What is a triggered email?
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A triggered email is an email that goes out automatically when someone does something specific on your site or app. Examples: you add a product to your cart and don't check out, you download a lead magnet, you reach day 3 of a trial. The action triggers the email.
Triggered emails are different from newsletters (which go to everyone at once on a schedule) and transactional emails (which fulfill a direct request like a password reset). The key difference: triggered emails react to behavior, not requests. You didn't ask for the cart abandonment email. It just showed up because you left something behind.
Common triggered email types: cart abandonment reminders, welcome series after signup, re-engagement campaigns when someone hasn't opened in 90 days, onboarding sequences for new users, browse abandonment ("still thinking about that jacket?"), and anniversary or milestone emails.
From a deliverability standpoint, triggered emails usually perform better than broadcast campaigns because they're more relevant and timely. Someone who just signed up is way more likely to open your welcome email than your weekly newsletter. That said, you still need to be careful. If you trigger an email based on stale data (like sending a cart reminder for something they already bought), you'll annoy people and hurt your sender reputation.
Most ESPs let you set up triggered emails through automation workflows. Mailchimp calls them Customer Journeys. Klaviyo calls them Flows. Customer.io and Iterable are built specifically for this kind of behavioral messaging. The setup is usually: define the trigger event, set a delay (optional), design the email, and decide when to stop sending it (like if they convert or unsubscribe).
And if you're building triggered emails for the first time, start with one or two high-value triggers (welcome email, cart abandonment) and test them before adding more. You can check our subject line tester to make sure your triggered email subjects don't look spammy, or just ask us if you're not sure where to start.
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