Email Marketing: campaigns, segments, and drip flows that earn their send

Email Marketing at `/dashboard/email` covers the whole loop: build a campaign, target a segment, schedule it, and read exactly who opened and clicked. Subscribers flow in from your storefront automatically, drip automations run on triggers, and every send uses built-in tracking — no third-party pixel accounts to wire up. ## Build your first campaign 1. Open **Email** → **Campaigns** → **New Campaign**. Write a subject line and preheader — the preheader is the snippet after the subject in the inbox, and it lifts opens when used properly. 2. Compose in the editor: text, images, buttons, and merge tags that pull in the subscriber's name and other details. Start from a saved **Template** if this is a recurring format. 3. Choose **Send now**, or **Schedule** it for a specific date and time. Scheduled sends are dispatched by the platform scheduler, so the exact minute you picked is the minute it goes. ## Reuse layouts with templates Any campaign can be saved as a **Template**. Keep three or four — newsletter, promo announcement, restock notice — and campaign creation becomes a fill-in exercise. Templates keep fonts, colors, and button styles consistent, which is half of what makes email look professional. ## Let subscribers feed themselves The **Subscribers** list at `/dashboard/email/subscribers` grows on its own: every newsletter or signup form on your storefront feeds it automatically. Customers who tick the marketing opt-in at checkout or in their account land here with their preferences, and you can add or import contacts manually when needed. List hygiene is respected too — unsubscribes are honored without you touching anything. ## Target precisely with segments **Segments** at `/dashboard/email/segments` are saved rules over your customer data: "bought in the last 30 days," "VIP tier," "no purchase in 60 days," "abandoned a cart this week." Build a segment once, and it stays current as orders come in. When you send a campaign, pick a segment instead of the whole list — the smaller, better-targeted sends almost always outperform the blast. ## Set up drip automations **Automations** at `/dashboard/email/automations` are drip flows: a trigger plus timed steps. The classics: 1. **Welcome series** — triggered when someone subscribes; day 0 thank-you, day 2 best-sellers, day 5 discount. 2. **Win-back** — triggered by a "no purchase in 60 days" segment; a gentle nudge with a personal offer. 3. **Post-purchase** — triggered by a paid order; care instructions, then a review request a week later. Each step can carry a delay, a condition, and a different template, so the flow reads like a person wrote it. ## Read the numbers **Analytics** at `/dashboard/email/analytics` reports opens and clicks using built-in tracking: opens are counted via a tracking pixel in the email, and every link is rewritten through your store domain, so click attribution is first-party. Results break down per campaign and per subscriber. Watch the click rate more than the open rate — clicks predict revenue; opens mostly predict subject lines. ## Mind your plan limits Plan tiers gate the scale of email — list size and sending volume grow with each plan, from **Free** up through **Starter**, **Growth**, **Scale**, and **Unlimited**. The billing page shows your current usage; if you hit a ceiling, the fix is a plan upgrade, not a workaround. Core features — campaigns, segments, automations, tracking — are available on every plan. ## FAQ **Do I need my own email service or SMTP account?** No. Sends go through the platform mailer with deliverability handled for you. If you run your own SMTP, it can be configured at the platform level, but most merchants never need to. **Can I see which link inside an email got the clicks?** Yes. Click tracking is per link, per campaign, and per subscriber, so "the 'shop the collection' button outperformed the hero image" is a visible fact. **What happens when someone unsubscribes?** Their status flips immediately, they are excluded from future sends and automations, and the change is recorded — no manual list editing.