Automation scenario ideas

Our automation feature can be used to create various advanced sequences. If you’re looking for some inspiration, we’ve prepared a list of potential scenarios you can create. We also included the recommended triggers, but you can definitely use a different one if it better fits your use case.

Automation with the aim to sell:

• Product restocking offer – trigger: Contact tag added (tag associated with a purchase). After the trigger, add a wait step of X days, then send an email reminding your recipients that they may run out of the product soon and prompting them to restock.
• Upsell and cross-sell – trigger: Contact tag added (tag associated with a purchase). When a customer buys a product, automate follow-up emails that recommend related products or upgrades. For instance, if someone buys a camera, send emails suggesting lenses, tripods, or editing software.
• Churn recovery – trigger: Contact tag added once a contact churns (cancels their subscription). Send a follow up email depending on a churn reason – offering discounts, support, etc.

Automation with the aim of building trust/connection:

• Welcome sequence – trigger: Contact added to a list. Deliver your lead magnet in the first welcome email, or just say hi to your subscribers and set the tone for future communication. Welcome sequences improve the initial engagement and sender reputation.
• Emotional check-in with your customer – trigger: Contact tag added (tag associated with the purchase). Automate a sequence that triggers a few days after purchase, asking how your customers feel about their new product. Offer an easy way to provide feedback, share their experience on social media, or contact customer support if they have any issues.
• Product usage tips – trigger: Contact tag added (tag associated with a purchase). Send an email describing how to use the product and giving tips and tricks so that while the customer is waiting for the delivery of your product, they can get excited and educated in anticipation.
• Re-engaging inactive users through gamification – trigger: Contact tag added (tag added to inactive contacts). Create an automation that includes interactive elements like quizzes, challenges, or mini-games. Reward engagement with points, badges, or special offers, encouraging inactive users to re-engage with your brand.
• Anniversary of email subscription – trigger: Contact added to a list. Add a wait step of one year (or another significant milestone) after a user subscribes. Then, send them an email - you can use this opportunity to thank them, provide a special discount, or highlight the value they've received over the past year.
• Exclusive content for engaged subscribers - trigger: Contact tag added (tag added to the most active contacts). Pinpoint the most active subscribers through segmentation to send them exclusive content, like special discounts if you're a shop owner or exclusive materials if you’re a content creator.

Automation with a different goal:

• Growing your list – trigger: Contact field updated. You can set up a referral program like Sparkloop and use automation to deliver rewards to people who refer their friends to join your list.
• Requesting a review after someone bought your product – trigger: Contact tag added (tag associated with a purchase). Add a wait step of X days, then send an automated email to request a review.
• List-cleaning automation – trigger: Contact tag added/Contact added to a list. Set up an automation that unsubscribes contacts that have become stale over the months. It's worth first running those through a re-engagement automation and/or linking the two.
• Email course – trigger: Contact tag added (tag associated with a purchase). Once someone buys your course, you can deliver it daily as automated emails.

When is it better to use campaigns instead of automations?

At the moment, you can’t specify a date you’d like your automation to be triggered on, so you’d need to trigger it manually on a chosen date. This is why we’d recommend using a regular campaign and scheduling it for emails that need to be sent at a specific time, for example, webinar reminders or emails leading up to a product launch. You can use automation for this, but the automation would need to be triggered at the exact date for all contacts.

How do I add a tag after some action from a contact (i.e., buying a product)?

This can be done by integrating your shop (or any other service you use) with EmailOctopus. For example, in Zapier integration, you can choose the "Add/update contact" action and set it up to add a specific tag after some action from your contact. Please note that not all integrations have that option, so it's always best to double-check this beforehand.