How to Use Webhooks for Email Marketing

Email automation has come a long way, but there's one thing it still struggles with: timing. You can build beautiful journeys, segment users, and schedule sequences, yet many emails still arrive too late to be relevant.

Imagine a user signs up, upgrades a plan, or abandons their cart. By the time your automation tool reacts and triggers the email, the right moment is gone.

Webhooks change exactly that. They allow your emails to fire at the exact moment a user takes action.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to use webhooks to power your email marketing, and how Mailmodo makes this process refreshingly simple.

What is a webhook in email marketing?

A webhook in email marketing is a way to trigger emails or sync data automatically when a user performs an action in another system — like signing up, making a purchase, or submitting a form.

Instead of waiting for a scheduled automation to run, a webhook instantly sends a POST request with relevant data (like the user’s email and name) to your email platform. That data can then trigger a campaign, personalize the content, or log the interaction.

Example use cases:

• Send a welcome email the moment someone signs up

• Deliver a billing reminder when a user’s subscription is due

• Capture in-email survey responses and send them to your CRM

Why most email tools fall short with webhooks

Even though webhooks are common, many email platforms make them painful to use. Here are a few limitations:

• They require custom development just to trigger a basic email

• Personalization fields are limited or rigid

• You can’t collect form data from the email itself — or send it anywhere useful

• There’s no way to tell if a form was submitted via AMP, HTML, or Web view

Mailmodo solves these pain points head-on. With native support for webhook triggers, form submission exports, and real-time personalization, it gives marketers full control without relying on developers.

3 Ways to use webhooks for email marketing

There are three main ways you can use webhooks for email marketing. Let’s explore them and also see how you can set it up on Mailmodo.

1. Trigger emails from external user actions

You can set up a webhook to react instantly by sending a relevant email when a user performs an action outside your tool. These actions could mean signing up, reaching a milestone, or downgrading their plan. You can trigger email campaigns from any external event using a simple POST webhook on Mailmodo.

Here’s how you can set it up:

The prerequisite here is to have the email template that you want to send ready.

1. From the left menu in the Mailmodo dashboard, go to Campaigns → Trigger and click on Create trigger campaign.

2. Choose the template you want to send and click on Next.

3. Add the details of the campaign and click Next.

4. Choose Webhook as the trigger and hit next.

5. Review all the details of the campaign and enable it.

6. On the campaign dashboard, click on Show setup steps and follow the steps shown in the pop-up.

You can also check out the full guide on how to trigger campaigns via webhooks.

2. Personalize emails dynamically using real-time data

You can also include real-time user-specific details, like their name, plan, or recent activity, directly in your email content for personalizing your email.

To do this, just make sure the data you send in the webhook matches the personalization tags in your template. For example, if your email says Hi {{firstName}}, your webhook should include "firstName": "Sam".

When the webhook is triggered, Mailmodo will automatically fill in those details for each user, no manual setup or extra logic needed.

3. Collect form responses from emails in real-time

You can also use webhooks to pull data from email forms and send it to your backend or CRM. Mailmodo supports in-email forms (AMP, HTML, and Web) and lets you export those submissions via webhook.

Here’s how you can set it up:

The prerequisite here is to have a form ready inside a Mailmodo email template.

1. In the template editor, click on the Configure form option beside the form widget and click on Add app.

2. Select Webhook and then click on Setup integration.

3. Fill up the details like webhook name, URL and map the submission fields corresponding to the webhook and hit Save.

You can then launch the campaign and receive the form submission responses in real-time.

Takeaways

Webhooks unlock a new level of relevance in email marketing — enabling you to send messages that are triggered by real behavior, personalized in real time, and responsive to user input.

But while most ESPs make webhook workflows hard to implement, Mailmodo makes them seamless.

Whether you're triggering campaigns, capturing form responses, or personalizing content, Mailmodo gives you the tools — and flexibility — to turn email into a real-time, event-driven channel. Try Mailmodo and see what you can automate.