Email automation covers everything from a simple welcome email after sign-up to multi-branch workflows that adjust based on contact behaviour. The triggers can be lifecycle events (sign-up, first purchase, anniversary), behavioural (page visit, cart abandonment, link click), or time-based (90 days inactive).
A robust automation system runs on a durable workflow engine. Delays of days or weeks must survive worker restarts and platform deploys without losing enrollments. Steps that fail (a temporary SMTP outage, a tag-application error) should retry rather than break the entire workflow.
The biggest practical mistake is over-automation. Most lists do not have the volume or behavioural data to power 15 branching workflows; they need one good welcome sequence, one good cart-recovery sequence, and one good re-engagement sequence. Add complexity only when each existing automation is fully optimised.