How to manage Rules in your Emails

Rules let you conditionally show or replace content in your Instant AI emails — without changing how your flows work. Instead of rebuilding flow logic, you control which parts of your email design appear based on filters like shopper location, purchase history, Shopify tags, or a scheduled date range.

Your flows continue to send automatically as normal. Rules only affect what the recipient sees inside the email.

What can you do with Rules?

Rules are useful any time you want different shoppers to see different email content. Common examples:

• Sales banners: Show a promotional banner during a sale and have it automatically disappear when the sale ends
• Shipping thresholds: Display different free shipping offers based on the shopper's country
• First-time vs. repeat shoppers: Show a different hero image depending on whether someone has purchased before
• B2B and wholesale customers: Add a banner exclusively for shoppers with a specific Shopify tag from your wholesale customers

How Rules work

There are two ways to use Rules in an email:

1. Add a new Rule block

This inserts a new block into your email that only appears when a condition is met. If no condition is met, nothing shows in that spot. Because you add it at the touchpoint level, you can insert different conditional content at different points in a flow.

2. Add a Rule to an existing block

This replaces an existing block with a conditional version. The original block remains as the default and shows to anyone who doesn't meet the condition. When a condition is met, the rule overrides the default with a different block.

Because the replacement applies to that block everywhere it is used, any changes will apply across all touchpoints and flows automatically. This makes it a powerful way to update content in bulk. If you want fine-grained control per touchpoint, use a new Rule block instead.

What filters are available in Rules

When you create a Rule, you set the condition using a filter. The available filters are:

1. Date
Show content during a named scheduled date range (e.g. Black Friday, Spring Sale). Date rules are managed centrally and can be reused across multiple emails. See Scheduled date rules below.

2. Location
Target shoppers based on their country. You can set the condition to In or Not In and select one or more countries from the list.

3. Purchased
Filter based on purchase history. Options include any product or selected products, total spend amount, and a date range (e.g. purchased in the last 60 days).

4. Email Activity
Target shoppers who have opened or clicked an email. You can filter by any email or a specific email, within a defined date range.

5. Shopify Tag
Match shoppers based on their Shopify customer tags. You can filter by Has All, Has Any, or Has None of the selected tags, and search from a live list pulled from your store.

Else conditions

You can chain multiple conditions onto a single rule using else logic. Conditions are evaluated in order: if the first condition is met, that block shows. If not, the next condition is evaluated, and so on. If no conditions are met, the default block shows (for a replace rule) or nothing shows (for an add rule).

How to use scheduled Date Rules 

Date rules let you schedule content to appear and disappear automatically across your emails. You give the date range a name (e.g. Spring Sale), set a start and end date and time, and any blocks using that rule will automatically activate and deactivate on schedule.

Because date rules are centralised, one rule can be attached to multiple blocks across multiple emails. If you need to update the dates, for example, to extend a sale, you only need to edit the rule once and it updates everywhere it is used.

Creating a date rule

1. Go to Template Designer and click Manage Rules
2. Click Create New Rule
3. Give the rule a name, set the start and end date and time, and save
4. The rule is now available to select as a filter when adding or editing a Rule block
   
   

Editing a date rule

1. Click Manage Rules from the Template Designer
2. Select the rule you want to edit
3. Update the name, start date, or end date and click Update Rule

Changes apply everywhere the rule is in use. Once the end date passes, the rule deactivates automatically and emails return to their default.

Pausing Instant Coupons during a date rule

When creating or editing a date rule, you can optionally check Pause Sending Instant Coupons in Emails during this time. When enabled, any Instant-managed coupons will not be included in emails for the duration of the rule. This is useful during a sitewide sale when you may not want to send additional discounts on top of your existing promotion.

Adding a Rule block to your email

1. Go to Template Designer, select a flow from the left, and click Edit Template
2. In the Add blocks panel on the left, find the Rule block — it has a green outline to distinguish it from standard blocks
3. Drag or click to place it in your email
4. Click Select filter in the left panel and choose your filter type
5. Configure the filter conditions and click Apply
6. Select a block type to show when the condition is met
7. To add additional else conditions, click + Add condition
8. Click Save Changes when done
   
   

Adding a Rule to an existing block

1. In the email editor, click the block you want to add a rule to — a Rule button will appear in the left panel

2. Click Rule
3. Click Select filter, choose your filter type, configure the conditions, and click Apply
4. Select the block type to show when the condition is met — this will replace the default block for shoppers who match
5. To add additional else conditions, click + Add condition
6. Click Save Changes when done

Shoppers who don't meet any condition will see the original default block.

Deleting rules

There are three levels of deletion when editing a rule on an existing block:

• To remove a single block from within a condition, click on the block you wish to remove and click the track icon on the top of the menu
• To remove a single condition from the chain, click the trash icon next to that condition
• To remove all rules from the block entirely, click the trash icon in the top right of the Rules panel

Previewing Rules

While editing, you can check how your rules will look using Preview mode.

1. Toggle Preview on in the top right of the editor
2. The email switches to a compiled read-only view — a green banner appears at the top showing Previewing [name] by default
3. Click the dropdown on the banner to switch to a specific rule variation — the banner updates to Previewing rule [rule name] and the email updates to show that rule's content
4. Toggle Preview off to return to editing
   
   

You can also preview rules from the Template Designer without entering edit mode. If you have rules configured, a Preview email as dropdown appears above the flow list. Select a flow, then use the dropdown to preview the email as a specific rule variation.

Managing Rules from the Template Designer

Click Manage Rules in the top right of the Template Designer at any time to view, edit, create, or delete your scheduled date rules. Each rule shows its name, date range, number of blocks it is applied to, and whether it is currently live or scheduled.

If you have no rules configured yet, the Preview email as dropdown will not appear — only Manage Rules is shown.