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---
title: Waitlist with confirmation email
description: Track signups as a custom event, store everyone who joins as a contact, and automatically email them
icon: ListOrdered
---
A waitlist is the simplest possible Plunk workflow: one tracked event from your app, one workflow that listens for it, one email.
## Setup
import {Step, Steps} from 'fumadocs-ui/components/steps';
<Steps>
<Step>
### Create the confirmation template
In **Templates → New template**, create a **Marketing** template. Use `{{variable}}` placeholders for anything you want to personalise from contact data:
```text
Subject: You're on the list, {{firstName}}
Hi {{firstName}}, thanks for joining the {{product}} waitlist.
We'll let you know as soon as your spot opens up.
```
</Step>
<Step>
### Track the signup from your backend
Call `POST /v1/track` when a user submits the form. Use a secret key (`sk_*`) — never call this from the browser.
```bash
curl https://next-api.useplunk.com/v1/track \
-H "Authorization: Bearer sk_your_secret_key" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"event": "waitlist.joined",
"email": "ada@example.com",
"data": { "firstName": "Ada", "product": "Beta" }
}'
```
This call upserts the contact (subscribed by default) and records `waitlist.joined` on them. Anything you put in `data` lands on the contact and is available as `{{firstName}}`, `{{product}}`, etc. in the template.
<Callout title="Pick a stable event name" type="info">
A workflow's trigger event **cannot be changed after the first execution**. Namespace it (`waitlist.joined`) rather than something generic you might want to reuse.
</Callout>
</Step>
<Step>
### Create the workflow
**Workflows → New workflow**:
- **Trigger**: `EVENT` on `waitlist.joined`
- Add a `SEND_EMAIL` step pointing at the template from step 1
Enable the workflow. Workflows are created disabled — until the toggle is on, nothing fires.
</Step>
</Steps>
## Tagging signups for later
If you want to segment on waitlist signups later, add an `UPDATE_CONTACT` step before the email:
```json
{ "stage": "waitlist", "waitlistSource": "{{event.referrer}}" }
```
You can then build a [segment](/concepts/segments) of contacts where `stage == "waitlist"` to target with follow-up campaigns. This is cleaner than filtering on "ever fired `waitlist.joined`."
## What's next
<Cards>
<Card title="Workflows" href="/concepts/workflows">
Step types and trigger semantics.
</Card>
<Card title="Track event API" href="/api-reference/public-api/trackEvent">
Full reference for `POST /v1/track`.
</Card>
</Cards>