With custom trigger tracking, you can design your own emails based on your contacts’ digital behavior. In this guide, we’ll show you how to set up the different types of custom triggers so you can tailor your messages exactly as you want.
Note: You must have a Premium license to use custom triggers. In addition, you must have tracking set up correctly before you can design your own custom triggers.
Find custom triggers in the menu
Click the Integrations menu item, then List integrations. Next, click Edit integration next to the tracking integration.
Click the three dots in the upper-right corner and select “Set up custom triggers,” then click “New custom trigger.”
Create a custom trigger
When you create a new custom trigger, select the following settings:
- Select list: Select the list that the custom trigger should be associated with
- Select trigger type: What should trigger the flow? Read about the types below:
- URL-based trigger: Triggers when the contact interacts with a specific URL.
- Product visit: Triggers when the user views a specific product.
- Product purchase: Triggers when a specific product is purchased.
- Products seen in session: Triggers when a certain number of products are viewed in a single session.
- Extended product trigger: Triggers when the contact has performed a specific action (visit, add to cart or purchase) on products with a specific value in a product feed field.
- URL contains trigger: Triggers when the contact interacts with a URL that contains a specific word.
- Bought in Category - Exact path: Triggers when a contact has purchased a product in that specific category path.
- Bought in Category - Contains: Triggers when the contact has purchased a product in a category whose category path contains the specified text.
Note: If you give multiple triggers the same name, they will all be active when you select the trigger. Therefore, use unique names unless you want multiple active triggers under a single name.
Read on to learn how to set up the various triggers.
Set up a URL-based trigger
This trigger is activated when a member visits a specific URL a certain number of times within a certain number of days. For example, it can be used to target contacts who visit a specific landing page 5 times within 7 days.
Please fill in the following fields:
- Specify trigger name: You’ll use this name when you select the trigger in your flow under Automations. Choose a name that you’ll easily recognize.
- Specify URL: Enter the specific URL that the trigger should handle.
- Specify number of times: How many times the member must have visited the URL.
- Specify number of days: Over how many days the visits should have taken place.
Click Create trigger once you’ve filled in the fields.
Note: If you need to trigger on multiple URLs, simply create one custom trigger per URL.
Set up a Product visit trigger
This trigger is activated if a contact has viewed a specific product a certain number of times within a certain number of days. For example, use it to send a discount code when a member has viewed a product 4 times in 5 days.
Please fill in the following fields:
- Specify trigger name: Use a unique name that you’ll recognize under Automations.
- Specify product ID: Enter the product ID of the product that the trigger should handle.
- Specify number of times: How many times the contact should have viewed the product.
- Specify number of days: Over how many days the visits should have taken place.
Click Create trigger.
Set up a Product purchase trigger
With this trigger, you can follow up on your contacts’ purchases and create effective service emails that drive additional sales. For example, you can send an email x days after a purchase with recommendations for similar products or a prompt to reorder.
Please fill in the following fields:
- Specify trigger name: Use a unique name that you’ll recognize under Automations.
- Specify product ID: Enter the product ID of the product that the trigger should handle.
- Number of days ago: How much time should pass between the purchase and the activation of the trigger.
Click Create trigger.
Set up a Products seen in session trigger
This trigger is activated when a contact has viewed a specific number of products in a single session—for example, 5 products during a single visit.
Please fill in the following fields:
- Specify trigger name: Use a unique name that you’ll recognize under Automations.
- Number seen in session: The number of products the member must have viewed during the session.
Click Create trigger.
Set up an Extended product trigger
This trigger is activated when a contact has viewed, added to cart, purchased, or performed all actions on a product with a specific value a specific number of times over a specific number of days.
Please fill in the following fields:
- Specify trigger name: Use a unique name that you’ll recognize under Automations.
- Product feed fields: Select the product feed field associated with the list.
- Look at all field values: Set this to Yes if the field value is not important. Set this to No if the field must have a specific value, and enter the value in the Set the field value field.
- Action: Here, you select the action the contact must perform to trigger the flow.
- Specify number of times: How many times the contact must have performed the action.
- Specify number of days: Over how many days the actions should have taken place.
Click Create trigger.
Set up a URL contains trigger
This trigger is activated when a contact visits a URL containing the text you specified in the Specify URL field a certain number of times within a certain number of days.
Please fill in the following fields:
- Specify trigger name: Use a unique name that you’ll recognize under Automations.
- Specify URL: Enter the text that the URL must contain for the visit to be recorded.
- Specify number of times: Specify how many times the contact should visit a URL that contains the specified text.
- Specify number of days: Specify the number of days over which the visits should be spread.
Click Create trigger.
Set up a Bought in Category - Exact path trigger
This trigger is activated when a contact has purchased a product in that specific category path.
Please fill in the following fields:
- Specify trigger name: Use a unique name that you’ll recognize under Automations.
- Specify category: Enter the exact category path that the product must have been purchased in. Heyloyalty retrieves the data from tracking; if it isn’t found there, it will retrieve the data from the product feed. The path must be written exactly as it appears in your data; for example:
shoes > women’s shoes > high heels.
Click Create trigger.
Set up a Bought in Category - Contains trigger
This trigger is activated when a contact has purchased a product in a category whose name contains the text you specify. For example, if you enter “shoes,” the trigger will fire if the contact purchases a product in categories named “women’s shoes,” “men’s shoes,” etc.
Please fill in the following fields:
- Specify trigger name: Use a unique name that you’ll recognize under Automations.
- Specify category: Enter what the category should contain. We’ll use the data we can find in the tracking system as a starting point; if the category isn’t found there, we’ll use your product feed.
Click Create trigger.
You’re ready to use your custom triggers in flows
You now know how to set up various custom triggers that let you trigger actions based on your contacts’ behavior across URL visits, product views, purchases, categories, and product feed data. The next step is to select the trigger in your flow and build the flow that will send the right message at the right time.
Use unique and recognizable names for your triggers so you can easily find them again under Automations. This way, you can work more effectively with your flows and create emails that match each contact’s current interests and actions.