Journeys
Event-triggered, multi-step flows you build on a visual canvas. The most-used automation in Scrollmark.
A journey is a flowchart. It starts with a trigger (something a follower does) and runs a chain of actions in response. Once you publish it, the journey runs forever — or until you pause it.
Journeys live in the sidebar under Journeys. Each connected account has its own set.
What a journey can do
- Reply to a comment publicly, then slide into the user's DMs with a follow-up
- Watch for a keyword in your inbox and auto-send a link, code, or menu
- Welcome every new follower with a personalized message
- Route any comment mentioning "refund" or "lawyer" straight to a human
- Tag the user with a loyalty point and drop them into an audience list
For the full list, see Triggers and actions.
Building your first journey
Open Journeys and pick the account
The sidebar takes you to the right place. The account bar at the top picks which social handle the journey belongs to.
Start from a template or from scratch
Instagram has pre-built templates for the most common plays: Keyword in Bio, Convert your Commenters, Collect Leads, Respond to Comments. Click one to load it into the builder, pre-wired.
Pick a trigger
Drag a trigger node onto the canvas from the left panel. You'll be asked to narrow it down — e.g. which posts to watch, which keywords to match.
Chain actions
Drag action nodes out from the trigger. Connect them with arrows. Each action opens a side panel where you write the message, pick the post, or set the delay.
Add conditions and delays
Use Conditions to branch on things like follower count, tags, loyalty points, or contact info. Use Time Delay to pause a journey between steps (a 10-minute wait before the follow-up DM feels less robotic).
Test in Test Mode
Enable Test Mode from the top of the builder. Scrollmark will only run the journey for accounts you whitelist — perfect for a dry run before going live.
Publish
Click Publish. The journey flips to PUBLISHED and starts matching
events immediately.
Nodes you'll use most
| Node | What it does |
|---|---|
| Trigger | The starting event. Every journey has exactly one. |
| Action | A thing Scrollmark does in response (DM, reply, hide, react). |
| Condition | Branches the flow. Puts the user on path A or path B. |
| Time Delay | Pauses the journey for minutes, hours, or days before the next step. |
| Subnode | A quick-reply button inside a DM that routes the user down a path. |
Branching on who the user is
Conditions are where journeys get interesting. Instead of sending every commenter the same DM, you can check:
- User follower count — treat a 50k account different from a 500-follower account
- Contact info — do they have an email on file? Send the onboarding link. No email? Ask for one first.
- User has tags — returning customer? Skip the intro pitch.
- Loyalty points — high-point fans get a thank-you, new fans get a welcome
- Account type — business vs. personal
- Engagement time / day — "was this DM sent on a weekend?"
You can also use Make Your Own to compare any variable against any value.
Templates worth knowing
The Instagram templates gallery ships with flows that map onto real SMM jobs:
| Template | When to use it |
|---|---|
| Keyword in Bio | Your bio says "DM us SURPRISE for a discount" — this handles the reply. |
| Convert your Commenters | Reply to a comment publicly, DM the commenter privately with a link. |
| Collect Leads | Ask a series of qualifying questions via quick-reply buttons. |
| Collect Leads (Complex) | Same, but with branching based on the answers. |
| Respond to Comments | Auto-reply to comments on a specific post. |
Load any template, then edit it — change the keywords, swap the copy, wire in your own branches.
Pausing, versioning, deleting
Every journey has three statuses: DRAFT, PUBLISHED, and paused. Draft journeys don't match events. Publishing creates a new revision — you can roll back to a previous revision if something breaks.
Publishing is live — immediately
There is no staging environment. The instant you publish, the journey starts matching real events. If you're nervous, use Test Mode first, or start with a narrow trigger (one hashtag, one post) and widen from there.
Welcome journey (special case)
The Welcome Journey is a dedicated journey that fires the first time a user interacts with your brand on a platform — a first comment or a first DM. It lives inside Social Loyalty → Welcome Journey, not in the main Journeys list, because it's tied to your loyalty program. See Social Loyalty for the setup.
Common pitfalls
| Pitfall | Fix |
|---|---|
| Journey doesn't trigger | Check the filter on your trigger — hashtag spelling, keyword list, post selection |
| Users getting spammed | Add a Condition → Actions over time check at the top of the flow |
| DMs fail silently | Meta only lets you DM users who have opted in. Add a comment-reply step first to collect consent. |
| Branching feels unclear | Name your conditions something readable in the side panel — your future self will thank you |