All the Marketing Automation Flow Triggers

A trigger is an event or action that adds a contact to a marketing automation flow. Use triggers to add contacts to your flow based on conditions that you set.

In this article, you'll learn about all the triggers you can use in a marketing automation flow.

Things to know

• To learn more about triggers and how to use them in your automation flow, check out About Marketing Automation Flows.
• Some triggers require certain types of information in your contacts’ audience fields. To learn more, check out Manage Audience and Signup Form Fields.
• You can change a trigger within a paused flow. To learn more, check out Edit a Marketing Automation Flow Map.

Available triggers

Here are all the triggers to choose from when you create or edit your automation flow.

Contact activity

These triggers add contacts to a flow when they sign up for your emails, or when their audience data changes.

• Tag added
  Adds a contact after you add a specific tag to them.
• Signs up for email
  Adds a contact when they sign up for your email marketing. You can also choose to include new, imported email contacts.
• Texts a keyword
  Adds a contact when they text a custom keyword to your SMS phone number. Keywords can be between 2-30 characters, and they include letters and numbers. To use this trigger, you need to first set up an SMS Marketing program.
• Signs up for SMS
  Adds a contact when they sign up for your SMS marketing. You can also choose to include new, imported SMS contacts. To use this trigger, you need to first set up an SMS Marketing program.
• Joins audience group
  Adds a contact after they join a specific group in your audience.
• Leaves audience group
  Adds a contact after they leave a specific group in your audience.
• Audience field changes
  Adds a contact when their audience field data changes to a specific value.
• Viewed a page
  Adds a contact after they view a page in your Mailchimp website with Track with Mailchimp enabled.
• Clicked a link
  Adds a contact after they click a link in your Mailchimp website with Track with Mailchimp enabled.
• Manual add
  Adds a contact when you choose to add them.

Date and special events

These triggers add contacts to a flow based on a specific date field in your audience, like a birthday or anniversary.

Recurring date triggers and Birthday triggers add contacts to a flow on a yearly cycle. Specific date triggers add contacts to a flow based on a specific day and year in the future, so they can’t be used with Recurring date or Birthday triggers or wait rules.

• Specific date
  Adds a contact based on a specific date field in your audience.
• Signup date
  Adds a contact based on the date they were added to your audience.
• Birthday
  Adds a contact based on birthday field data in your audience.
• Recurring date
  Annually adds a contact based on a specific date field in your audience.

Shopping activity

These triggers add contacts from your connected e-commerce store. To use the Shopify triggers, you'll need the latest version of the Shopify integration.

• Buys any product
  Adds a subscribed contact after they purchase any product from your store.
• Buys a specific product
  Adds a subscribed contact after they purchase a specific product from your store.
• Time since last purchased
  Adds a subscribed contact if they have not purchased anything from your store within a specific timeframe. This trigger looks at purchase activity after your flow is activated.
• Shopify: Views pages in Shopify store
  Adds a contact who has viewed any page or viewed a specific page in your Shopify store.
• Shopify: Views products in Shopify store
  Adds a contact who has viewed any product, viewed a specific product, or viewed a collection of products in your Shopify store.
• Shopify: Performs search in Shopify store
  Adds a contact who performs a search for any term or a search for a specific term in your Shopify store.
• Shopify: Adds products to Shopify cart
  Adds a contacts who adds any product to their cart or adds a specific product to their cart from your Shopify store.
• Shopify: Performs checkout action in Shopify store
  Adds a contact if they perform 1 of the following actions in your Shopify store: start checkout, submit payment information, or complete checkout.
• Shopify: Adds a low inventory product to a shopping cart
  Adds a contact who created a cart and adds any product or adds a specific products to their cart that is low in stock.
• Shopify: Product back in stock
  Adds a contact who added a low-stock product to their cart and alerts them that the product is back in stock.
• Abandons cart
  Adds a contact who created a cart in your store and didn’t complete the checkout process. To learn more about this trigger, check out Create an Abandoned Cart Marketing Automation Flow. This can't be used with any other trigger, but it can be used with Send email or Send SMS actions.
• Abandons cart with specific products
  Adds a contact who has not completed the checkout process after they create a cart that includes or excludes specific products from your store. To learn more about this trigger, check out Create an Abandoned Cart Marketing Automation Flow. This can't be used with any other trigger, but it can be used with Send email or Send SMS actions.
• Order confirmation
  Notifies a customer that their order has been confirmed. This can't be used with any other trigger.
• Cancelation confirmation
  Notifies a customer that their order has been canceled. This can't be used with any other trigger.
• Order invoice
  Notifies a customer that their payment has been processed. This can't be used with any other trigger.
• Shipping confirmation
  Notifies a customer that their order is on the way. This can't be used with any other trigger.
• Refund confirmation
  Notifies a customer that their refund has been processed. This can't be used with any other trigger.

Marketing activity

These triggers add contacts to a flow based on email engagement.

• Sent an email
  Adds a contact after they are sent a specific email.
• Opens email
  Adds a contact after they open a specific email.
• Unopened campaign
  Adds a contact if they don't open a specific email within a certain timeframe.
• Clicks any email link
  Adds a contact after they click any link in a specific email.
• Doesn't click email link
  Adds a contact if they don't click any link in a specific email.
• Clicks specific email link
  Adds a contact after they click a specific link in a specific email.
• Responds to survey
  Adds a contact after they respond to your survey.

API and integrations

These advanced triggers target contacts who meet the criteria from your Integrations with Mailchimp or custom API integrations.

• Automation Flows API
  Adds a contact when an API endpoint is triggered.
• Event API
  Adds a contact after an API call is posted to the Events endpoint with a specific event name. Contacts can be added to a flow with an API call to a URL displayed in an automation flow.
• Eventbrite: Any event check in
  Adds a contact when they check in for any of your events.
• Eventbrite: Purchases any Eventbrite ticket
  Adds a contact when they purchase a ticket for any of your events.
• Eventbrite: Specific event purchase
  Adds a contact when they purchase a ticket for a specific event.
• Eventbrite: Specific event check in
  Contacts will enter when they check in for a specific event.
• Chat finished
  Contacts will enter when they’ve ended their LiveChat conversation.
• Zapier custom event
  Creates a new event when an email address is collected via Zapier.

Additional information

Ready to get started or learn a little more? Here are some more resources to help you along the way.

Create a Marketing Automation Flow
Use Automation Flow Templates
Edit a Marketing Automation Flow