Default program the only way to set an email sequence with a definite starting email?

[Anonymous]

I'm looking to create a program that sends four pieces of timed email, in sequence, after an event occurs.

My first thought was to go with an egagement campaign, but that seems more date (cast) driven than order driven (my messages must start at email 1 and continue through email 4 in order). Am I correct that in an engagement program, it would be possible for somebody to come into the stream at, say, email 3 and then eventually end up wrapping around to email 1?

My second thought was to use an email campaign, but that appears to support sending just one message per program.

So that leaves a default program where I handle email order in campaign flow, but then I run into a channel issue. I have a tradeshow channel that has event programs, a nurture channel that has engagement programs, email channels that have email programs. In this case, should I just set up a new channel type for my default programs, even though this technically is an email nurture campaign for an event?

How have others tackled this problem?

For our trade show channel, we consider a visit to our booth a success, but for a segment of our customers, we want to follow up with an email nurture. I need to be able to report on the success of this nurture independent of the trade show, which is why I'm looking to pass off to another program rather than embedding the email in the trade show program and creating further channel statuses to cover the email interaction.

[Anonymous]

Hi Travis,

Engagement programs work by, before each send, determining who has received which emails in the stream.  Then, the program will send the first email in the stream to everyone who has not received it yet.  If someone has, it will send them the next one on the list that they have not received.  So, as long as you do not change the order of the emails in the engagement program (and no one has received these emails before), everyone will receive them in order.

The easiest solution would be to just set up a smart campaign (I always use Default > Email Blast for the channel) and choose "send email" "wait" "send email" "wait" etc.  It seems like you use channels very heavily in reporting currently - so in that case it may be worth using the engagement program just to keep things consistent.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the quick response, Laura!

We're honestly just getting started with Marketo after a rather prolonged spin-up period, so our reporting methods are in flux, but our initial approach is channel based.

In regards to the engagement program, would the first email be sent as soon as somebody is added to the stream or does it wait until the next cast date?
 

[Bruce_Jeffers]

Travis, the engagement emails are only sent at their specific cast date/time. So leads just added won't get their first email until the next scheduled cast.