New Inbound Message

Last updated: April 12, 2026

Last Updated: April 12, 2026

Customer-Facing Guide

What this trigger does

New Inbound Message starts a workflow when Sendblue receives a new inbound message from a contact. It is useful when you want automation to react to replies, hand off to a rep, tag engaged leads, or remove contacts from outbound sequences.

When to use it

  • You want to stop or branch a workflow when a lead replies.

  • You want to tag or route engaged contacts based on inbound activity.

  • You need a follow-up process to begin only after the contact sends a message into Sendblue.

Good use cases

  • Stop or remove a contact from a nurture flow after they reply.

  • Tag contacts as responded / engaged and route them to a human owner.

  • Trigger a second workflow that handles reply-based routing or follow-up.

What to confirm before turning it on

  • The inbound message must actually reach Sendblue; if the reply never hits the platform, the trigger cannot fire.

  • You understand whether every inbound should trigger the workflow or only inbound messages that also meet other conditions.

  • You do not already have another reply-based trigger creating duplicate automation for the same contact.

Common mistakes

  • Assuming the trigger will fire when a reply stayed in the CRM or another system and never reached Sendblue.

  • Creating multiple reply-based workflows that all react to the same inbound message.

  • Forgetting to remove or pause old outbound sequences after an inbound reply arrives.

  • Treating an inbound trigger like a timing fix when the real issue is that the original workflow never stopped on response.

How to test it

  1. Send a real inbound message from a test contact.

  2. Confirm the reply appears in Sendblue first.

  3. Open execution logs and verify the workflow enrolled at the time of the inbound message.

  4. Check whether the expected tag, owner change, branch, or stop logic happened next.

If it does not fire

First confirm that the reply actually reached Sendblue. If the inbound is not visible in Sendblue, the issue is upstream of the trigger. If the inbound is visible but the workflow still did not run, review the workflow trigger configuration and any extra enrollment criteria.

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