What is triggered communication? How to automate smarter, timely campaigns

Each customer action can be an opportunity to engage further. Triggered communication makes that possible, targeting behaviors with automated messages that guide people through their journey with your brand.

This article breaks down how triggered communication works, how to set it up using behavioral, transactional, and time-based triggers, and why it’s so effective across channels like email, push, and in-app messaging. You’ll find practical use cases and best practices to help you scale smarter, more responsive campaigns.

Contents

• What is triggered communication?
• Why triggered messaging drives better engagement
• How triggered communication powers lifecycle messaging automation
• Setting up automated customer messaging
• Examples of triggered email marketing, mobile marketing, and other real-world campaigns
• Best practices for scaling triggered messaging
• Final thoughts on trigger-based marketing
• Triggered communication FAQs

What is triggered communication?

Triggered communication is automated messaging activated by specific customer actions, milestones, or behaviors. For example, a customer opens an app or makes a purchase, and they are sent a message, such as a push notification, in-app message, or email.

You define what those triggers are—so each message feels connected to what your audience is doing in the moment, not just what you want to say.

Why triggered messaging help drive better engagement

Triggered messaging can drive better engagement because it leverages the data you hold about each customer and makes the message relevant to the people receiving it. It adds real value by speaking to their concerns, interests, and behavior—in the moment.

We know from previous Braze research that triggered emails are 59% more likely to be opened, and action-based push notifications are a whopping 480% more likely to be opened than time-based emails.

Triggered communication works because it responds to what customers actually do, on an individual basis. Instead of sending the same promotional blast to everyone at the same time, you deliver outreach that fits the behavior of each person.

How triggered communication powers lifecycle messaging automation

Customer journeys aren’t linear. People sign up, browse, convert, drop off, come back, and switch devices, etc. Triggered communication helps you respond to those shifts, without needing to manually track every step.

At the heart of this is automation logic. You define the conditions—what counts as a meaningful action, what should happen next, and when. That could be as simple as sending a push notification after a purchase, or as complex as triggering a multistep campaign based on product views, device type, and location.

Triggers can be built around:

• Behavioral events, like app opens, scroll depth, or feature use
• Transactional moments, such as purchases, bookings, or loyalty redemptions
• Time-based milestones, like 3 days after install or 14 days of inactivity

This kind of trigger-based marketing helps form the foundation of lifecycle messaging automation. It lets you meet customers at key moments across onboarding, engagement, conversion, and retention, without relying on batch-and-blast campaigns or one-size-fits-all journeys.

Setting up automated customer messaging

To start with, you need a customer engagement platform that will support event-based triggering. In Braze, those capabilities are known as action-based delivery, but advanced logic can also be handled with Action Paths, which allow marketers can create, define, and trigger user experiences based on the actions customers take during an assigned time period.

Choose an event for your trigger-based marketing

Something has to happen for a triggered message to be sent. That means that marketers need to choose a customer-related event to serve as the trigger for each triggered message campaign that they create.

A trigger event can be a customer opening your app or visiting your website; adding an item to a shopping cart, then ending their session without making a purchase; interacting with (or ignoring) a previous message you sent; going to a pre-selected location; or completing any action that you’ve designated as a custom event. It’s also possible to get more nuanced: For instance, a brand could trigger an email in response to an abandoned shopping cart that only sends if the value of the items in the cart is more than $100.

This kind of triggering is only possible if your brand is doing a good job of collecting relevant customer data. Without detailed information on how members of your audience are engaging with your app and website, you’ll miss out on opportunities to send responsive messaging and potentially get an incomplete picture of what your customers’ interests really are. If a customer browses jeans on your app, for instance, but makes the final purchase on your website, you need to be collecting customer data on both platforms (and have user profiles that can unify and act on information from both sources) to understand the full picture.

Create a behavioral messaging segment

Not every user who triggers an event should receive a message. Segmentation lets you narrow your audience based on user attributes or past behavior, so your messages reach the right people, not just anyone who meets the trigger condition.

For example: Say a user adds an item to their cart but doesn’t check out within 30 minutes. You could set up a triggered email to recover that purchase. But instead of sending it to everyone, you might limit the message to users who:

• Have made at least one purchase before (existing customers)
• Are browsing from mobile (where cart abandonment is higher)
• Haven’t received more than two messages in the past 24 hours

That way, you're targeting users who are more likely to convert, without adding noise for new users, desktop browsers, or people who’ve already been contacted.

Create your message personalized with context

To get the most out of triggered messaging, make sure that the message you’re planning to trigger is directly relevant to the action that your recipients have taken. For example, if the trigger is a customer entering a location near one of your brand’s brick and mortar stores, a message highlighting a sale in that store adds value, in ways that encouraging them to take advantage of a promotion on your app does not.

Also, consider bolstering the relevancy and value of your triggered messages by personalizing outreach so it’s more likely to speak to each recipient as an individual.

Add delays and exception events for smarter automation

When you send a message, there should be a goal behind it. Maybe you’re looking to convince the recipients to make a purchase, or to return to your website, or to recommend your mobile app to their friends and family.

But sometimes a recipient carries out the action you’re looking to encourage before receiving the message that’s supposed to nudge them to do it. That can be annoying—imagine getting an email encouraging you to buy an item that you’ve just finished buying. It can create the impression that a brand doesn’t really understand their audience or their needs.

To avoid that, it’s smart to build a delay into your triggered messages and to take advantage of exception events. By sending that abandoned cart message 30 minutes after a user closes your app, for instance, instead of instantly, you can allow for customers who would have come back on their own to do so, while still engaging customers who might need a nudge.

Exception events, on the other hand, prevent campaigns from being sent to customers who subsequently carry out a desired event (such as making a purchase after apparently abandoning their cart), ensuring that triggered messages are only received by customers who have yet to carry out the action your outreach is intended to encourage.

Set frequency caps and delivery windows

If you’re setting up a trigger campaign that uses in-app messaging to walk new customers through your onboarding process at the start of their first app session, it may make sense to continue that campaign and update accordingly. But some campaigns—promotional outreach, for instance, or other time-sensitive messaging—will have a natural lifespan, making it important to select a start and end time.

If your campaign includes push notifications or other attention-getting message types, it may also be wise to set a specific window of time (between 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. in each recipient’s time zone, for example) when messages can be triggered. Otherwise, you run the risk of reaching someone as they head to bed or otherwise irritating them with your triggered outreach.

Examples of triggered email marketing, mobile marketing, and other real-world campaigns

By leveraging data collection and mobile’s unprecedented ability to collect nuanced customer information, triggered messages allow brands to respond to customer actions in the moment, increasing the chances that their outreach is relevant and valuable to the people receiving it.

To help marketers get started, we’ve highlighted six examples that triggered messaging makes possible, or takes to the next level. We show you the trigger, the purpose behind the message, and how it supports engagement, conversion, or retention.

Customer education and onboarding campaigns

A customer who doesn’t understand the value that your brand can provide or how to experience that value for themselves isn’t a customer who’s likely to engage very deeply or to stick around over the long haul. That makes educating your customers about how to effectively use your app or website one of the most impactful things that your marketing can do.

Putting together an effective onboarding process mapped to customer actions is an important step.

Triggered messages are a great way to keep customers up to speed on your app or website too, as it evolves over time—when a customer visits a new part of your site, or tries out a new app feature, you can trigger an in-app message with guidance on how to get the most out of it.

Permission priming campaigns

To get the full benefit that mobile can bring to your brand’s marketing, you need to convince customers to give you permission. To send them push notifications that keep them informed. To track their physical location to give more detailed recommendations and messages. To give your app access to their device’s contacts or camera, or other features that will make their user experience better.

Triggered messaging gives you an effective way to ask for that permission. Instead of hitting new customers with a cold request for all those permissions when they visit your website or open your app for the first time, you can trigger an in-app message when they use a feature or visit a section where granting permission would improve their user experience. Not only can that increase the chances that they grant permission, but it’ll also highlight the value that your brand can provide.

Milestone and loyalty recognition

Maybe a customer has just logged their tenth session in your app or completed an advanced level in one of your brand’s mobile games. You can set up triggered messages highlighting their loyalty and achievements (and possibly rewarding them with discounts or other incentives) that are automatically sent when they reach particular milestones or accomplishments. These kinds of triggered messages can help you maintain a strong relationship with your active and loyal users by encouraging them to stick around and keep engaging with your brand.

Abandoned cart campaigns

For brands that depend on web or in-app purchases as part of their monetization mix, abandoned shopping carts might be frustrating—but they can also be an opportunity. A customer who looks at an item on your site or in your app, adds it to their cart, and then leaves without completing the purchase is still someone who considered making that purchase. The fact that they made it that far in the process makes it more likely that they’ll respond positively to a nudge from you.

One of the most well-known use cases for triggered email marketing is the abandoned cart reminder. It encourages users to return and complete their purchase, often lifting conversion rates significantly.

By triggering a personalized push notification or email when a customer abandons a cart, you can remind them about their almost-purchase and encourage them to complete it. Not every customer will go for it, of course, but it’s a great way to drive purchases.

Social sharing and referral prompts

Imagine that one of your customers has just RSVPed on your app to an event you’re throwing, or purchased tickets to an upcoming concert or festival. That’s a win for your brand, but triggered messages make it possible to turn that sort of conversion into something more broadly beneficial.

If you trigger a message when they complete their RSVP or ticket purchase and encourage them to share their attendance at the event on social media, you can get the word out about your event while adding value for customers by making it easy for them to let friends and family know about their plans.

This kind of triggered social sharing campaign can provide value even if your brand doesn’t sell tickets or host events. Consider using triggered social sharing outreach in concert with milestone recognition campaigns (prompting social posts after customers hit a milestone or achieve something), and as a way to nudge customers to refer their friends to your app or website after they carry out actions that suggest they’re satisfied with their user experience—such as positively rating your app or making a purchase.

Loyalty program campaigns

For brands that use loyalty programs as part of their customer engagement and retention strategies, triggered messaging can be a powerful way to encourage use of those programs and to keep customers engaged with their personal loyalty accounts. Marketers can trigger emails or other messages to customers when they make a purchase, telling new users about their brand’s loyalty program and making the case for the benefits of signing up. Or they can update loyal customers about their new loyalty point balance following the transaction.

Best practices for scaling triggered messaging

Creating a genuinely responsive customer engagement strategy means using triggered messaging in a comprehensive manner, allowing your brand to automatically reach out to customers to encourage deeper engagement and higher conversions whenever a customer’s behavior indicates that the time is ripe for this sort of messaging. That means building up an array of triggered messaging campaigns that correspond to different user journeys, with the goal of providing a better user experience and building a strong, sustainable relationship with your customers.

That being said, it’s quite possible to overwhelm your customers with messages, which can have negative consequences on your brand’s customer retention rate. To avoid that, you could just create fewer triggered messages, but that would mean losing out on all the value that they can provide. Instead, take advantage of frequency capping to limit how many messages your customers receive from you in a given day or week, while retaining the ability to reach them with high-importance outreach when necessary.

As you scale your lifecycle messaging automation, keep these principles in mind:

Avoid overlapping journeys

Make sure customers aren’t being targeted by multiple triggered campaigns at once. Use segmentation and priority logic to create clear messaging paths.

Use delivery windows

Restrict sends to the hours when people are most likely to engage. This prevents disruption and helps improve performance—especially for mobile notifications.

Add exception events

If someone completes the action your message is meant to encourage, cancel the message. This keeps your outreach relevant and reduces friction.

Monitor and adjust

Use engagement and conversion data to refine your timing, content, and targeting. Triggered communication isn’t just a set-it-and-forget-it tool—it works best when actively managed.

Final thoughts on trigger-based marketing

Triggered communication is a strategic foundation for how modern brands engage. By responding to real-time behavior across the customer journey, you can move from static outreach to dynamic interactions that truly reflect what people want, need, or expect.

When powered by a platform that supports orchestration, segmentation, and behavioral logic, triggered messaging becomes a key part of lifecycle marketing automation and journey orchestration. This allows you to send more relevant communication, build stronger customer relationships, and work towards long-term growth.

Triggered communication FAQs

What is a triggered message in marketing?

A triggered message is an automated piece of customer communication—such as an email, push notification, or in-app message—that’s sent in response to a specific user action, milestone, or behavior.

How is a triggered message different from a scheduled one?

Triggered messages are sent based on real-time actions or events, while scheduled messages are sent at pre-defined times, regardless of user behavior.

What are examples of triggered communication?

Common examples include welcome emails after sign-up, abandoned cart reminders, inactivity re-engagement messages, milestone rewards, and feature-based permission prompts.

How do you set up automated triggered messages in Braze?

In Braze, triggered messaging is built using tools like Canvas, segmentation filters, action-based delivery, and real-time data inputs. Marketers can define triggers, personalize content, and set delays or exception events, without relying on developers.

What’s the best time to send triggered messages?

The best time depends on the trigger and channel. Some messages benefit from a short delay (e.g., abandoned cart follow-ups), while others should be sent immediately (e.g., post-purchase confirmations). Always respect user time zones and use delivery windows to avoid late-night disruption.