If you're new to email marketing, you might be stuck on the difference between a campaign and a flow. That is 100% okay. The lingo can be confusing, especially if you haven't explored this world much before, and it's easy to feel overwhelmed when you want to build a good email ecosystem but don't know where to start.
At Email By Design, we work with brands at every stage of their email journey, and we love breaking down the knowledge gaps that hold people back from their full potential. So let's tackle one of the most common questions we're asked: what's the difference between email campaigns and email flows?
Campaign
- A one-time send at a date and time you choose
- Often promo or event based (a mid-year sale)
- Aligned to your marketing calendar
- Everyone gets it at the same moment
Flow
- Sent based on a customer's actions
- Always live, but timed to each person
- Triggered by things like a sign-up
- Avoids seasonal language that dates
What is an email campaign?
A campaign is a one-time send you schedule for an allocated date and time. It might be promotion based, like a mid-year sale or a special event, and it usually aligns with your marketing calendar and the day-to-day of your brand. Essentially, anything you want to say to your customers at a set moment goes out as a campaign. They're not always time sensitive, but they're typically time or seasonality driven, since you control when they send. At a base level every customer receives them at once, like mass messaging to inspire loyalty and purchases.
What is an email flow?
This is where the ecosystem gets a little more clever. Flows are emails sent based on a customer's actions with your brand. They always exist in your platform, but they send at different times for every person. A welcome series is a classic example: it triggers when someone signs up, greets them, thanks them and offers an incentive. You wouldn't mass send that to your whole list, it would be strange to welcome someone who's been subscribed for three years. Instead, a sign-up form acts as the trigger, and once a customer meets that criterion the welcome emails begin. The whole idea is to meet customers at different points in their buying journey, so avoid seasonal language that quickly dates.
Why you need both
Campaigns are effective because they land frequently, keeping engagement and brand loyalty warm even when someone isn't ready to buy. Flows are powerful because they meet customers exactly where they are: leave something in a cart, and a flow reminds you to come back. But there isn't an endless list of flows to build, so on their own they can't foster long-term loyalty from the start. Put simply, they work best interwoven:
A customer signs up and receives a welcome email. They're not ready to buy yet, still weighing whether they need your products.
Over the next while, campaigns keep educating and inspiring them, until they're interested enough to head back to your site.
They add products to their cart, then leave. An abandoned cart flow nudges them to come back and finish the order.
Once the order goes through, a post-purchase flow follows up to thank them and keep the relationship warm.
Until they're ready to shop again, campaigns keep inspiring them. Every journey differs, but this is how the two interweave to lift purchases and retention.
Campaigns keep your brand top of mind. Flows meet each customer right where they are.
Let's build your email ecosystem the right way.
One of the trickiest parts of starting out is knowing where to begin. Not sure how to turn your email vision into reality? We're here to help.
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