Email Marketing Automation: What is it, Best Practices, Examples

Many marketing teams have access to powerful automation tools but use only a fraction of their capabilities. The right automation strategy can dramatically increase open rates, conversions, and revenue - especially when managing large subscriber lists.

This guide covers proven automation strategies that drive measurable results. You'll learn specific techniques to segment audiences, trigger behavior-based campaigns, and optimize delivery for maximum engagement across your email program.

What is Email Marketing Automation?

Email marketing automation is a system that sends targeted emails to subscribers automatically based on set rules and triggers. Instead of manually sending each campaign, marketers create templates and workflows that deliver emails based on specific customer actions, timing, or data points.

For example, think of when you sign up for a new online store - you instantly get a "Welcome!" email. That's automation at work. The store didn't manually send that email; it was triggered automatically when you signed up.

When you get a "Happy Birthday" email from your favorite brand with a special discount, that's also automation. The system remembers your birthday and sends the email without anyone having to do it manually.

Think of it as setting up a series of "if-this-then-that" rules for your email communications. These automated sequences run continuously once set up, handling everything from basic transactional emails to complex multi-step campaigns.

How Email Automation Helps

Saves Time and Resources

Marketing teams can set up campaigns once and let them run automatically instead of manually creating and sending each email. This frees up teams to focus on strategy and optimization rather than repetitive tasks. Large-scale email operations become manageable without needing to grow the team proportionally.

Delivers Messages at the Right Moment

Automation responds to customer actions in real-time. When someone abandons a cart, signs up for a service, or reaches a milestone, they receive relevant messages immediately. This timely communication is impossible to achieve manually when dealing with millions of subscribers.

Enables Personalization at Scale

With automation, subscribers receive content tailored to their behaviors, preferences, and stages in the customer journey. The system can automatically segment audiences and customize content based on customer data. This level of personalization drives higher engagement while remaining manageable for marketing teams.

3 Email Automation Strategies To Boost Marketing Results

Behavior-based trigger campaigns

With this automation, the idea is to automatically send targeted emails based on specific actions your subscribers take (or don't take) on your website, app, or previous emails. These triggers respond to real user behavior, making messages more relevant and timely.

For example, an e-commerce site could set up this behavior flow:

• The customer views a product 3 times without purchasing
• The system automatically sends email 1: "Still interested in [Product Name]?"
• If no purchase in 48 hours, send email 2 with product reviews
• If the customer clicks but doesn't buy, send email 3 with a limited-time discount

The key is matching the right message to the behavior - if someone repeatedly views pricing pages, they might need a consultation call rather than a product demo.

Win-Back Campaign Automation

This helps you reconnect with customers who have stopped engaging with your emails or haven't made a purchase in a while.

The system tracks customer activity and spots when someone hasn't opened emails or made purchases for a set period - usually 60 to 90 days. Once identified, these customers enter a specialized email sequence designed to get their interest again. The automation sends personalized messages, often including special discounts, product updates, or reminders of why they chose your brand initially.

A simple win-back sequence could be:

1. "We miss you! Here's 20% off your next purchase"
2. "What brought you to us in the first place? Here are our newest products"
3. "Last chance - special offer expires in 24 hours"

The goal is simple - either bring customers back with compelling offers or clean your list of unengaged subscribers. This keeps your email list healthy and can recover lost revenue.

List Segmentation

List segmentation divides your email subscribers into specific groups based on their characteristics or behaviors. The system continuously monitors specific actions - like clicking certain links, visiting particular pages, or opening specific emails. When a subscriber performs these actions, they're automatically placed into matching segments. This ongoing process ensures your list stays organized without manual work, and each subscriber receives content that matches their demonstrated interests.

Let's say you run a cryptocurrency business. You can create segments based on investment levels, trading frequency, or preferred cryptocurrencies.

Each segment then receives different emails focused on their specific interests and behaviors. For example, to high-volume traders: "Market Analysis: Bitcoin Price Movement Opportunities." To new investors: "Start Your Crypto Journey: Basic Trading Strategies."

How to Setup Email Marketing Automation With Sendx

Step 1 — When setting up email automation in SendX, start by choosing your trigger. The interface lets you select what event will start your automation sequence. In this case, you're setting up a trigger for when someone subscribes to a specific list - the "internal warmup list."

Step 2 — After setting the trigger, choose what action should happen when that trigger occurs. The dropdown shows various options like sending campaigns, adding to drip sequences, or managing tags. Here, "Added to a drip campaign" is selected as the action.

Step 3 — Next, select which specific drip campaign the subscriber should be added to. You can choose from existing drip campaigns in your account or create a new one. We selected the "Sequence test" campaign.

Step 4 — Navigate to Campaigns > Drips and click the "+ Create Drip" button to start your email sequence.

Step 5 — Click into your drip campaign to build your email sequence. Add emails by clicking "+ Add Email," set the timing (like "Send Immediately" or "After X Days"), and customize your content with personalization tags like . Each email can be previewed and tested before activating the sequence.

As a result of this automation…

When someone subscribes to your list (in this case, "internal warmup list"), SendX automatically detects this trigger and starts the sequence. The subscriber immediately receives your welcome email and any follow-up email that you might have sent.

Stop Managing, and Start Automating 

Setting up email automation might feel overwhelming at first, but it becomes simpler when you break it down into steps. You don't need to create complex sequences right away - start with a basic welcome email and grow from there.

Even a simple automated welcome message can save you hours of manual work and help you connect with subscribers while your message is fresh in their minds.

Want to see how easy it can be? We're offering a free demo of SendX where we'll walk you through :

• Setting up your first automation
• Creating engaging welcome emails
• Building subscriber segments
• Tracking your results

Book a demo today and we'll show you how to turn your email list into an automated system that works for you 24/7.