Programs vs Campaigns

[Randy_Davis]

(Clarification: This post is not about sending Alerts or using Operational campaigns. It is about using a single Program to send two marketing emails to two different lead databases under different sales rep names, and then being able to extract the Open/Click results for each email in order to provide those results to the respective sales reps. It is also a question about whether a Program has to be approved to be effective, or whether it can serve a good purpose by simply acting as a means of organization.)
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We are having a lively discussion about how to best use Programs and Campaigns in the following scenario:

• Emails need to be sent to two different audiences under two different Sales Rep names
• Results need to be exported by Sales Rep and Activity Type, and provided to each Sales Rep with just that Sales Rep's results

Option One:

• Build a Program that identifies the Audience, Email, and Schedule for Sales Rep 1
• Build a Trigger Campaign that identifies the Audience, Email and Schedule for Sales Rep 2

In this Option, the Program is Approved, which sends Email 1 for Sales Rep 1; then, the trigger campaign (triggered on the delivery of Email 1) sends Email 2 for Sales Rep 2.

However, this mixes the results of the two email sends, and makes it more difficult to separate out the results for Email 1 and Email 2 (i.e., for Sales Rep 1 and Sales Rep 2). We need to provide both sales rep.s with just those leads that opened/clicked emails from them.

Option Two:

• Build a Program but with no Audience, no Email, no Schedule and no Approval
• Build a Batch Campaign that identifies the Audience, Email and Schedule for Sales Rep 1
• Build a Trigger Campaign that identifies the Audience, Email and Schedule for Sales Rep 2

In this Option, the Program is not Approved. It merely serves as a way to organize the campaigns, emails, etc. However, the results of emails sent on behalf of Sales Reps 1 and 2 are easy to identify by Campaign, and can be sorted and exported by Activity Type.

My primary question is, What is the disadvantage of creating but not approving an Email Send Program that contains various campaigns?

My secondary question is, Should the two emails from the two Sales Reps be sent from two separate Programs rather than trying to send both through a single Program, even though that seems like quite a bit of extra work in cloning and tailoring?

We are struggling with Marketo's claim that Programs are "the most important thing" we will use in Marketo, and that it is an essential part of best practices.

I would appreciate any insight you have.

[Josh_Hill13]

Randy, it sounds like you are using Email Send program. You are also overthinking Programs.

In Scenario 2, you should use an Operational Program to keep your campaigns. There will be less of an impact if you use an Operational Program. But even if you just use an Email Send with child campaigns, nothing interesting will happen, BUT you may end up making some of the people who go through those campaigns in Program Members...which is not ideal for reporting.

If you are just sending Sales Alerts to let these two reps know about something, it would be far better to do this:

• 1 program to send out and manage this
• use a smart list inside the Program (local smart list) to say
  • Was Sent Email AND Lead Owner=X AND CLICKED
  • Was Sent Email AND Lead Owner = Y AND CLICKED
• then provide the exported xls to each rep.
• if you happen to use Sales Insight or SFDC Campaigns, then you can also post an Interesting Moment to each lead that goes through as well as clicks/opens. I prefer a centralized IM system, so this would happen w/o further intervention and be displayed to Sales
• the only catch here is if for some reason your Sales Reps aren't the Lead Owners.

As for Programs, these serve several purposes:

• way to collect related assets together for a campaign
• way to organize data management (operational items)
• way to automatically update SFDC
• way to report on ROI of campaigns (assuming you set it up correctly)

[Josh_Hill13]

And about Sales Alerts - these could be inside the send flow, but if you use an Email Send Program, you would need a child campaign to listen for a Click/Open and then send the Sales Alert email separately.

Trigger: Clicked Link in Email IS "X" Link NOT CONTAINS "unsubscribe"
Member of Program IS TRUE, this Program

Flow:
Send Alert  to Lead Owner.

[Randy_Davis]

Hi Josh. Thanks for your thoughts, but I am not overthinking Programs. However, I guess I did not communicate the issue effectively, and have clarified the problem in my original post. We already have operational Alert campaigns to handle alerts to sales reps, and know that those kinds of tasks belong to operations. The question at hand is one of marketing activities and "reporting," and whether Programs must be approved in order to be useful.

Here's a breakdown of the Option 1 Program and how its various assets are being used:

Option 1 Email Send Program:

eMail Send Program (Audience = Smart List LIST - Leads for SR1 , Email  = EMAIL - From Sales Rep 1, Scheduled, Approved)

Campaigns:

01 - Send Email 2 (trigger)

Trigger: Email is Delivered: EMAIL - From Sales Rep 1

Smart List: LIST - Leads for SR2

Flow: Send EMAIL - From Sales Rep 2

02 - Record Opens (trigger)

Trigger: Opens either email
Flow: Change Program Status: Email>Opened

03 - Program Success (trigger)

Trigger: Clicks Link in either Email
Flows:

Change Program Status: If Clicked Link in either Email, New Status Email > Clicked Link
Change Program Success: If Clicked Link in either Email, Attribute Success

Emails:

EMAIL - From Sales Rep 1

EMAIL - From Sales Rep 2

Smartlists:

SLIST - Leads for SR1
SLIST - Leads for SR2

The problem with Option 1 is that it is more difficult to segregate and extract the Open/Click results by Sales Rep, unless I'm missing something.

Option 2 Email Send Program:

eMail Send Program (no audience, no email selected, no schedule, no approval)

Campaigns:

01 - Send Email 1 (batch)

Smart List: LIST - Leads for SR1
Flow: Send EMAIL - From Sales Rep 1

02 - Send Email 2 (trigger)

Trigger: Email is Delivered: EMAIL - From Sales Rep 1

Smart List: LIST - Leads for SR2

Flow: Send EMAIL - From Sales Rep 2

03 - Record Opens (trigger)

Trigger: Opens either email
Flows:

Change Program Status: Email>Opened
Add to SFDC Campaign: Status Opened

04 - Program Success (trigger)

Trigger: Clicks Link in either Email
Flows:

Change Program Status: If Clicked Link in either Email, New Status Email > Clicked Link
Change Program Success: If Clicked Link in either Email, Attribute Success

Emails:

EMAIL - From Sales Rep 1

EMAIL - From Sales Rep 2

Smartlists:

SLIST - Leads for SR1
SLIST - Leads for SR2

Option 2 makes it easy to extract Open/Click results by Sales Rep because each Sales Rep has his or her own campaign results.

But, what is lost by not Approving the Program?

I hope this makes it clear what the problem is, but if I need to clarify further, please let me know.

Rd

[Randy_Davis]

Follow up:

Well, after some use and experimentation with unapproved Email programs, here's what I've learned about using unapproved Email Programs in Marketo.

1. An unapproved Email Program can be constructed, without usng the Audience, Email, or Schedule control panel, by creating campaigns within it that handle the Smart List(s), Send Email(s), schedule(s), etc. The program acts only as a container for the assets and a record of all Program Members, which can be sorted by Program Status.
2. An unapproved Email program can be used to create campaigns that send multiple emails from multiple senders (the name reflected in the From: or Reply to: fields). Campaign results can be used to see the results for each Email Send campaign. This requires not using Control Panel Audience or Email to send an email to a Smart List
3. Scheduled Batch Campaigns will still show on the Calendar.
4. If you do use the Program Control Panel Schedule, the unapproved program will still show up on the Calendar. However, the program Schedule date and time may not reflect the actual time batch campaigns are scheduled to run.
5. Unapproved program activity is still reported in Analytics Program Reports

Considerations:

1. By using an unapproved program you lose the ability to run A/B Email tests
2. Changing the program Schedule date, or using the Calendar to drag an unapproved program to a new date, has no affect on any batch campaign schedules in the program

Why We Think This Is Important

We want to use Programs in ways they were not designed to be used, but seem to support, and need to know the consequences of doing so. We find that, within specific requirements, using unapproved programs gives us more flexibility than approved programs do.

We are not advocating using unapproved programs all of the time, or even most of the time. We think it does make sense to do so some of the time.

I would be interested in hearing about your experience with unapproved programs.