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Every step in a campaign has two settings that decide who gets it and when: When to execute this step and the condition it runs on. Getting these right is what separates a sequence that feels considered from one that sends everybody everything.

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Before you start

  • A campaign with at least two steps. See Build a sequence.
  • Five minutes per step.
  • You will be working in the step settings on the campaign’s Overview tab.

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Steps

1

Open the step

Open the campaign, go to Overview, and click the step you want to change.
2

Choose immediate or delayed

Under When to execute this step, pick one:
  • Immediately. For the first step this means as soon as the contact is added to the campaign. For any later step it means as soon as the previous step completes.
  • After a delay. Enter a number and choose minutes, hours, or days. The default is 30 minutes.
Delays run from the previous step, not from a fixed timetable, so a contact added on Friday and one added on Monday each get their own clock.
3

Choose what it matches on

Under Match by, pick Call outcome or Custom rule.Call outcome is the one to use nearly always. It is reliable, it is instant, and it covers the three things that actually happen on an outbound call.
4

Pick the outcomes it runs on

With Call outcome selected, tick which results should trigger this step:Tick more than one where it makes sense. A follow up text usually wants both Went to voicemail and Couldn’t be connected.
5

Or write a custom condition

Custom rule lets you describe the situation in plain language, and Brilo reads the conversation to decide. It only runs on calls a person answered, since there is no conversation to read otherwise.Use it for things an outcome cannot express, such as “the caller asked for a quote by email”.
6

Test it with one contact

Add one contact and follow them through. A trigger you have not watched fire is a guess. See Track a contact through a campaign.

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You will know it worked when

A test contact who answers the call takes one branch, and a test contact who does not answer takes the other. Both branches, checked, on real calls.

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Outcomes on message steps

Text steps produce their own results, so a step following a text can branch on those instead: A call step following a text usually wants Message sent, so you only ring the people who received it.

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Call outcome or custom rule?

The mistake worth avoiding: using a custom rule to express something an outcome already covers. “The person did not pick up” is an outcome, not a rule, and writing it as a rule means it never fires because there was no conversation to read.

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Delays that behave

  • Minutes for anything that should feel connected to the call, like a text with a link. Five to fifteen minutes.
  • Hours for a follow up on the same day. One hour is the sensible floor after a call, so the message does not land while their phone is still ringing.
  • Days for another attempt at reaching somebody. One to three days.
Delays stack rather than running in parallel, so a sequence of 1 hour, 2 days, and 3 days finishes about five days after the contact was added.

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What else you can do here

  • Set an exit rule so the sequence ends for people who are clearly not interested, rather than relying on running out of steps. See Stop calling a contact.
  • Keep steps inside sensible hours, which the calling window does regardless of your delays. See Choose when calls go out.
  • Have the step’s content change per contact, rather than the timing. See Add your own contact fields.

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If it did not work

The step never runs. Its condition does not match what your contacts actually got. Look at real outcomes on the Contacts tab before changing the condition, because the fix is usually to tick a second outcome rather than to rewrite anything. A custom rule never fires. Either the calls are not being answered, so there is no conversation to read, or the rule describes something that is not discussed on the call. Check a transcript and quote what was actually said. The step ran for everybody. No outcome was ticked, so nothing filtered it. A step ran too soon. The delay is set in minutes when you meant hours. It is an easy misread and the default is 30 minutes. Steps overtake each other. Delays run from the previous step. A long delay on step two and a short one on step three does not keep them in order the way a fixed schedule would. A message step is skipped for some contacts. They have no mobile number or no email address on the contact record. That shows as Message not sent.

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FAQ

Open the text step, set Match by to Call outcome, and tick Went to voicemail and Couldn’t be connected. People who answered skip the step entirely.
A call outcome is how the call ended, and it is available on every call. A custom rule is a plain language condition Brilo checks by reading the conversation, so it only works on calls somebody answered. Use outcomes for reach, rules for intent.
Yes, with Custom rule. Describe the situation, for example “the person asked for a quote by email”, and Brilo reads the answered conversation to decide. It does not run on unanswered calls.
Enter any number and choose minutes, hours, or days. The default is 30 minutes. Delays count from the previous step completing, not from when the contact was added.
As soon as the contact is added to the campaign, subject to your calling hours and daily cap. On any later step it means as soon as the previous step finishes.
Because delays are relative to the previous step rather than absolute. A short delay later in the sequence can catch up with a long one earlier in it.
Yes. Steps following a message step can run on Message sent, Message failed, or Message not sent, so you can call only the people whose text actually went through.