Shopify marketing automation is changing the way we do marketing – eliminating the need for countless manual hours put into rolling out campaigns.  It’s about turning the tedious into manageable and bringing efficiency to your marketing efforts by doing more with less.  Whether it’s the struggle of engaging with each customer personally, recovering abandoned carts, or tailoring your message based on customer behavior, marketing automation offers a solution.  In this blog, we learn about the basics of marketing automation for Shopify, how to create marketing automation in Shopify, and the best Shopify marketing automation apps to start your automation journey right away. Launch automated email campaigns in minutes with Retainful’s easy-to-setup email automation. What is Shopify marketing automation? Shopify marketing automation is the use of software to automate repetitive marketing tasks like sending targeted emails, SMS messages, and social media posting, ensuring timely communication to drive engagement. When you set up a Shopify store, you want to acquire customers, retain them, sell more products – all through your marketing efforts. Doing all this manually can really drain your time. With marketing automation, you can automate tasks like these. This not only saves you a lot of time but also makes your marketing more effective because you’re sending the right message to the right people at the right time.  How does Shopify marketing automation work? Shopify marketing automation uses software that connects to your Shopify store and automatically takes care of your marketing tasks once you set up the rules.  Here are the important elements that set the marketing automation in motion. Triggers: These are the events that initiate an automated workflow. Common triggers in Shopify marketing automation include: Actions Once a trigger fires, a pre-defined series of actions follow at the time intervals you set. Common actions in marketing automation for Shopify include: Workflows In marketing automation for Shopify, these are the pre-defined sequences that combine triggers and actions.  By sequencing these elements, you create a multi-step automated journey for your customers. With these, you can launch marketing automation campaigns that are tailored to customer behaviors. Here is an example:  Why do you need Shopify marketing automation? Shopify marketing automation comes with a lot of benefits designed to make the lives of store owners like you easier. How to create marketing automation in Shopify? Step 1. Define your goals and target audience Identify what you want to achieve with your marketing automation for Shopify – increase sales, engage customers post-purchase or nurture leads. Determine the specific customer segment you want to target with your automated campaign (e.g., new subscribers, abandoned cart recoverers, past purchasers). Step 2. Choose the right automation type Shopify offers various automation options depending on your goals.  Step 3. Use Built-in Shopify Automation or Integrate Apps: Step 4. Setting up automation workflow Choose the type of Shopify marketing automation workflow, set up the triggers, sequence of emails or other actions, and time delay between those actions. Step 5. Personalize your content Craft compelling email copy or SMS messages that resonate with your target audience.  Utilize customer data like purchase history, product page visits, or email engagement to personalize your messages, matching the customer segment you are targeting. Step 6. Set up A/B testing and analytics Test different versions of your emails or SMS messages (e.g., subject lines, product recommendations) to see what performs best. Monitor key metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates to track the performance of your marketing automation campaigns. 5 Best Shopify Marketing Automation Apps Finding out what is the best automation tool for Shopify helps you tailor your marketing efforts based on customer behavior, preferences, and purchase history, improving customer retention and conversions. Here is our list of the best Shopify marketing automation apps: 1. Retainful 2. Omnisend 3. MailChimp 4. Drip 5. Constant Contact 1. Retainful Retainful is the Shopify email marketing automation app designed specifically for e-commerce businesses. It has easy-to-setup email automation at its core, and a beginner-friendly interface that allows you to launch personalized email campaigns with ease.  You can save time by leveraging Retainful’s library of pre-built Shopify email automation workflows for common e-commerce scenarios like abandoned cart recovery, welcome series, and post-purchase follow-ups and do cost-effective ecommerce email marketing automation for Shopify.  In this Shopify automated email marketing software, you can segment your audience based on various criteria like purchase history, demographics, and email engagement and target them with laser-focused campaigns for maximum customer engagement. You can also grow your email list with Retainful’s smart pop-ups or sign-up forms and turn casual visitors into customers. Launch personalized email campaigns with Retainful advanced segmentation and increase your email conversion rate. 2. Omnisend Omnisend is a Shopify marketing automation app designed for e-commerce, offering Shopify store owners tools for email, SMS, and social media campaigns. Omnisend shines in its ability to create Shopify marketing automation workflows across multiple channels, including email, SMS, push notifications, and web push notifications. This allows you to reach customers on their preferred platforms for a more cohesive experience. This Shopify automated email marketing software is designed with e-commerce businesses in mind, offering features that specifically cater to online stores’ needs. This includes advanced segmentation based on shopping behavior, automated product recommendations, and the ability to include dynamic discount codes in emails. While this Shopify marketing automation app supports SMS marketing, sending SMS messages incurs additional costs, which can quickly increase your overall marketing expenses. 3. MailChimp Mailchimp is a Shopify marketing automation app tailored for e-commerce, providing Shopify store owners with features for automating personalized email campaigns and managing audience segmentation. With a wide range of customizable email templates, drag-and-drop email designer, and advanced segmentation capabilities, Mailchimp excels in creating personalized email campaigns that can cater to various customer segments. This Shopify marketing automation software offers a generous free plan, which is particularly appealing for small businesses or startups with limited budgets. This plan includes basic email marketing features, making it a cost-effective entry point into ecommerce email marketing automation for Shopify.