Trigger Campaign: Why to Use It, to Whom It Is Suitable

Trigger email campaigns are electronic messages that are sent after a predefined condition is met. Here are several examples of such emails: welcome emails, holiday greetings, new product updates, purchase confirmation, discounts or bonuses, and others.

What Trigger Campaigns Are

A trigger in marketing is associated with events (reminder emails: a product of interest to the customer is back in stock), specific actions (registration, leaving a product in the shopping cart), or external factors (holidays, seasonal promotions, birthdays). A trigger email differs from regular email campaigns in that it is sent automatically when a potential buyer takes a certain action or meets specific conditions.

Such email campaigns are typically automated, especially when dealing with a large customer database.

Why are trigger emails important?

As we have already discovered, trigger email campaigns are sent in response to specific user actions or events. This approach brings higher conversion rates, including higher email open rates, lead generation, orders, and more. Trigger email sequences are part of email marketing automation. By creating the necessary email scenarios once, subscribers can receive timely and relevant emails.

An example of a welcome email

An example of a holiday greeting email

Advantages of triggered emails:

Timely reminders: Customers receive reminders at the most suitable times for them.
Automated setup: Once set up by an expert, the emails are sent automatically only when specific triggers are activated.
Relevance: Triggered emails are appropriate and personalized for each individual recipient.

The primary goal of triggered emails is to prevent potential customers from leaving the sales funnel. Triggers help to maintain continuous communication with customers.

In marketing, triggers optimize interaction with the audience. They are launched for:

Getting acquainted with new website visitors.
Generating interest among potential buyers.
Maintaining communication with existing customers.
Sending event reminders.
Informing about new updates.
Re-engaging potential and existing customers.

Types of trigger emails

Let's consider the types of trigger emails that can be divided into two categories: simple and complex.

Simple types include:

Welcome email for new customers (after registration).
Confirmation of subscription, order, or payment. They are sent immediately after the action.
Review. This can be a request to leave a review, a video of product unboxing in exchange for a discount, and more.
Holiday and special events. There is a wide variety of options: birthday gift, bonus for Mother’s Day, discounts for Black Friday, and more. It's also possible to create your own event, such as bonuses for the first day of summer or a gift related to a specific date since the customer's registration.

A holiday greeting email

Abandoned cart emails. It is important to pay attention to this moment and try to regain the customer's interest in purchasing your product. One option is to send a personalized offer of the kind: "Buy this item and get 200 bonus points for your next purchase."

An example of the abandoned shopping cart newsletter

Product update notifications. Subscribers receive notifications about the availability of a product that interests them, price reductions on it, or upcoming promotions.

A notification email from Icebergs

Thank you emails. It is important to express gratitude to customers for their actions, such as making a purchase or subscribing to a service.

An example where the brand thanks the client for sharing with a friend

Reactivation is for situations where a customer has not made conversions on the website for a long time.

The second category, complex triggers, includes:

Abandoned session. For example, a customer in a sports online store browsed several categories of products but did not add anything to the cart. Based on analytics, it is known that the customer was interested in a stationary bike. Send them emails related to that particular product, experimenting with different approaches ("Only three stationary bikes left in stock, get ready for summer without leaving your home!"). The complexity lies in setting up scripts that can identify even non-registered customers based on cookie data.
Post-purchase email. It is important to offer customers related products after a purchase. The challenge here is to provide a personalized and professional offer to the customer. If the offer is generic and recommends irrelevant products, the customer may lose interest or unsubscribe from the mailing list.
Multi-channel email marketing. The effectiveness of email campaigns is significantly enhanced by integrating different marketing channels such as social media, messaging apps, SMS, and more. The challenge here is to have a CRM system where information about your customers' contacts is gathered.

The most challenging aspect is considered to be the configuration of trigger offers based on analytics. With this approach, it is necessary to identify customers' non-obvious interests and send them highly personalized emails. Predicting customer actions helps a brand obtain valuable information by anticipating future customer behavior. Companies use this analysis to improve customer engagement but face the challenge of finding experts who have a deep understanding of predictive analytics.

Who needs trigger newsletters

Trigger email campaigns are beneficial for almost every company, especially those engaged in online sales. They allow for quick and personalized interaction with customers. Let's explore who can benefit from trigger emails and need them:

E-commerce and Info-business: Trigger emails are well-suited for notifying customers about new arrivals, abandoned cart reminders, discounts, promotions, and soliciting reviews.

Service industry: Emails can inform customers about service offers, promotions, discounts, highlight the benefits of a product/service, and prevent potential customers from leaving.

Media: Triggers can help re-engage the audience and generate interest, encouraging discussion about the content. Examples include welcome emails, requests for feedback, or expressing gratitude. For instance, if a reader leaves a comment on an article, you can send a thank-you email in response to their engagement on your website.

In general, trigger-based emails are valuable for businesses that want to enhance customer engagement, improve conversion rates, and provide personalized experiences.

Trigger emails vs transactional emails

Trigger and transactional emails are automatically sent to customers in response to their actions, but the difference lies in the fact that the main goal of triggered emails is to increase revenue and motivate customers to make a purchase.

The purpose of transactional email campaigns is to notify you of a specific transactional event, such as payment or refund confirmation, order processing or shipment, tariff change, password reset request, various notifications, and more.

Trigger emails	Transactional emails
The email can be sent immediately after the target action of the customer or after a certain period of time.	Emails are sent immediately in response to a specific action.
The goal is to sell a product/service and increase conversion on the website.	The goal is simply to notify the client about a completed action.
To send emails, it is necessary to have the client's consent to receive them. Clients should have the option to unsubscribe or opt out of the email subscription if they no longer wish to receive such emails.	To receive emails, it will be sufficient to enter your email address, and no subscription to the mailing list is required.

Analyzing the effectiveness of trigger email campaigns

It is not enough to simply set up a trigger email sequence and wait for an increase in conversion. It is important to understand that something may go wrong at some stage, so it is necessary to be able to analyze the effectiveness of trigger email campaigns. This can be done using the following metrics:

Deliverability: Measure the number of emails successfully delivered to recipients' inboxes. It indicates the effectiveness of your email delivery system and the quality of your email list.
Open rate: Calculate the percentage of recipients who opened your emails. A higher open rate suggests that your subject lines and sender names are engaging and enticing.
Click-through rate: Determine the percentage of recipients who clicked on the links in your emails. It indicates the level of engagement and interest generated by your email content.
Unsubscribe and spam complaint rate: Monitor the number of recipients who unsubscribe from your email list or report your emails as spam. High unsubscribe or spam complaint rates may indicate issues with your email content or targeting.
Conversion rate: Measure the percentage of recipients who take the desired action after clicking on a link in your email. It could be making a purchase, signing up for a webinar, or filling out a form. Tracking conversions helps evaluate the effectiveness of your call-to-action and landing page.
Revenue generated: Calculate the monetary value generated from your email campaign. This metric considers the overall revenue from the conversions made as a result of the email campaign.

Conclusion

As we have found out, trigger email campaigns play a significant role in a company's marketing strategy, as they deliver higher conversion rates, save time for marketers, and contribute to increased profitability. First, you need to determine the goal of your emails, then plan and create a sequence for trigger sales.

To determine which specific triggers are needed for your brand, it is recommended to create several simple test emails and analyze their effectiveness.