Timer based email treats every user the same. It sends day 1, day 3, day 7 regardless of what the person did, which means the most engaged users get nagged and the ready to buy users get a pricing nudge two days too late. Behavior triggered email flips that. Each message waits for a signal, then fires when the signal appears. This guide shows the mapping and where the work actually lives.
- Track a small set of events: identify, key feature used, pricing visit, and activity.
- Map each lifecycle email to a trigger condition, not a day number.
- Add guardrails so no user gets more than one message per batch and paying users get none.
The three signals you actually need
You do not need to instrument everything. You need identity, the activation event, and intent. Identity ties anonymous activity to a real email. The activation event tells you whether the user reached value. Intent signals, mostly pricing visits and usage limits, tell you when to ask for the upgrade. With those three, you can drive the whole lifecycle.
The event to trigger mapping
Here is the mapping ConversionCRM runs out of the box, from welcome to win back.
| Trigger condition | |
|---|---|
| Signup event | Welcome, sent instantly |
| Key feature not used in 24h | Feature nudge |
| Active but not converted | Value demo |
| Engagement score drops | Check in |
| Engagement score crosses 70 | Upgrade offer |
| Pricing visit, no conversion | Urgency |
| Five days inactive | Win back |
| Usage limit reached | Limit upgrade |
What the tracking looks like
In practice this is two calls. You identify a user once you know who they are, and you track the events that matter. Everything else, the scoring and the stage and the send, happens server side.
ccrm.identify(userId, { email: "founder@acme.com" });
ccrm.track("key_feature_used", { feature: "first_project" });Page views, clicks, and time on page are captured by the script automatically, so the only event you usually add by hand is your activation event from the activation moment guide. From there the eight emails fire on the conditions above.
The guardrails that keep it from spamming
Behavior triggered does not mean high volume. Cap sends at one lifecycle email per user per batch. Put a cooldown on each trigger so the same email cannot repeat too soon. And never email a paying customer an upgrade message. These rules are the difference between a system people trust and one they unsubscribe from. ConversionCRM applies all three automatically, and the wider context is in how to increase free trial conversion rate. When you are ready, start free and the mapping above is already wired.