Preventing Engagement Program Members from being in multiple engagement programs

[Megan_Koelemay]

I've built out separate engagement programs for 14 different products, and I want to prevent leads from being in more than one program at a time so they don't receive too many emails.  To do this, I was using the Member of Engagement Program filter on the smart lists in each engagement program, like this:

Member of Engagement Program is FALSE

 - Program is [any of the 13 other engagement programs]

 - Engagement Program Cadence is NORMAL

But I've just discovered it's not working!  My leads are in multiple engagement programs simultaneously and receiving a bunch of emails at the same time. 

Any insight into why this filter isn't working?  And is there a better way to structure my engagement programs?

My only guess is related to form fills.  We have a webform where leads can select multiple product interests, and we use these interests as triggers in the engagement programs.  So maybe the simultaneous update of product interests via form fill is causing leads to simultaneously be entered into the engagement programs, and Marketo doesn't know which one to prioritize??

[Amy_Goldfine · Accepted solution]

There are 2 main ways to put people in the right Engagement program.

The cleanest is using a Segmentation. This works if it's easy to delineate where they should go. For example, we had 2 nurtures, one for Executives and one for Practitioners. We have a Job Title Segmentation, so people in the Segment "Executive Buyer" got the Exec nurture, and everyone else got the Practitioners nuture.

If things get more complex, you can built out an Engagement Router program to direct people into the right program.

[Megan_Koelemay]

I'm curious what an "Engagement Router program" is!  I couldn't find any documentation or examples of this in the forums.  

I tried segmentation for one of my triggers in my engagement programs (we have multiple triggers to enter someone into them), and after testing, it worked great!  The issue, as suspected, was form fills with multiple product interests selected that were causing simultaneous triggering of my engagement programs.  Segmentation took care of that!

However, we also look at past web browsing behavior, and segmentation doesn't currently support "In Past" operators on filters. 

To get around this, in my engagement programs I'm using a combination of "segment Changes" and "Visits Web Page in past..." triggers to tell Marketo where they should go.  And for the latter trigger, it looks like my "Member of Engagement Program" filter is working as expected to ensure people aren't in multiple programs at the same time. 

Not the cleanest solution, but my testing shows it's working.  🙂

[Katja_Keesom]

I totally agree with @Amy_Goldfine , having one central hub defining which person should be running through which Engagement Program is the best solution for more complex situations.

But in addition I am wondering whether the people you have in multiple Engagement Programs would be people who have been Paused in their initial program and particularly at the time they were added to the second Engagement Program. Typically the Paused cadence can be a temporary one and the check will only be done at the point in time where you add the person to the second program. If they revert to Normal in the original Engagement Program they suddenly are in two at the same time.

[Megan_Koelemay]

It looks like the issue wasn't that my "Member of Engagement Program" filter wasn't working.  Rather, as my reply above mentions, the problem was form fills, where multiple product interests are selected.  This was simultaneously firing the triggers in my engagement programs.  Segmentation took care of that, but I'll watch out for the Paused cadence - that's a good point, especially if people are allowed to run through a program more than once.  Thanks!

[Shane_Rourke2]

Hi @Katja_Keesom , Does the 'Engagement Program Cadence is NORMAL' have to be added to your engagement program or is that something is automatically added? 

[Katja_Keesom]

Hi @Shane_Rourke2 , the default value for the cadence is Normal, so as soon as you add a person to an Engagement Program that is what they will be set to. There's a plethora of reasons why you could afterwards want to pause them, so they stop receiving the content. A simple example would be they do not qualify for the program anymore, or they are added to a different engagement program. To ensure their progress and stats are retained by the program, you pause them rather than remove them.