Campaigns

Campaigns are automated, multi-step email sequences. Once a contact is enrolled, Gordon CRM automatically sends each email in the sequence at the configured interval — no manual intervention required.

Campaign Types

Gordon CRM supports two campaign types:

Evergreen (Drip) Campaigns

The default type. Each step is defined as a delay (in hours) from the contact's enrollment time.

Example: A welcome sequence that sends:

Step 1: Immediately (0 hours after enrollment)
Step 2: 24 hours after enrollment
Step 3: 72 hours after enrollment

Every contact gets the same sequence, starting from whenever they were enrolled.

Date-Based (Event) Campaigns

Steps are anchored to an event's start time using the before_event timing mode. This lets you send countdown reminders leading up to an event.

Example: A conference reminder sequence:

Step 1: 168 hours (7 days) before the event
Step 2: 24 hours before the event
Step 3: 1 hour before the event

Date-based campaigns can also mix delay and before_event steps in the same sequence. The campaign engine sorts all steps by their calculated absolute timestamp, regardless of timing mode.

Campaign Lifecycle

Status	Description
`draft`	The campaign is being configured. No emails are sent.
`active`	The campaign is live. The sweeper will process due enrollments.
`paused`	Temporarily suspended. Enrollments are preserved but no emails are sent. Resumes when re-activated.
`archived`	Permanently deactivated.

Campaign Steps

Each step represents one email in the sequence:

Field	Description
Sequence Order	The display order in the campaign builder (not used for scheduling).
Timing Mode	`delay` (hours after enrollment) or `before_event` (hours before event start).
Timing Value	Number of hours for the delay or countdown. Set to `0` for immediate send.
Email Subject	Subject line, supports merge fields.
Email Body	HTML email body, supports merge fields.
Sender Identity	The verified email address to send from. Falls back to workspace default if not set.

Enrollments

A contact enters a campaign via an automation trigger or manual enrollment. Each enrollment tracks:

Field	Description
`status`	`active` → `processing` → `completed` / `cancelled` / `failed`
`current_step_id`	The next step to be sent.
`next_action_at`	When the sweeper should process this enrollment next.
`completed_step_ids`	Array of step IDs already sent (prevents re-sends).
`trigger_event_id`	For date-based campaigns, the event whose start time anchors the schedule.
`retry_count`	Number of failed attempts (max 3 before marking as `failed`).

Enrollment Statuses

Status	Meaning
`active`	Waiting for the next scheduled step.
`processing`	Currently being processed by the sweeper (prevents double-sends).
`completed`	All steps have been sent.
`cancelled`	Manually cancelled by a workspace member, or by a `remove_campaign` automation.
`failed`	Failed after 3 retry attempts (e.g., no sender identity, persistent errors).

The Campaign Sweeper

A background CRON job runs on a schedule and processes due enrollments:

Fetch — Queries for active enrollments where next_action_at ≤ NOW().
Lock — Sets the enrollment to processing to prevent duplicate sends.
Validate — Checks the campaign is still active and the contact is eligible (not suppressed/unsubscribed).
Send — Resolves merge fields, picks the sender identity, and dispatches via the Resend API.
Advance — Uses the Universal Step Calculator to determine the next step and updates next_action_at. If no steps remain, marks the enrollment as completed.

The Universal Step Calculator

The engine calculates the absolute timestamp for each remaining step:

Delay steps: enrolled_at + timing_value_hours
Before-event steps: event_start_time - timing_value_hours

It then sorts all eligible steps chronologically, picks the earliest one, and schedules it. This allows mixed-mode campaigns (both delay and before_event steps) to interleave correctly.

5-minute tolerance: Steps due within the past 5 minutes are still eligible. This prevents delay: 0 (immediate) steps from being skipped when the sweeper runs shortly after enrollment.

Pausing and Resuming

When you pause a campaign:

The sweeper skips all enrollments for that campaign
Enrollment records are preserved with their current state
When you re-activate, all enrollments resume from where they left off

Deleting Steps

If you delete a step from an active campaign:

Enrollments that were waiting on that step will have the sweeper recalculate their next step automatically
Already-sent emails are unaffected (the email log is preserved)

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