The Blog>How to Send Trigger Emails That Keep Customers Coming Back

How to Send Trigger Emails That Keep Customers Coming Back

Posted by Lina Vashurina, Team

How does your business re-engage therecently departed visitor, thank its loyal customers, recovers abandoned carts, andencourage repeat purchases? Has itimplemented asolution that can doall ofthese atonce?

Weare referring toareal marketing tool, though itmay sound like magic. Event-triggered emails are not only than conventional email newsletters, they are automatic andself-driving upon proper configuration. This article will explain them toyou from top tobottom.

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What are event-triggered emails?

Triggered emails are sent toasubscriber upon their taking aspecific action.

They may contain information about anorder’s delivery status, areminder oftheproducts left intheshopping cart without having completed checkout, oreven just abirthday greeting.

Assoon astheaction occurs, (for example, thecalendar hits thecustomer’s birthday), theautomated message issent tothesubscriber without anyhuman effort required. Most email providers have options forthetrigger email functionality ontheir paid plans.

Your trigger emails might include dynamic content, meaning that theemail can beintelligently customized tosuit theevent’s purposes.

well-configured template allows you toautomatically fill theemail inwith thename oftherecipient andother relevant details innatural, appealing places.

When doIuse trigger emails?

Having awell-oiled trigger email system isacornerstone ofmarketing automation. They let you stay intouch with your customers during nonworking time, andthey doitinaway that isn’t creepy ;-)

Atthesame time, trigger emails are atried-and-true mechanism forcatching customers who might fall out ofyour sales funnel.

Amazon trigger email offers torate your purchase right after you bought theproduct

These email systems are used tostir upandre-invigorate cold leads, increasing someone’s readiness topurchase, andthey work easily across anumber ofuse cases. Suppose one (or many) ofthefollowing events happened toyou, just asthey dotoanye-commerce shop.

Someone writes toyou andincludes their contact details, whether it’s received privately orvia social media. Byvirtue ofdoing so, theassumption isthat they maintain some level ofinterest inyour product orniche, but they might not beready tobuy yet. How doyou follow upwith every single one ofthem?

When acustomer volunteers his orher contact details tocomplete anorder, you ought tobecapturing this inadatabase touse foryour own marketing purposes. When done manually, this isavery taxing task.

You want tosend your customers content that isuseful andtime-relevant, andyou ought towant todosoaseasily aspossible. Worthwhile trigger email systems can not only respond totheuser’s individual actions (returning toone ofyour mailings five times, taking anyother specific action that can bemeasured across your sales funnel), but they can respond toanevent inreal human life (like athree-year anniversary oftheir registering foryour site orabirthday).

Mail chains andtheir content can beautomated inresponse toaperson’s readiness forpurchase.

For example:

Byconsidering thedata generated when people open these emails, you more clearly see thepeople who are themore likely motivated buyers. With athreshold forinteraction identified, you can automatically spring your coupon orspecial offer tofurther urge asale. When that threshold iswell-defined andcustomers are glad toreceive your emails, you differentiate yourself from other spammy companies.

How tocreate atrigger newsletter

Trigger emails are supported bymost modern email marketing services, like , , , , , andthelike). There are some services that specialize intrigger emails specifically like Mandrill, , Mailtrig.

Some platforms offer ready-made automations forpersonalized offers. For instance, Omnisend provides pre-built workflows forcross-selling, abandoned cart recovery, andmore.

Before choosing your provider, you ought todesign your trigger chains first sothat you know what types offeatures you’ll need. Send afew emails manually tosmall segments ofyour customer base andsee which triggers perform best foryou. For example, send some thank yous tonewly registered members, then send some delivery status updates, then offer additional products tothose who have recently completed checkout. Bylooking attheopen rates andtracking clicks onlinks within theemail, you get aclear sense ofwhat works andwhat doesn’t.

Your trigger events ofcourse ought tobetailored tothenature ofyour business andits ability torespond tocustomer requests. Customers ofahypothetical cosmetics store might react well toapersonal discount after acompleting acertain number ofpurchases andthecustomers ofahypothetical children’s clothing store will behappy ifyou can remember ababy’s birthday.

Iloved this table onthewebsite andwas glad toreceive thereminder

Here isanexample ofatrigger email campaign forresponding tonew clients:

  1. Once registered, avisitor receives anemail 1-2days later with some kind ofpitch tomake apurchase. Ifapurchase iscompleted within some amount oftime from receiving this email, thechain continues andthey get another email (say, ofproducts related totheone they purchased) aday later.
  2. Ifresponse tothefirst letter ispoor, thefollowup email instead comes in3-4weeks .
  3. Thank you notes anddiscounts are sent automatically upon thecompletion offuture purchases.
  4. The customer periodically receives anemail about anyinteresting new products.

    personalization lesson from Sktchy: they segment subscribers into countries anduse anative word forgreeting. “Kroshka” means “baby”, Ican’t help smiling every time Ireceive thenewsletter.

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About The Author
Lina is a content creator at . She writes to inspire and educate readers on all things commerce. She loves to travel and runs marathons.

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