Engagements Programs - Cyclical Style / Wait steps

[Matt_Lyman]

We are working on building a standardized nurture program that includes 4 different streams. We want there to be an entry point at each of these streams and have it go through the full email cycle regardless of where they enter.

It would look like this:

1-2-3-4

2-3-4-1

3-4-1-2

4-1-2-3

Is there an easy way to do this? I was thinking of one of the following ideas:
1. having an engagement program for each of the above flows (we

2. having the cycle be: 1-2-3-4-1-2-3, this way it would go through and not receive the same content, with a smart campaign to place where it needs to go

To add some complexity, we would really like to have a wait step between each of the streams - a period different than each of the streams themselves. Streams would go every 2 weeks, and we would want a wait step of 1 month.

Any ideas on this? Anyone tried to do this before?

Thanks in advance

[Anonymous]

There are a few way to do this.  Having a different stream that includes all of the steps staring at 1, 2, 3, & 4 would be an easy way to accomplish this.

Another way is to do this with the transition rules 1 leads to 2, 2 leads to 3, 3 leads to 4, 4 leads to 1.

You can also drag in programs to the stream.  So you can have a program that is just a wait step and drag that in anywhere it makes sense.

[Matt_Lyman]

Thanks, Jamie.

If we have it where 4 leads to 1, it will never go through the same stream

2x right?

And if we add a wait step, wouldn't it do that for all of the people that

1st hit it as well? Meaning that new leads that hit stream 2 would be stuck

in the wait step?

Thanks!

Matt

On Fri, May 13, 2016 at 12:10 PM, Jamie Lewis <marketingnation@marketo.com>

[Josh_Hill13]

I'm confused why you want to do it this way? What is different about the streams? Are you sending leads Randomly into Each Stream?

Why not make each Stream the same then?

As for Transitions, you should just create 4 smart campaigns:

• if Stream 1 and Exhausted
• Wait 2 weeks
• Change to Stream 2
• run daily or once a week if the cadence is fixed.

[Matt_Lyman]

Hi Josh,

We are going to have streams based on product/solution. We will be randomly

placing stale leads in any of the streams, and manually adding event leads

based on their interest.

Do you have another thought on this? Do you have some best practices that

would go a different direction?

Thanks,

Matt

On Fri, May 13, 2016 at 1:52 PM, Josh Hill <marketingnation@marketo.com>

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Matt,

If a lead has gone through the 4 streams and be sent the 4 content, it will not receive them again.

-Greg

[Grégoire_Miche2]

In addition to Jamie's ideas, the 1-2-3-4-1-2-3 won't work as you will not be able to enter a stream at a specific content.

IMHO, the best and simpler option is the 4 streams, each stream having the 4 content, stream  starting with content 1, stream 2 with content 2, etc...

Then you create an "Add to streams" batch smart campaign and a "random" choice in the "add to engagement program" flow step to position leads randomly in each stream. Remember that random flow steps are only efficient in batches with a certains volume of leads, so you should rather run the "Add to streams" batch every 2 weeks, to maximize the number of leads it contains.

If you need to add a 2 weeks additional wait at some points, use Jamie's idea of inserting a program with a smart campaign that does nothing as one of the stream content. As your SC cannot have an empty flow, a wait flow step will be perfect

-Greg

[Josh_Hill13]

I would use this method based on Matt's follow up.

If the Streams are not the same and you are randomly adding people, then I would suggest re-thinking the overall plan. Here are some thoughts:

• Stale leads - I would specifically build a Wake from the Dead Campaign with 4-6 emails and if they respond, put them into a focused Engagement Journey, not a single Stream. Stale leads (however defined) are simply going to burn your email rep fast if you keep trying to send to them. I've seen wake rates of 2-4.5% and overall "active and emailable" rates of 15-20% of the total database. Be careful.
• Streams by Solution - this is ok in some situations, but I would instead do
  • Generic Engagement to collect more detail like Product Interest, then push to
  • Solution Engagement by Buying Stage Nurturing Your Audience the Way they Want to be Nurtured
  • and if you aren't ready to go beyond Generic, just wait until you are.
  • Random Stream insertion is a good idea, especially if you are not sure of the Cadence yet. I would not test "product interest" however, as that would lead to a lot of drop outs.
• Engagements vs. Drips - again, if you aren't ready to continually add/remove content and leads, the Engagement program is often overkill. I'm still not sure this is what you are planning or if it is ideal for your situation.