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Skip to content Ever opened an email, skimmed it, thought, I’ll read that later, and then never did? Yeah, so does everyone else.
Most emails arrive at completely the wrong time, interrupting us mid-scroll, mid-coffee sip, or mid-checkout at the supermarket.
That’s why behavioural emails are so powerful—they land exactly when the person needs them, triggered by what they just did (or didn’t do). No more guessing games, just smart, timely, and relevant messages.
This case study walks through how I used behavioural automation in a free Celtic learning portal to keep people engaged, watching videos, and eventually, becoming paying members.
This entire strategy was built on deep customer research.
I knew that the audience takes longer to make purchasing decisions and needed multiple touch points before committing. They actively dislike traditional webinars and high-pressure sales tactics.
Instead, the free videos gave them a chance to explore, address any doubts, and build a connection with Rhonda—long before they ever saw an offer.
Drip emails work like this: You sign up, and over the next few days, emails trickle into your inbox on a set schedule, regardless of whether you actually engage with them.
Imagine this in real life: You ask someone a question, and two days later, while you’re in the middle of paying for groceries, they finally send you the answer.
Are you stopping everything to check it? Probably not.
That’s the issue with drip sequences—they don’t take context into account.
The right message, but at the wrong time, is useless.
Instead of rigidly scheduled emails, I built a system that responded to real user actions.
✅ If someone watched a video, they got a relevant follow-up encouraging them to keep going.
✅ If they didn’t watch a video, they got a nudge reminding them what they were missing.
✅ Everything felt natural, personalised, and timely—like a conversation, not a broadcast.
Let’s break it down.
The moment someone signed up for the free Celtic learning portal, they entered a carefully crafted 7-day email sequence designed to:
🔹 Get them excited about the journey ahead
🔹 Remove doubts (No Celtic ancestry? No problem! No experience? You’re still welcome!)
🔹 Give them a reason to engage (like the chance to win a handcrafted Shamanic drum 🎶🔥)
This flowchart visualises how the onboarding sequence works:
📌 Each email in the sequence presents an opportunity to engage.
📌 If a subscriber watches a video, they are immediately moved OUT of this sequence and into the Behavioural Email Sequence.
📌 If they do NOT watch a video after five emails, they exit into the Newsletter segment with a Re-engagement Tag.
The Re-engagement Tag ensures that these subscribers aren’t forgotten.
Instead, they move into a dedicated segment where we can follow up later with fresh offers, incentives, or community-driven content to encourage them back into the learning portal.
Once inside the portal, users could watch videos in any order—but we needed to make sure they actually did.
Here’s how the behavioural sequence worked:
1️⃣ The behavioural sequence is circlular → Each time they watch another video, they get a tag and start the sequence again. Once they watch all three videos they finally exit the circular sequence and into a sales sequence.
2️⃣A subscriber watches a video → They are tagged in Zapier, which pulls them out of the standard welcome sequence and into the behavioural sequence.
3️⃣They receive an email acknowledging their progress → It includes a reminder of what they’ve completed and what’s next.
4️⃣If they don’t watch the next video, they receive two reminders before being marked for re-engagement later.
5️⃣If they complete all three videos, they are moved into the sales sequence with a targeted offer.
6️⃣ If they don’t engage, they exit into the newsletter segment but can be re-engaged later.
Rather than sending generic emails, I used Liquid code to dynamically display what each subscriber had actually completed. That meant every email felt like a personal checklist rather than a one-size-fits-all message.
Liquid is a templating language used in email automation platforms (like ConvertKit) that allows content to be dynamically personalised based on subscriber data. Instead of sending the same email to everyone, Liquid code pulls in real-time data—in this case, whether a subscriber had watched a video or not.
Here’s what’s happening in the code:
1️⃣ Checking for a tag – The code looks at the subscriber’s profile to see if they have a specific tag (e.g., 'video one view'). If they do, it displays a success message.
2️⃣ If the tag is missing – The email alerts them that they haven’t completed the video and prompts them to go back and watch it.
3️⃣ This repeats for each video – Ensuring they know exactly where they left off and what still needs to be done.
By using Liquid code, we made sure that every subscriber got a completely customised email based on their actual progress.
No more generic “Here’s your next lesson” emails—just real-time updates that made the experience feel truly personal.
We compared the email open rates from the original onboarding sequence to the open rates of the behavioural emails, and the results were clear:
✅ Welcome Sequence Open Rates – Averaged between 54% and 68% (which is still excellent by any standards thanks to engaging, entertaining and relevant copy)
✅ Behavioural Emails Open Rates – Jumped to 76% – 87%, with click rates as high as 16%
This huge improvement in engagement proves that emails triggered by real user actions are far more effective than rigid, time-based drip sequences.
Not only did more people open the emails, but they also clicked and engaged more because they were receiving highly relevant messages at the right moment.
You can write the most compelling, beautifully crafted email in the world—but if it lands at the wrong time, it could disappear into the ether forever.
Behavioural automation engages you with your subscribers in real-time, responding to their actions instead of sending out a rigid, one-size-fits-all sequence.
It makes every email feel timely, relevant, and personal—because it is.
And when emails feel like that? People actually read them. Click them. And convert.
So next time you’re setting up an email sequence, ask yourself: Am I talking at my audience? Or am I responding to them?
The difference between those two could be the difference between emails that get ignored—and emails that drive real action.
Want help with your emailing strategy and automations? Book a vibe-check call today and let’s talk
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