Marketing Process Automation via Web Application

Setting Up Marketing Process Automation via Web Application

Marketing automation combines user action tracking, audience segmentation, and automatic communications into a single system. Instead of manual distribution — chains that trigger on specific events.

System Architecture

Website (events)         Event broker      Automation
─────────────────       ───────────────    ──────────────
Registration ────────►  Kafka/Redis    ──► Email chains
Page view ────────────► Stream         ──► Push notifications
Add to cart              │              ──► SMS
Purchase                 │              ──► Segmentation
Unsubscribe              ▼
                    CDP (Customer
                    Data Platform)

Tools

Event Tracking

// analytics.ts — unified event tracking
class MarketingTracker {
  constructor(
    private customerIo: CustomerIO,
    private posthog: PostHog
  ) {}

  async track(userId: string, event: string, properties: Record<string, unknown>) {
    // Send to Customer.io for automation
    await this.customerIo.track({
      id: userId,
      name: event,
      data: properties
    });

    // Send to PostHog for analytics
    this.posthog.capture({
      distinctId: userId,
      event,
      properties
    });
  }

  async identify(userId: string, traits: UserTraits) {
    await this.customerIo.identify({
      id: userId,
      ...traits,
      last_seen: new Date().toISOString()
    });
  }
}

// Usage in event handler
await tracker.track(userId, 'checkout_started', {
  cart_value: cart.total,
  items_count: cart.items.length,
  currency: 'USD'
});

await tracker.track(userId, 'page_viewed', {
  page_name: 'pricing',
  plan_viewed: 'pro'
});

Segmentation via Customer.io

// Creating a segment via API
const segment = await customerio.createSegment({
  name: 'High-Intent Pro Users',
  filter: {
    and: [
      { attribute: { field: 'plan', operator: 'eq', value: 'free' } },
      { event: { name: 'pricing_viewed', timeframe: { days: 7 }, count: { min: 2 } } },
      { attribute: { field: 'total_orders', operator: 'gte', value: 1 } }
    ]
  }
});

Automated Chain: Abandoned Cart

[Event: checkout_started]
         │
[Wait 1 hour]
         │
[Check: was purchase made?]
    │             │
   Yes            No
    │             │
[Exit]     [Email: "You forgot your cart"]
                  │
           [Wait 24 hours]
                  │
           [Check: purchase?]
                  │
                 No
                  │
           [Email: 10% discount]
                  │
           [Wait 48 hours]
                  │
                 No
                  │
           [Exit chain]

Content Personalization

// Email template with dynamic content
const emailData = {
  to: user.email,
  templateId: 'abandoned-cart',
  dynamicTemplateData: {
    firstName: user.firstName,
    cartItems: cart.items.map(item => ({
      name: item.productName,
      imageUrl: item.imageUrl,
      price: formatPrice(item.price),
      quantity: item.quantity
    })),
    cartTotal: formatPrice(cart.total),
    discountCode: isHighValueCart(cart) ? 'CART10' : null,
    checkoutUrl: `https://example.com/checkout?cart=${cart.id}&source=email`
  }
};

UTM Tracking and Attribution

// Add UTM parameters to all links in emails
function addUtmParams(url: string, campaign: string, medium = 'email'): string {
  const params = new URLSearchParams({
    utm_source: 'customer-io',
    utm_medium: medium,
    utm_campaign: campaign,
    utm_content: 'link'
  });
  return `${url}?${params}`;
}

Timeline

Basic automation (welcome + abandoned cart) — 1 week. Full set of chains with segmentation and A/B tests — 2–4 weeks.