Flows vs sequences vs broadcasts: which one to use

How it works

The three answer different questions. A broadcast answers "what do I tell everyone today?" A sequence answers "what does someone get, in order, once they start?" A flow answers "when this happens, what should we do?"

	Broadcast	Sequence	Flow
Starts	When you send or schedule it	When a person is started on it	When something happens to a person
Goes to	An audience, all at once	One person at a time	One person at a time
Shape	One email	Emails with delays between them	Steps: send, wait, branch, tag, start a sequence
Example	The Monday newsletter	A five-email course	On purchase: thank-you, wait a week, then a review request

Why it matters

• The right tool stays simple. A newsletter doesn't need branching, and a purchase follow-up shouldn't be a manual send.
• Logic and content stay apart. A sequence holds the emails. The flow holds the decisions: who starts it, when, and what happens after.
• They meet in the inbox. A promotional broadcast can land in the middle of someone's onboarding sequence unless something holds it back.

How Mimeo handles it

These are Mimeo's own names. Broadcasts are one email, one segment, one datetime, with the audience worked out when it sends. Sequences are a series of emails and nothing more: steps, delays and repeat-run rules. Flows start on an event, an approaching subscription renewal or end, or a stretch of inactivity, and run steps that include starting a sequence. A flow waits at that step until the sequence finishes.

All three send through the same queue, so suppression, send windows and guards apply to each. A guard is how a broadcast stays away from people partway through a sequence. Your agent edits the same flows and sequences through the API, MCP or your manager repo. See Mimeo terms for all three in Mimeo's own words.