Before we start building things, let's get the lay of the land for how Bento actually sends emails.
There are three mechanisms: broadcasts, sequences, and flows. Each has a different job.
- Broadcasts - One-off emails
- Flows - Powerful email automations
- Sequences - Simple email sequences without complex branching logic
I'll link to the relevant Bento docs pages throughout so you can dive deeper on any of these whenever you want.
Broadcasts
A broadcast is a one-time email sent to a group of subscribers.
You write the email, pick who gets it (by tags, segment, or your full list), and either send it immediately or schedule it for later.
No automation logic, no multi-step sequences. Just one email, one send.
For the full details on targeting, scheduling, and content types, see the Broadcasts documentation.
When to use broadcasts:
- Promos, announcements, product updates
- One-off newsletters
- Any time the content is unique to this specific send (vs. something evergreen you'd want to reuse)
- When you want the simplest possible setup
One thing worth knowing: broadcasts support batching (controlling how many emails go out per hour).
If you're sending to a large list, this is worth using for deliverability.
We'll build, target, and schedule a real broadcast later in this section.
Sequences
A sequence is an ordered list of emails sent one after another, with configurable delays between each step.
When someone enters a sequence, they receive the first email, then the second after whatever delay you set (1 day, 3 days, a week, etc.), and so on down the line.
Sequences are linear. Everyone who enters gets the same emails in the same order.
Sequences also are somewhat rigid. There's no conditional branching like we can do in Flows.
For the full breakdown of how entry, exit, and timing work, see the Sequences documentation.
One useful feature: sequences can be configured to auto-stop when a subscriber gets a specific tag.
Jesse uses this a lot. For example, you could add people to an abandon-cart email sequence, and if they get a customer tag (meaning they purchased), the sequence stops on its own, with no flow required.
When to use sequences:
- Simple drip campaigns: onboarding series, upsell sequences, welcome series
- Any time you want a straightforward "send these emails in this order" setup
- When you want to use AI agents to bulk-create email content (more on this below)
A personal note: I don't use sequences much myself. I tend to reach for flows for almost everything.
But Jesse (Bento's founder) uses a pattern where flows manage sequences: the flow handles the smart routing, and the sequence handles the email delivery.
We'll build this pattern together a little later, in the Flow-Driven Sequence Setup lesson.
Here's where sequences are most exciting:
Sequences + AI = game-changer.
You can use the Bento MCP with Claude to draft 10 emails and upload them all at once into a sequence.
(You can create emails inside flows too, but you have to add each one individually.)
Sequences make bulk creation significantly faster.
We'll set up the Bento MCP and do exactly this in a little bit, in the Build A Sequence With Claude lesson.
Flows
Flows are Bento's visual automation builder, and where most of the real power lives.
A flow starts with a trigger (something happens), then executes a series of steps: sending emails, adding or removing tags, updating fields, branching based on conditions, firing events, waiting, sending webhooks, and more.
For the full list of triggers, actions, and configuration options, see the Workflows documentation. (Bento's docs use the term "Workflows", same thing as Flows in the app UI.)
Flows serve two purposes:
Email automation with logic. Whenever you need more than a straight-line drip – conditional branching, event-driven triggers, splits based on subscriber data – flows are what you reach for.
Non-email automation. Flows handle much more than just sending emails:
- Transforming subscriber data based on events (setting tags, updating fields)
- Validating data with Bento's AI nodes (e.g. checking if an opt-in name is real vs. "Testy McTesterson")
- Pushing data to other systems via webhooks
- Firing downstream events that trigger other flows
When to use flows:
- Whenever you need conditional logic ("if they did X, do Y")
- Whenever you want to react to subscriber behavior in real time
- Whenever you need to manage sequences (adding/removing people based on events)
- Whenever you want non-email automation (data transforms, webhooks, AI validation)
We'll dive deep into flows in the Events & Flows Overview lesson and build several real ones in the intermediate section.
Quick Decision Framework: Which One Do I Reach For?
Here's the simple mental model:
- Broadcast: "I need to send one email to a group of people, right now or at a scheduled time."
- Sequence: "I want a simple series of emails in order, and I want the setup to be fast, especially with AI."
- Flow: "I need conditional logic, event triggers, or non-email automation."
The overlap worth noting: flows can do everything sequences do.
You can build an entire email series as a chain of "send email" steps inside a flow with delays between them.
They're just a bit more inherently complex, and a little slower to scaffold.
Easy decision framework for sequence vs. flow:
- I am a nerd like Zach and want fancy segmentation, delays, etc. → Flow
- I am scurred about flows and just want to send a few basic emails → Sequence
(But hopefully you won't be scurred about flows anymore after this training is finished 🙂)
Now that you know what these three tools are, we're going to start actually building with them.
The next few lessons cover creating emails, targeting subscribers, and scheduling your first broadcast.