The Stop Block in Delivra's automation platform is a simple feature designed to manage the flow of contacts within your automations. Its primary purpose is to permanently hold contacts at a specific step, effectively halting their journey through the workflow. While it may sound basic, the Stop Block serves several strategic purposes that can enhance the flexibility and functionality of your automations.

What Does the Stop Block Do?

The Stop Block works by permanently pausing any contact that reaches it, ensuring they do not proceed further in the automation. This can be particularly useful in the following scenarios:

• Planning for Future Expansion: Adding a Stop Block at the end of an automation allows you to "hold" contacts if you plan to expand the workflow later. When you're ready to extend your automation, these contacts will still be available at the stopping point.
  
• When you are ready for the contacts to begin flowing again, simply delete the Stop from your automation
• Preventing Re-Entry: Contacts who never leave the automation cannot re-enter it. This makes the Stop Block ideal for automations that need to disqualify certain contacts from re-entering after they meet certain criteria, allowing you to plan for edge cases without creating complicated logic.

Key Use Cases for the Stop Block

1. Holding Contacts for Future Workflow Adjustments

   • If you're designing an automation that may grow in complexity, placing a Stop Block at the end ensures contacts remain paused until you're ready to add new steps.
   • Example: A nurture sequence where new messaging or segments might be added later.

2. Preventing Contacts from Re-Entering: Automations that are meant to disqualify contacts from re-entering benefit from the Stop Block. By keeping contacts in the automation indefinitely, you ensure they don’t accidentally re-qualify and re-trigger the workflow.

   • Example: A campaign to track a specific user behavior that should only trigger once per contact.

3. Specialized Holds: Use the Stop Block for contacts who meet unique criteria and should never exit the automation, even if your automation is set to generally allow re-entry.
   

1. Example: A campaign to issue special coupons where contacts may enter a number of times per year, but should never re-enter once they've used a coupon. 
   

Important Considerations

While the Stop Block offers valuable functionality, there are some critical points to keep in mind:

• Not Always Needed: A Stop Block to the end of an automation prevents contacts ever leaving the automation. This means they won’t be able to re-enter if needed in the future. If re-entry is a requirement for your automation, avoid placing a Stop Block at the end of the workflow.
  

• Outdated Contacts: Deleting a Stop step will immediately send all of the held contacts on to the next step in your automation, if there is one. If this is an Email or SMS step, consider placing an Evaluate step to filter out contacts that no longer meet your original criteria.
  

Best Practices for Using the Stop Block

To maximize the effectiveness of the Stop Block, consider these tips:

• Plan for the Future: Before adding a Stop Block, evaluate whether the automation might need to allow re-entry for any contacts.
• Combine with Entry Criteria: For automations with specific entry qualifications, strategic use of the Stop Step can help handle contacts without complicating your criteria.
• Use Sparingly: Only use Stop Blocks when necessary to avoid disrupting the flow of automations.

Conclusion

The Stop Block is an essential tool for managing complex workflows and ensuring contacts remain where they need to be. By understanding its functionality and potential impact on your automations, you can harness its capabilities to create workflows that are both efficient and scalable. Whether you’re planning for future growth or building a one-time process, the Stop Block offers the control you need to manage your contacts with precision.