This guide is intended as an example to demonstrate one possible use of the Automation Program Builder. For this example, we want:
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A campaign to send an initial confirmation of signup.
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A campaign to send a follow up email with news about membership perks.
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A campaign to guide new members to areas of interest where they may be inclined to make a purchase.
We recommend having your campaigns, filters, forms, etc. created before building your program to save you having to exit the APB when forming your customer journey.
Creating your welcome program
From the Automation menu:
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Press the + Create Program button.
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Complete the initial setup, i.e. name, description, etc.
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Since we anticipate contacts will only go through a welcome campaign once, select the option for not allowing repeat contacts.
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When you get to the program editor canvas, drag the send campaign stage to the Drop stage here box.
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Select the send stage to open the stage properties sidebar.
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In the sidebar, press Select Campaign.
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Choose your initial confirmation campaign from the pop up.
Tip: now your initial campaign is selected, this might be a good time to save your program as a draft.
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To space out the campaigns, drag a wait delay to the program, making sure to connect it to the initial campaign.
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Select the delay stage to open the stage properties sidebar.
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In the sidebar, enter the number 2 and select days to set your follow up campaign to launch 2 days after the confirmation campaign.
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Drag and drop a second send campaign stage onto the canvas.
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Configure the second campaign send for your follow up campaign.
Tip: you can save your program as a draft as often as you like.
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Add another delay stage to spread out campaign sends and minimise the risk of unsubscribes from perceived inbox spamming.
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Add the final campaign of your welcome series to the program.
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When you are happy with your campaigns and program, press the Publish button.
Although the program is complete, nothing will happen until it is associated with a data input. As this is a welcome program, you could associate it with a form that new subscribers use to sign up.
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Associate a form by adding an Add to Program action in the form and selecting your welcome program.
Tip: if your form does not include an Add to List action, make sure to include an Add to List stage in your program.
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With your data input connected to your campaign, press Activate to make the program live. It will now start processing any contacts that submit your signup form.
Enhancing your program
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If your signup form includes preferences related to your product offerings, you could add a filter stage to send contacts to different final campaigns matching those preferences.
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If you want to delay the start of the program, e.g. start processing contacts a week after activating the program, you can make your first stage a Wait Until delay with your desired start date.
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If you want contacts to continue through automation, you could associate the welcome program with a second program that sends campaigns based on behaviour by adding an Add to Program stage and linking the two programs.