Good morning,

Cheers to Monday! May your caffeine be strong and your triggers be stronger.

Here's what you'll find in today's issue:

• How to test and troubleshoot event triggers yourself (no developer needed)

• The four most common trigger-failure causes (+ DIY fixes)

• When you actually need to call in technical help

• Plus: What’s new in lifecycle

Deep dive: Test your triggers without bugging your developer (here's how)

Deep Dive

I will make you more comfortable with the idea of events in the next 5 min…

I mean I’ll try.

Picture this scenario: You've just launched a new lead nurture campaign for demo requests. You've crafted perfect emails, set up your automation flow, and you're ready to see those leads move through your funnel that your paid marketing team acquired on a $130 CPA.

But three days later, you notice something's wrong. The campaign shows zero people entering the journey, yet your CRM shows dozens of new demo requests coming in daily. 💀

Your marketing automation platform says the journey is active. The emails look perfect. But somehow, the trigger isn't firing. And your developer is swamped with urgent projects. Sound familiar?

If you've ever experienced the frustration of automated journeys not triggering properly, you know the pain. Your beautiful campaign sits idle while potential customers slip away, and you're stuck waiting for technical help to figure out why.

But here's the good news: You can test, troubleshoot, and often fix trigger issues yourself, even if you consider yourself "non-technical.". We’re changing that week by week aren’t we?

Why triggers fail (even when everything looks right)

Before we dive into testing methods, let's understand why event triggers break in the first place:

Data type mismatches: Your system expects specific data formats but receives different ones (boolean true/false vs string "1"/"0", or numbers as strings)

Integration connection issues: Failed connections between systems. (Signup form doesn’t talk to your marketing tool)

Event timing problems: Events fire too quickly in sequence, creating race conditions where the second event arrives before the first is fully processed

Authentication failures: API keys expire, webhook URLs become invalid, or permissions change, breaking the data flow

Payload structure changes: When source systems update their data format without notice, expected fields go missing or get renamed

In my experience, about 70% of trigger failures come from these technical integration issues, not complex business logic problems.

The DIY trigger testing framework

After facing these issues repeatedly, I developed a simple framework for testing triggers without needing developer help. You can call it this "TEST" method:

T - Trace the data path

E - Emulate the trigger event

S - Study the logs

T - Try variations

Let's explore how to apply each step to your automation platform.

T - Trace the Data Path

First, understand exactly how data should flow from the user action to your marketing platform:

1. Identify the source - Is it a form submission? Payment completion? App interaction?

2. Check integration method - Is data being sent via SDK, API, JavaScript, webhook, or a native integration? (a quick question you can ask your dev if you’re confused on this one)

3. Map expected fields - What specific data points should be sent? (email, name, plan type, order value, item names etc.)

When troubleshooting that broken demo form sequence, I'd start by examining the form itself. Has it been updated recently? That's often a clue that something might have changed in the data structure.

E - Emulate the Trigger Event

Next, trigger the event yourself and watch what happens:

1. Perform the action that should trigger your journey (submit a form, create an account, add to cart etc.)

2. Use a test email address that you can monitor (I add "+test" to my email for easy filtering, like [email protected])

3. Document exactly what you did - The device, browser, specific steps taken

For that broken demo sequence, you'd fill out the form yourself. If the confirmation appears but no welcome email arrives, you've confirmed the journey isn't triggering.

S - Study the Logs

Now, check what your marketing platform actually received:

1. Find your activity logs - Most platforms have user/contact activity logs or event logs

2. Look for your test event - Search for the event name in your activity log

3. Examine the data received - What fields came through? What values do they contain?

This step often reveals the breakthrough. Looking at the contact record, you might see the form submission event, but notice the field contains "requested_demo_date" as "2024-01-15" but your journey expects it as "01/15/2024", which your trigger condition is looking for.

And if you don't see the event at all, that means data isn't flowing from your Form → Marketing tool

T - Try variations

If you've found a mismatch, experiment with solutions:

1. Adjust trigger conditions to match the actual data you're receiving

2. Test different data formats if values aren't matching (dates, booleans, etc.)

3. Try simplified conditions to see if complexity is the issue

In our demo form example, you'd update the trigger condition to match the actual date format, test again, and watch for the welcome email to arrive.

Again, I don't recommend making changes directly in prod. Unless you're a lone warrior and you gotta try it to get to the bottom of it.

I hope these 5 min reads are helping some of you.

Once you know which problem you have, the fix is usually straightforward.

When to actually call a developer

While many trigger issues can be solved independently, sometimes you do need technical help:

• Events aren't firing at all (nothing appears in logs)

• Data is consistently malformed or corrupted

• Integration appears completely broken

• You need new event types created

But even then, going to your developer with specific diagnostic information makes their job easier and gets you a solution faster.

Your 15-minute trigger test plan

Ready to troubleshoot your own trigger issues? Start with this quick process:

1. Identify one problematic journey that should be triggering but isn't

2. Perform the trigger action yourself using a test email

3. Check your platform's contact log to see what event data arrived

4. Compare the actual data to your trigger conditions and look for mismatches

5. Make one adjustment and test again

This simple process resolves most of the trigger problems in my experience.

Beyond basic troubleshooting: Proactive trigger monitoring

Once you've fixed your immediate issues, set up these proactive measures to catch problems early:

• Regular journey audits: Test critical journeys monthly

• Volume alerts: Set up notifications if trigger volumes drop suddenly

• Documentation updates: Keep track of expected field names and formats

Just create a simple spreadsheet or Notion page tracking all yours journey triggers and test each one quarterly. This practice would reduce trigger failures significantly.

The Confidence to Self-Diagnose

Learning to test triggers yourself doesn't just fix immediate problems, it gives you independence and confidence in managing your marketing automation.

You'll be able to:

• Launch new journeys more reliably

• Troubleshoot issues before they affect many customers

• Make informed requests when you do need developer help

• Respond faster when things break

What trigger has been frustrating you lately? Take 15 minutes today to diagnose it using this framework. You might surprise yourself with what you can fix on your own.

And that’s a wrap…for this week.

Now grab your coffee and own your Monday stand-up. If this email sparked an idea, pass it along to a colleague or post it on LinkedIn. It means a lot and helps me keep these updates coming.

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