Managing Contacts in an Automation Program

Understanding the management of your contacts is essential to get the most from the Automation Program Builder.

Add contacts to programs using: Forms, Lists, Programs, or Manual input.

Note: any changes made to associated data inputs will implicate the program, too.

Once added, your contacts will advance through the program based on your stage settings.

Within the program editor:

  • The Contacts tab will detail all the contacts currently in your program, their current stage, and when they completed the program.

    Tip: to edit contacts you must first pause the program. Once the program is paused you can select a contact from the tab.

  • The Inputs tab will detail the lists, forms and programs associated with the Program.

    Tip: 'Associated Programs' will only show if there is another one associated (forms and lists will show regardless).

    Note: to disassociate a list, form or program, you must go to the input source itself. You cannot disassociate through the program you are viewing.

Alternatively, you can manually manage a contact through a program.

Note: automation programs log when a contact is added to the program, regardless of whether it is paused or not.

If your program includes a Wait Until delay stage that is configured for a time after your contacts were added, when the program is activated it will check for any jobs that require running whilst paused. This can lead to contacts progressing through a delay stage and onto the next stage in your program. For example:

Program is paused>Contacts added at 10:00 1st Feb>Program Activated at 10:00 on 2nd Feb>Program immediately finds a "Wait Until 10:15" Stage and contacts that were added at 10:00 the previous day>Program progresses these contacts>At 10:15 on 2nd Feb, nothing happens as all contacts have been progressed

To prevent this from happening when you create a program, create a Wait Until delay with a future start date. This prevents contacts from progressing through the program until the specified start day and time.

Adding a contact to a program using forms

Note: the form and program need to use the same core table.

When creating a form:

  1. Add an action to Add to Program.

    Tip: if the form's only action is to 'add to program', the contact will not be added to a list unless prompted to do so by the program.

  2. Press the Select Program button.

  3. Select your program.

  4. Publish your form and your program.

When a contact submits the form, they will be added to the selected program. You will need to remove the Add to Program action and republish the form to stop contacts being added.

Note: if a contact is active, i.e. currently progressing through the program, when an import with their details is added to the program, no action will be taken on that contact.

Adding a contact to a program using lists

Tip: you can add dynamic lists the same way you add lists. The benefit of using dynamic lists is that you can filter the contacts from multiple lists at once. This is useful if you want to create account level programs, such as reactivations or data cleansing.

The scheduled update of your dynamic list should coincide with your program to keep them in sync. You can use delay stages to do this.

  1. Create or open a list to associate with the program.

  2. Navigate to the Associated Programs tab.

  3. Press Add Program and select your program.

Any contacts added to a list associated to a program will automatically be placed into the program at the same time. You will need to remove the program from Associated Programs to stop contacts being added.

Tip: Only new contacts are counted. You must manually add contacts that already exist in the list when first associating to a program to include them.

Note: if a contact is active, i.e. currently progressing through the program, when an import with their details is added to the program, no action will be taken on that contact.

Adding a contact to a program using programs

  1. Create two (or more) programs.

  2. Add the Add to Program stage to one of your programs.

  3. In the stage settings, select the second program to link the two programs together.

When a contact enters the add to program stage of the first program, they will be added to the second program. You will need to remove the Add to Program stage and republish to stop contacts from being added to the second program.

Note: if a contact is active, i.e. currently progressing through the program, when an import with their details is added to the program, no action will be taken on that contact.

Adding a contact to a program manually

There are two ways to manually add contacts to a program.

Multiple contacts

  1. Select contacts from a list's Browse tab using the checkboxes.

  2. Press the Add to Program button.

  3. Select your program.

Tip: the checkbox at the top of the table will select all contacts on that page. You can increase the number of rows visible in the data table by selecting the desired number in the table view options.

Individually

  1. Open a contact profile (accessed by browsing a list or the core table).

  2. When in the contact overview, select the Automation tab.

  3. Press the Add to Program button.

  4. Select your program.

Manually manage a contact through a program

The Automation Program Builder allows you to perform granular management of the contacts progressing through it, e.g. fast-track a contact, remove a contact, reactivate a contact.

Fast-track a contact

To move contacts to a different stage:

  1. Select a contact.

  2. Press the Select Stage button. A pop-up will then show the available stages.

  3. Select a stage to fast-track the contact.

Remove a contact

  1. Select a contact.

  2. Under Contact Status, press the Remove Contact button.

Note: contacts can only be removed if the program is paused.

Reactivating removed contacts

You can reactivate a contact that has been removed manually.

  1. Select a removed contact.

  2. Under Contact Status, press the Activate Contact button.

When a contact is reactivated, they go back in to the program where they were removed.

Tip: you can also reactivate multiple contacts by:

  1. Selecting a stage.

  2. Selecting the contact numbers.

  3. Under the contacts tab, select the check boxes of the desired contacts.

  4. Press the Reactivate Selected Contacts button.

Remember: you must reactivate the program for contacts to continue progressing through it.

Checking progress of contacts through a program

To view contact progress:

  1. Select a stage in the editor canvas.

  2. In the editor sidebar:

    • Select the 'Active' number to view a summary of contacts currently on the stage.

    • Select the 'Processed' number to view a summary of contacts that have passed through the stage.

Note: the last stage of the program will show a removed number, i.e. the number of contacts that have completed the program and are no longer active.

Contacts can go through a program more than once if the appropriate radio button is selected when creating a program.