# Enrollment: who enters a journey

**Category:** [CRM](https://help.totalctrl.app/hc/totalctrl/totalctrl-help-center/en-US/categories/crm-1)
**Updated:** 2026-08-19

## Three ways to enroll contacts

### Event — on signup

Enrolls a contact the moment they are created (for example, when your app reports a new signup through the API). This is how you build a **welcome** or onboarding drip.
### Segment — when they match a filter

A scheduled sweep enrolls every contact who matches your rules. Rules combine fields like lifecycle stage, plan, lead score, and dates. For a **win-back**, add the rule *Last seen · more than 30 days ago* (the value is a number of days). Contacts are enrolled once unless you enable *Allow re-entry*.
### Manual

Add contacts yourself / via the API.
## Email steps & timing

Each step is one email with a delay. The first step's delay is measured from enrollment; each later step's delay is measured from the previous step — so *0 days*, then *2 days*, then *3 days* sends on day 0, day 2, and day 5. Use `{{first_name}}` and `{{email}}` in the subject or body for personalization. Contacts who unsubscribe or hard-bounce are skipped automatically.

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## Related Articles

- [What are Journeys?](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/journeys-overview)
- [CRM Overview](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/crm-overview)
- [CRM overview](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/crm-overview-1)
- [Work pipelines and deals](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/crm-pipelines-and-deals)
- [Running Email Campaigns](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/running-email-campaigns)

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