that is usually the wrong tool — use a one-time campaign. For a drip, prefer a tight status or subscription rule.

You can also reuse criteria from another campaign rather than rebuilding them.

Client criteria

Criteria Typical ongoing job
Client status in / not in A Prospect (trial) drip. Exclude Member so enrolled families leave the sequence
Clients with tags / exclude tags1 #piano, #summer-camp
Clients not tagged for category Missing a required category
Members lost / new members within date range Win-back or welcome sequences — a single welcome blast is often better as one-time
Include / exclude specific clients A test family in, one household out
Clients created before / after date The age of the record, not of the student
Active clients with services / staff / locations, with a date range One offering, teacher, or campus
Clients with age less than / greater than Kids versus adult tracks
Waitlist for appointment services / staff An opening-notification drip
Adult members An active member with no account manager

Subscription criteria

Criteria Typical ongoing job
Active subscriptions Anyone currently enrolled
Active subscriptions for service types Appointment versus session versus subscription-only
Active subscriptions started after date The clock starts at enrollment

Status and tags cannot share a rule with some subscription fields. If you need "new guitar and still a prospect," use two criteria or two campaigns.

People who match include account managers and dependents, but email only goes where there is an address, and dependents often have none. Marketing opt-outs do not receive marketing sends.

Build the sequence

Add steps with Add stage, then drag them into order. A campaign with zero stages cannot be activated, and each Email / SMS stage needs at least one channel on and a template for every channel you turned on.

Stage type What it does Use it when
Email / SMS Sends this step's message You have something to say. An optional execution window, minimum three hours, stops texts going at 3am — for example 2pm to 7pm, while someone can answer
Delay Waits days and hours They need time to reply or book. Must be greater than 0 hours
Manual action Work for a human that is not a call A proposal, a hold, paperwork. Shows an Action tag on the Prospect Board, findable with Show only actions due
Due for call A call for a human The next step genuinely is the conversation. Shows a Call tag on the board
Trigger Changes the record Mark client as lost to exit, or Move prospect to stage to hand off. See How do I move prospects to a CRM stage in a campaign?
Loop back Returns to an earlier step, with optional maximum repeats A reminder cycle. A loop must have a Delay after the stage you loop to, or activation fails

A successful Move prospect to stage stops this campaign for that person, so put anything they must receive before that trigger.

Templates, tests, and execution windows

Create new on a stage opens the template builder. Save there or the template will not attach. Existing templates can be reused, and the campaign keeps a copy so later edits in your template library do not rewrite a live drip. For personalizing the copy, see How to use merge tags in email templates, and for text, How do I create SMS templates?.

Send Test Email and Send Test SMS in the header, available in Draft, go to staff you pick. They prove layout and merge tags. They do not prove criteria — the proof of who is the criteria list, and then Activity once people start enrolling.

Execution window is set per Email / SMS stage. Use it so automated SMS lands when the front desk is in the building.

Activate, edit, and pause

Action When to use it
Activate Campaign In Draft or Inactive, once criteria and stages are valid
Deactivate You need to change stages or criteria. Then activate again
Pause one person From their prospect or client campaign section. The drip keeps running for everyone else, and paused people are skipped — including at triggers — until you resume them
Duplicate Clone a working trial drip, then change the criteria for another instrument or location

Activation is blocked when there are no criteria, no stages, a delay of 0, a loop without a later delay, an Email / SMS stage with no template, or email switched on without a verified domain.

If the start date is in the future, the campaign list may show it as pending until that date arrives.

Think before deactivating a drip that already has people mid-sequence — check Activity and a few prospect cards first.

There is no one-time-style Report tab with opens, bounces, and complaints. Watch Activity, each person's campaign section, and the Prospect Board, using Show only actions due for Manual action and Due for call steps.

A worked example

The job: anyone in Prospect (trial) gets two nudges, then lands in post-trial follow-up if they have not enrolled.

Create: an ongoing campaign named Trial drip - Prospect (trial)

Criteria (Client): Client status in → Prospect (trial).

Step Stage type Configuration
1 Email / SMS "How was your trial lesson?" — execution window 2pm to 7pm if you send SMS
2 Delay 3 days
3 Email / SMS "Ready to pick a weekly time?"
4 Delay 3 days
5 Trigger Move prospect to stage → Prospect (trial follow up)

Then activate. Families who enroll, or who a staff member drags to Prospect (sleep), are skipped at the trigger. The rest change columns and can then enter a follow-up campaign targeting Prospect (trial follow up).

The same pattern works for Prospect (new) → messages → move to Prospect (follow up).

Permissions

Action Owner Manager Staff Limited Staff
Open Settings → Campaigns Yes Yes Yes No
Create an ongoing campaign Yes Yes Yes No
Enable ongoing campaigns for the business Yes No No No
Edit stages and criteria in Draft or Inactive Yes Yes Yes No
Activate, deactivate, or duplicate Yes Yes Yes No
Pause one person in a sequence Yes Yes Yes No
View Activity Yes Yes Yes No

FAQ

Can I turn a one-time campaign into an ongoing one later? No. Create an ongoing campaign in Opus1 instead. You can reuse the templates and criteria you already built.

Where is the Audience tab? Ongoing campaigns do not have one. Criteria live on Stages, under Set a criteria, above Start of campaign.

Why don't dependents get the email? They often have no email address on file, while account managers do. Opus1 also excludes anyone with a marketing opt-out.

Will this move people on the Prospect Board? Only with a Trigger. Messages alone never change Client Status.

Ongoing Campaign is greyed out on the create modal. Ongoing campaigns are not enabled for your business and you are not the Owner. Ask the Owner to enable it, or use a one-time campaign in the meantime.

Related Articles

The other campaign type

Building the sequence

Who the drip is for