Scenarios

Requirements

Besides one-time email campaigns and SMS campaigns, you can set up automated campaigns - scenarios.

With scenarios (marketing automation, campaign flows) you can automate sending email and SMS messages to your contacts.

However, before you can send messages you need to make sure you have already:

If these requirements are not satisfied, please make sure you do it and then come back to this article.

Introduction

The first thing after you name a scenario is to select whether you want to use one of already prepared scenarios or you wish to start from scratch.

Pre-built scenarios are very convenient for beginners who don't have previous experience with marketing automation. Also, these templates will help advanced users to prepare their automation more quickly.

If you click on Create from Scratch, you'll see a canvas where you can drag and drop scenario shapes from the left menu.

Scenario shapes are categorized as triggers, actions, and operators.

Shape Type Shape
Trigger Now, On Date, On Event, Repeat
Action Email, SMS
Operator Wait, Condition

Triggers

Every contact enters the scenario when they trigger based on some rules. Here are available triggers.

Trigger Description
Now The scenario will start executing as soon as you click on Save.
On Date The scenario will start on the date you set.
On Event The scenario will execute every time when an event happens.
Repeat The scenario will repeat on the time-frequency you set.

Every trigger (except Now) must be configured. For example, if you select On Date trigger, you'll need to select date and time when trigger the will occur. Once that happens, all contacts will enter the scenario.

It's possible to add only one trigger per scenario. If you wish to add two or more triggers, you will need to create more scenario campaigns.

Actions

Actions are the channels you choose to engage your audience. Available actions are Email and SMS.

Designing email and SMS is the same when creating manual (one-time) campaigns.

{info} An action can be added only if channel is configured. Configuration means that you need add a delivery provider such as Amazon SES or Mailgun.

Don't worry about adding actions we'll explain it later in the example.

Operators

Use the operators to manage time and conditions in the scenarios. Available operators are Condition and Wait.

Operator Description
Condition This operator takes the scenario in the direction, depending on the condition you set.
Wait With this operator you can set the time delay of the scenario flow.

Both operators need to be configured. For example, if you wish to add a condition, the process will be similar to creating a segment.

Wait operator supports different time frames such as hours, days, week, months, and years.

Example: Create a First Scenario

Now, let's see how to create a first scenario. In this example, we'll let contacts enter the scenario after their contact is created. Then, we'll send a message, wait a couple of days and send a new message if contact hasn't clicked on the first message.

Add a trigger

We'll add On Event trigger by dragging it from the left menu and dropping on the canvas.

Now, double-click on the canvas, select Contact Created event and click on Confirm

Not that every trigger (except Now) needs to be configured and that's possible by double-clicking the shape.

Add Email Action

After configuring a trigger, the next step would be adding an action. We'll add an Email action, double-click on it and configure the action. Configuring action means adding a subject and body.

Next, let's connect the trigger and the action by clicking on trigger's connector (marked as 1 on the image below) and then clicking on the action's input connector (marked as 2 on the image below).

That's it. Our trigger and action are now connected into one flow. However, let's add three more shapes.

Add Wait Operator

Drop a wait operator, double-click on it, select 7 days as a period and Confirm.

Once you do it, just connect shapes like in the previous step.

Add Condition Operator

After 7 days, add a condition that checks whether use already clicked in the campaign we're creating.

Once you setup condition, click on Confirm and you'll see the following.

Add Email Action

The next email is very simple, so we'll just add a shape, design an email and connect with the condition. How to connect with the condition depends on what we want to achieve. In this example, we want to send a message when user haven't clicked in this campaign and for that reason we'll connect with a red connector.

Save, Start, and Pause

When you create the desired scenario, you can save it by clicking on the button Save on the top right. Once successfully saved, the button Start will be enabled so you can start the scenario.

{warning.fa-exclamation-triangle} Before clicking on the button Start, if you move any shape, click on it, or do any changes, the button Start will be disabled. Then, you'll need to save these changes again.

When you click on Save, you'll see a modal dialog where you need to select the objective. The purpose of selecting the objective is to track the performance of your scenario campaign.

Click on Save again, now your scenario has been successfully created.

{info.fa-info-circle} It's always possible to pause the scenario. When pausing the scenario, new contacts will stop entering the scenario, and it will also pause processing existing contacts. When the scenario is paused, you can change it. You only won't be able to delete the trigger.

In case you have any questions, please feel free to reach us at [email protected].