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Emails

Emails are the messages you send to your audience. Bento handles three types: broadcasts for one-time campaigns, sequences for automated series, and transactional emails for individual notifications.

Types of Emails

Broadcasts

Broadcasts are one-time emails sent to a group of people. Use them for:

  • Newsletters and announcements
  • Product launches
  • Promotional campaigns
  • Company updates

You pick the audience (a segment), write the email, and send it once. Everyone who matches your criteria at send time receives it. Broadcasts are best for one-to-many messages and are optimized for big sends.

Sequences

Sequences are automated email series. Each email in a sequence is sent after a delay from the previous one. Use them for:

  • Welcome series for new subscribers
  • Onboarding flows for new customers
  • Educational drip campaigns
  • Re-engagement series

People enter a sequence through a Flow and receive emails based on the timing you configure.

Transactional Emails

Transactional emails are individual messages triggered by specific actions. Use them for:

  • Order confirmations
  • Password resets
  • Shipping notifications
  • Account alerts

These are sent via the API only.

Creating Emails

Every email in Bento has:

  • Subject line: What appears in the inbox
  • Preview text: The snippet shown after the subject
  • From name and address: Who the email appears to be from (this uses the "Author" you set from your account)
  • Content: The body of your message

The email editor supports:

  • Visual editing with a drag-and-drop builder
  • HTML editing for full control
  • Liquid templating for personalization

You can save emails as templates to reuse them across broadcasts and sequences.

Personalization with Liquid

Emails support Liquid tags to insert dynamic content:

Code
Hey {{ visitor.first_name | default: "there" }},

Thanks for your purchase of {{ visitor.product_name }}.

You can reference:

  • Visitor fields (visitor.field_name)
  • Event data (event.details.key) (only in the "Send Email" action in Flows)
  • Conditional logic for different content ({% if visitor.field_name == "value" %})

Email Analytics

Bento tracks key metrics for every email:

  • Delivered: Successfully reached the inbox
  • Opens: Recipient opened the email
  • Clicks: Recipient clicked a link
  • Unsubscribes: Recipient opted out
  • Bounces: Failed delivery attempts

These metrics appear on individual emails and aggregate across campaigns.

Managing Emails

The Emails section in Bento lets you:

  • Browse all your emails in one place
  • Filter by type (broadcast, sequence, transactional)
  • Duplicate emails to create variations
  • Archive old emails to keep things organized

How Emails Connect to Other Concepts

Emails work with everything else:

  • People receive your emails
  • Segments define who gets broadcasts
  • Tags can be added after email actions
  • Events trigger transactional emails
  • Flows send sequences and triggered messages
  • Fields personalize email content

Use broadcasts for campaigns, sequences for automated series, and the API for transactional messages. Segments, fields, and events feed all three.