How is a flow different from a campaign?
A campaign is one email you write and send to a list on a day. A flow is a set of emails and the rules between them, waiting. The trigger decides who enters it and when; the delays decide the spacing; the filters decide who leaves it early, such as anyone who buys before the second email. You build it once. The email tool watches for the trigger and sends each email at the moment the rule says, to one person at a time, for as long as the flow is switched on.
That is the economics of it. A newsletter earns once. A welcome flow built in 2024 is still greeting every new subscriber in 2026, and the hour it took has paid for itself a few hundred times.
Which four flows earn the most?
| Flow | Trigger | What the emails do | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Welcome | Joins the list | Delivers what was promised, says who you are and what you believe, shows the best seller or the way to book | Everyone |
| Abandoned cart | Adds to cart, does not buy within an hour | Reminds, answers the usual doubt (shipping, returns), and on the third email, if ever, offers something small | Online shops |
| Post-purchase | First order placed | Thanks, tells them what happens next, helps them use the thing, asks for a review once it has arrived | Shops and services alike |
| Win-back | No order for 120 to 180 days | What is new since, a reason to return, and a last email that asks whether to keep writing | Any business with repeat customers |
A fifth, the enquiry follow-up for a service business, triggers when a quote or enquiry is logged and sends two polite nudges over a week. It is the one most tradies and professionals do not have and the one that closes the most jobs.
What does the abandoned cart flow earn in a month? (example figures)
A Darwin outdoor gear shop on Shopify connected to Klaviyo sees 520 carts a month abandoned at an average of $140. It builds a three-email flow: one hour after abandonment, one the next morning, one two days later with free shipping over $100.
| Email 1 (1 hour) | Email 2 (next morning) | Email 3 (day 3) | Flow total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sent | 520 | 441 | 398 | |
| Click rate | 9.2 percent | 5.4 percent | 4.1 percent | |
| Orders recovered | 31 | 14 | 11 | 56 |
| Revenue | $4,340 | $1,960 | $1,540 | $7,840 |
Fifty-six orders a month that would otherwise have been lost, from a flow that took an afternoon to build and sends itself. The first email, with no discount, recovers more than half of them. The free shipping in the third costs the shop about $12 an order on the 11 it recovers, which the owner judges worth it; many shops leave the offer out entirely and still recover most of the first column.
Monthly value = orders recovered × average order value
56 × $140 = $7,840 a month, for an afternoon's work
What makes a flow fail?
Too many emails, too fast, with a discount in the first one. A flow that offers 15 percent off an hour after someone leaves a cart teaches every customer to leave a cart. A welcome flow that sends daily for a week earns unsubscribes and spam complaints that hurt every other email you send. And a flow that is built and never read: open the flow report each month, look at the click rate of each step, and switch off the step nobody clicks.
What does Cora do with flows?
CoraVision does not read your email tool, so flows are built in Mailchimp or Klaviyo with Mabel or Kai, their specialists in CoraVersity, talking you through the triggers and the delays on your own screen when a flow is a tactic in your action plan. Dune, the creative director, designs the emails in your brand in the Design Studio. Once Google Analytics 4 is connected, CoraVision reads the purchases that arrive from email every night, so a flow's orders show up in the numbers Cora reads and in the strategy they were built to serve.
Questions
Which flow should a business build first?
The welcome flow, because every new subscriber passes through it and it is the moment they are most interested. For a shop, the abandoned cart flow second; for a service business, the enquiry follow-up second.
How many emails should a flow have?
Three is enough for most: the immediate one, a second a day or two later, a third within the week. Flows with eight emails are built, admired and switched off after the complaints arrive.
Do flows work without an online shop?
Yes. A trigger can be a form on your website, a booking, a quote sent, or a tag you add by hand. A tradie's flow can start the moment a quote goes out and follow it up twice without anyone remembering to.