The email automation guide: five flows worth building first

Automated emails are sent when a person does something (signs up, starts a checkout, makes a purchase) rather than when you decide to send a campaign. Because they arrive at the moment they’re relevant, they tend to be the best-performing emails a business sends, and once they’re set up they keep working without you.

This guide covers the five flows that are worth building first, in the order we recommend.

How a flow works

Every flow has three parts:

• A trigger, the thing that starts it: joining a list, submitting a form, entering a segment, or an event such as Placed order.
• Steps: send an email, wait, check a condition and branch, add a tag, update a property, or notify another system.
• Exit rules: when someone should leave the flow, for example when they make a purchase.

Two settings matter more than they look. First, decide whether someone can go through the flow once or every time the trigger happens. Welcome flows should run once; post-purchase flows usually run for every order. Second, use conditions to stop sending reminders to people who already did what you were asking.

1. Welcome series

Trigger: joins your newsletter list or submits your signup form.

New subscribers are at their most interested, so this is usually the highest-performing flow you’ll have.

• Email 1, immediately: thanks, the thing you promised, what to expect.
• Wait 2 days.
• Email 2: your story or your bestsellers, with one clear link.
• Wait 4 days.
• Condition: has placed an order? If yes, exit.
• Email 3: a reason to buy now, or your most useful piece of advice.

2. Abandoned checkout

Trigger: a checkout was started and not completed (with a store connected, this event is created for you after the waiting time).

• Wait 1 hour after abandonment (already included if your store integration sends the abandoned event).
• Email 1: a short, friendly reminder showing what they left. No discount yet.
• Wait 1 day. Condition: placed an order since? If yes, exit.
• Email 2: answer the usual hesitation: delivery times, returns, sizing. Optionally a small incentive.

Keep the tone helpful rather than pushy. Many people abandon because they were interrupted.

3. Post-purchase

Trigger: Placed order. Allow it to run for every order.

• Immediately or the next day: thank them personally. Your store already sends the receipt; this is the human version.
• Wait until after delivery: how to use or care for what they bought.
• Wait two weeks: ask for a review, or suggest something that goes with their purchase.

For first-time buyers, add a condition after the trigger so they receive a slightly longer introduction to your business.

4. Win-back

Trigger: enters a segment such as “no order in 120 days and has ordered before”.

• Email 1: what’s new since their last order.
• Wait 1 week. Condition: ordered since? If yes, exit.
• Email 2: a direct question: “Is there anything we could do better?” Replies here are gold.

Choose the time window from your own buying cycle: a coffee subscriber who hasn’t ordered in six weeks is lapsing; a furniture customer after six months is not.

5. Re-engagement (list cleaning)

Trigger: enters a segment such as “no opens or clicks in 150 days”.

• Email: “Do you still want to hear from us?” with one button to stay subscribed.
• Wait 7 days. Condition: clicked? If yes, add a tag re-engaged and exit.
• Otherwise: unsubscribe them, or move them to a list you don’t email.

This one doesn’t make money directly; it protects every other email by keeping your list healthy, which our deliverability guide explains.

Writing automated emails

Automated emails are read one at a time, often months after you wrote them. A few rules help:

• Avoid dates and “this week” language unless it’s filled in by a merge tag.
• Write as a person, from a real name if you can.
• Use a fallback for merge tags: {{ first_name | default: "there" }} reads naturally when the name is missing.
• Review every flow twice a year to update prices, links and products.

Measuring flows

Look at each step rather than the whole flow. For every email: how many people received it, opened, clicked, and how many left the flow at each condition. If many people leave right after a particular email, that email is the one to rewrite.

Start with the welcome series this week. Add one flow a week after that, and within a month most of your best email will be sending itself.