Automated emails deliver information to your customers right when they need it, in a way that’s efficient for you and your team. Send a series of emails to introduce your new customers to your company, share product recommendations based on what your customers have purchased in the past, wish your subscribers a happy birthday, and more. With MailChimp’s automation workflows, you can easily create and track trigger-based emails that automatically send to your subscribers. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to set up a workflow, share tips and tricks for getting started, teach you how to learn from your reports, and show a few inspiring examples to help you on your way.
Workflows are available in all paid MailChimp accounts. You can upgrade your account to a monthly or pay as you go plan in your account settings.
The Basics
Workflows use triggers to send an email or a series of emails to specific subscribers on a list. A trigger can be an open or click in one of your campaigns, a subscription to your list, or an action that’s combined with one of MailChimp’s other features.
We’ve created a series of workflows with pre-built triggers to help you get started. If those don’t fit your needs, you can also create a custom workflow of your own.
How automated emails work
MailChimp workflows operate on conditional logic: If A happens, then B will happen. This means that when you’re setting up your workflow, you’re creating specific conditions for emails to send. There are lots of triggers you can choose from to create the conditions for your emails.
Activity-based workflows
These are triggered by the actions of a subscriber. The send time of each email will depend on the send time of the previous email in the series. For example, if a trigger is set to send a welcome email 1 day after someone subscribes to your list and then a follow-up email a week after they subscribe, you would set the follow-up email to go out 6 days after your welcome email, or 1 week after your subscriber joined your list.
If you pause a single email in a workflow, subscribers will queue up for the paused email until it’s turned back on. Subscribers who are beyond that point in the timeline will continue to receive the remaining, active emails as planned.
Date-based workflows
These calculate when to send emails based on the distance from a specific date (or trigger)—not the actions of the subscriber. For example, if you sent 2 emails to a subscriber, one a week before their birthday and another one day before their birthday, you would set the first email to send seven days before the absolute date and the second email to send one day before.
If you pause your date-based workflow, subscribers won’t wait in the queue for next email, because there is a specific date on which they need to get the email. If the workflow or email is inactive at the time a subscriber is scheduled to receive something, the email won’t go out at that time, and the subscriber moves into the next queue in the workflow.
When to use automation
An automation workflow is great when you have content you want to automatically deliver to your subscribers at a specific time. Here are the common scenarios available in our pre-built workflows:
When a subscriber signs up for your list:
Welcome new subscribers with a single email—or a series—to help them get to know your company. Tell them what they can expect in future newsletters, send a special coupon, or give them tips on how they can take advantage of everything you have to offer.
When you have a series of emails:
Maybe you have educational content, like an online course, that needs to be sent out on a regular basis over a period of time. Break that information into a series of steps that can be sent over days, weeks, or months.
When you need to send an email once a year:
This might be for a subscriber’s birthday or an anniversary. Set the workflow to send annually, and we’ll take care of the rest.
Following up on website activity:
When a subscriber navigates to a specific link on your site from a newsletter, automatically send them follow-up information using Goal. Help them make a purchase decision, or send a survey about their experience on your website.
When you want to thank your best customers:
The customers who purchase from you on a regular basis are important to your business, so let them know. Send a simple thank you, invite them to a special VIP program, or offer a discount.
Follow up after a purchase:
Send additional product recommendations or product care tips based on what your customers have purchased.
When you want to get feedback:
Use a survey to make your customers feel valued and get important feedback about their shopping experience on your site.
When not to use automation
The possibilities of automation seem endless, but there are some scenarios where using this feature doesn’t make sense. You want to make your customers feel special, not like they’re interacting with a robot.
When you want to send a personalized note:
Personalization can only go so far with automation. It’s hard to sound human when you’re delivering pre-written copy that sometimes goes to many other subscribers. To send a truly personal note to a small group of your loyal customers, it’s best to write something fresh every time.
When there’s more content than you can manage:
When setting up automation, keep in mind the potential time commitment. The more custom and targeted your messaging gets, the longer it will take you and your team to set up, test, and create new content. A few basic workflows can still be powerful—and manageable for a team to execute and maintain.
When you need to send transactional email:
A transactional email contains one-to-one content tailored specifically to an individual user, like a Facebook notification or a password reset. While workflows can handle one-to-one marketing emails, such as a welcome message to a new subscriber, they’re not designed to handle large volumes of transactional email.