🏷️ Custom automations are unlocked on the
Loyalty Accelerate plan with the Marketing add-on.
Create automated email flows based on triggers such as completing an order or entering a segment.
What automation settings should I choose?
1. In the Marsello admin, go to Marketing > Automations > Create automation.
2. Under Update custom settings, enter your automation name
📝 Note: This automation name is internal only and is to help you identify your automation in the Automation admin.
What trigger should I choose?
⚠️ Important: A trigger is an event that needs to happen for the customer to enter the automation. The automation will only send to customers who meet the trigger after the automation is enabled. Segment-based triggers prevent customers from re-entering the same automation unless the segment conditions are updated, while order-based triggers track unique transactions and may allow re-entries under certain situations.
Choosing a Trigger for Your Automation
When setting up your automation, you’ll need to decide when it should be triggered.
To choose your trigger:
In your automation settings, find the section “When should this automation be triggered?”
Open the drop-down menu to view your trigger options.
Available Trigger Options
When an order is completed
This trigger activates after a customer makes a purchase. Marsello determines this using the order’s payment status.
Payment statuses that trigger this automation:
BigCommerce: Completed
Shopify: Paid
Lightspeed X-Series: Closed
Lightspeed O-Series: Completed
Cin7: Approved
📝 Note: Payment statuses vary by integration. Only orders with the “paid” status listed above will trigger the automation.
When a customer enters a segment
The automation sends when a customer is added to a segment because they meet the segment’s conditions.
📝 Note: This trigger applies to both customers who are already in the segment and those who join it in the future.
When a customer signs up
This trigger activates when a customer subscribes to your marketing — whether through your POS, eCommerce store, or a sign-up form.
When a customer completes a specific loyalty action
This trigger activates when a customer performs a loyalty-related activity, such as:
Earning points for an order or other earn option
Unlocking a loyalty reward
Receiving a referral discount
Reaching 30 days before points expire due to inactivity
Entering a new VIP tier
How do I choose my audience?
📝 Note: An audience is the ability to select a segment to further target a group of customers.
Target customers for automation by sending to RFM segments, custom segments, or by creating a new segment.
The audience selection options slightly differ depending on the trigger selected:
When an order is completed: You can choose to send to all customers who meet this trigger, choose to send to selected segment(s), or create a new segment.
When a customer enters a segment: You can choose to send to one or more existing segment(s) or create a new segment.
⚠️ Important: Automations will only be sent to customers who are subscribed to your marketing, have a valid email address (and valid mobile number if SMS step is used), and accept your marketing.
If you choose to add more than one segment, this means that the customer must be in at least one of these segments. For example, if you select the ‘Best’ and ‘Loyal’ segments for this automation, it would be sent to customers who are in the ‘Best’ segment and to customers who are in the ‘Loyal’ segment.
Which exit conditions should I choose?
📝 Note: Exit conditions determine when the customer leaves the automation flow.
1. To open the drop-down exit condition options, go to Exit condition and click When a customer makes an order or completes the automation flow.
2. Select the exit condition you'd like to use:
When they make an order or complete the automation flow (default): If the customer makes a purchase, they will automatically exit the automation flow and not receive any further messages, or, if they haven’t made a purchase, they’ll exit when they have received all of the messages within the automation.
💡Tip: This exit condition is most commonly used for automation flows aimed to incentivize a purchase. For example: Welcome, Win-back, or Abandoned Cart automation flows.
When they complete the automation flow: The customer will only exit when they have received all of the messages within the automation.
💡Tip: This exit condition is most commonly used for automation flows aimed at educating or building customer relationships. For example, product follow-ups, onboarding, or lifecycle automation flows.
You can now click Save changes.
What can I customize in an automation flow?
Within the automated flow, you can add time delays, award loyalty points, and add multiple emails or SMS steps. By default, an email has been set up as the first step in your automation flow (this can be removed).
1. Add a new step to your automation flow by clicking the + symbol
2. Choose the option you'd like to add as your next step
Automation step options include:
Email
SMS
Delay
Points
When you select to add an Email, you will be given the option to choose edit email, clone the step or delete the step. To edit the email, simply click on the pencil icon. Here you can edit the email subject line & customize your email content or change the template.
To preview or clone the email step, click on the three dots to the right of the pencil icon and select the option you are after.
📖 Learn more:
SMS
When you select to add an SMS step, click the pencil icon to open the SMS content editor.
⚠️ Important: Before you can add an SMS step, you must be subscribed to an SMS plan, have read and confirmed that you understand the SMS Marketing Compliance, and have made any necessary updates to your store's settings.
When creating your SMS message, there are a few important things to consider:
Keep it short – There is a strict 160-character limit, so make sure your content is clear, concise, and written in plain language. It's also recommended to avoid abbreviations, emojis, and all caps.
📝 Note: Your store name, any URLs, and opt-out method are counted towards your 160-character limit.
Include your store name – It's important to let your customers know it's you. Include your store's name in your SMS content to help promote customer trust.
Add a call-to-action URL – With just 160-characters, you may want to include a link that customers can click to learn more, or go to your online store. To make things easy, Marsello automatically shortens your URL to be SMS optimized.
Opt-out method – Marsello automatically adds "Reply STOP to opt-out" to the end of every SMS sent via Marsello. This is required to comply with SMS laws and regulations, such as TCPA & TCIA.
Delay
When you add a Delay step, click the pencil icon to open the delay settings. Make sure that you add a delay between emails and/or SMS messages in the automation flow to avoid your customer getting multiple communications at once.
⚠️ Important: The delay is based on the end time of the previous step, it is not based on the time from the initial trigger.
Points
When you add a Points step, click the pencil icon to open the points settings.
Here you can enter the number of loyalty points you'd like to automatically add to the customer's account.
To notify the customer of their updated points balance, you can either:
Select the Send points notification email to customer? and include a short message in the text box below.
Or, you could look to add an email step within your automation instead to notify customers of their updated points balance.
There's no limit to the number of automation steps that you can add.
3. Once you are happy with your automation flow, click Enable automation.
How do I enable the automation flow?
Before you can enable your automation flow, a review & confirm pop-up will open. Please review the following:
Trigger & Audience: Review that you have selected the desired trigger and audience segment(s).
If you have selected When an order is completed, this will only send to customers who meet the trigger and audience conditions after the automation has been enabled.
If you have selected When a customer enters a segment, you can choose to send the automation to customers who are currently in the segment or only to customers who enter the segment after the automation has been enabled.
Automation steps: Review the order and flow of your automation steps.
⚠️ Important: Please check that you have added delays between your emails to ensure that customers don't receive all emails at once.
Exit Conditions: Review that you have selected the desired exit condition to ensure your customers leave the automation flow at the right time.
If you are happy with your custom automation, click Enable.
What is my customers’ experience?
When you've enabled your custom automation, customers will be able to enter the automation if they meet your trigger and audience conditions.
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