Q: I want to trigger a welcome email for people who opt-in on my website, and I also want to email that subscriber X number of days afterwards. What’s the easiest way to do it?

A: Triggering a welcome message and then a follow-up message is a great way to use triggered emails, and it’s easy to do with ExactTarget.

With ExactTarget Triggered Sends and Marketing Programs functionality, it’s very simply to set it up.

The first step is to set up a “triggered send definition” and select the list you want to add your new subscribers to and which email you want to send them.  When the subscriber signs up on your website, simply pass over an API call to that triggered send definition, and the subscriber will be added to the list and the email sent.

Now for the second step – the follow up email.  When passing over the subscriber information, I’d recommend you also pass a date attribute, such as “sign-up date'.”  This date can be used to set up a “relative date” based group.  The group will look for subscribers who fit the particular date range you query from the list, and with ExactTarget the query can be set up as a program that will automatically refresh each day (or week, month, etc. – whatever time you define.)  After you start the program, you can “set it an forget it,” as the group will refresh and send the email automatically.

This process can be repeated with several groups for several dates if needed, which creates an easy way to trigger relevant email sends.  If you’re using any of these features in a unique way (or want to learn more about them), let me know!

Jessica Koch
Integration Consultant