Adding programs in an engagement campaign?

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I am a new marketo user and was setting up an engagement campaign and was confused about adding programs into the nurture stream. What I've done is that I've added two programs into the stream, which will send an email and have specific smart campaigns in them. If these programs were to be set to run every 2 weeks and is activated, does it mean that the leads who are qualified for the programs enter and follow all the smart campaigns that I've set up, and then when it is completed, receive all the other content from the next email blast program?

I just wanted to clarify this because I was confused between just adding emails directly into the streams vs. setting up programs

Thanks!

[Dory_Viscoglio]

Hi Akanksha, the best way to look at programs within an engagement program is that they will do everything in the smart campaign in parallel to the engagement program.

This is an extreme example, but let's say that the flow of the smart campaign triggered by your engagement program looks like this:

Send email #1

Wait 1 week

Send email #2

Change data value

Wait 1 month

Send email #3

When an engagement program cast occurs and a person enters this flow, they will go through this entire thing (wait steps and all), but if there is another cast the next week, they will also get the next program or piece of content in your engagement program at that cast. Hopefully this makes sense, and explains the idea of "running in parallel"

[Dan_Stevens_]

To build upon what Dory explained, everything is based on program membership.  A lead will not receive the email that's part of that program if they are already a member of that program (even if they never received that actual email). 

As you can see, using programs instead of single emails is more complex, but it gives you so much more flexibility (we never use just emails anymore).  And most importantly, it provides more accurate reporting (since you're able to report at the individual program level instead of just the EP level).

[Mikes_Jones]

I believe the program will only run one smart campaign, which it lets you pick when you're adding a program to the nurture. But yea, once the lead has gone through the program, they'll simply move onto the next one in the stream.

[Dan_Stevens_]

Don't get confused by this.  The  smart campaign that includes the actual sending of the email is what you use in the EP stream.  But the lead will still have a chance to qualify for every smart campaign in the program.  For example, the "01 - Send Email" is the smart campaign that's included in the stream.  The lead will still be eligible to run through the other three smart campaigns in that program:

[Mikes_Jones]

Awesome, thanks for that.

[Dory_Viscoglio]

Ah, yes.. I totally missed this in the original question... Only a single smart campaign from any program can be selected for a specific cast. But that one smart campaign can be intricate, as described above. 

[Robb_Barrett]

I have limited content to work with so I don't want to burn through it all too quickly so I do recursive sends.  I send you an email. If you open it, you get a new one next Cast. If you didn't, you get the same email with a new subject line.

[Autumn_Mahoney1]

Robb Barrett PRD,

I have follow up questions for you about this: Length Matters: Engagement Programs that Don't Finish Too Quickly...

But I cannot reply to that because I am not part of the Chicago group. If you follow me, we can message each other.

-Autumn

[Robb_Barrett]

Done.  Let me know how I can help you.