Moving forward/Backward in program status instead of progressing

[neelambakre]

Hi,

Can we move program status in forward/backward ? 

In my scenario, data is received twice a week, and there's a possibility that the next batch of data may include individuals already present in the previous batch. Such common records also must be targeted. The client requires a report that tracks sent, delivered, opened, clicked, and purchased counts. To achieve this, I've established a four-step channel with designated sequential step numbers. The campaign activity reports allow the client to observe counts based on trigger campaigns.

However, in cases where a person's status changes to "clicked checkout page" in the first round, but in the subsequent round, they didn't click the checkout page only opens the email, then it should be reclassified as "Opened." I researched in the community and discovered that we can navigate forward and backward by maintaining the same step number like below across different statuses. So I tried it but I haven't observed any change in status.

Pls advise on this .

Regards,

[Christiane_Rode]

You are correct in that you can only progress (higher step ##) or move laterally (same step#). 

However, with your setup the way it is, you will be erasing the historical program activity. So, if you're just looking at program status as a means of a person's activity, if they clicked in the first email, but were only delivered the second email, then you erase their previous progress. 

Is there a reason you don't have these set up as different programs to retain this data?

Additionally, I do caution using "delivered" and "opened" as statuses. Just because someone was delivered that message doesn't mean that it was actually delivered to them (I've even had messages trigger a delivery but then later bounce). And, given the way that the tracking pixel could either automatically load with MPP or image prefetching, or won't load if images are turned off, this status may also prove to be unreliable.

[neelambakre]

Hi @Christiane_Rode ,

Thank you for the quick response.

I had also been considering the idea of creating separate programs for each execution to maintain individual status data for every member. However, before proceeding, I wanted to confirm whether it's feasible to backtrack within the same program or not.

Based on your explanation, it appears that moving backward within the same program is not achievable unless you completely clear the existing status and then update it anew. Unfortunately, this approach poses challenges from a reporting standpoint, as the initial status would not be reflected in the reports of prior executions, leading to inaccurate analyses.

So it would be preferable that I should create a separate programs for each execution round.

Regards,

[Darshil_Shah1]

Agreed with @Christiane_Rode!

Additionally, program channel statuses were never intended to be used in use cases where you'd need to move people to backward stages. Ideally, a person can be a member of a program with a particular status, and their status could only move to any of the next higher statuses, as the highest order status determines the maximum level of expected channel interaction the person has had, and it won’t make sense to demote a member to a lower status value. Also, are the interactions you receive from the different marketing campaigns or just a single large marketing campaign?

[neelambakre]

Hi @Darshil_Shah1 ,

The data that I am consuming is only of single marketing campaign. The client is interested in receiving a report that categorizes counts based on different funnel stages, such as Delivered, Opened, Clicked, and Transacted. This is why we introduced the concept of channel states, allowing the client to obtain counts for each stage of the funnel for every campaign run.

However, there's an issue where we wont move the status in backward stages. As a result, I'll have to create individual programs for each campaign run.

Regards,

[Michael_Florin]

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@neelambakre wrote:

However, there's an issue where we wont move the status in backward stages. As a result, I'll have to create individual programs for each campaign run.

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 I don't really understand that. Why would you want to move back? Sent --> Delivered --> Opened --> Clicked --> Transacted is a logical progression that has only one direction, and that is up. That's why you want to mark these statuses with numbers, indicating their order, as in 10, 20, 30 and so on. (The reason you do this in tens is to enable you make insertions later on between these statuses).

There are use cases where you want to be able to move "laterally", as Christiane put it. For instance, we have an NPS program, where the program statuses are 1, 2, 3, 4 ... 10, and they are all equal, so they have the same status number. But in most cases, you only want to move forward.

[Darshil_Shah1]

I agree with Michael. What you want is to be able to capture the statuses of people from the latest list uploads. Also, maybe this is for a large umbrella campaign within which you have different email sends for which you receive the data every week with the status of people after each email send. If so, that still is a good case to have separate programs for each email send (maybe nested within a larger Default program). A person can have varied statuses for different email sends, but I don't think it makes sense that every week a person has different status values for a single email send.

[neelambakre]

@Michael_Florin  @Darshil_Shah1 ,

Our client has expressed the need to visually track data in a funnel format, allowing them to monitor the progression of data through various stages and identify any drops. However, Marketo does not provide the option to create fully customized reports, we are limited to using existing report templates.

Hence, we have created specific channel stages for the client. This way, when they access the "campaign activity " report, they will be presented with a funnel-like representation detailing counts for each stage such as - it will display the number of emails Delivered, the proportion of recipients who Opened the email, those who proceeded to Click Checkout after opening, and finally, the subset of individuals who actually Completed the Transaction after clicking checkout. This count-based breakdown enables them to perform an analysis at each stage of the process.

Are there any alternative methods or solutions that can provide similar count-based reports for analysis?

Regards,

[SanfordWhiteman]

This is simply (as the others have said) not the way Program Statuses are intended to be used.

If you want all of your statuses to be laterally movable, give them the same weight. You can't have it both ways: either Status B supersedes Status A or it doesn't.

I'd encourage the client to understand the Marketo design principles and not try to break the rules while still trying to use native reports. If you want custom longitudinal reports, export the data via API and build your own dashboards.

[Darshil_Shah1]

@neelambakre, taking a step back to be 100% clear, are these email sends happening out of Marketo? If not, I feel that you can very well use the regular Email performance report that tracks email engagements. This data can be visualized in an engagement funnel chart.