What are Knock's Segments workflows

A segment workflow turns a group of companies or people you care about into outreach that happens on its own.

You already build segments in Knock - enterprise accounts in your space, people who looked at pricing last week, companies that leaked but never became customers. Until now a segment was something you looked at. With a segment workflow, joining the segment is what starts the conversation: the moment a company or a contact matches your filters, Knock enriches them, decides who owns them, and sends a LinkedIn message.

How it works

1. You pick a segment - an existing one, or you build it in the wizard.
2. Someone joins it - a company or a contact starts matching the filters.
3. Knock enriches them. For a company workflow, that includes finding the buying committee.
4. Your routing rule decides who owns them.
5. A LinkedIn message goes out on the owner's behalf, or from a person you choose.

Two kinds of segment workflow

The first screen asks who joins the segment, and that choice decides who receives the message.

Company joins a segment (ABM) - a company matches, and Knock messages the buying committee personas you pick at that company. One company can produce several messages, one per person found.

Contact joins a segment - a person matches, and Knock messages that person. One message, to the one who matched.

What teams use this for

Work your ICP without building a list every quarter

Segment: your ICP filters - space, size, funnel stage is not customer. Every company that starts matching is reached that day, instead of waiting for someone to pull a list.

Reach the whole buying committee, not just whoever showed up

A company joins, and Knock messages the Champion, the Decision Maker and anyone else you pick - with a different message for each if the pitch differs by role.

Act on intent while it is fresh

Segment: people who viewed pricing in the last 7 days, Director and above. Matching today means a message today.

Win back companies that went quiet

Segment: open opportunities with no activity for three weeks. The workflow picks them up without anyone remembering to.

Follow up on the ones that leaked

Segment: companies that visited and never converted, not customers. A small, specific message tends to do better here than a campaign.

Step 1 - Pick or build the segment

You can use an existing segment or create one without leaving the wizard.

• Create new segment opens the builder - Properties and Signals, AND / OR groups, and a live count as you go.
• Or use an existing segment - search your saved segments. Company segments show for ABM, contact segments for the contacts workflow.
• Selecting one shows its details on the right: the filters in plain words, and the total matching companies or contacts. View companies opens the list so you can see exactly who is in there before committing.

Once a workflow is created it holds its own copy of the filters. Deleting or editing the saved segment on the Companies or Contacts table does not change a live workflow - to change who enters, edit the workflow.

Starting from the Companies or Contacts table

You do not have to start on the Workflows page. If you are already filtering the table and you like what you see, turn it into outreach from there.

1. Filter the table as you normally would.
2. Click Send outreach next to Save as segment.
3. The New Segment panel opens with your filters prefilled - name it, adjust anything, and check the total on the right.
4. Save & build outreach saves the segment and drops you straight into the outreach step, with the trigger already set.

Step 2 - Set up the outreach

One screen holds everything that happens after someone joins.

Routing - choose the routing rule that decides who owns the lead. These are the same rules your form workflows use. Anyone the rule disqualifies gets no outreach.

Send from - the owner the routing picked, or a specific person you choose. Choosing a person does not change who owns the lead or who handles the reply.

Send to - for ABM, pick the buying committee personas: Champion, Influencer, User, Decision Maker, Blocker. Hovering a persona shows how it is defined. For a contacts workflow this is fixed - the person who matched.

Message - write the LinkedIn message, with variables and a suggested message to start from.

One message, or one per persona

By default everyone you selected gets the same message. Add message splits a persona out so it can have its own - useful when a security lead and a finance lead care about different things. Each message can also come from a different sender.

The panel on the right shows the whole workflow as you build it, so you can read it end to end before launching.

Using variables

Type / anywhere in the message to drop in a variable - first name, company name, the owner, your booking link. Knock fills them in for each person. If a variable has no value for someone, Knock removes it rather than leaving a gap.

Going live

Review & go live opens a short check before anything is sent.

• Name the workflow.
• Who can enter - by default only companies or contacts that join from now on. Turn on Start runs for companies already in this segment to also include those that joined in the last 30 days, and the modal shows how many that is, with a link to see them.

Messages do not all go out at once. LinkedIn limits how much one account can send, so outreach is spread over days. A large backfill takes a while to work through, which is worth knowing before you turn it on.

Managing a live workflow

Each workflow has an Overview, plus tabs for Outreach and Routing. The Overview shows what happens to every lead - the trigger, the action and the messages that will be sent - and whether it is live.

How often someone gets contacted

• The same person is never sent two automated messages by the same sender, across every workflow, with no expiry.
• Anyone already in an open conversation with you is skipped.
• A company or a person can match several workflows. Nobody receives more than their limits allow, however many they match.

When someone replies

The reply comes back in Slack. A card goes to the owner and to your channel, naming the workflow it came from and carrying everything Knock knows about the person, so the conversation can continue without digging.

What lands in your CRM

• Segment workflow status and Segment workflow owner on the contact, in a new Segment group.
• Segment workflow owner on the company, for HubSpot and Salesforce.
• Contacts and companies are created according to your existing setting - when someone enters, only once they qualify, or not at all.

Measuring it

The workflows table lists every workflow with its status, trigger, outreach sent and replies. For an ABM workflow, outreach sent can be higher than the number of companies enrolled, because one company can produce several messages.

FAQ

• What are Knock's Segments workflows
• How it works
• Two kinds of segment workflow
• What teams use this for
• Step 1 - Pick or build the segment
• Starting from the Companies or Contacts table
• Step 2 - Set up the outreach
• One message, or one per persona
• Using variables
• Going live
• Managing a live workflow
• How often someone gets contacted
• When someone replies
• What lands in your CRM
• Measuring it
• FAQ