Skip to main content
All CollectionsAutomationsConditions
Using "Target" Tokens in Automations Triggering a Specific Event
Using "Target" Tokens in Automations Triggering a Specific Event

How to use target conditions and tokens in automated emails to target the specific event that triggered the automation.

Nicole avatar
Written by Nicole
Updated over 3 months ago

How to Tell an Automation to Run for a Specific Type of Event

There are three types of Event Types you can observe in an Automation: Call, Meeting and Session.  In your account, you are likely to have multiple Event Types that are of each kind.  If you would only like to run a particular Automation when a very specific Event Type is coming up on the calendar, rather than for all Sessions, for example, you can do so by adding a condition to your Automation that targets the specific type of event that's triggering the Automation.

Example: Calendar › Session checks your Táve calendar for any event that is a categorized as a Session.  You’d use this observable if you wanted to take an action based on the date of a Session, such as a 2 week reminder.

If you want to tailor the Automation to just go out for a particular "Session" Event Type, you would add a condition using the token {{target.type_name}} to tell it the exact name of the Event Type you want it to target, like this:

This condition will target the specific event type name, of the session that triggered the automation to run, and will only continue if that event type name exactly matches Photo Booth Service. You'll find your event type names here in Settings › Event Types:

That whole automation would then look something like this:

Here's what it's doing:

  • WHEN it's 2 weeks before a session event type in your calendar

  • IF that session's event type name exactly matches Photo Booth Services

  • THEN send out the GIF Booth Upcoming Tips email to the clients

You can use the same exact condition for other events on your calendar, such as Call and Meeting Event Types.

If you're not sure which event types are Session, Call or Meeting kinds, check the event type here in Settings › Event Types to see the Kind:

Calendar › Session automations will run for all event types marked as Session kinds; Calendar › Call automations will run for all event types marked as Call kinds; and Calendar › Meeting will run for all event types marked as Meeting kinds.

When & How to Use Target Tokens in Email Templates

In some circumstances, you may have a job that could have more than one of the same Event Type (say a generic "meeting" for example) on their schedule.  Automating email reminders that pull in the event's details, such as date, start time, location, could get tricky, since using the {{meeting.start_time}} token, for example, would pull in the start times for all meetings of that kind on the schedule, not knowing which one you're referring to.

There is a way to tailor your automated emails using what we call "target" tokens.  Using the target prefix will tell the system to only pull in the data for the event being targeted by the Automation.  

Example: Here's a visual of how this is done, using an event type that uses the prefix consultation.

In my usual email template for my consultation reminders, I use the tokens shown here to pull in the details of the wedding consultation on the lead's schedule, both in the subject line and the body of the email:

If I were to automate this email instead of manually sending it, and there's a chance one lead/job could have multiple events of this type of its schedule, it would be best to use target tokens.

Instead of the "consultation" prefix for these tokens, I'd simply replace them with the word "target":

Note: Target tokens will only work in automated emails directly sent (not drafted and sent later), and will never work on manually sent emails, as the "target" prefix refers to the thing being targeted by the Automation.

You can see a video demonstration and discussion of this in a past webinar:

Did this answer your question?