It’s Jane on the line today on behalf of Userlist, talking about triggers. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it?
A trigger is used to add a user to an automation campaign, so the system can start sending them emails. This could mean performing a certain activity, or matching certain conditions.
Modern marketing tools allow for dozens of trigger types. But what’s interesting — our research shows that most businesses never make use of them!
When I was putting together lifecycle messages in Intercom for my previous product, Tiny Reminder, I didn’t come up with anything wild. I only had “smart” event-triggered messages for the first reminder created, and for the first client submission received. The rest was a simple onboarding sequence that was dripping useful tips every few days (this also had to do with a freemium model without “your trial is ending” dates). Sure, it took me time to think through and write these emails — but it was no technical miracle.
As we’re polishing our own automation engine for Userlist, we’re naturally wondering how complex triggers need to be, and what our potential users are already doing with existing tools. We would love to predict what triggers you might need now, and later on.
That’s because our ultimate goal is to separate development work (setting up tracking and triggers) and creative work (using all of that to write and send automated campaigns). Going back to your busy development team for each new idea is incredibly frustrating.
So the big question for today is — what events or conditions are you using now to trigger your lifecycle emails? How complex are they? Are there any problems or limitations along the way?
We’re all ears, looking forward to your story!
— Regards, Jane.