Ultimate Guide to Rep-Triggered Email (RTE) Campaigns

Targeted and automated email campaigns have been one of the most honored sources of marketing that have brought real value to HCP engagement for the last decade. They are the primary force among other communication channels in marketing. Therefore, we are ready to plunge into the subject and share more insights into how to create rep-triggered emails that can win the heart of your customer.

What Are Rep Triggered Emails (RTE)?

Despite the rise of social media platforms, email remains one of the most trusted and vital channels of communication, especially in industries like pharma and healthcare. In 2023, the number of global email users reached 4.37 billion and is projected to grow to 4.89 billion by 2027.

Rep-triggered emails are highly targeted and personalized, typically sent to a single client. Medical sales representatives use them to deliver welcome emails or follow-ups that include presentation materials or other customized content. These emails expand opportunities for customers to engage with credible, approved information in an efficient way, supported by timely and consistent follow-up from pharma reps.

Broadcasts (automated) emails are addressed to the whole HCP segment (for mass mailing). Such emails allow for reducing expenses on digital marketing and, in turn, bring cost-effective customer engagement to bigger categories of customers.

Here is more in-depth information.

Broadcast email campaigns

A kind of correspondence sent to a wide array of customers by a marketing team:

• It is not customized, so it is relevant for the whole HCP segment
• Broadcast emails give generalized and complete information regarding the brand to medical professionals. It covers a sustained number of audiences, bringing medical and commercial updates.
• Gives a big advantage to pre-defined and gets the email approved in advance.

Rep-triggered email campaigns

Despite specific materials of any kind you are filling in your campaigns, they should be pre-defined and pre-approved as far as you communicate with a person. To deliver your message to a specific audience, you should be keen to move on with a personalized approach in your outreach.

Types of triggered emails could be utilized by a medical sales rep as:

• ​welcome or post-visit communications (invitation or follow-up) ​
• part of the Patient Support Program​
• scientific articles and professional information​
• e-learning: invitation, information about courses

You can directly use a CRM application to send approved content through email, providing the HCPs with customized sales messages. It allows the building of tailored digital communication for long-term relationships.

How Do Triggered Emails Work?

Rep-triggered emails are sent in response to specific actions rather than being sent manually or on a fixed schedule. Here is how it works:

User action (Trigger)

Everything starts with a user doing something that matches predefined conditions. Any type of action you decide, such as a newsletter sign-up, a purchase, a link click, or even cart abandonment, can trigger an automated email.

Trigger detection

The system, which can be any email marketing platform, tracks this action in real time. The system identifies the following:

• The target contact;
• The relevant message or email template;
• Personalization rules (rep’s name, product details, contact history).

Automation rules apply

Based on the defined rule set, the platform decides what message to send. These rules determine the email’s content, tone, time, and other details, meaning the email will be personalized to a specific situation.

Email sent out automatically

The email is sent automatically to the user without any manual actions required from the marketer. As a result, marketers can deliver email campaigns and personalized content without having to create them manually every time.

Why Are Rep-Triggered Emails Important?

In short, the omnichannel approach has created a series of new marketing opportunities, especially the ability to create relevant, inseparable customer experiences while making them as flat as pancakes both online and offline. Does it sound promising? Many market players confirm it.

At the same time, it remains a bit of a challenge. The omnichannel approach in the pharma industry is a kind of delicate needlework, meaning that customers must be continuously involved through various communication channels regarding the company’s products, services, or other messages. Despite its massive work on planning and delivering huge amounts of content, rep-triggered email is a great way to inform your clients about your latest news and deliver your key message directly.

Trigger Email Types

There are many types of rep-triggered emails, but they all share one key trait: they’re sent immediately after a specific customer action. These events, whether it’s a sign-up, purchase, or app interaction, trigger different types of emails delivered at just the right moment. Let’s take a closer look at the most common ones.

Welcome email

Welcome emails are sent after a customer interacts with a business for the first time. It could be a newsletter registration, a first purchase, or even providing an email address in exchange for a discount. A welcome email should be brief to avoid confusing and overwhelming the customer, and contain important information about the brand, a few links, or some tips for a newcomer.

Order confirmation email

This type of email is sent after a customer makes a purchase. An order confirmation email should provide the recipient with all the important information about the next steps, such as shipping, delivery dates, receipts, and other details.

Cart abandonment email

This triggered email is sent when a shopper adds items to their cart but doesn’t complete the checkout process. If a website includes a cart feature — even for services — this type of email can be used to remind customers of their incomplete purchase and encourage them to return. There’s no need to send the message immediately after they leave the site; it’s more effective to wait a short period before following up.

Re-engagement email

If a customer hasn’t interacted with your business for a while, consider sending a re-engagement email. These emails are targeted at subscribers or past customers who previously took some action, such as making a purchase or signing up, but haven’t returned for some time.

Milestone email

These emails include special offers to celebrate a specific milestone with the brand. For example, it could be an anniversary of your cooperation, a certain period of using a product or service, or a usage milestone for an app or subscription. Whatever milestone you choose, it can be a great way to engage with the customer and show how much you appreciate them.

Effective Strategies for Implementing Rep-Triggered Emails

What are the best practices for implementing rep-triggered emails into your marketing strategy? Here are some important tips to keep in mind:

Personalize your communication

You can improve email relevancy through personalized and approved email campaigns to build up customer relationships and personalized marketing, which would provide you with an opportunity to carry on customer loyalty and magnify brand recognition. Sales managers would smoothly fill the gap and improve HCP outreach with this brand-new content approach.

Research your target audience

It allows the announcement of new medicine updates via rep triggered emails as well as covering those physicians who are hardly available to catch up by rendezvous or visit the website for required information.

Use different channels

Such channels as personalized email marketing campaigns enhance communication by combining diverse channels, such as live meetings, online conferences, messengers, presentations, and a coherent experience for customers.

Evaluate the quality

You can always track customer attention to your HCP’s email campaigns by checking the reaction of recipients. It opens a road to make the content more personalized and up-to-date to meet clients’ needs. This marketing strategy allows for evaluating open rates, click rates, the number of unsubscribes, etc. This metrics system provides a complete image of the campaign efficiency.

Offer only relatable content

Boost product recognition by approved email marketing messages to educate your customers. Provide them with information they can use in their daily life or work, something they can actually find useful and not just promotional. This way, reps can build long-term relations with physicians and develop retention strategies.

What are Some Effective Trigger Email Examples?

Not sure what email to send? Let’s take a look at some examples of rep-triggered emails based on the types of emails we have already discussed and marketing goals that each email type helps achieve:

Welcome email example

• Trigger: User signs up for an account or subscribes to a newsletter;
• Email: “Welcome to [Brand Name]! Here’s what to do next…”;
• Goal: Engage right away and guide the user’s first steps to ensure they continue their journey and get acquainted with the company.

Abandoned cart email example

• Trigger: User adds items to cart but doesn’t complete purchase;
• Email: “Forget something? Your cart’s waiting!”;
• Goal: Recover lost sales and offer a reminder or incentive.

Order confirmation email example

• Trigger: A customer completes a purchase;
• Email: “Thanks for your order! Here’s what happens next.”;
• Goal: Confirm transaction, provide shipping information, reduce anxiety, and build trust.

Event reminder/follow-up email example

• Trigger: A booked appointment, webinar sign-up, or missed event;
• Email:
  • Reminder: “Your demo is coming up tomorrow!”;
  • Follow-up: “Thanks for attending — here are your takeaways.”;
• Goal: Improve attendance or continue the conversation.

Reactivation/Win-back email example

• Trigger: User hasn’t interacted in a while (e.g., 30+ days);
• Email: “We miss you! Here’s what’s new…”;
• Goal: Re-engage inactive users.

There are many more examples of rep-triggered emails that can drive higher engagement, achieve increased sales, and strengthen marketing automation efforts. Make sure to have at least a few automated messages set up to interact with customers in different ways.

Triggered Emails vs. Marketing Emails

Marketing email is the type of email sent to promote a product or a service, directly or indirectly. Marketing emails are usually planned and scheduled in advance and not triggered by users’ actions. However, some triggered emails, such as welcome messages, milestone celebrations, or product recommendations, can also serve a marketing purpose by encouraging engagement or driving conversions. Some examples of marketing emails are:

• Newsletters;
• Holiday emails;
• Special offers;
• Announcement.

Triggered emails are automated messages sent based on the user’s action or behavior. Trigger campaigns don’t require manual input from marketers. Some examples of triggered emails are:

• Purchase confirmation message;
• Notifications;
• Welcome email;
• Transactional email;
• Onboarding email.

There are different aspects in which triggered emails differ from marketing emails, for example:

• Timing. Triggered emails are sent in real time, while marketing emails are sent at predefined intervals (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.).
• Personalization. Triggered emails offer a higher level of personalization, as they are based on behavioral data and use the customer’s actions as the source for customization. In contrast, marketing emails rely on more general data about the target audience.
• Engagement. Usually, triggered emails have higher engagement rates, as they are more relevant to the users due to timing and personalization. However, marketing emails might also be highly engaging depending on the content and context.
• Purpose. Even though triggered emails have promotional value, their main goal is to respond to user behavior and guide them through the funnel, while marketing emails are sent to promote products or services and increase brand awareness.

Triggered emails are great when it comes to boosting HCP and patient engagement and driving conversion rates, while marketing emails can encourage users to learn more about the brand and what it has to offer. Both triggered and marketing emails offer unique benefits, so it is important to design a marketing campaign that strategically incorporates both.

Challenges and Factors to Consider for Approved Emails

Even though technically you need to create your triggered email only once, there are still some challenges and obstacles to consider, even when your email campaign has already been planned:

High volume of content

It’s become so easy to create an email and send it out right away that often inboxes become flooded with hundreds of promotions, offers, and product recommendations. An average consumer is ready to become loyal to a brand that provides them with a personalized experience and engaging content, but as soon as the company goes overboard, even the most loyal customer gets tired of all the notifications. It’s crucial to strike the right balance between attracting new users and retaining existing customers.

Inaccurate audience segmentation

Audience segmentation is a process of dividing the target audience into different groups based on their behavior, habits, demographics, and other shared characteristics. For triggered email marketing, segmentation plays an especially important role, as using segmentation for email campaigns allows marketers to provide their customers with better, more personalized content. However, segmentation can end up being a waste of resources if the data used is not accurate. Outdated, incomplete, or unreliable data leads to poor quality insights and ultimately results in ineffective audience segmentation.

Being considered as spam

Creating rep-triggered emails is relatively easy, but consistently accounting for all the filters that might classify them as spam is much more challenging. In an effort to boost user engagement, many marketers and content creators overlook the risk of their messages landing in the spam folder. As a result, their efforts go unnoticed, and the emails fail to receive the attention they deserve.

To avoid being flagged as spam, it’s crucial to stay current with email filtering rules. Messages should be easy to read, maintain a professional tone, and avoid using excessive promotional language or common spam trigger words.

Poor email design

Even the most well-written email will fail to attract any attention and improve engagement if it is poorly designed. When creating an email, regardless of whether it is a rep-triggered one or not, consider these factors:

• Mobile responsiveness;
• Clear visual hierarchy (headings, subheadings, and spacing);
• Readability of fonts;
• Consistent branding;
• Balanced use of media;
• Accessible design;
• Minimal clutter;
• Proper template rendering.

Remember to always test your emails and check how they appear on various devices. Rep-triggered emails are time-sensitive, meaning that when a customer receives one, they often have clear expectations upon opening it. Even minor issues, such as poor device compatibility or a bad choice of font colors, can prevent the customer from taking any action or engaging with the brand.

Timing sensitivity

Timely communication plays a crucial role in how your triggered emails are perceived by the audience. When a message arrives at the right moment, the recipient is more likely to engage with the brand, learn more about it, and even make a purchase. However, if the email is delivered too late, its impact is significantly diminished. No one wants to receive a welcome email weeks after registering. That’s why it’s essential to ensure every type of triggered email is sent at the best time.

Summing Up

Rep-triggered emails can be an engaging and effective way to not only attract new customers but also retain existing ones. If you are looking for a solution that would help you manage different kinds of emails and messages, the eWizard platform is a tool for omnichannel marketing that coincides with the main content rules in the pharma industry. eWizard would come in handy for marketing specialists when they need to create, update, or localize content as a sole proprietor or as a company. This platform is a multichannel content creation software that supplies rapid, smooth, and demanded content.