In marketing, it’s all about triggering our customers to take action and turn interest into engagement.
Once they take action, like subscribing to a list or submitting a form, it’s our turn to move.
And by automating this process, we ensure that we move quickly!
Cue: Triggers!
Triggers are the conditions that kick off your automations and decide how and when contacts enter your workflows.
The great thing is, you can set up multiple triggers, meaning the same automation can start in different ways.
This lets you tailor your approach based on how people behave, helping you connect with them more personally. (And again, quickly!)
Here are a few things to note:
- If adding any triggers to an “Active” automation, make sure to set the automation to “Inactive” first. Once you’re done editing the automation, set it back to “Active” so contacts can continue to enter your automation and proceed through your workflow.
- Triggers can be set to run multiple times, meaning the same contact can enter your automation through the same trigger up to 10 times in a 24-hour window.
- Triggers available in the automation builder depend on your plan level. For example, some customers may have access to all triggers, whilst others may not. We’ll cover the triggers that are available to everyone below.
Here are some key triggers to understand:
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Subscribes to a list: Use this trigger to send welcome emails or create an onboarding sequence.
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Unsubscribes to a list: Use this trigger to reduce a contact or deal score, notify someone on your team that an unsubscribe occurred, or to end other automation workflows.
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Submits a form: Deliver opt-in incentives, apply interest tags, or increase a contact score with this trigger.
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Opens/reads an email: Apply a tag to engaged contacts, send a follow-up email or create a nurture series based on this trigger.
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Clicks a link in an email: Use this trigger to apply interest tags, trigger follow-up messages or adjust contact/deal scoore.
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Shares an email or Forwards an email: Use these triggers to thank a contact for sharing/forwarding your campaign or adjust a contact/deal score based on these triggers.
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Replies to an email: Use this trigger to create a task to respond to a contact, move a deal to a different stage of your pipeline, or to adjust a contact/deal score.
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Tag is added or Tag is removed: Begin a series of follow-up messages or end another automation based on these triggers.
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Web page is visited: Use this trigger to send follow-up emails, adjust a contact/deal score, or to apply interest tags.
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Makes a purchase: Collect feedback, send a thank you message, or begin a new customer onboarding experience based on this trigger.
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Abandons Cart: Use this trigger to send a message to contacts who abandon their cart or to add a tag to contacts.
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Order is created or Order is updated: Use this trigger to thank a contact, provide a cross-sell/up-sell, or send an automation campaign or SMS message.
Day 17 - Task of the Day:
Make a note of which triggers you could take advantage of.
Could you start an automation thanking your customers when they share or forward an email? Do you have a clever abandon cart automation in place? Are you automating actions based on tags added or removed?
Start building an automation from scratch using a start trigger that makes sense for your business.
More resources: