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Choosing a trigger for your automation

A trigger is what tells your automation when to run and which contacts to act on. Every automation starts with a trigger, and choosing the right one is the difference between an automation that does exactly what you want and one that fires at the wrong time or against the wrong contacts. This article explains how triggers work, the two types you'll choose between, and the full list of triggers available in Connect grouped by what they do.

Topics

How triggers work

Think of a trigger as wait until this happens. Once an automation is enabled, it sits and waits for the condition you've set in the trigger. As soon as that condition is met, the automation moves to the next step and runs against the contact (or contacts) that caused the trigger to fire.

This means a trigger does two jobs at once:

  1. It defines when the automation runs
  2. It defines who the automation runs for

For example, the Contact Added trigger fires when a new contact joins your database, and it passes that new contact into the rest of the automation. The Email Opened trigger fires when someone opens an email and passes that specific contact through.

Most triggers also let you filter by a timeframe. So if you're running a promotion in June, you can set your trigger to only fire between the 1st and the 30th of June.

 

Two types of triggers

Connect supports two fundamentally different kinds of triggers:

  • Event-based triggers, fire when something happens in Connect (a contact is added, an email is opened, a purchase is recorded, a form is submitted). These make up the majority of available triggers.
  • Date and time triggers, fire on a schedule you set (every Monday at 9am, the 1st of every month, every 20 minutes, and so on). There's only one trigger of this type, called Day and Time.

The choice depends on what you're trying to do. If you want to react to something a contact does, use an event-based trigger. If you want to run a regular check across your database, use the Day and Time trigger.

 

Important: the Day and Time trigger selects your whole database

⚠️ Warning, when you use the Day and Time trigger, every contact in your database is sent into the next step. Always add a Criteria block immediately after to narrow it down to the contacts you actually want to act on. Without one, your action will run against everyone.

This is the single most common mistake new automation builders make. Event-based triggers only pass the relevant contact through (the one who joined, the one who opened the email, and so on). Date and time triggers pass everyone through, because there's no specific event linking the run to one contact.

Contact triggers

These fire when something changes about a contact in your database.

  • Contact Added, when a new contact is added to your database. Only fires for genuinely new contacts. If an existing contact is re-added, this trigger will not fire again
  • Contact Updated, when an existing contact's details change. You can scope this to a specific field (for example, only when the date of birth field is updated)
  • Contact Deleted, when a contact is removed from your database
  • Contact Note Added, when a new note or reminder is added against a contact
  • Contact Note Deleted, when an existing note is removed

Email triggers

These fire based on email activity.

  • Email Sent, an email campaign has been sent. You can scope it to a specific campaign folder
  • Email Opened, a contact opens an email previously sent to them. Can be scoped to a folder
  • Email Clicked, a contact clicks a link in an email previously sent to them. Can be scoped to a folder, or to a specific URL
  • Email Reply, a contact replies to an email. Only works for campaigns sent with the Allow Replies setting enabled
  • Email Bounced, an email sent to a contact has bounced. A common use is to trigger an SMS asking the contact to update their email address
  • Email Optout, a contact has unsubscribed via an email previously sent to them

SMS triggers

These mirror the email triggers but for SMS campaigns.

  • SMS Sent, an SMS campaign has been sent
  • SMS Delivered, the SMS has been confirmed as delivered by the carrier
  • SMS Reply, a contact replies to an SMS. Requires the Allow Replies setting to be enabled
  • SMS Optout, a contact has unsubscribed via an SMS

Campaign triggers

If you don't care whether a message is email or SMS, use these.

  • Campaign Sent, any campaign (email or SMS) has been sent. Can be scoped to a campaign folder
  • Campaign Reply, a reply has been received on a campaign (email or SMS)

Web form triggers

  • Webform Submitted, a form has been submitted by a contact. You can scope this to a specific form, which is useful for triggering different automations off different forms (a feedback form, a sign-up form, a function enquiry form, and so on)

Purchase triggers

These rely on a POS integration to send purchase data into Connect.

  • Purchase Added, a transaction has been recorded against a contact. Includes the items purchased and the amount spent
  • Purchase Updated, an existing transaction has been modified
  • Purchase Deleted, a transaction has been removed

Visit triggers

These rely on a reservation, booking, or Wi-Fi integration to send visit data into Connect.

  • Visit Added, a booking, reservation, or recorded visit has been added against a contact. Includes the date, time, location, and party size
  • Visit Updated, an existing visit has been modified
  • Visit Deleted, a visit has been removed

A common use of Visit Added is to send a booking confirmation email when a reservation is made.

Voucher triggers

These work alongside the Vouchers and Offers functionality in the Apps section of Connect.

  • Voucher Assigned, a voucher or offer has been allocated to a contact, usually via an email or SMS sent with a unique code
  • Voucher Redeemed, a previously assigned voucher has been redeemed. Not all integrations capture redemption data, so check with Support if you're not seeing this fire

The Webhook trigger

  • Webhook Received, data has been received via a webhook URL specific to this automation. The trigger gives you the URL and security options. All data pushed to the webhook must follow the format of the /contacts endpoint of the Connect API

Use this when you want to trigger a Connect automation from an external system that isn't already integrated.

The Day and Time trigger

The only trigger that isn't event-based. Use it to run an automation on a schedule.

  • Day and Time, runs at a date, time, or recurring schedule that you define

Common schedules include:

  • Every day at a specific time (for example, every day at 9am)
  • Specific days of the week (every Monday and Thursday)
  • The first of every month at a specific time
  • Every X minutes or hours
  • Limited to certain months (for example, only during June, July, and August)
  • Limited to a date range

⚠️ Warning, as covered earlier, the Day and Time trigger selects your entire database. Always pair it with a Criteria block to filter down to the right contacts.

 

Using multiple triggers

You can add up to five triggers to a single automation. The automation runs if any of the triggers fires (in other words, the triggers are joined with OR logic).

For example, you might want an automation to start whenever a contact is added or whenever a specific field on a contact is updated. Drop both triggers into the trigger area and the automation will fire on either event.

Each trigger captures its own list of contacts to send into the rest of the automation, so the right contact is passed through no matter which trigger fired.

 

FAQs

Can I change the trigger of an existing automation? Yes. Open the automation, click the existing trigger block, and update it. Contacts already mid-flow in the automation will continue based on what fired them originally.

What's the difference between Email Opened and Email Clicked? Email Opened fires when the contact opens the email. Email Clicked fires when the contact clicks a link inside the email, which is a stronger signal of engagement.

Why isn't my Purchase Added trigger firing? It usually means purchase data isn't being pushed into Connect for that contact. Check that your POS or eCommerce integration is active and that purchases are being recorded against contacts (not as anonymous transactions). If you're unsure, contact Support.

Can I have a trigger that fires only once per contact? The trigger itself will keep firing whenever the event happens. To limit how often the same contact moves through the automation, set the Frequency on the email or SMS action. See Choosing an action for your automation.

What does the timeframe filter on a trigger do? It limits when the trigger is allowed to fire. For example, you can set a trigger to only fire between 1 June and 30 June. Outside that window, the automation stays paused.

Related articles

You now have the full picture of how triggers work in Connect and which one to reach for in different situations.

Any questions? Reach out to us via email at support@meandu.com

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