What Is a Cadence?

A Cadence is an automation feature in Zoho CRM that lets you set up sequential, outcome-based follow-ups for your borrowers. Instead of manually tracking who needs a follow-up call, email, or task, a cadence automatically triggers the next step based on how the previous step played out.

Each step in a cadence can be:

• An email
• A call
• A task

And each subsequent step is triggered based on the outcome of the one before it — for example, whether an email was opened, clicked, bounced, replied to, or ignored.

Why Use Cadences?

Cadences solve a common problem: "What happens next if this email bounces? What if someone replies? What if they don't respond at all?" Rather than building this logic manually in a workflow (which can get complicated), cadences make branching, outcome-based follow-up sequences simple to configure.

Key benefits:

• Automates multi-step outreach without manual tracking
• Branches follow-up actions differently depending on the result (opened vs. clicked vs. bounced vs. no response)
• Supports automatic enrollment of records via custom views
• Supports automatic and manual unenrollment
• Provides built-in analytics on performance (send rate, reply rate, bounce rate, unsubscribe rate)

Important limitations to know:

• A borrower can only be enrolled in one cadence at a time
• A borrower cannot be re-enrolled into a cadence they were previously unenrolled from

Key Concept: Custom Views

Before building a cadence, it helps to understand custom views, since they're central to automatic enrollment.

A custom view is a filtered subset of your borrowers based on specific criteria (e.g., "Status = Prospect" and "Created Time = This Week"). Once set up:

• Any new or existing record matching the criteria is automatically added to that view
• If the cadence uses that view for enrollment, the record is automatically enrolled in the cadence too
• If a record later no longer meets the criteria, it drops out of the view and is automatically unenrolled from the cadence

To create a custom view:

1. Go to the relevant module (e.g., Borrowers)
2. Click the dropdown on the left showing your list of views
3. Select New Custom View
4. Define your filter criteria (e.g., Status = Prospect, Created Time = This Week)
5. Save

How to Create a Cadence: Step-by-Step

1. Navigate to Cadence Setup

Go to Setup → Automation → Cadences, then click Create Cadence.

2. Name the Cadence and Choose a Module

Give the cadence a clear name, and select the module it applies to (e.g., Borrowers or even a custom module like Paper Mortgage). This determines which records can be enrolled.

3. Choose How Records Are Enrolled

You'll be asked "Who is this for?" with two options:

• Manual enrollment — Add borrowers one at a time by going into their record, clicking the three-dot menu, and selecting Add to Cadence.
• Automatic enrollment via custom view — Select an existing custom view; any record matching that view's criteria is enrolled automatically.

4. Set Up the Initial Action

This is the first step in the cadence — typically an email. Configure:

• Timing: Send immediately, or delay by minutes/hours/days/business hours/business days
• Recipient field: e.g., primary email address
• Template: Select the email template to send
• From / Reply-to address

Save this step once configured.

5. Build Follow-Up Steps Based on Outcomes

This is where cadences shine. For the initial action, you can add multiple follow-up branches based on different outcomes, such as:

• Sent
• Opened
• Clicked
• Bounced
• Replied
• Unsubscribed

For each outcome you want to act on, create a follow-up step (task, email, or call), set its timing, and configure the details (priority, assignee notification, etc.).

Note on priority: If multiple outcomes could technically apply (e.g., an email is opened, then clicked, then unsubscribed), the system follows the first outcome that occurred and runs only that branch — it does not run multiple follow-up branches for a single action.

6. Chain Additional Follow-Ups (Build the Tree)

You can continue adding follow-ups to each branch, based on the outcome of the previous follow-up step. For example: if a follow-up task is marked "Completed," you could then schedule a call a week later. This creates a tree structure — each branch (Opened, Bounced, etc.) can have its own chain of follow-up actions.

7. Publish the Cadence

Once your steps and branches are fully configured, click Publish to activate the cadence.

How Records Get Unenrolled

There are four ways a record can be removed from a cadence:

1. Specific date — Set a fixed unenrollment date when configuring the cadence.
2. Reply to any email — If the borrower replies to any email within the cadence, they're automatically unenrolled from the entire sequence.
3. Manual removal — Go to the record, click the three-dot menu, and select Remove from Cadence.
4. Drops out of custom view — If enrollment was automatic via a custom view and the record no longer meets the view's criteria, it's automatically unenrolled.

Viewing Cadence Analytics

To review performance:

1. Go to the Cadence
2. Click View Reports

You'll see stats broken down by action type (email, task, call), filterable by date range, including:

• Emails sent
• Reply rate
• Bounce rate
• Unsubscribe rate

Cadences vs. Workflows — What's the Difference?

Workflows are more flexible in the range of actions they support, but configuring outcome-based follow-ups (e.g., "if this bounces, do X; if it's opened, do Y") is not always straightforward. Cadences are purpose-built for this: they make setting up sequential, outcome-triggered follow-ups quick and intuitive, though the action types are more limited (primarily email, call, and task).

Quick Reference Summary

Additional Resources

For a full walkthrough with live examples in the CRM, watch the recorded training session: 🔗 https://www.loom.com/share/cadb09ae3de74efb957fb2d72cfbcb81

Questions? Reach out to the Customer Success team via email, call, or live chat.