Nurture email vs. Email Program with Campaign Flow

[Jaime_Servaes]

So I'm still new with Marketo, and what I have is a set of emails that would go to people after they attend a class letting them know about the next course in their learning path. There are 3 total emails after the person attends the class. But we don't want them to go out on the set cadence in the nurture campaign. Here is how I would like the emails to flow:

• Email 1 - Send out 2 weeks after course completion.
• Email 2 - Send 4 weeks after email 1.
• Email 3 - Send 6 weeks after email 2.

I also want this to be like a nurture campaign where the people get added to the "stream" once they complete the class (the class happens a few times a year). There are 3 course levels, so I thought about setting up multiple streams depending on which courses they've taken. Then we can analyze how many people flow through which parts of the stream.

I'm more concerned about the cadence mentioned above. So which program type would be the best to use and how would I set this up?

Should I just create a program and set-up the send flow using smart campaigns?

What would be the pros and cons of setting this up as a nurture email versus a program using campaign work flows?

[Dory_Viscoglio]

Personally I'd set this up as a drip nurture campaign as opposed to an Engagement Program. Most of the time when there are different cadences, I prefer drip nuture programs. It isn't worth trying to set up the waits in an Engagement Program. In this case, you'd have the addition to the campaign triggered by some criteria and then email sends with wait steps. You could also include remove from flow steps if there's any reason you wouldn't want someone to receive all of the emails (just remember to put these remove from flow steps after each of the waits, and just before the next send to ensure everyone who should be removed is removed).

[Grégoire_Miche2]

+1 on Dory on this. As soon as cadences have to change, a regular flow is easier.

-Greg

[Josh_Hill13]

https://www.slideshare.net/jdavidhill/marketo-engagements-and-drip-nurturing-boston-user-group-dec-1...

[Joey_Forcelli1]

I too agree with Dory.

Do you have a date field setup for each course completion date?  I would set the campaign up like this:

Smartlist Trigger: Data field changes "xyz course completion date" new value is not empty.

Flow: 

Step 1) Date token wait step > end on "xyz course completion date" plus 13 days.

Step 2) Send email 1

Step 3) Wait step 4 weeks

Step 4) Send email 2

Step 5) Wait 6 weeks

Step 6) Send email 3

[Anonymous]

We do have "irregular" cadences in EPs as well. Here's our approach:

1. EP sends daily

2. In the stream we use programs, not emails

3. The program's Smart Campaign that sends the email looks like this (for your Email #1)

- Send Email

- Change EP cadence to "paused"

- Wait for 2 weeks

- Change EP cadence to "normal"