Marketing automation walkthrough - Designing the process

Now that you have created the trigger that automatically runs the process for certain contacts, use the process designer to define the flow of the process:

1. As Travis, open the Marketing automation application.
2. Edit () the Coffee Merchandise Lead Nurturing process.
3. Switch to the Process tab (in Design mode).
   • You can see the two default steps, Start triggers and Finished, connected by a line.
4. Click the connection and press the Delete key to remove the connection.

Adding a condition step

The process starts only for contacts created with UK or USA as their country attribute. Let’s assume you need to distinguish customers from New York City, so you can send them an email inviting them to your local cafes.

1. Place the If/Else step onto the designer grid.
2. Edit the step’s first condition case, and set its properties:
   • Condition: Add the Contact field contains value condition. Specify the field to City and the value to New York.
     
   • Designer label: If contact is from NY
3. Click Save and close the case properties dialog.
4. Edit the step by clicking it in the grid.
5. Select the Advanced tab of step’s parameter configuration dialog.
6. Fill in the Display name value: New York customer
7. Click Apply.
8. Connect the Start triggers step to the New York customer step.

Adding a Send transactional email step

You are now able to distinguish users that come from New York, so you can send them an email informing about the cafes you have set up in the area.

1. Place the Send transactional email step onto the grid.

2. Edit the step by clicking it in the grid.

3. Modify the values as follows:

   • Display name: New York cafe email
   • From: CoffeeCo@coffee.com (for example)
   • To: {% Contact.ContactEmail %}
   • Based on: HTML formatted text
   • Subject: Visit one of our Cafes!
   • Body: any text

4. Click Apply.
5. Select the Advanced tab and fill in the Display name value: New York cafe email
6. Click Apply.
7. Connect the source point of the New York customer step’s only condition case to the New York cafe email step.

Adding Wait step #1

Add a waiting interval to give contacts time to receive and read the email.

1. Place the Wait step onto the grid.
2. Edit the step by clicking it in the grid.
3. Modify the Wait settings as follows: Select Specific interval and enter 7 days. You can set a shorter interval such as 3 minutes for testing purposes.
4. Click Apply.
5. Select the Advanced tab and fill in the Display name value: New York cafe wait
6. Click Apply.
7. Connect the New York cafe email step to the New York cafe wait step.

Adding Send marketing email step #1

Now add a step that sends a marketing email to both contacts that are and are not from New York:

1. Place the Send marketing email step onto the grid.

2. Edit the step by clicking it in the grid.

3. Modify the values as follows:

   • Site: make sure the correct site is selected
   • Email feed: choose the email feed, Coffee Co Merchandise Newsletter

4. Click New next to the Email property.

5. In the opened dialog, enter Coffee Co Merchandise #1 as the email’s Name.

6. Click Create.

7. Compose a short email containing a link to your website.

8. Close the email dialog.

9. Click Apply to save the properties of the Send marketing email step.

10. Select the Advanced tab and fill in the Display name value: Merchandise issue #1

11. Click Apply.

12. Connect the ELSE source point (red) of the New York customer step to the Merchandise issue #1 step.

13. Connect the New York cafe wait step to the Merchandise issue #1 step.

Adding Wait step #2

Add another Wait step into the process to give contacts time to receive the newsletter issue:

1. Place the Wait step onto the grid.
2. Edit the step by clicking it in the grid.
3. Modify the Wait settings as follows: Select Specific interval and enter 3 days. You can set a shorter interval for testing purposes (e.g. 3 minutes).
4. Click Apply.
5. Select the Advanced tab and fill in the Display name value: Merchandise issue wait
6. Click Apply.
7. Connect the Merchandise issue #1 step to the Merchandise issue wait step.

Adding Send marketing email step #2

Add a step that sends a second marketing email from the same newsletter:

1. Place the Send marketing email step onto the grid.

2. Edit the step by clicking it in the grid.

3. Modify the values as follows:

   • Site: make sure the correct site is selected
   • Email feed: choose the email feed, Coffee Co Merchandise Newsletter

4. Click New next to the Email property.

5. In the opened dialog, enter Coffee Co Merchandise #2 as the email’s Name.

6. Click Create.

7. Compose another email containing a link to your website.

8. Close the email dialog.

9. Click Apply to save the properties of the Send marketing email step.

10. Select the Advanced tab and fill in the Display name value: Merchandise issue #2

11. Click Apply.

12. Connect the Merchandise issue wait step to the Merchandise issue #2 step.

Adding Wait step #3

Add another Wait step into the process to give contacts time to receive the second newsletter issue:

1. Place the Wait step onto the grid.
2. Edit the step by clicking it in the grid.
3. Modify the Wait settings as follows: Select Specific interval and enter 3 days. You can set a shorter interval for testing purposes (e.g. 3 minutes).
4. Click Apply.
5. Select the Advanced tab and fill in the Display name value: Merchandise issue wait 2
6. Click Apply.
7. Connect the Merchandise issue #2 step to the Merchandise issue wait 2 step.

Adding a condition step with multiple cases

Add an If/Else step to decide where the process moves next based on whether the contact clicked on the links in the previous email:

1. Place the If/Else step onto the grid.
2. Edit the step by clicking it in the grid.
3. Select the Advanced tab and fill in the Display name value: Newsletter link decision
4. Click Apply.
5. Connect the Merchandise issue wait 2 step to the Newsletter link decision step.

Modifying the first case

1. Switch to the Cases tab.

2. Edit () the first case and modify the values as follows:

   • Designer label: Subscribe to monthly newsletter

3. Click Edit next to the Condition field.

4. Add the Contact has clicked a link in marketing email rule. Select the Coffee Co Merchandise #1 email under the Coffee Co Merchandise Newsletter.

5. Confirm by clicking Save & Close.

6. Save the changes and close the case editing dialog.

Creating the second case

1. Add a New case to the step and set its properties:

   • Designer label: Set status to prospective client

2. Click Edit next to the Condition field.

3. Add the Contact has clicked a link in marketing email rule. Select the Coffee Co Merchandise #2 email under Coffee Co Merchandise Newsletter.

4. Confirm by clicking Save.

The If/Else step automatically decides how the process continues.

Adding an alternative Finished step

Add a Finished step that concludes the marketing process for contacts who do not click any of the newsletter links:

1. Place the Finished step onto the grid.
2. Edit the step by clicking it in the grid.
3. Type Unsuccessful into the Display name property.
4. Click Apply.
5. Connect the ELSE source point (red) of the Newsletter link decision step to the Unsuccessful step.

Adding a Newsletter subscription step

Add a step that subscribes the contact to the Coffee Co Monthly Newsletter email feed:

1. Place the Newsletter subscription step onto the grid.

2. Edit the step by clicking it in the grid.

3. Modify the values as follows:

   • Newsletter: Select Coffee Co Monthly Newsletter
   • Action: Subscribe to newsletter

4. Click Apply.

5. Select the Advanced tab and fill in the Display name value: Merchandise monthly subscription

6. Click Apply.

7. Connect the source point of the first case from the Newsletter link decision step to the Merchandise monthly subscription step.

Adding a Set contact status step

Add a step that sets the contact’s status to Prospective client:

1. Place the Set contact status step onto the grid.
2. Edit the step by clicking it in the grid.
3. Select the Prospective client status for the Status property.
4. Click Apply.
5. Select the Advanced tab and fill in the Display name value: Set status to prospective client
6. Click Apply.
7. Connect the source point of the second case from the Newsletter link decision step to the Set status to prospective client step.

Finishing the process design

You have now finished creating all the necessary steps. You only need to connect the last two steps to the original Finished step.

1. Connect the Merchandise monthly subscription step to the Finished step.
2. Connect the Set status to prospective client step to the Finished step.

The design of the process is now complete.

Enabling the process

Now that you have finished designing the process, activate it by clicking the Enable button above the designer toolbar.

With the whole marketing automation process complete, you can see it in action.

Next page: Managing the process