> This page is part of the [Customer.io documentation](https://docs.customer.io). For the complete index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.customer.io/llms.txt).

# Adoption: drive feature usage

Business-to-business (B2B) companies often need to track and drive growth across both individual users of their product and the account or company they work for. In Customer.io, [objects](/journeys/objects-data/objects/) help you do this.

For this recipe, imagine you work at a design platform, **Sketcher.io**, which offers graphic design and product design tools. Each user belongs to an **Account**, a type of object in your workspace that represents the company they work for. You want to drive product usage by encouraging people to collaborate by sharing their work.

To accomplish this, let’s build a segment of people who have not shared their work recently, but have signed in recently. Then we’ll create an automation triggered by people in this segment and encourage them to share.

## Prerequisites

*   [Access](/accounts/settings/team/intro-account-access/#roles-and-permissions) to create [segments](/journeys/segmentation/segments/) and [automations](/journeys/send/campaigns/overview/)
*   Integrate non-people data as [objects and relationships](#set-up-objects) in your workspace

## Set up objects and relationships

In this example, the workspace includes Account [**objects**](/messaging/objects-data/objects/start/) and we track profiles’ feature usage on their **[relationships](/journeys/objects-data/objects/relationships/)** to these Accounts.

If you’re not yet integrated but want to test this out, you can [import objects and relationships via CSV](/messaging/objects-data/objects/import-objects/).

You can import fake data to play around with but delete it once you're done.

You can import test data to follow along, but you might want to import to a new workspace so you don’t clutter your live data. Also remember to **delete any unnecessary data after you’re done because [profiles and objects count towards billing](/accounts/billing/how-we-bill/)**.

Tip

Here’s a [spreadsheet with sample data ↗](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GXxYaTi_e-UqqeDAjwu_QpinUmwPrivD38Jmztd1uj8/edit?gid=0#gid=0) - we’re working off of the Accounts and AccountsRelationships tabs.

## Create a segment to target active users that have not used a feature recently

1.  Go to *Segments* and click **Create Segment**.
2.  Add a name like “Recent Users That Have Not Recently Shared,” and click **Create Data-driven Segment**.
3.  Click the dropdown “Add condition or group” and choose **Relationship**.
4.  Specify that the relationship between a person and **Accounts** exists with the following conditions or other conditions that fit your needs:

 ![/images/sketcher-recent-users-segment.png](https://docs.customer.io/images/sketcher-recent-users-segment.png)

In this example, Sketcher.io tracks the last time each person shares designs (`last_shared`) on the relationship to the account, so we’ll use this to determine if people have used the share feature recently. Consider what attributes in your own data would help filter for users that haven’t used a feature!

1.  Click the dropdown “Add condition or group” and choose **Event**. Choose the event that represents signing in to your platform, in this case, it’s `sign_in`. Then specify they should have signed in recently - at least once within the past 30 days.
2.  Click **Save Changes**.

Now you’re ready to create an automation to drive feature adoption!

## Create an automation to drive feature adoption

1.  Go to *Automations* and click **Create Automation**.
2.  Enter a name, like “Remind People to Share.” If helpful, add a description so other team members can understand the automation at a glance.
3.  Click **Manage** under *Messages*. Set the [**Subscription preference**](/messaging/channels/subscriptions/overview/) to determine who will get your messages.
4.  Click **Choose trigger** and select **Segment change**.
5.  Choose the segment you made to target [active users that have not used a feature recently](#create-segment). Save your changes.
6.  Click the trigger block again then click **Frequency** to expand the settings. Set the frequency of entry. We want this automation to reach out to people once a month, so let’s change the frequency to “every re-match” after a minimum of 30 days. This means people will re-enter the automation every time they re-enter the segment after at least 30 days.
7.  Next, drag an **Email** into your *Workflow*. Click the email then **Add Content**.
8.  You can create an email from scratch or from an existing email. Here’s an example of an email you could make! It encourages the audience of your automation to log in and share their designs.

 ![/images/sketcherio-recent-user-email.png](https://docs.customer.io/images/sketcherio-recent-user-email.png)

1.  Click **Save** then **Back to Workflow**.
2.  Click the email again, click *Settings*, and change the [sending behavior](/messaging/send/timezones/queue-draft/) from *Queue Draft* to **Send automatically**.
3.  Next, define what should cause people to convert. Click the title menu in the top left, and click **Set goal**. In this example, we’ll say people convert when they perform the [event](/journeys/people/events/) `share_with_colleague` within 1 week of being sent any delivery from this automation.
4.  Click **Start Automation** to review your workflow and activate your automation!

©2026 Peaberry Software, Inc. [Status](https://status.customerio.com/) [Terms of Service](https://customer.io/legal/terms-of-service/) [Privacy Policy](https://customer.io/legal/privacy-policy/)

[](https://www.linkedin.com/company/customer-io)[](https://twitter.com/customerio)[](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkCaWdezRoa8ZyR9pEVaipA)[](https://www.instagram.com/customer.io/)