Set up an email automation when a contact property is updated

You can use Contacts and Automations to turn the information you collect in your form into timely, personalized email communication without manual effort. Contacts keep the data you collect from your respondents organized and segmented into contact lists, while automations use that data to trigger targeted emails based on contact updates. 

In this article, we’ll explain how to create an automation when a contact property is updated. We’ll use an example of a newsletter sign up form for when people want to subscribe to a newsletter mailing list. When someone subscribes to the mailing list, this will update their subscription status contact property.

In the form, we’ll ask for their name, email address, and include a Yes/No question to ask if they want to subscribe to the newsletter mailing list. 

We’ll then map the respondent’s name, email, and subscription status to their contact profile. If someone responds Yes to the sign up question in your form, this will update their subscription status property to Subscribed.

Then we can set up an automation to email any contact that has been subscribed to the newsletter, confirming that they’ve successfully signed up to newsletter emails.

What you’ll need:

• The Contacts & Automations add on that is available on the Plus, Business, Growth Pro, Talent, Growth Custom, and Enterprise plans. 
• Set up a custom email domain to send emails from automations.

Map form responses to contact properties

In our newsletter sign up form, we use the following question types for:

• Name (Short Text)
• Email (Email)
• Would you like to subscribe to our newsletter? (Yes/No)

After creating the form, we’ll map form responses to contact properties. Follow the instructions in this article for how to map responses to contact properties.

Create automation for when a contact property is updated

You can trigger an automation to happen when a contact property is updated. In our example, we’ll explain how to set up an automation for when a contact’s Subscription status becomes Subscribed to a newsletter, this will trigger an email to be sent to the respondent to confirm that they’ve successfully signed up to the mailing list. 

1. Click Automations.

2. Click + Create automation.

3. Select what will trigger the automation. We’ll select Contact activity or update.

4. Click the dropdown list and select Contact property is updated.

5. Give your automation a name. Click on the default name in the top left corner.

Type in the name of your automation and click Save. We’ll enter Newsletter subscription welcome.

6. Click Add update rule to set up the conditions for when the email will be triggered.

7. Click the dropdown list and select Subscription status. After selecting Subscription status, the rule will be automatically populated to read “Where Subscription status becomes Subscribed”.

8. Next, click the + button to add an action. 

Then select Send email.

9. Select who you want to send the email to. We’ll select Contact.

10. Enter the email address you want to send the email from.

Note! Emails sent from automations will need to be sent from a custom email domain. Check out this article for instructions on how to set up a custom email domain in your Typeform account.

11. Enter the following:

• Sender name (optional) - This will appear as the sender name in the receiver’s inbox.
• Reply to email - You can toggle it to be the same as the ‘send from’ email or toggle this off and enter a different email address.
• Subject line - Subject line of your email.

12. Click Create email.

13. Add content to create the email and add a theme by clicking Design. 

More detailed instructions on how to create your email can be found here.

14. Click Save and exit when you’re done with customizing your email.

15. When you’re happy with the setup of your automation, click Activate.

Now when a contact property is updated, they’ll receive an email to confirm that they’ve successfully subscribed to your newsletter.

Looking for other ways to use Contacts and Automations? Check out some other resources below:

• Set up a drip campaign using Contacts and Automations 
• Set up an email automation when a contact is removed
• Change the value of a variable and map it to your Contact’s profile

Other ways to use the 'Contact property is updated' trigger

Here are a couple of other practical ways to use this trigger:

• Lead qualification / high‑intent signal  

• Map a scoring variable from a quiz or lead form to a property such as Lead score or Priority lead. 
• When that property is updated above a certain threshold, trigger an internal notification email to Myself/team so someone can follow up personally.

• Segment change based on quiz outcomes  

• When a custom property like Profile type, Use case, or Industry segment is updated from a new quiz or survey, send a follow‑up email with resources, tips, or recommendations tailored to that segment.

These patterns all follow the same structure: when a Contact property is updated, the right email is triggered at the moment someone joins that segment.