Triggers and email notifications: Some theoretical basics before you start!

Qui n’a jamais été émerveillé (ou agacé) par ces emails d’Amazon vous annonçant la sortie du nouveau bouquin d’un auteur dont vous aviez acheté le premier livre quelques mois plus tôt ? Pourtant, alors que c’est une pratique qui a plus de 15 ans chez certains, force est de constater que ce n’est pas si simple pour de nombreux annonceurs. Pourquoi ? Manque de données, manque d’outils, … ou de bases théoriques. Lancer ce chantier du trigger et de la notification par email commence souvent par une séance de brainstorming, voici quelques bases pour bien démarrer.

How is an email triggered?

This is not directly related to our topic, but it is a good way to put into context what we will see next. There are three main groups of conditions that can trigger an email to be sent:

• Push the button ! This is obviously the most frequent case, you prepare your newsletter or your promo email and you push the button to send to all selected recipients.
• Execution every X times Your email is sent, for example, every day at 10 am. Every day, the campaign management system checks which recipients meet the defined conditions (and possibly have not yet received the email in question).
• Waiting for an event This is the case that interests us. The campaign waits for the data, as soon as the defined context is met for one of the contacts in the database, the email is sent to it.

Several types of triggers!

Now that we've laid the groundwork, let's move on to the next step. When we talk about triggers, we are often talking about two different things:

• Transactional emails These are emails for which you do not need an opt-in from your recipients. They are sent following a transaction or a conscious request from the Internet user (registration confirmation, purchase confirmation, ...).
• Notifications For these, you need prior permission from your recipient. These emails are sent for marketing purposes and may not have been requested by the recipient.

The triggers of a notification

Everything always starts from a data and we can distinguish two main categories:

• The behavior of the Internet user It can be an opening or a click (or their absence) in a previously sent email, a visit on a website (with for example the identification of a category of interest), a threshold reached (loyalty points, number of transactions,...), an abandoned cart or a historical data such as a birthday or a past purchase.
• An external event that can be linked to the lead profile : In this case, there are many possibilities. For example, the availability of a new product, the news related to a center of interest, the weather, the road traffic, a strike, ...

In general, to improve the creativity of your brainstorming on triggers, don't hesitate to explore all the data generated by the different "sensors" available in your company.

What are the benefits of triggers and notifications?

From a production perspective:

• This allows a global and clear reflection upstream of the creation of marketing processes.
• An automation that will allow the teams to save time and focus on optimization results than on day-to-day production.

But there are not only benefits for production management, there are also benefits for the recipient and performance:

• More relevance We respect the basic principles of direct marketing: the right message, at the right time, to the right person.
• A more appropriate marketing pressure to the user's activity.
• A stronger commitment to the brand, which is a very good thing for deliverability.
• From opening and click-through rates that are significantly higher than to what is seen with a classic newsletter.

Finally, in your triggers, don't just think about promotion! Think about your business, what it tells and inspires. And for all that, the trigger does not mean the end of the "one shot" 🙂