Behavioral Trigger
An automated email sent in response to a specific customer action or inaction.
Definition
Behavioral triggers are emails automatically deployed when customers take (or don't take) specific actions—browsing products, abandoning carts, completing purchases, or going inactive.
These real-time responses arrive when customers are most receptive, dramatically outperforming batch campaigns.
Why It Matters
Triggered emails generate 70.5% higher open rates than batch campaigns because they're relevant to the recipient's current context and intent.
They work while you sleep, scaling personalized communication beyond what any team could manually achieve.
Examples in Practice
A browser abandonment trigger sends an email 2 hours after someone views a product three times without purchasing, featuring that product with social proof. Recovery rate: 12%.
An onboarding sequence triggers based on user behavior—if someone skips feature X, they get educational content about X. If they're power users, they get advanced tips.