Sequences Overview

Use sequence rulesets to define what happens when a contact replies in a sequence. You can choose to stop sending messages to the contact or keep them enrolled in the sequence outreach.

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When you add contacts to a sequence, you determine which mailbox sends any emails in the sequence to the contacts. It's possible to rotate mailboxes so messages are dispersed through multiple email addresses. To determine which email address is sending messages to a specific contact, navigate to Sequences and select your sequence, then click Contacts. Click any contact to see sequence email details, including which mailbox is sending emails to the contact.

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If a contact doesn't receive your message, Apollo sets their sequence status to bounced.

1. Click Sequences, then open the auto-paused sequence.
2. Click Health.
3. Complete at least one cleanup action:
   • Enrich contacts
   • Remove bounced contacts
   • Check mailbox authentication
4. Click Activate to resume sending.

If the sequence isn’t auto-paused, the bounce is more likely tied to the contact’s email address. To resume sending emails to the bounced contact, first review and correct their email address:

1. Launch Apollo and click Sequences.
2. Select your sequence, then click Bounced.

3. Click the bounced contact's name, then click Contact overview.
4. Hover over the email address, and select Edit to update the email address.

5. Next, navigate to Sequences and select your sequence.
6. Click Bounced and click ... beside the contact you just updated.
7. Click Retry undelivered email.

If the contact information is accurate, Apollo will deliver the email and resume the sequence for this contact.

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Yes, you can always reach out to a contact individually outside of a sequence. Just navigate to the contact profile, then select to email or call them directly. If the contact remains in the sequence, they'll also receive any messaging configured in the sequence. You can always pause or remove a contact from a sequence to avoid sending them too many emails.

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When you add contacts to a sequence, Apollo will flag if any of those contacts already exist in other sequences. You can choose whether to continue adding the contacts. If a contact is enrolled in multiple sequences despite this warning, the contact will receive messaging from all the sequences they're enrolled in. Check out Add Contacts to a Sequence to learn more.

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Apollo prioritizes contacts in a sequence based on their prospect score. Contacts with a higher score are more likely to be a good fit for your outreach, and they will move through the sequence ahead of contacts with lower scores.

When multiple automated emails are eligible to send at the same time across different sequences, your team’s email priority settings determine which emails Apollo sends first across active sequences.

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You can share the sequences you create with other members of your team or with your entire organization.

1. Launch Apollo and click Sequences.
2. Select a sequence.
3. Click Share.

4. Select whether to share the sequence with your entire organization or specific teams or users.

Learn more about sharing sequences on Apollo.

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You can check which contacts are in a sequence from a sequence or from the people hub.

From a sequence

1. Launch Apollo and click Sequences.
2. Select your sequence, then click Contacts.
3. Apollo lists all the contacts in your sequence. Click Show filters to search for a specific contact or use filters to narrow your results.

From the people hub

1. Launch Apollo and click People.
2. Click Show filters > Sequence. Use the sequence filter to narrow your results to people in one or more sequences.

Review a contact's sequence status

Apollo shows each contact's sequence status so you can understand whether they are progressing through the sequence as expected.

Here's what each status means:

If a contact does not appear in the sequence:

1. Confirm you're viewing the correct sequence and that you're on Contacts, not Emails or Tasks.
2. Click Show filters, clear any active filters, and search by name or email.
3. If they still don't appear, try adding them again from search, a list, or CSV. Watch for warnings such as:
   • "Already in another sequence"
   • "Blocked by contact stage"
   • "Missing or invalid email address"

If a contact appears but is not progressing:

• Scheduled or Active: Review the wait time and your sending schedule. If Apollo displays a blocked task badge, hover over the badge and click View task. Complete or skip the task to advance the contact.
• Paused: To learn why a contact is paused and how to resume them, see Pause and Resume Contacts.
• Bounced or Not sent: Verify the contact's email address. For next steps, refer to Troubleshoot Sending Emails or Troubleshoot Bounced Emails.

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If you send a message to a contact that has set up an out-of-office auto-reply, Apollo pauses the contact in the sequence. Apollo can automatically resume messaging the contact if the contact specifies the return date in their out-of-office email. If Apollo can't detect a return date, you can manually resume messaging a paused contact.

When Apollo identifies an out-of-office message, Apollo pauses the contact and doesn't count the out-of-office message as replied.

To identify when Apollo has paused a contact in a sequence:

1. Launch Apollo and click Sequences.
2. Select your sequence, and click Contacts.
3. Click Show filters, then click Sequence Status.
4. Set the status to Paused, then select Auto resume date scheduled or Auto resume date not scheduled to filter your contacts:
   • Auto resume date scheduled: Hover over the Paused status on a contact to view the auto resume date.
   • Auto resume date not scheduled: Hover over the Paused status for more details. Select one or more contacts to manually resume them in the sequence.

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Apollo automatically pauses a sequence when its bounce rate exceeds the auto-pause threshold in your sending policy. This helps protect your sender reputation by stopping sends until you fix the underlying issue.

To resolve this:

1. Click Sequences, then open the auto-paused sequence.
2. Click Health.
3. Complete at least one cleanup action, like enriching contacts, removing bounced contacts, or checking mailbox authentication.
4. Click Activate to resume sending.

Admins can manage auto-pause protection from Settings > Email setup and health > Sending Policies. To learn more about your sequence’s health, check out Report on Sequences.

No. You enable open and click tracking for your Apollo user profile. When enabled, these settings apply across all your connected mailboxes. You don't enable tracking separately for each sequence. Check out Email Tracking Overview to learn more.

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