How to shift from bulk emails to trigger-based marketing

POST-4/7👉 Email used to be a megaphone. In 2025, it’s a whisper in a very specific ear. Gone are the days when “blast to all” could pass as a strategy. In fact, that approach in 2025 is actively hurting your deliverability. Email Service Providers (ESPs) like Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook are no longer just evaluating your IP health—they’re scoring your sender behavior at the recipient level. That means if 40% of your list is cold or disengaged, Gmail sees you as the problem—not just the user. ⚠️ Real Consequence: 1. We audited an ecommerce fashion brand with 220K contacts. Over 92K of them hadn’t clicked a single email in 90+ days. Gmail flagged them for bulk spam behavior, and inboxing fell from 78% to 46% overnight. 2. They were running promos weekly. Nothing was technically broken—but nothing was relevant. That’s what got them crushed. What Micro-Segmentation Solves in 2025: ✅ Reduces spam complaints ✅ Increases engagement velocity ✅ Signals positive intent to inbox providers ✅ Unlocks higher revenue per send with smaller cohorts Micro-Segmentation Tactics That Work Now: 1. Behavior-Based Journeys: Forget static tags. If someone viewed winter boots but didn’t buy, your next 3 emails better talk about warmth, snow, or style—not your general spring lookbook. ✅ Klaviyo + Shopify data lets you trigger flow branches based on: Last viewed product category Cart abandonment by SKU group Pages viewed in session (via UTMs or on-site behavior) Pro Tip: Use dynamic content blocks inside campaigns to adjust hero sections based on browse activity without cloning entire flows. 2. Lifecycle Automation by Spend Velocity This isn’t “new vs returning” logic anymore. In 2025, flows shift based on: Time since last order AOV trends SKU replenishment cycles Example: First-time customer who hasn’t returned in 30 days → “2nd purchase incentive” High-value buyer within 7 days → “VIP early access” Customer inactive 60+ days → Winback + dynamic offer block + channel sync suppression 3. AI-Supported Clustering Tools like RetentionX, Lexer, and even Klaviyo’s predictive analytics are now building multi-dimensional customer clusters using: Purchase frequency Channel source Time to second order Category loyalty It’s loyal mid-value buyers who shop monthly but only when free shipping is offered. ✅ What to do: Export these clusters to your ESP Build messaging that maps exactly to their past actions Suppress low responders from paid channels and warm email instead. Ready to Execute? Create 5 foundational micro-segments: 1. High spenders 2. First-time buyers 3. VIPs (CLV > 2.5x avg) 4. Dormant >90 days 5. Active clickers, no conversion Test 2 cadences per segment: VIPs: 4x/month + early access Dormant: 1x/month reactivation with content—not promos Use Recency, Frequency, and Monetary score buckets to tag customers and let your automations react to movement between them. #EmailMarketing #email

Personalization can skyrocket your email marketing ROI, but using it the wrong way can be more harmful than helpful. I once received an email from a sneaker brand I really loved. The subject line used my name, so I opened it thinking there’d be a personalized offer inside. Instead, it was a generic promo for WOMEN’S running shoes. Not only was it completely irrelevant to me, but they had extensive purchase history that would have told them I’m a MAN who JUST PURCHASED SHOES A WEEK EARLIER. Their product is so good that I let it slide, but it definitely took them down a peg in my mind. Personalization is one of the most powerful tools in marketing, but if it’s used in the wrong way it can actually hurt your reputation, hinder conversions, and drive existing customers away. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen to you... First things first…saying, “Hello {first.name}” is NOT personalization. You need to be using things like browsing history, past purchases, survey completions, and other data to create rich profiles for each customer or prospect. Then, you need to use that information to create highly personalized email experiences that meet each subscriber where THEY’RE at in THEIR customer journey. Just subscribed to our newsletter? Here’s some info about our product, team, and mission. Just bought your first product? Here’s some information about how to get the most out of it. Upgraded to the team plan? Here are some resources to train your co-workers up quickly. You’ll notice that each of these experiences is triggered by a specific action the customer has taken – subscribing to a newsletter, buying a product, or upgrading their plan. When it comes to email personalization, timing is everything. Trigger-based emails will outperform “email blasts” every. single. time. Why? Because, at its core, marketing is all about getting the RIGHT OFFER in front of the RIGHT PERSON at the RIGHT TIME and in the RIGHT FORMAT. Elite email marketers use personalization to do just that. They collect the data, use it to build highly customized email experiences, and lean on behavioral triggers to send those messages at exactly the right time. When done well, personalization makes your customers feel understood and valued. But when done poorly, it can push them away. Follow the steps above to make sure you get it right, and set a reminder for 90 days later to let me know how much it boosted your sales performance. I can’t wait to hear about the results!

If there's one drum I've been beating for the better part of a decade now, it's the power of a value-led autoresponder email. The power of triggered emails are very well understood in B2C, where emails like the 'abandoned cart' are an industry standard for any ecommerce brand. But in B2B, there's a major maturity gap that leaves a lot of engagement and positive brand touchpoints on the table. I started my career as an email marketer, and the power of a good email has never left my perspective, no matter how many times the death of email was announced. Here's a simple case study from real Storybook Marketing client, that I've seen play out the same way time and time again: When a lead was generated from a paid media source, in this case LinkedIn, we set up a simple autoresponder email tailored to that campaign, which would eventually lead into standard nurturing. And the message was simple - here is a link to the content you downloaded in case you want to revisit it, as well as a few recommended pieces of content you may also like. That's it - that's the whole email. No sales pitch, no hard message driving to a contact form, because it never works. Just an email that is useful as a reference to the content they just downloaded, as well as some additional options. And the data was nearly identical across 2 different content assets: - 50% open rates - 25% click-through-rates - 0 unsubscribes Emails triggered by behavior have always gotten drastically higher open rates in my experience - with these being over 2x the open rates of the client's typical nurturing emails and nearly 5x the click through. But because they only tried to add value to the experience here, there was no negative responses in the form of unsubsribes. And, looking at the distribution of clicks, it's clear that the majority of activity was revisiting the original asset - over 70% - which, if nothing else, adds more engagement and a strengthened chance they'll remember who the brand touchpoint came from. But, there was also an additional 20% of clicks delivered to the recommended assets linked, which creates additional engagement and even lead scoring value (which I could talk at length about alone.) Now, to be clear, the goal here is not to game MQLs numbers, but to increase real and meaningful engagement, which only increases the chances they'll remember you, learn about you, and convert with you down the line. With most email nurturing programs, you'll see a trailing off in open rates as the program progresses, often not beginning the first email for a week or two. But, if you take advantage of that initial engagement window, you can usually create a meaningful additional touchpoint or two that only adds to the effort. My kingdom for an autoresponder.

You don’t need to send more emails. That’s the thing a lot of people get wrong. What you actually need is to send smarter ones. The kind that feel like you wrote them for the person reading. Not the kind that treat everyone on your list like the same random stranger. Big difference. And it’s probably costing you more than you wanna admit. I’m not here to sugarcoat it... You’ve got a list with tens, maybe hundreds of thousands, of people on it. And you’re treating them all the same. Parents. Gifters. Impulse buyers. Loyal repeat buyers. Hardcore collectors. Seasonal browsers. Discount junkies. All dumped into the same flows. All blasted with the same message. All fed the same offer like they’re cattle. Then you look at the numbers and go: “Email’s slowing down.” “Open rates are tanking.” “We’re pushing harder on SMS now.” Nah. Your strategy is just… lazy. (I say that with love. Promise) Here’s the real reason you’re getting ignored: It’s not because email doesn’t work anymore. It’s because your message doesn’t matter to the person reading it. This isn’t some little leak in the boat you can duct tape later. It’s a slow bleed that’s killing your retention. If you wanna fix it, there’s really only one way: Segment by context, not just contact. This isn’t optional anymore. This isn’t even “advanced.” This is how retention works in 2025. Let me give you a few examples so you don’t think I’m just ranting: • Parent buying tees for their kid? Send replenishment tied to school seasons. • Gifter who shops 4x a year? Campaigns around events, urgency, and gifting triggers. • Someone who clicks on hunting camo 3 times? Tag them. Nurture them. Never show them florals again. Pretty simple stuff. But when someone feels like you’re actually talking to them? They open. They click. They buy. Not because you're clever… But because you’re finally relevant. And if you don’t fix this soon, next year’s retention problems won’t be tactical. They’ll be existential. Anyway… I’ve got a dead-simple framework for turning email lists into behavior-based selling machines. Want it? Say the word. Thanks for reading. If you got value from this post, I would greatly appreciate it if you shared it with your employees, your coworkers, your marketing team, or anybody else who might benefit. I would also love to know what you thought. Leave me a comment below with your biggest takeaway.

Email still delivers strong ROI. What’s changed is how leading teams are using it. Here are 7 modern and practical email strategies you can use now and into 2026. 📩 1. AI-Driven Decisioning An example is “next best offer.” Use real-time, historical, and behavioral data to determine the most relevant content, offer, or CTA. Instead of sending the same message to everyone, tools like Movable Ink personalize content based on what users have or haven’t done. 📈 2. Product-Led Lifecycle Messaging Trigger emails based on what users do inside your product. If someone signs up but doesn’t activate, send a reminder. If they complete onboarding but skip a key feature, follow up. Email becomes part of the product experience. 🧱 3. Modular Templates + Guard Rails Stop building emails from scratch. Modular templates let teams assemble emails using approved, no-code blocks. Platforms like Knak help you move faster while staying on brand and rendering correctly across devices. 👁️🗨️ 4. Inbox Retargeting & Re-engagement If someone opens and scrolls but doesn’t click, you can adjust the next email. These behavioral signals help guide follow-ups. A scrolled-but-no-click email may call for a stronger CTA or tighter copy. 🧪 5. Automated Experimentation Go beyond A/B tests. Today’s tools can test dozens or even hundreds of variations at once, subject lines, images, layouts, and more. Platforms like OfferFit by Braze optimize automatically to drive better performance. ⏱ 6. Real-Time Triggers Send the right message the moment someone takes action, like signing up or abandoning a cart. It only works if your data flows smoothly and your systems are well-integrated, but the results are worth the effort. 💰 7. Revenue-Based Measurement Connect email to pipeline and revenue. If your data and attribution are in place, you can measure how nurture programs or product launches actually impact the business. Which do you think is most effective? What would you add? PS: Be sure to check out Knak to scale your email efforts, link in the comments. via Nick Donaldson #marketing #martech #marketingoperations #email