Creating and managing email marketing with Campaign Autopilot

You can use Campaign Autopilot to create and manage email marketing for your store through Shopify Messaging. When Autopilot recommends an email tactic as part of your growth strategy, Autopilot generates branded emails and automations tailored to your store, and sends them to the right customer segments.

An email tactic is a recommendation that you review in Growth > Autopilot. If you approve a tactic, then Autopilot activates the matching automation or schedules the one-time send in Shopify Messaging. Email tactics can help you acquire new customers and retain existing ones, for example welcome flows, abandoned checkout recovery, and re-engagement sends.

You review and approve all email tactics before they go live, and you can customize certain elements of the email content.

Requirements for Autopilot email tactics

You need to meet the following requirements to use Autopilot with Shopify Messaging:

• The Shopify Messaging app is installed on your store.
• You have an active subscriber list with customer email addresses. Refer to Managing your subscriber list.
• Autopilot is set up with Shopify Messaging connected as a channel in Growth > Autopilot.

Autopilot email automations and one-time campaigns

Autopilot can recommend both ongoing automations and one-time campaigns. Each recommendation is displayed as a tactic in Pending actions in Growth > Autopilot until you approve or dismiss it.

Ongoing email automations

Autopilot can create ongoing workflows that trigger based on customer behavior. Examples include:

• Abandoned checkout recovery
• Abandoned cart recovery
• Abandoned product browse
• Welcome series

One-time email campaigns

For specific marketing moments, Autopilot can recommend one-time sends, for example:

• Product launch
• Promotional campaign

Autopilot email content, branding, and audience selection

When Autopilot drafts an email for your review, it uses your store data as described here:

• Generated content: The body is generated to match the tactic's goal, such as recovering an abandoned checkout or promoting a new product.
• Branding applied: Autopilot applies your store's brand colors, logo, and styling to the email template.
• Segment targeting: Autopilot selects the customer segment most likely to respond. You can't change the target audience.

After the email is generated, it is displayed as a pending action in Growth > Autopilot for you to review.

Email compliance for Autopilot-created emails

Marketing email laws, including rules about consent, identification, and unsubscribe links, depend on where you and your customers are located. You're responsible for complying with the laws that apply to your business. Use this overview as a starting point:

• Regulatory context: Review requirements for your region. Many merchants need to account for the United States CAN-SPAM Act and, where applicable, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Refer to Data privacy and legal compliance for email marketing campaigns for more detail.
• Unsubscribe and opt-out: Shopify Messaging includes standard unsubscribe handling for marketing messages. Learn what happens when a customer unsubscribes from your mailing list.
• Autopilot-generated emails: Treat Autopilot drafts as you would any other marketing email. Review sender details, footer content, and consent implications before you approve a send.

Review Autopilot email tactics

Before any email is sent, you can review the draft and decide whether to approve or dismiss it.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Growth > Autopilot.

2. In the Pending actions section, click the email tactic that you want to review.

3. Review the email preview, including the subject line, content, target audience, and send schedule.

4. Approve or dismiss an email:

   • To approve the email, click Approve. For automations, the automation is activated. For one-time campaigns, the email is scheduled for sending.
   • To dismiss the email, click Dismiss. The tactic is removed from your pending actions.

Customizing Autopilot email content

You can customize certain elements of the emails that Autopilot creates. The level of customization depends on the element, as described here:

• Subject line: If you want a different subject line, then you can ask Autopilot to regenerate it. You can't write a custom subject line directly.
• Email body: You can edit the body text, but Autopilot flags that changes might affect performance.
• Colors and branding: You can adjust colors and visual elements, with a note that changes might affect performance.
• Target segment: You can't change the target audience. Autopilot selects the segment to maximize results.

For the best results, keep the defaults that Autopilot recommends. Autopilot selects email content, subject lines, and audiences based on data analysis of your store.

Managing Autopilot emails in Shopify Messaging

Autopilot email tactics create assets that you manage alongside your existing Shopify Messaging work. You can find Autopilot emails, monitor performance, and avoid sending duplicate messages to your customers.

Find Autopilot emails

Drafts and campaigns are available in your Shopify Messaging app. Automations also appear on the Automations page in your Shopify admin.

To identify which emails Autopilot created, review assets for the Autopilot label on items that Autopilot created.

Monitor Autopilot email performance

After tactics are live, review engagement metrics such as open rates, click rates, and conversions where reporting is available. Refer to Shopify Messaging analytics and tracking for how to read campaign and automation results.

Avoid duplicate emails with existing automations

If you already have active email automations, then review your Autopilot email tactics carefully to confirm your customers don't receive duplicate messages.

Steps:

1. In Shopify Messaging and on the Automations page, list automations that already target the same behavior, such as abandoned checkout.
2. Open the Autopilot tactic in Growth > Autopilot, and then compare the audience and trigger to your existing automation.
3. Either pause or edit the conflicting automation in Shopify Messaging before you approve the Autopilot tactic, or dismiss the Autopilot tactic if you want to keep your existing automation.

Troubleshooting Autopilot email tactics

If an email tactic doesn't behave as you expect, then start with these checks:

Emails not sending after approval

• Confirm the Shopify Messaging app is installed and that your store can send from Shopify Messaging.
• Confirm you have enough eligible subscribers for the segment Autopilot selected.
• On the Automations page, check for errors on the automation and whether another automation is blocking or duplicating the same trigger.

Audience smaller than expected

• List size and subscriber list settings limit how many customers can receive a send.
• Autopilot chooses a segment for you. Narrow segments naturally reach fewer customers than broad store-wide lists.