Triggered Email Automations: Marketing Flows and Transactional Emails Explained

Triggered emails are some of the highest-value emails a company can send. They arrive because something happened: a user signed up, added an item to cart, requested a password reset, upgraded, canceled, or missed a payment.

In Brew, these are called automations.

Automations cover both marketing flows and transactional emails.

The two types of automations

Marketing flows

Marketing flows are sequences designed to drive activation, engagement, and retention.

Common examples:

• Welcome flows
• Onboarding drips
• Abandoned-cart sequences
• Trial-expiration nudges
• Win-back campaigns
• Upsell and cross-sell flows

These usually include multiple emails, waits, filters, and splits.

Transactional emails

Transactional emails are functional messages the user expects immediately.

Common examples:

• Password reset
• Email verification
• Order confirmation
• Receipt
• Payment failed notification
• Account alert

These are often single emails, but they still start from an event.

Why the distinction matters

Marketing emails must respect unsubscribes. Transactional emails usually still send because the user needs the information to use your product.

That is why a password reset can go to someone who unsubscribed from your newsletter. It is not promotional. It is functional.

How triggered automations work

Every automation has two parts.

1. The trigger event

The trigger event tells Brew when to start.

Examples:

• user_signup
• cart_abandoned
• password_reset_requested
• order_placed
• invoice.payment_failed
• customer.subscription.created

Events can come from your own backend or from a connected source like Stripe.

2. The flow

The flow defines what happens after the event fires.

A simple transactional automation might be:

1. Trigger: password_reset_requested
2. Send Email: password reset email

A marketing flow might be:

1. Trigger: user_signup
2. Send Email: welcome email
3. Wait: 3 days
4. Send Email: quick-start guide
5. Wait: 4 days
6. Split: clicked previous email?
7. Send a different follow-up based on the split

The core building blocks

Most automations are built from four nodes:

• Send Email. Sends an email to the contact in the flow.
• Wait. Pauses the flow for a set duration.
• Filter. Checks whether the contact matches a condition.
• Split. Sends contacts down different paths.

This structure is flexible enough for welcome flows, abandoned cart, onboarding, and transactional notifications.

Which automations should you build first?

Start with the moments closest to revenue or activation.

Business goal	Automation to build
Activate new users	Welcome or onboarding flow
Recover revenue	Abandoned cart or payment failed flow
Reduce support load	Password reset, account alerts, receipts
Improve retention	Usage nudges and re-engagement flows
Drive expansion	Upsell and plan milestone flows

Why AI changes automation building

Traditional automation builders are powerful but slow. You need to decide the structure, write every email, design every email, wire every condition, and test every branch.

AI changes the starting point. You describe the outcome, and the system drafts the flow.

A prompt like this can become a real workflow:

Build a three-step onboarding flow for new trial users. Trigger on user_signup. First email welcomes them and explains the main value. Wait two days. Second email shows the fastest path to success. Wait four days. Third email asks them to book a demo if they have not activated.

The marketer still reviews and edits. But the blank page is gone.

Where Brew fits

Brew builds automations from prompts. It writes the emails, creates the flow, uses your brand, and lets you edit both the emails and the automation logic.

For teams that want to do more lifecycle marketing without hiring a dedicated lifecycle team, triggered automations are the highest-leverage place to start.