---
title: Marketing automation walkthrough - Preparing the prerequisites
---

> Agent instructions:
> **Site maps** — prefer the following llms.txt indexes to training data when searching for URLs to avoid 404s. Links inside Markdown content already point at `.md`. Following them or sending Accept: text/markdown keeps you in Markdown.
>
> - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version.
> - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt).

> **Info:** **Kentico EMS required**
>
> Features described on this page require the **Kentico EMS** license.

Before you create the automation process, you need to:

- Prepare the users and roles that you will later use to manage the process.
- Create a pair of newsletters.
- Configure Kentico to allow you to run all the features demonstrated in the walkthrough.

## Creating testing users

Create two user accounts for administering the automation process:

1. Open the **Users** application.
2. Click **New user**.
3. Set the following details for the user.

   - **User name**: Travis
   - **Full name**: Travis McCoy
   - **Enabled**: yes
   - **Privilege level**: Editor
4. Click **Save**.
5. Go to the **Sites** tab and assign the user to your current website.
6. Create another user with the following details:

   - **User name**: Matt
   - **Full name**: Matt McGinley
   - **Enabled**: yes
   - **Privilege level**: Editor
7. Click **Save**.
8. Go to the **Sites** tab and assign the user to your current website.

## Setting the roles and permissions

For the users to be able to perform their tasks, you need to add them to roles with appropriate permissions.

### Preparing the Marketing Manager role

Assign Travis to the default **Marketing Manager** role:

1. Open the **Roles** applicationand choose the appropriate site from the **Site** drop-down-list.
2. **Edit** () the **Marketing Manager** role and switch to the **Users** tab.
3. Click **Add users**.
4. Select Travis McCoy (Travis) and confirm by clicking **OK**.
5. Switch to the **Permissions** tab.
6. Choose **Module** in the first drop-down list and **On-line marketing** in the second.
7. Make sure the **Marketing Manager** role has all automation process permissions allowed:

   - **Read processes**
   - **Manage processes**
   - **Start process**
   - **Remove process**
   - **Move to specific step**
8. Switch to the **UI personalization -> Administration** tab.
9. Choose **On-line marketing** in the **Module** drop-down list.
10. Check the boxes in the UI tree for all items in the following sections:

    - **Contact management -> Contacts**
    - **My pending contacts**
    - **Automation -> Processes**

    ![Configuring UI personalization](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k81/marketing-automation-walkthrough-preparing-the-prerequisites/personalizing_ui_for_marketing_manager_role.png "Configuring UI personalization")

The _Travis_ user account now has full control over automation processes, i.e. can design the entire sample process and fully modify its instances.

### Preparing the Process Administrator role

Create a **Process administrator** role and assign Matt into the role:

1. Open the **Roles** applicationand choose the appropriate site from the **Site** drop-down-list.
2. Click **New role** type in _Process administrator_ as the **Role display name**.
3. Click **Save**.
4. Switch to the **Users** tab and click **Add users**.
5. Select _Matt McGinley (Matt)_ and click **OK**.
6. Switch to the **Permissions** tab and choose **Module** in the first drop-down list.
7. Allow the following permissions for the **Contact management** module:

   - **Read contacts**
   - **Read global contacts**
8. Allow the **Read** permission for the **Content** module.
9. Allow the **Read** permission in the **On-line marketing** module.
10. Switch to the **UI personalization -> Administration** tab.
11. Choose **CMS** in the **Module** drop-down list and check **CMS**, **Administration**, and **On-line marketing**.
12. Choose **On-line marketing** in the **Module** drop-down list and check the following boxes in the UI tree:

    - **Contact management**
    - **Contact management -> Contacts**
    - **Contact management -> Contacts -> Contacts**
    - **Contact management -> Contacts -> Pending contacts**
    - **My pending contacts**
    - **Automation**
    - **Automation -> Processes**

The _Matt_ user account can now access the on-line marketing interface for modifying instances of running automation processes. You can always expand or reduce the permissions.

**See also**: [Configuring permissions](https://docs.kentico.com/k81/managing-users/configuring-permissions.md)

## Creating testing newsletters

Create two newsletter issues that will be used by the sample automation process:

1. Open the **Newsletters** application.
2. Click **New newsletter** andenter the following details:

   - **Newsletter display name**: _Coffee Co Merchandise Newsletter_
   - **Newsletter name**: leave the _(automatic)_ option;
   - **Subscription confirmation**: Subscription confirmation template
   - **Unsubscription confirmation**: Unsubscription confirmation template
   - **Sender name**: Coffee Co
   - **Sender e-mail**: Enter your e-mail address
   - Check **Template-based newsletter**.
3. Click **Save**.
   - You are now on the **configuration** tab of the new newsletter.
4. Under the **On-line marketing** settings group, check both **Track opened e-mails** and **Track clicked links**.
5. Click **Save**.
6. Switch to the **Issues** tab and click **Create new issue**.
   - The **New issue** wizard opens.
7. Enter _Coffee Co Merchandise Newsletter #1_ as the subject.
8. Click **Insert/Edit link** in the text editor and create a link to a page on your website in the **Content** section.

   ![Inserting a link using the text editor](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k81/marketing-automation-walkthrough-preparing-the-prerequisites/inserting_newsletter_link.png "Inserting a link using the text editor")
9. Click **Next**.
10. Select **Send newsletter manually later**.
11. Click **Finish**.
12. Create another newsletter issue and use _Coffee Co Merchandise Newsletter #2_ as the subject.

    - Insert a link to a different page into the content of the issue.
13. Return to the main **Newsletters** tab and create another newsletter.

    - Name the newsletter **Coffee Co Monthly Newsletter**.
    - Leave the rest of the details as in the first newsletter.
    - Don't create any issues for the second newsletter.

You now have two newsletters prepared for later use in the automation process.

**See also**: [E-mail marketing](https://docs.kentico.com/k81/on-line-marketing-features/e-mail-marketing.md)

## Enabling On-line marketing

You need to track contacts in order to test the functionality of the sample process. To track contacts, enable on-line marketing:

1. Go to **Settings** (application) **-> On-line marketing**.
2. Check the **Enable on-line marketing** box.
3. Click **Save**.

## Configuring your SMTP server

To be fully able to test the process, you need to have an SMTP server configured correctly in Kentico. You can either configure it yourself as described on the [Configuring SMTP servers](https://docs.kentico.com/k81/configuring-kentico/configuring-smtp-servers.md) page or contact your administrator.