Remove From Flow / Salesforce Campaign Status

[Anonymous]

If my program is set to only allow leads to flow through once, there's no need to add a "remove from flow" step at the end of the program, correct?

Also, if I add a wait step in the flow, is there a chance the user could be removed from the flow because they no longer qualify by the time the next step executes?

For instance:

1. Lead has a campaign status of "x" which the program uses to generate a list of leads through the smart list.
2. He enters the flow, but the first step is a wait step.
3. The wait step ends but his camaign status is longer "x" at that time.

Is he already "in the flow" and the program will continue to execute the remaining steps despite the fact that he no longer has the correct campaign status, or is he removed from the program entirely due to the fact he no longer has the correct campaign status?

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hey, 

"Remove from flow" is used if you want to remove a lead from a flow mid-stream. So there is no need to include this step at the end of a series of flow steps since the smart campaign will take no further action on the lead once the flow steps are over, unless of course they requalify to pass through it again and the campaign is set up to permit that. 

Once the lead qualifies for a campaign, they will pass through all the flow steps until flow is complete, even if the criteria that initially qualified them changes. They aren't actively re-qualified mid-stream. 

This is an example of where the "remove from flow" step could be useful -- for instance, if you have a lead that enters a nurture flow, then an event happens so they no longer qualifiy (e.g., become a customer), you could have a separate campaign "listening" for this event and remove them from the lead nurture flow. 

[Anonymous]

Thank you, Justin! This helps a lot! I feel like some of the main articles don't explain these nuances well enough. I wish Marketo would tie off more of these threads and update the main articles with more details so that you don't have to dig so much. (It would be very helpful.)

Thanks again for the help!

[Anonymous]

I hear you Osman, I think a lot of this stuff you pick up through trial and error but once it "clicks" then it's quite intuitive. 

I can also reommend Josh Hill's excellent guide which is now available for no more than your email address!

http://www.marketingrockstarguides.com/marketing-rockstars-guide-to-marketo/

This is the guide I wish I had early on and contains a lot more of the nitty-gritty. 

Nice to see a fellow Toronto user here. 

[Anonymous]

Thanks again, Justin! I will definitely take a look at that guide.

As an aside, I would love to see a "requalify" step of some sort in the flow, so that if they still meet the criteria a certain amount of time later then the program proceeds. I could add a remove from flow step, but it doesn't allow me to a decision rule that's as specific as the criteria I set in the smart list.

Users are added to the program based on the fact that they're a member of a Salesforce campaign and have a certain status in that campaign. I can wait an hour and then use a decision rule to determine if they're still a member of the campaign, but not whether they still have the same status in that campaign. So now I have two programs, but it feels clumsy.

Program 1:

List: Members of SF campaign a, b or c with status x.

1 - Wait an hour.
2 - Add to list.

Program 2:

List: Members of SF campaign a, b, c with status x AND member of list.

1 - Send e-mail.

Not sure what's going to happen here if they flag them on and then flag them off again. They enter the flow and get added to the list, but then they don't meet the criteria an hour later and aren't sent the e-mail. The next time around they're still in the list and it goes out immediately. (I think.)

Should this really be handled through program status so that I can handle the flow actions through a single smart campaign? I can see that making sense, but I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around how often I'd use this and where the step might fall in any given channel.

Should I add yet another program to remove them from the list? Getting pretty complex just to add a delay in there.

I'm doing that for now because I need to complete this.