Engagement Program Guidance

[Randy_Casquejo]

Hi,

I'm relatively new to Marketo and I'm currently building engagement programs to help support a few new products. For some background, I recently sent an email out to our customer base with an overview of each product (there are three) with a CTA button for each one directing the reader to the relative product page on our website. 

My objective was to send follow-up emails to customer/prospects based on what they clicked (or click in the future) in the email OR if they visit the relative product pages (regardless of their email activity.) For two of the three products, I currently have 2 follow up emails for each one. The third product has a series of 3 emails because it's a higher ticket item and there's a little more information available to help nurture the customer.  It's also worth noting that a customer could express interest in all three products at the same time.

Initially thought I was going to create 3 streams in the same program (one for each product) but after further consideration (and reading), I realized that's not really how the engagement program is intended to work. The only scenario in which that would make sense is if the customer expressed interest in all three products and I wanted them to receive emails for product 1 first, then product 2, then product 3 (moving them either after exhaustion or some other trigger.) But in my mind the customer should get emails for each product relatively at the same time whether it's one product or three. Of course, the cadence for each product would be set on different days so that a customer wouldn't be subject to any contact limitation rules, at least in the context of promoting these products.

So long story longer, is there a scenario in which it would make sense to run these in one engagement program or should I create 3 separate engagement programs? And just from an email marketing best practices perspective, is there a reason I shouldn't try to send emails about all three products around the same time if the customer expresses interest in all three?

Thanks!

[Brooke_Bartos1 · Accepted solution]

Hi Randy,

With regard to them getting the three emails at roughly the same time if they engage with all three, you'll want to be cognizant of your email communication limits (Admin). Most are typically a 2 per day, 5 per 7 days, so you'll need to know where you stand on that. Additionally, it's typically recommended to spread out so as not to over-send to your audience to the point where they want to unsubscribe. 

As for setup, I've done it both ways. In the first example, I used Stream 1 to send generic information, with the first email having three CTA's. The successive streams were based on the first link click activity/page view activity, assuming what they clicked first was what they were most interested in, and those who engaged were moved to their product of interest. The unengaged got a few more emails of generic content before coming to the end. But in this case, a person can only be in one content stream at a time, so it is controlled much more so than having them split. 

If you do want them to get multiple emails around the same time, you would probably want to split them into multiple programs for simplicity and tracking purposes. 

Good luck!

Brooke 

[Randy_Casquejo]

Thanks for the feedback Brooke!