How to Backfill an Email Sequence in Bento

When you add new emails to an existing sequence, subscribers who already finished that sequence won't receive them. They completed the sequence before the new emails existed.

This guide covers two ways to handle that.

Adding a Far-Future Email

If you're just getting started with Bento, you can avoid this issue altogether. Add an email at the end of your sequence with a send date far in the future. For example, set the send date to 27 years from now. That date will essentially never arrive, so subscribers stay active in the sequence and receive any new emails you add before it.

Using a Workflow to Backfill

If subscribers have already finished your sequence and you want them to receive the new emails you've added, use a Bento workflow to re-enroll them.

Here's how:

1. Create a new workflow and save it right away (saving enables the sidebar view).
2. Add an event to the workflow and name it something like "Backfill Job" (no rules needed, as no event will trigger it).
3. Add an Add Sequence action to the board, connect it to the event, and select the sequence you want to backfill.

That's it! Your backfill workflow is ready to go.

Running the Backfill

To run the backfill, head up to the command area in Bento and follow these steps:

1. Click on Segment and then Run.
2. Choose the segment of your audience you want to backfill (e.g., a specific subscriber or a group).
3. Select the Backfill Job event as the starting point for the workflow.
4. Click Run to start the backfill process.

Bento will create a background job and process the backfill within a few minutes. Your selected subscribers will be re-added to the email sequence and pick up where they left off. If they've already received the first email but not the second, they'll get the second email next, and so on.

Summary

With a simple workflow and a one-off job, you can add subscribers back into a sequence so they receive the new emails you've added. Each subscriber picks up where they left off, so no one receives duplicates.

And as always, ping us in Discord if you have any questions!