Create automated email flows based on triggers such as completing an order or entering a segment.
Choose your Automation settings
1. In the Marsello admin, go to Marketing > Marketing automation > Create automation.
2. Enter your Automation name
📝 Note: This automation name is internal only and is to help you identify your automation in the Automation admin.
Choose your Trigger
⚠️ Important: A trigger is an event that needs to happen for the customer to enter the automation. This Automation will only send to customers who meet this trigger after the automation is enabled.
1. To open the drop-down trigger options, click When an order is completed and then select the trigger you'd like to use:
Trigger options include:
When an order is completed: The customer has made a purchase. Marsello uses the order’s payment status to determine if the customer has made an order.
📝 Note: Payment statuses are unique to each integration. The following are the ‘paid’ payment status’ that will trigger this automation for each integration:
Bigcommerce = Completed
Shopify = Paid
Vend = Closed
Kounta = Completed
Cin7 = Approved
When a customer enters a segment: The customer has been added to the segment because they have met the segment conditions.
📝 Note: This Automation can be sent to customers who are currently in this segment and customers who enter this segment in the future.
When a customer signs up: The customer has signed up for your marketing via the POS, eCommerce store, or an email collection feature.
When a customer completes a specific loyalty action:
earns points for placing an order or completing an earn option
earns enough points to unlock a loyalty reward
when the customer earns a referral discount
customer has been inactive and is 30 days away from having their points expire
customer enters a new VIP tier
Choose your Audience
📝 Note: An Audience is the ability to select a segment to further target a group of customers.
1. Further target which customers can receive the automation by choosing to send to an existing RFM or custom segment(s), or create a brand new segment.
The audience selection options slightly differ depending on the trigger selected:
Trigger – 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.
Trigger – 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 want to Create a new segment, you can create a new segment by adding conditions. This is the same process as creating a custom segment.
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 ‘Referred Friends’ segments for this automation, it would be sent to customers who are in the ‘Best’ segment and to customers who are in the ‘Referred Friends’ segment.
Choose your Exit Conditions
📝 Note: Exit conditions determine when the customer leaves the automation flow.
1. To open the drop-down exit condition options, click When a customer makes an order or completes the automation flow.
2. Select the exit condition you'd like to use:
When a customer makes an order or completes 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 a customer completes 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 to educate or build customer relationships. For example, Product follow-ups, onboarding, or lifecycle automation flows.
You can now click Save & Next Step through to customize your automation flow.
Customize your 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: 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 new email, whether it's from our template library or if you're starting from scratch, click the pencil icon to open the email template editor. Here you can edit the email subject line & customize your email content or change the template.
📖 Learn more about automated emails
Types of content blocks that you can add to your email template
SMS: Add an SMS step, then 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 and concise, 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: Add a Delay step, then 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: Add a Points step, then 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 the Points Earned loyalty email 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.
Enable Your 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 & audience conditions after the automation has been enabled.
If the retailer has selected ‘When a customer enters a segment’, the retailer 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 & 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.
How it works – Your customers' experience
When you've enabled your custom automation, customers will be able to enter the automation if they meet your trigger & audience conditions.
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