# Email marketing automation Human Guide

## What This Is For
Triggered email flows automatically send personalized messages based on customer behavior and lifecycle stage, achieving 3–5x higher open rates than broadcast campaigns. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for email marketing: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Email marketing automation agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for email marketing automation.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Email marketing automation guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- When setting up a new store and needing baseline lifecycle email coverage
- When replacing manual one-off campaigns with behavior-triggered sequences
- When recovering revenue from customers who browsed but did not purchase
- When re-engaging lapsed customers who have not ordered in 60–180 days
- When personalizing post-purchase communication to reduce returns and increase LTV
- Go to **Klaviyo → Flows → Create Flow → Welcome Series** (use the pre-built template)
- The default template sends 3 emails:
- Email 1 (immediate): Welcome + brand story + 10% discount for first purchase
- Email 2 (day 2): Bestsellers or curated collection
- Email 3 (day 7): Brand mission / social proof
- Customize the email copy and design using Klaviyo's drag-and-drop editor
- The flow triggers automatically when someone subscribes via your Shopify popups, checkout opt-in, or newsletter form

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Overview, When to Use This Skill, Core Instructions, Step 1: Choose the right tool, Step 2: Set up the four core flows, Shopify with Klaviyo, WooCommerce with AutomateWoo, BigCommerce, Custom / Headless, Step 3: Configure suppression and frequency rules.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- Install Klaviyo from the Shopify App Store. Klaviyo automatically tracks Shopify events — no additional setup required for event capture.
- | Email renders broken on Outlook | Use Klaviyo's email templates — they are pre-tested across clients; avoid custom HTML in Outlook without Litmus testing |

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Email marketing automation human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the finsilabs/awesome-ecommerce-skills skill entry for `email-marketing-automation`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Email Marketing Automation

## Overview

Triggered email flows automatically send personalized messages based on customer behavior and lifecycle stage, achieving 3–5x higher open rates than broadcast campaigns. Klaviyo (for Shopify/BigCommerce) and AutomateWoo or Klaviyo plugin (for WooCommerce) provide pre-built flow templates for the four critical flows: welcome series, post-purchase nurture, win-back campaigns, and browse abandonment. Most merchants can set these up without writing any code.

## When to Use This Skill

- When setting up a new store and needing baseline lifecycle email coverage
- When replacing manual one-off campaigns with behavior-triggered sequences
- When recovering revenue from customers who browsed but did not purchase
- When re-engaging lapsed customers who have not ordered in 60–180 days
- When personalizing post-purchase communication to reduce returns and increase LTV

## Core Instructions

### Step 1: Choose the right tool

| Platform | Recommended Tool | Why |
|----------|-----------------|-----|
| **Shopify** | Klaviyo | Pre-built flow templates, deep Shopify integration, automatic event tracking (Viewed Product, Added to Cart, Checkout Started, Placed Order), predictive analytics |
| **WooCommerce** | AutomateWoo ($99/yr) or Klaviyo (WooCommerce plugin) | AutomateWoo has native WooCommerce triggers and hooks; Klaviyo plugin syncs WooCommerce events |
| **BigCommerce** | Klaviyo or Omnisend | Both have native BigCommerce integrations and pre-built lifecycle flow templates |
| **Custom / Headless** | Klaviyo (via Track API) or SendGrid | Send events to Klaviyo's API; build flows in their visual editor |

### Step 2: Set up the four core flows

---

#### Shopify with Klaviyo

Install Klaviyo from the Shopify App Store. Klaviyo automatically tracks Shopify events — no additional setup required for event capture.

**Flow 1: Welcome Series**

1. Go to **Klaviyo → Flows → Create Flow → Welcome Series** (use the pre-built template)
2. The default template sends 3 emails:
   - Email 1 (immediate): Welcome + brand story + 10% discount for first purchase
   - Email 2 (day 2): Bestsellers or curated collection
   - Email 3 (day 7): Brand mission / social proof
3. Customize the email copy and design using Klaviyo's drag-and-drop editor
4. The flow triggers automatically when someone subscribes via your Shopify popups, checkout opt-in, or newsletter form
5. Add a **conditional split** on "Has placed an order" to skip the discount email for customers who already purchased after subscribing

**Flow 2: Post-Purchase Series**

1. Go to **Klaviyo → Flows → Create Flow → Post-Purchase** (use template)
2. Default 4-step structure:
   - Email 1 (immediate): Order confirmation + product care tips
   - Email 2 (day 2): Shipping notification (Klaviyo connects to Shopify's fulfillment events)
   - Email 3 (day 7): Delivery check-in + cross-sell recommendations
   - Email 4 (day 21): Review request (connects to Klaviyo's review integration or Judge.me)
3. Add a filter: **"Has NOT placed order since starting this flow"** → skip the review request if they ordered again (they are already happy)

**Flow 3: Browse Abandonment**

1. Go to **Klaviyo → Flows → Create Flow → Browse Abandonment** (use template)
2. Trigger: **Viewed Product** metric
3. Wait 30 minutes → Check: **"Has NOT started checkout since flow start"** → send email
4. Email content: Use Klaviyo's **Dynamic Product Block** — it automatically shows the exact product the customer was viewing with live price and image
5. Wait 24 hours → Send follow-up with "Others also liked" product recommendations

**Flow 4: Win-Back / At-Risk**

1. Go to **Klaviyo → Flows → Create Flow → Win Back** (use template)
2. Trigger: **Segment membership** → "Predicted Churn Risk: High" (Klaviyo calculates this automatically)
3. Default 3-step structure:
   - Email 1 (day 0): "We miss you" + personalized product recommendations based on past purchases
   - Email 2 (day 7): Social proof + new arrivals
   - Email 3 (day 14): Final offer with 10–15% discount + expiry date
4. Add a **flow filter**: "Has not placed an order" — this ensures the flow stops immediately when the customer converts

---

#### WooCommerce with AutomateWoo

1. Go to **AutomateWoo → Workflows → Add Workflow**

**Welcome Series:**
- Trigger: **Customer → Created** (new customer account) or **Subscribe → Newsletter** (with your email plugin)