# How people are enrolled

**Category:** [CRM](https://help.totalctrl.app/hc/totalctrl/totalctrl-help-center/en-US/categories/crm-1)
**Updated:** 2026-10-04

There are two ways a contact joins a journey.
### When something happens

An **event** journey enrols a contact at the moment they are created. This is how Welcome and the Onboarding drip work. Someone signs up, and the sequence begins.
### When they match a filter

A **segment** journey checks your contacts regularly and enrols anyone who matches its filter. This is how the trial journeys work — they look at trial information held against each contact.
### Nobody is enrolled twice

A contact joins each journey at most once. Completing a journey does not put them back at the start, and someone who is still receiving one will not be enrolled again.
### Timing between emails

Each email's delay is counted from the *previous* email, not from enrolment. In the Onboarding drip the delays are 2, 3 and 5 days, which lands the three emails on days 2, 5 and 10.
### Who is never emailed

- Contacts with no email address.
- Anyone who has unsubscribed.
- Anyone on your suppression list.

These contacts are skipped silently and the journey moves on.

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## Related Articles

- [CRM Templates: tailor your Contact, Company & Task forms](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/crm-templates-tailor-your-contact-company-task-forms)
- [Work pipelines and deals](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/crm-pipelines-and-deals)
- [Editing the copy and activating a journey](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/journeys-activate)
- [Journeys API: integration guide (with code)](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/journeys-api-integration)
- [Trial and lifecycle information on contacts](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/journeys-trial-data)

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