Marketing automation · Tracks tied to real occasions
The trigger is already in your customer records. The newsletter is the substitute for it.
At CoderConda every marketing automation track hangs on a real event, from €495 one-off per track, running it €25 a month. Service due, quote unanswered, job completed; where there is no occasion, nothing goes out.
- Trigger
- Service due in 8 weeksFrom the equipment list, checked daily
- Check
- Contract active, contact not unsubscribedOtherwise the track never starts
- Day 0
- Reminder with two proposed datesFrom the free slots in the calendar
- Day 10
- Second message, only if no date is setWith the deadline from the contract
- Day 24
- Task: callOn Ms Berg's list, no third email
- Exit
- Date · Reply · Unsubscribe · Contract endedAt any time, including mid-wait
The problem
The newsletter does not fail on the text. It fails on the calendar.
Sending something because the quarter is ending demands a topic, a text and somebody with time every single time. Sending something because a customer's service is due demands that once — after that it runs.
- January
The newsletter is decided on: four issues a year, with news from the business. A tool is chosen and set up.
- March
Issue one goes out. Issue two is skipped because it is peak season and nobody has time to find a topic.
- September
Issue two appears six months late. The open rate is respectable. No enquiries come, because the email went to everybody and to nobody.
- February
The tool keeps running and keeps being charged monthly. Nothing is sent any more. Nor is it cancelled, because the addresses live there.
How it runs
One track first. The second only once the first carries.
- Step 01
Look for occasions, not topics
Half a day in the customer records, the quote folder and the equipment list. What I look for are dates that pass: inspection deadlines, service intervals, expiry dates, ends of warranty. Where there is a date, there is an occasion.
- Step 02
Pick the one occasion
Judged by how many people it affects and how unambiguously the date exists. What gets built is the clearest one — not the five that sound most interesting.
- Step 03
Draw the track, with a way out
Trigger, conditions, waiting periods, at most two messages, then a task for a human. And four exits that take effect immediately. It fits on one page and you sign it off.
- Step 04
Connect to the data that exists
Customer records, calendar, ERP export, sending service. What is there gets connected — including a folder of CSV files where there is no interface. A new platform comes only if it genuinely cannot be done without one.
- Step 05
Measure appointments, not opens
What gets counted is how many contacts from the track ended up with an appointment. Open rates have only limited meaning since the mail providers added their protections, and they are no evidence.
The track board
Every track has a way out. Otherwise it is a trap.
The most important part of a flow is the condition that ends it. As soon as a date is set or a person replies, the track stops — automated messages after a reply are the fastest way to annoy a long-standing customer.
- TriggerService appointment due in 8 weeksFrom the equipment list, checked daily
- Day 0 · MessageReminder with two concrete proposed datesThe slots come from the calendar, not from a stock phrase
- ConditionDate booked?YesTrack ends. The date is in the calendar, a colleague is assigned.NoWait ten days. Then a second message with the deadline from the contract.
- Day 24 · Task for a humanA call on Ms Berg's list. No third email.The track hands over rather than sending again
- Date booked
- Customer replies
- Unsubscribe
- Contract ended
What reaches the customer
Two messages in nine months. After that a human takes over.
The complete mail a customer receives from this track. Anyone wanting to know how often somebody gets written to here does not have to ask.
- Message 1 · Day 0To: management
Servicing your equipment: two dates free in November
"The inspection on the equipment in hall 2 falls due in November. The 12th and the 19th are free, both mornings. One click is enough and the date is entered on our side."
No attachment, no PDF. Two dates and one link.
- Message 2 · Day 10Only if no date is set
The contract deadline runs out on 30 November
"Without an inspection by then, the warranty on the last repair lapses. If November does not work, just say so — then we move it and put it in writing."
A reason, not urgency out of the marketing kit.
- Day 24 · no messageInternal task
A call instead of a third email
A task appears on Ms Berg's list with the customer number, the equipment, the deadline and what has already been written.
Two reminders are following up. The third is harassment.
What gets built
Six parts every track is made of.
- /01
Trigger
A date or an event from a system you already keep. Checked daily, without anyone going through a list.
Date · status · event
- /02
Conditions
Who gets the track and who does not: active contract, area, no unsubscribe, no second track already running.
Checked before the start
- /03
Messages
At most two, each with a concrete reason and a single next step. Written in your language, signed off by you.
Email · letter on request
- /04
Task for a human
Where a track ends, a task begins: call, with the customer number, the deadline and what has already been written.
Handover instead of a third email
- /05
Exit
Date booked, reply received, unsubscribed, contract ended. Each case stops it immediately, including mid-wait.
Four ways, effective at once
- /06
Reporting
Appointments per track, unsubscribes, open tasks. Monthly, calculated against the state before the start.
Appointments, not opens
Platform or a built track
From a marketing team upwards the platform pays. Before that you pay for idle capacity.
Anyone running ten tracks, testing campaigns and keeping three people busy with it is well advised to use a platform. Anyone wanting to automate two occasions mostly pays it for features nobody opens. A built track costs from €495 one-off, running it €25 a month. All prices are final prices. No VAT is charged under § 19 UStG.
| Platform or a built track | Platform licence | A built track |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Per contact, monthly, rising. | Built once, then operated. |
| Scope | A hundred features, two used. | Exactly the tracks that exist. |
| Connections | Only what the platform provides for. | Including the CSV export from the old ERP. |
| Changes | A ticket with the vendor. | A phone call, usually the same day. |
| Data | Sits with the vendor. | Sits with you. |
| Right from when | Own marketing team, many campaigns. | Two to four clear occasions. |
Limits & operation
At most two messages
After that a human takes over or nothing further happens. A track with six stages produces unsubscribes, and unsubscribes cost more than a missed occasion.
Consent is settled beforehand
An appointment reminder under a running contract is a different thing from advertising. Which of the two a track falls under is recorded before it is built, with an unsubscribe in every promotional message. Not legal advice — ask your own lawyer, and check the rules where you operate.
Never two tracks at once
A contact is only ever in one track. Otherwise the same customer gets a service reminder and a reactivation email on the same day.
A dry run against real data
Before it starts, the track runs dry across the contacts of the last quarter. Who would have received it stands in a list you read through — not in a statistic afterwards.
Plain answers
- Do I need HubSpot or a similar platform for this?
- For two to four tracks, rarely. The licence costs per contact indefinitely, and most of the features stay unused — that is not a criticism of the platforms, they are built for marketing teams. I work with what is there: customer records, calendar, quote folder, a sending service for the email. If a platform is already running at your end, it gets connected rather than replaced.
- Is this not just a newsletter after all?
- A newsletter goes to everybody at the same moment; a track goes to one contact at theirs. The difference is the trigger: his service falls due in eight weeks, his quote has been unanswered for five days, his job was signed off two weeks ago. Where there is no such occasion, nothing goes out — and that is why these tracks keep running while newsletters fall asleep.
- How many messages are too many?
- Two reminders are following up, six are harassment. That is why every track has at most two messages and then a task for a human. On top of that come four exits that take effect immediately: date booked, reply received, unsubscribed, contract ended. A message that still goes out after a reply breaks more than three skipped occasions do.
- What about consent and data protection?
- Promotional messages need a legal basis, documented with the time and the origin, and every one carries an unsubscribe. An appointment reminder under a running service contract is a different thing from advertising — that line is put in writing for each track beforehand rather than crossed in case of doubt. Hosting in Germany, a processing agreement, documented retention periods. This is not legal advice; ask your own lawyer, and check the rules where you operate.
- How do I measure whether it works?
- By appointments and jobs. Open rates have had only limited meaning since the mail providers added their protections, because an open can be triggered automatically — a rate built on that is fit for a chart, not for a decision. What gets counted is how many contacts from a track ended up with an appointment, against the state before the start.
- What if the first track produces nothing?
- Then it gets switched off, and that is written into the offer. Three months is enough on a service occasion to see whether appointments come out of it. A track that carries nothing is not rescued by a second one — more often it is the occasion, and then the right question is which other date passes unused at your end.