Working with the automation process designer

Kentico EMS required

Features described on this page require the Kentico EMS license.

This chapter describes the process designer, a built-in tool that provides a visual representation of marketing automation processes. The designer allows you to define the steps that implement the functionality of automation processes.

Accessing the process designer

To open the process designer for an automation process:

Open the Marketing automation application.
Edit ()the process that you want to design.
Switch to the Steps tab.

The following image shows the appearance of the designer for an automation process consisting of the Start, Send newsletter issue and Finish steps. The steps are connected by transition lines. The direction of the arrows indicates which way the process moves forward.

Process with Start, Send newsletter issue and Finish steps

Tip: If your graph doesn’t fit into the designer area, click an unoccupied area of the grid and drag to expose additional free space.

Standard steps

You can use the following types of basic steps to design automation processes:

Step	Description
Standard	Basic approval step. Allows designated users or roles (e.g. marketing managers) to decide whether the process continues to the next step.
Condition	Splits the process into two branches based on a condition. The process automatically transitions to the next step according to the result of the condition. See: Defining automatic decisions
Multi-choice	Splits the process into any number of branches based on a set of conditions. If exactly one condition is met, the process automatically continues through the given branch. If multiple conditions are fulfilled, designated users need to manually choose the next step. See: Defining automatic decisions
First win	Splits the process into any number of paths based on a set of conditions. The process automatically continues through the branch whose condition is met first. See: Defining automatic decisions
User choice	Splits the process into any number of branches. Designated users need to manually choose the next step for each contact in the process. See: Defining user choice steps
Wait	Halts the process for a specified amount of time before continuing to the next step. See: Adding wait steps
Finished	Represents the end of the process.

Action steps

You can also embed actions into processes. When a contact reaches an action step in a process, the system automatically performs the given action.

Action step	Description
Change contact account	Adds or removes the contact from an account.
Change contact group	Adds or removes the contacts from a contact group.
Delete contact	Deletes the contact currently going through the automation process.
Import to Salesforce	Replicates the contact into a lead in a target Salesforce organization. You need to have Salesforce replication set up for your website to use this action.
Log custom activity	Logs a custom activity for the contact.
Newsletter subscription	Subscribes or unsubscribes the contact from a newsletter.
Send e-mails	Sends an e-mail (to any address).
Send newsletter issue	Sends a newsletter issue to the contact. Note: When performing this action step, the process automatically adds the contact as a subscriber for the newsletter containing the specified issue.
Set contact property	Inserts a new value into one of the contact’s properties (fields).
Set contact status	Changes the contact’s status.
Start process	Triggers a different marketing automation process for the contact. Based on the recurrence settings of the target process, this action can result in multiple unnecessary instances of the process running concurrently.
Update from Data.com	Updates the contact’s information with the data found in the Data.com database. The step connects to Data.com using a specified account. See also: Data.com integration The Data.com integration stops working as of 1st September 2016, because Data.com terminates third party access to their API. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Note: If your developers create custom actions, you can add them through the designer as well.