Why a campaign is always outbound, on every channel
There is no direction control: a campaign that waits for the phone to ring is just a channel. What it adds is the reaching out, across calls, WhatsApp and email.
Every campaign is outbound and there is no setting to change that. It is worth understanding why, because the reasoning explains how the whole product is divided. A channel is a line something arrives on. A campaign is an audience you reach out to, on whichever of those lines the person answers. A campaign that waited for the phone to ring would have no audience and no sequence — it would just be a channel with extra words.
Before you start
- Nothing. Read it if you have been looking for a direction setting.
Reference
Notice there is no direction setting
The control does not exist because there is nothing to choose. If you find yourself wanting an inbound campaign, what you want is a channel with incoming enabled, pointed at a bot or a call flow.
Use a channel for inbound
A channel with incoming enabled, pointed at a bot or a call flow. That is what "handling inbound calls" is. The same for chat: a WhatsApp or web widget channel pointed at a bot or your team.
Use a campaign for reaching out
An audience, a sequence, and the channels it may use — calls, WhatsApp, email. None of those makes sense for a conversation you did not start. The campaign reaches each person on whichever channel they answer, and stops when they do.
Use a sequence for one person
Same reaching out, but for one person, started by something they did — a form fill, a booking — and able to move their stage, create a task or book a meeting between steps. A campaign is for an audience; a sequence is for an individual.
Combine them for a real process
An inbound enquiry is answered by a bot, qualified, and its stage moves. A campaign then picks up everyone at that stage and reaches out. The two halves meet on the contact record rather than in an integration.
Put it to use
Build the pair once: a channel that captures and qualifies, and a campaign whose audience is a filter on the stage that channel produces. That is the shape most teams end up with, and it is worth arriving at deliberately.
The parts people get wrong
- A campaign never defines a channel of its own. It uses the lines you connected, with their hours and limits.
- A channel answers with exactly one thing. A campaign reaches out on several. That asymmetry is deliberate.
The ones people actually ask
How do I make an inbound campaign?
You do not, and the control does not exist because there is nothing to choose. What you want is a channel with incoming enabled, pointed at a bot or a call flow — that is what handling inbound is. A campaign is an audience, a sequence and the channels it reaches out on.
How do the two halves fit together?
On the contact record. An inbound enquiry is answered by a bot, qualified, and its stage moves; a campaign then picks up everybody at that stage and reaches out. They meet on the record rather than in an integration.