Triggered Email
Automated emails sent based on specific user actions or behaviors rather than scheduled broadcasts.
Definition
Triggered emails fire automatically when users take specific actions—abandoning a cart, signing up, making a purchase, hitting a milestone, becoming inactive, or any other defined behavior. They deliver relevant messages at exactly the right moment.
Because triggered emails respond to user behavior, they're inherently relevant. This relevance produces engagement rates 3-5x higher than broadcast emails.
Why It Matters
Triggered emails capture moments that matter. A welcome email when someone signs up, an abandoned cart reminder, a re-engagement message for lapsed users—these timely messages produce results that scheduled sends cannot match.
Once set up, triggered emails run indefinitely. A one-time investment in automation produces ongoing returns as long as the triggers remain relevant.
Examples in Practice
An abandoned cart sequence recovers 15% of would-be lost sales through a three-email series that provides increasingly strong incentives.
A welcome sequence educates new subscribers over two weeks, with those completing the sequence converting at 2x the rate of those who don't.
A birthday email with a special offer generates 5x the revenue per recipient of standard promotional emails.