Jessica Kelley says: “I finally figured out thrust e-mails and now you are talking about triggers. H-E-L-L-O Amy Africa. You are not nice.”

Jessica.  Jessica.  Jessica.  Haven’t you ever watched Jeopardy?  That was not properly phrased as a question.  (And if the question was about me being “not nice”, well, we have even bigger issues.)

Perhaps what you meant to ask was “what are trigger e-mails?” because EVERYONE is talking about them.  (Ok, that’s a lie, very few people are talking about them and even fewer people are doing them which is a complete shame because they are unequivocally one of the easiest things you can do to improve your site TODAY, without spending a lot of money.  But I digress…)

Trigger e-mails, also called “good dog e-mails” are sent to individuals, based on actions.  (On the flip side, thrust e-mails are deployed to everyone and their brother based on YOUR whim/fancy/schedule.)

The action could be good (thanking them for an order); bad (an abandoned cart or search form) or indifferent (confirming a vote in a poll.)  But it’s always a happening, event or instance.

Triggers are successful because they typically have higher response rates, better deliverability and improved lifetime profit.
If you’re interested in triggers, keep coming back to this section for more info.  Triggers are one of my all-time favorite things to do online and we’re going to spend a ton of time on them.