How to move someone BACK to a previous nurture stream at the location they left off

[Jrubongoya]

I've set up a nurture program with a Top of Funnel and Bottom of Funnel stream. As people work down the Top of Funnel stream, we'll be scoring their behaviors and when the contact's score hits a threshold of 60 I want to move them to the bottom of funnel stream but... if they make it all the way through the bottom of funnel without becoming an MQL, then I'd like to push them back to the Top of Funnel stream where they left off (i.e., get the next email in the stream that they would have gotten if they hadn't been pushed to the Bottom of Funnel stream). Is this possible?

[Katja_Keesom]

Hi there,

There is no limitation for transitioning people between streams. So yes, you can bring a person back to the top of funnel stream and that stream will pick them up where they were before going to the botton of funnel stream. The trick is to define your criteria for when this transition back should happen. Sounds like setting up a recurring batch campaign listening for people in the bottom of funnel stream who exhausted content woud be the way to go there.

[Victor_Herrero · Accepted solution]

I generally agree with what @Katja_Keesom is saying, but I would be careful with the following quirk of engagement streams: 

The streams can be built with smart campaigns (the bulbs) or with email assets (the email icons) and it matters.

If you want people to go back to the spot on the stream where they were, you could leverage pausing the cadence in the old stream and add them to the new one, then pausing the cadence in the new one and resuming the cadence in the old one. 

But keep in mind that if you just add a person to a stream (instead of resuming their cadence), if the stream is built with emails, during each cast, Marketo will check if the person has received any of the emails on the stream before, then pick the next one they haven't received. 

If it's built with smart campaigns instead, Marketo will check for membership but what is going to happen is: if the person is a member of the first campaign on the stream, it will do nothing that cast. Next cast, same thing, if the person is a member, they get nothing. 

So keep in mind that depending on how you built it, when moving people to and from, there is a scenario where people may not receive anything for some casts if you just add them instead of resuming. 

Hope I made my idea clear. And if Marketo has removed this limitation by now and I'm not aware, please someone let me know!

[Katja_Keesom]

Not sure I agree with you there Victor,

• The Normal/Paused on a member applies to the entire program, so you cannot Pause them and reactivate them per stream. It simply applies to the stream they are in.
• I think you mean you can add the email as a loose email or inside a program. That is absolutely true. However, if someone is already a member of the content program, the engagement program will skip it and send the person to the next email. This works exactly the same as with a loose email. Only if the person is not a member yet, but the smart campaign inside the program has additional logic for not sending the email the person will not receive anything at all that cast.

[Victor_Herrero]

Hi @Katja_Keesom ,  I see what you mean now. You are right. 

@Jrubongoya 's set up is 1 program with a TOFU stream and a BOFU stream. 

So let me amend my comment then: 

My suggestion to leverage person cadence (paused or normal: see here, or here with a screenshot), assumes you have two separate engagement programs, one with TOFU and another with BOFU content. It also works around Marketo's limitation when building the streams with entire programs instead of single emails. 

IF your single program setup uses only email assets, then you can instead use "change engagement stream" to put people back into the previous TOFU stream. Marketo will restart the stream from the top, as I understand it, BUT because it's single email assets, it will know which ones you have received and still send you the next piece that's right for you. 

Keep in mind though, that the transition rules for your second stream still apply, and if you want people who moved back to TOFU to be able to advance again to BOFU or other streams, you may need to modify these rules to account for both "new" and "recycled" leads, or build a separate set of rules for them, or maybe even have to adapt business logic (the way you signal who is MQL).

[NCHAN]

1. I have 2 streams. The first one has 3 emails. I have done all those and transitted qualified people to stream 2. Now I have one additional email for stream 1, and I want to move those people in stream 2 back to stream 1 to receive that single one email.

Is it okay to change the stream directly? 

2. In another case, I used campaigns to send a bulk of leads for 3 emails, set them as members of the engagement program but not in the stream, will they receive the same emails again when I move them into the stream later (for data counting)?