Hi!
I am creating a new Nurture program that will contain 1 nurture stream. When the members exhaust that content, we want them to transfer to a different nurture program ( program 2). Our company has existing nurture programs, but it is my first time setting up a brand new one so I would appreciate some guidance.
Q1: What are the minimum basic smart campaigns that one should set up to make it flow properly?
Q2: I've read that it is best when the entry qualification/criteria for the engagement program/stream are just one, but in my case, I have two entry criteria (triggers) for folks that I want to enter into this engagement program ( 1: "new person created" with a specific job title, OR 2) Can be a new or existing person and they convert in a program that we already have running. ( aka program status changes).
Can I have two smart campaigns for entry based on these two qualifications? Will this work?
Is there a better way when there are multiple qualification triggers?
Any other general considerations I should think about when setting something like this up?
What is the best way to test that the engagement program works? Should I create test content program to put into the stream for testing purposes? Can I test it our Live/default instance?
A lot of questions, I know. Thank you in advance for your help and guidance.
@Ivette_Gomez wrote:
Hi!
I am creating a new Nurture program that will contain 1 nurture stream. When the members exhaust that content, we want them to transfer to a different nurture program ( program 2). Our company has existing nurture programs, but it is my first time setting up a brand new one so I would appreciate some guidance.
Q1: What are the minimum basic smart campaigns that one should set up to make it flow properly?
Well, you'd need an entry campaign to add people to the nurture program, and an exit campaign that'd move people out of the nurture program (i.e., Pause their Cadence), you could request the entry campaign of the nurture program 2 from this exit campaign. Furthermore, you'd need campaigns that'd change the Cadence of the engagement program to the Paused state when they're not eligible to receive the nurture content (e.g., you may not want to continue sending nurture content when people progress to MQL and further stages, when they become non-marketable, etc.). Similarly, you'd also need a campaign to change the Cadence back to Normal when Paused people become eligible for nurture again. I think your setup would be pretty simple given that you only have a single stream.
Q2: I've read that it is best when the entry qualification/criteria for the engagement program/stream are just one, but in my case, I have two entry criteria (triggers) for folks that I want to enter into this engagement program ( 1: "new person created" with a specific job title, OR 2) Can be a new or existing person and they convert in a program that we already have running. ( aka program status changes).
Can I have two smart campaigns for entry based on these two qualifications? Will this work?
Is there a better way when there are multiple qualification triggers?
While there's no limit to the number of campaigns you can create to add people to an engagement program, I'd advise you to have a single campaign as far as possible (I'm sure other experts here would also advise the same). A single entry campaign helps keep things cleaner, easier to track, and troubleshoot. Why don't you add both triggers to the single entry campaign and set the Advanced filtering logic so you're able to build out the complete entry logic in a single campaign?
Any other general considerations I should think about when setting something like this up?
I'd advise you to think through all the edge cases and possibilities and ensure your setup has proper logic built out to handle those. I'd highly advise you to test your nurture operation campaigns very thoroughly and also ensure that people are able to transition to other nurture programs when apt conditions are met as well. Additionally, with nurture, users could get as creative as they want, and I believe everyone has a particular style/framework of setting it (e.g., some users like to create an additional empty stream for transitioning non-marketable members, while others don't). At the end of the day, what you build, test, and launch should be all buttoned up, able to meet the business requirements, and not have any leaks/cracks.
I hope this helps, and please let us know if you have questions.
Thanks, Darshil.
The only smart campaigns that I don't currently have are the Pause and Resume cadence ones.
Can you share sample screenshots of SL and Flow set up for such "Pause Cadence" and "resume cadence" smart campaigns?
Hypothetical scenario Question:
Would a pause cadence SC take care of, for example, when a member exhausts content, but we still want them to receive new content that is added?
The Paused campaign usually has triggers and filters that'd make a person ineligible to receive the nurture content- this could be a change in their marketability (e.g., when people Unsubscribe), change in Person Status, Revenue Stage, etc. that'd make them ineligible to receive the content from the engagement program. Similarly, your Resume campaign would have similar filters and triggers, just opposite of what you have in your Pause campaign - so members who were Paused, but are not again eligible to receive nurture content can flow through this campaign and have their Cadence updated to Normal. Use the Change Engagement Program Cadence flow step to change the cadence of people to the Normal/Paused state.
Hypothetical scenario Question:
Would a pause cadence SC take care of, for example, when a member exhausts content, but we still want them to receive new content that is added?
I won't recommend Pausing people when they Exhaust content as:
A. Marketo doesn't have a trigger for "Added Content to EP" (well triggers are for Person activities and asset activities, so it's reasonable)
B. You can set up a batch campaign that you could to update the cadence to the Normal state after you add new content to the EP, but again this is something that you/your team members may miss, resulting in people not being able to receive the new content.
I hope this makes sense. Please let us know if you have further questions.
Additional question, Can someone be a member of two engagement programs at the same time?
Feels like not a good practice but just curious if possible.
If so, what is the recommendation for how they flow/transition between both at the same time?
Well, technically speaking a person can be a member of multiple engagement programs simultaneously, and be receiving content from them, but strategically thinking, you may not want to add a person to multiple engagement programs simultaneously as you may end up over-emailing them and exhausting their daily and/or weekly communication limits (if you have set them up in the Admin). Also, just an FYI a person cannot be part of multiple streams within the same engagement program.
If so, what is the recommendation for how they flow/transition between both at the same time?
You could have separate engagement programs for each persona, stage, product of interest, business unit, etc., and you can add/transition people to the respective engagement program in alignment with their interests and preferences. If you go with this mutually exclusive option, where people can only receive content from a single engagement program, make sure you update the Cadence to Paused state from their exit program so they don't receive nurture content from multiple engagement programs.
In addition to the Smart Campaigns listed above, if it were me, I would also create transition Smart Campaigns (i.e. transition criteria and flow steps from one stream to another) if your engagement program has multiple content streams. You are technically able to create transition rules within the streams themselves, however, I've found that having transition Smart Campaigns in a top folder level allows for better visibility, flexibility, and complexity.
Yes, +1 on this, but OP said they have just 1 stream in the engagement program they're building. 🙂
This is very helpful. Thanks so much @Darshil_Shah1 and @Katrina_Panzlau for the added tip.