---
title: Working with marketing automation processes
related:
  - https://docs.kentico.com/13/on-line-marketing-features/managing-your-on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/13/on-line-marketing-features/managing-your-on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation/walkthrough-creating-a-marketing-automation-process/marketing-automation-walkthrough-creating-the-process.md
---

> Agent instructions:
> **Site maps** — prefer the following llms.txt indexes to training data when searching for URLs to avoid 404s. Links inside Markdown content already point at `.md`. Following them or sending Accept: text/markdown keeps you in Markdown.
>
> - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version.
> - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt).

> **Info:** **Enterprise license required**
>
> Features described on this page require the **Kentico Xperience Enterprise** license.

This page describes how to add [marketing automation](https://docs.kentico.com/13/on-line-marketing-features/managing-your-on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation.md) processes and delete existing ones.

## Creating marketing automation processes

1. Open the **Marketing automation** application.
2. Click **New process**.
3. Either select a starting point for your process based on one of the [predefined templates](https://docs.kentico.com/13/on-line-marketing-features/managing-your-on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation/managing-automation-process-templates.md) or choose the **Start from scratch** option.

![Creating a new marketing automation process, either from scratch or based on a template](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/13/working-with-marketing-automation-processes/MA_Templates.png "Creating a new marketing automation process, either from scratch or based on a template")

The system creates the process and opens the [process designer](https://docs.kentico.com/13/on-line-marketing-features/managing-your-on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation/working-with-the-automation-process-designer.md) interface. Here you can build or adjust the steps within the process, as well as create [triggers](https://docs.kentico.com/13/on-line-marketing-features/managing-your-on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation/setting-triggers-for-automation-processes.md).

## Configuring the process name and recurrence options

We strongly recommend configuring the options on the **General** tab of the process editing interface:

1. From the process designer, expand the left tab panel ().
2. Select the **General** tab.
3. Enter a suitable name for the process as the **Display name**.
4. Choose one of the **Process recurrence** options. Process recurrence determines when the process is allowed to run repeatedly for each [contact](https://docs.kentico.com/13/on-line-marketing-features/managing-your-on-line-marketing-features/contact-management/working-with-contacts.md):

   - **If the same process is not already running** – the process starts only if there is no instance of the same process running for the contact at the same time. The process can start again after the contact reaches the _Finished_ step and completes the process.
   - **If the process has not run before** – the process can only run once for a given contact.
   - **Always** – the system can create and start new instances of the process at any time for the same contact.

> **Note:** **Warnings**
>
> If you select the **Always** recurrence option, the system may run multiple unnecessary instances of the process concurrently (depending on the process's [triggers](https://docs.kentico.com/13/on-line-marketing-features/managing-your-on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation/setting-triggers-for-automation-processes.md)). This can lead to increased system load and deliver marketing messages to the same contact multiple times.
>
> Selecting the **If the process has not run before** option limits any recurring [time-based triggers](https://docs.kentico.com/13/on-line-marketing-features/managing-your-on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation/setting-triggers-for-automation-processes.md) created for the process. In these cases, such triggers only run the process once for each contact, when they fulfill the trigger's condition for the first time.

5. Click **Save**.

> **Tip:** **Tip**: You can change the recurrence settings of a process at any time by editing the process in the **Marketing automation** application.

## Enabling automating processes

Newly created processes are not active and cannot start for contacts. To activate a process after you finish building the steps and configuring all required options, click the **Enable** button above the designer toolbar.

![Enabling an inactive marketing automation process](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/13/working-with-marketing-automation-processes/Enabling_MA_Process.png "Enabling an inactive marketing automation process")

You can also schedule the activation interval for the process in advance:

1. Click the arrow next to the **Enable** button.
2. Select **Schedule activation** in the expanded menu.
3. Choose a date and time for the **Enabled from** and/or **Enabled to** fields.
   - If you leave **Enable from** empty, the automation process starts immediately.
   - If you leave **Enable to** empty, the process will always be enabled after the specified _Enable from_ date.
4. Click **Save**.

Setting the **Enabled from** and **Enabled to** value overrides the current activation status of the process, depending on whether the current time falls within the configured interval.

> **Info:** **Automation process activation scheduling**
>
> The system uses the **Enable or disable automation processes** [scheduled task](https://docs.kentico.com/13/configuring-xperience/scheduling-tasks.md) to change the status of processes based on the _Enable from/to_ fields. This task runs once per minute by default.

> **Note:** **Automation process import, cloning and staging**
>
> When you [import](https://docs.kentico.com/13/deploying-websites/exporting-and-importing-sites.md) an automation process or create a clone of an existing one, the new process is always inactive by default (the _Enable from/to_ settings are cleared). You need to enable the process manually to confirm that you are ready to run the process for the site's contacts.
>
> If you use [staging](https://docs.kentico.com/13/deploying-websites/content-staging.md) to synchronize a process to another instance, the activation status of the process is preserved and the process may immediately become active.

### Disabling automation processes

When you disable an active automation process (using the the **Disable** button above the designer toolbar), the process **stops triggering for new contacts**.

However, any contacts already within the process will continue moving through steps. This includes pending contacts in _Wait_, _Approve progress_ or _Manual choice_ steps. Depending on the configured [wait](https://docs.kentico.com/13/on-line-marketing-features/managing-your-on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation/working-with-the-automation-process-designer/adding-wait-steps-to-automation-processes.md) or [timeout](https://docs.kentico.com/13/on-line-marketing-features/managing-your-on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation/working-with-the-automation-process-designer/setting-timeouts-for-automation-process-steps.md) intervals, a process may run actions for pending contacts hours or even days after being disabled (e.g., send emails).

## Deleting automation processes

You can delete a running marketing automation process if you want to stop processing its contacts.

1. Open the **Marketing automation** application.
2. **Delete** () a process.
   - **Note** that the system stops processing all contacts that have not made it to the finished step.

You have deleted a marketing automation process and stopped all running instances of the process for contacts. If necessary, you can restore the process on the **Objects** tab of the **Recycle bin** application. Keep in mind that restoring a marketing automation process does not restore instances of the process for contacts.

If you only wish to stop a process from triggering for new contacts without removing it completely, you can [disable it](#disabling-automation-processes).