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Skipping Content in Engagement Programs

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Skipping Content in Engagement Programs

Hi all,

I've read quite a bit about engagement programs over the past few days and am struggling with just one sticking point. If a lead doesn't qualify for a given piece of content (due to program exclusions) it waits until the next cast to receive the next piece of content. Has anyone put together a successful workaround to move a lead to the next piece of content in a singular cast?

Thanks!

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Edward_Unthank_
Level 10

Re: Skipping Content in Engagement Programs

Hey Racquel!

I gave a presentation at Marketo Summit 2014 on how to do this!

We use email cast programs for this, add people to the email cast program with an "Exclusion" progression status, and have the individual casts in the engagement program call the "Send Email" smart campaign within each email cast program:

This is specifically if you're looking to have programs within engagement programs, for the use case (for example) of having multiple emails promoting the same content and skipping that cast based on the business rules you set up.

Exclusion (Batch): The people who you want to exclude form this email cast. If the CTA points to a blog post, for example, you'd have a filter which says "anyone who has visited page [INSERT BLOG POST URL HERE]" and then adds them to the program as an "Exclusion" status.

Exclusion (Triggered): The on-going people who you want to exclude from the email cast. In the case of a blog post, it'd be a trigger which is "visit web page [insert blog post url here]." In the case of a content download, it'd be watching that leads are "added to list [insert name of list that holds people who download that asset."


Send Email: This is the smart campaign that will actually send the email in the engagement program. It just has a filter of "is member of any engagement program" and then as a flow step, sends the actual email.

The reason for this is that engagement programs skip a cast for two reasons:

1) Someone has received an that specific email before

2) Someone is already a member of that program


If a person has received a specific email before isn't always the best (or most robust) option, so the way to add robustness is through an "Exclusion" program status on that type of program. That way you can add them to the program so the Engagement cast will skip them, and they won't interfere with your major success metrics.

Cheers,

Edward Unthank | Founder, Etumos

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30 REPLIES 30
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Skipping Content in Engagement Programs

The way I have done this is by using a program and making that decision in the flow.

Edward_Unthank_
Level 10

Re: Skipping Content in Engagement Programs

Hey Racquel!

I gave a presentation at Marketo Summit 2014 on how to do this!

We use email cast programs for this, add people to the email cast program with an "Exclusion" progression status, and have the individual casts in the engagement program call the "Send Email" smart campaign within each email cast program:

This is specifically if you're looking to have programs within engagement programs, for the use case (for example) of having multiple emails promoting the same content and skipping that cast based on the business rules you set up.

Exclusion (Batch): The people who you want to exclude form this email cast. If the CTA points to a blog post, for example, you'd have a filter which says "anyone who has visited page [INSERT BLOG POST URL HERE]" and then adds them to the program as an "Exclusion" status.

Exclusion (Triggered): The on-going people who you want to exclude from the email cast. In the case of a blog post, it'd be a trigger which is "visit web page [insert blog post url here]." In the case of a content download, it'd be watching that leads are "added to list [insert name of list that holds people who download that asset."


Send Email: This is the smart campaign that will actually send the email in the engagement program. It just has a filter of "is member of any engagement program" and then as a flow step, sends the actual email.

The reason for this is that engagement programs skip a cast for two reasons:

1) Someone has received an that specific email before

2) Someone is already a member of that program


If a person has received a specific email before isn't always the best (or most robust) option, so the way to add robustness is through an "Exclusion" program status on that type of program. That way you can add them to the program so the Engagement cast will skip them, and they won't interfere with your major success metrics.

Cheers,

Edward Unthank | Founder, Etumos

Ibrahim_Burhani
Level 3

Re: Skipping Content in Engagement Programs

Thanks Edward, this really helped me too

Regards,

Ibrahim

Scott_McKeighe2
Level 5

Re: Skipping Content in Engagement Programs

This is still one of my favorite solutions for Marketo communications. I use it every day in a bunch of Engagement Programs to tightly control message timing. Can't recommend it enough!

Stepan_Egorov
Level 2

Re: Skipping Content in Engagement Programs

Hi Edward,

A side question: why do you think it's important to keep lists of people who downloaded particular assets? Is there a particular case when it would be useful?

For example, in my case leads download assets through Marketo forms on the website. Each form is in a separate program, and those leads are stored as program members. Do you think it's sufficient, or does it make those lists hard to manage?

Thanks!

Dan_Stevens_
Level 10 - Champion Alumni

Re: Skipping Content in Engagement Programs

Mainly because the child programs within the EP are different programs than the gated content programs. This is especially important if you have a multi-workspace environment. “Member of Program” does not work across workspaces. Lists, on the other hand, can be shared across workspaces.

Stepan_Egorov
Level 2

Re: Skipping Content in Engagement Programs

Thanks Dan, I see. In my case, a prgram associated with an assset is an all-in-one thing - a form download follow-up, and an email+campaign for the EP cast. So, it probalbly doesn't make a difference.

Andy_Varshneya1
Level 9

Re: Skipping Content in Engagement Programs

To further elaborate on what Jamie is saying, instead of creating just emails, you'll want to create a program for each email in the nurture program and the program should have that email as well as a smart campaign and any smart lists you may need.

In the smart list for the smart campaign, you should include filters that fulfill the requirements of who to opt into the email. For example, the filters I use for this are:

  • Is a member of the engagement program
  • Has not received this email or any other email that would be ahead of this email in the nurture flow
  • Has not already viewed the asset in the email

The flow step will be "send this email"

Then in the engagement stream, you'll add the program instead of the email.

Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Skipping Content in Engagement Programs

Andy - Does each program in the engagement program have to have the second two filters you listed out?

  • Has not received this email or any other email that would be ahead of this email in the nurture flow
  • Has not already viewed the asset in the email

Doesn't the engagement program already take that into account as it's pushing lead through the stream?

Thanks in advance for clarifying!