Email Automation – Mechanisms – The Basics

Welcome to the first installment of our blog series on email automation! In this first post, we dive into the fundamentals and take a closer look at the three core control elements: triggers, story, and branching.

Triggers: The Catalysts for Automated Emails

Triggers are the key component of any email automation. They define when an email gets sent, based on specific states or actions. A trigger can be a user action, such as subscribing to a newsletter, but it can also be reaching or falling below a certain key performance indicator (KPI). For example, an email might be triggered when a user becomes inactive, based on a dynamic score that measures user activity.

Other examples of triggers include:

A customer's birthday or anniversary

Abandoning a product in the cart without completing a purchase

Signing up for a webinar or event

Story: The Sequence of Activities and Triggers

The story is the sequence of activities and triggers that together form a thoughtfully designed journey for the user. A classic example is the onboarding journey, which helps a user get started with a product or service and guides them through various steps to full onboarding. This journey can also serve as a tutorial, gradually familiarizing the user with the product or service over time.

Other examples of story elements include:

A welcome series for new subscribers

A re-engagement campaign for inactive users

A product-usage journey introducing new features

Branching: Personalized Interaction

Branching makes it possible to create different paths within email automation, depending on the user's actions or preferences. Much like "if-then" logic, branching gives the user a choice, and the corresponding response or reaction follows based on that choice.

Examples of branching include:

Choosing between different product offers based on past purchases

Selecting topics of interest for a personalized newsletter

Choosing between different actions in a survey or poll

Conclusion

The fundamentals of email automation are essential for building an effective, customer-centric marketing strategy. Triggers, story, and branching form a logical framework for developing automated email campaigns that deliver relevant, engaging content to users.

By using triggers correctly, companies can automatically determine the right moment to send emails, driving higher engagement rates. Story makes it possible to build a coherent, purposeful journey for users, whether onboarding new customers or introducing new products. Branching, finally, opens up opportunities for personalized interactions that respond to each user's individual needs and preferences.

By understanding and effectively applying these core principles of email automation, companies can not only boost the efficiency of their marketing processes but also improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

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