Triggered vs. Time-Based Marketing Automations

Imagine having to personally send an email every time a customer makes a purchase or follow up individually when someone abandons a booking. If your business is small, that might be manageable - but as you grow, it quickly becomes impossible. That’s why CRM automation is a game-changer. It combines efficiency with personalisation at scale, ensuring customers receive timely, relevant messages without constant manual effort.

Whether it’s automated emails, SMS, push notifications, social media ads, or a combination of all, automation helps you engage customers at the right moments while building a more structured and consistent marketing approach.

But not all automations work the same way. Some respond instantly to customer actions (triggered), while others follow a set schedule (time-based). Both have a valuable place in your CRM strategy.

This blog breaks down the differences, how to use them to enhance customer engagement, and common mistakes to avoid.

What Are Triggered Marketing Automations?

These are messages that are sent when a specific event or customer action occurs. They are best used for:

• Immediate follow-ups (e.g. welcome emails, abandoned cart reminders)

• Personalised experiences (e.g. post-purchase emails, product recommendations)

• Re-engagement (e.g. reminding inactive users to return)

• Transactions (e.g. purchase confirmations and account updates)

Example: Disney+ uses triggered automations to send a follow-up email when someone cancels their subscription

Benefits of Triggered Automations

1. Hyper personalised and contextual

   Because they react to real-time behaviour, triggered automations deliver highly relevant and timely communication. By tailoring messages based on specific actions - such as abandoning a basket, browsing a product, or signing up for a newsletter - they create a more personalised customer experience that feels natural rather than forced.
   

2. High engagement

   Due to the above this is why triggered automations see such higher open rates and conversions. For example "the average email marketing conversion rate is 15.22%" (Bloomreach) but when you look specifically at triggered automations, some marketers "report conversion rates of up to 50%" (Campaign Monitor).
   

3. Helps recover lost sales

   Without this type of automation, a marketer or sales rep would need to manually track every abandoned basket, missed purchase, or lapsed customer - and then send follow-up emails at just the right time. That’s impossible at scale. Triggered automations ensure these opportunities aren’t lost and can be used regardless of the size of your database i.e. you might have 20 customers or 200,000.
   

4. Creates a seamless customer journey We know the customer journey isn't a straightforward one. But whether someone is browsing your website, opening an email, or using your app, triggered automations help bridge the gaps.

   
   

   For example, if someone abandons checkout, an automated reminder helps them pick up where they left off - rather than having to start over. If a new user signs up, a step-by-step onboarding series ensures they know exactly how to get started.

   
   

   This reduces friction because customers don’t have to put in extra effort to navigate their journey - it just flows naturally and seamlessly, providing a positive and helpful experience.

Common Mistakes

While triggered automations have many benefits, here are some common mistakes that you may encounter - and how to avoid them:

1. Triggering messages too early or too late

   Timing is everything and its the human i.e. you, who sets the parameters of when an automation will trigger. Set it too early and it can come across as pushy or annoying. Set it too late and you'll miss the moment. For example how many times have you signed up to a brand's newsletter because they said you'd get a 15% discount code, only to find yourself waiting for hours (or longer) to get the welcome email containing the code? The optimal timing for triggered automations will vary depending on the context of the automation and the nature of your business. So this is certainly an area that requires some testing!
   

2. Overloading recipients

   As a basic rule, we never want to send too many marketing messages to recipients and become a "spammer". When you start to set up multiple automations, things can get out of hand quickly and before you know it, triggers might fire off at the same time or overlap with other marketing campaigns. That seamless customer experience suddenly becomes subject to load of noise, creating the opposite effect. To avoid this from happening you'll want to: - Add suppression rules to your automation i.e. settings that prevent certain customers from receiving specific messages based on their behaviour, preferences, or past interactions. - Create a communications hierarchy. This ensures that the most important or time-sensitive automation takes priority when multiple messages could be triggered at once.
   

3. Failing to test Every type marketing communication should be tested before it goes live and automations are no exception. Failing to do so could result in triggers not firing because they’re set up incorrectly, or customers receiving duplicate emails.

What are Time-Based Marketing Automations?

Time-based automations are sent at a pre-determined time, regardless of customer actions. They are best used for:

• Seasonal or event-based campaigns (e.g. holiday promotions, webinar invites and reminders)

• Drip campaigns (e.g. an educational email series sent every few days)

• Regular customer engagement (e.g. weekly newsletters, monthly check-ins)

Example: Showcase, an invite-only sample sale platform, uses time-based automations to send an invite link to attendees when a sale event is live.

Benefits of Time-Based Automations

1. Keeps customers engaged and builds relationships

   Time-based automations allow you to drip-feed content at a steady pace, keeping your audience engaged over time. By sending regular, relevant messages (like educational tips or product updates), you foster a growing relationship with your customers. This helps them connect with your brand naturally and avoids overloading them with lots of information at once.

   
   

2. Automates the delivery of key information

   Time-based automations ensure key information reaches customers at the right time, regardless of their previous interactions. This is especially valuable for seasonal promotions, onboarding steps, reminders, or important updates, helping to maintain timely communication with your audience while allowing you to plan and execute campaigns in advance.

   
   

3. Supports a regular cadence for building loyalty

   Establishing a consistent cadence with your content - whether daily, weekly, or monthly - gives your customers a predictable experience. When your audience knows they can expect regular, well-timed touchpoints from your brand, it builds trust and encourages ongoing loyalty.

   
   

4. Allows for strategic planning and testing

   Since these automations follow a set timeline, you can plan, A/B test, and optimise your messages to ensure they’re effective before they reach a larger audience. This allows for continuous improvement, ensuring your communications are always relevant and impactful.

Common Mistakes

1. Not accounting for time zones

   There are two parts to this one. Firstly, failing to consider your customers' time zones is going to result in messages being sent at inconvenient times, leading to reduced engagement. Segment your recipients depending on time zone and set up separate automations, using clear naming conventions to help you identify the differences when it comes to testing and reporting.

   The second part of this is not checking what time zone your ESP (Email Service Provider) is set to. Depending on how large your organisation is and the technology you're using, this may not be an issue as most platforms allow you to set the account to your own time zone. But for larger organisations with multiple users in different regions, it may be different to where you're sending from and this causes complications to scheduling automations e.g. setting a go live time of 10am may not be your 10am! So make sure you check this in advance.

   
   

2. Getting the frequency and timing of follow-ups wrong

   Overloading customers with too many messages in a short period can cause frustration, while too few messages may result in disengagement. This is particularly important when running drip campaigns or follow-up sequences - too many follow-ups too soon can overwhelm recipients, but waiting too long between messages might cause them to lose interest.

   Find the right balance for your follow-up messages by testing how long after the initial contact each follow-up should happen, and ensure the frequency of communication stays consistent without overwhelming your audience.

   
   

3. Ignoring customer engagement and key actions

   Time-based automations work on a schedule, but if they don’t adapt to customer interactions, they can feel irrelevant - or even annoying. For example:

   
   

   - Sending a discount reminder for a product the customer has already purchased.

   - Sending a renewal reminder after the customer has already renewed.
   

   While these automations run on a schedule, they should also be flexible. Use suppression rules and engagement tracking to pause or adjust messaging based on customer actions, ensuring every message remains relevant.

Key Takeaways

Automations are powerful tools for delivering personalised communication at scale. When used effectively, they can significantly boost open and conversion rates while streamlining your workload.

A mix of time-based and triggered automations is key to optimising the customer journey and improving efficiency. But success comes down to careful planning - especially if automations are new to your marketing strategy. Taking the time to map them out will help you avoid common pitfalls.

Here are some best practices to keep in mind:

• Keep a record of all running automations - and track any changes over time. When multiple campaigns are running, it’s easy to lose track, especially if they’ve been in place for a while.

  
  

• Create a hierarchy of communications to avoid overwhelming customers with overlapping messages.

  
  

• Monitor automations regularly. While they save time by running in the background, things can go wrong - so check in to ensure they’re working as expected.

  
  

• Test and optimise. Experiment with trigger timing and scheduling to maximise engagement and ROI.

There are many ways to use automations so get creative and start planning!

💡 If you’d like help optimising your automations or creating new ones, feel free to get in touch.