Re: Skipping Content in Engagement Programs

Anonymous · ‎01-07-2016

Hi all,

I've read quite a bit about engagement programs over the past few days and am struggling with just one sticking point. If a lead doesn't qualify for a given piece of content (due to program exclusions) it waits until the next cast to receive the next piece of content. Has anyone put together a successful workaround to move a lead to the next piece of content in a singular cast?

Thanks!

Edward_Unthank_ · ‎01-07-2016

Hey Racquel!

I gave a presentation at Marketo Summit 2014 on how to do this!

We use email cast programs for this, add people to the email cast program with an "Exclusion" progression status, and have the individual casts in the engagement program call the "Send Email" smart campaign within each email cast program:

This is specifically if you're looking to have programs within engagement programs, for the use case (for example) of having multiple emails promoting the same content and skipping that cast based on the business rules you set up.

Exclusion (Batch): The people who you want to exclude form this email cast. If the CTA points to a blog post, for example, you'd have a filter which says "anyone who has visited page [INSERT BLOG POST URL HERE]" and then adds them to the program as an "Exclusion" status.

Exclusion (Triggered): The on-going people who you want to exclude from the email cast. In the case of a blog post, it'd be a trigger which is "visit web page [insert blog post url here]." In the case of a content download, it'd be watching that leads are "added to list [insert name of list that holds people who download that asset."

Send Email: This is the smart campaign that will actually send the email in the engagement program. It just has a filter of "is member of any engagement program" and then as a flow step, sends the actual email.

The reason for this is that engagement programs skip a cast for two reasons:

1) Someone has received an that specific email before

2) Someone is already a member of that program

If a person has received a specific email before isn't always the best (or most robust) option, so the way to add robustness is through an "Exclusion" program status on that type of program. That way you can add them to the program so the Engagement cast will skip them, and they won't interfere with your major success metrics.

Cheers,

Edward Unthank | Founder, Etumos

View solution in original post

Natasa_Dukic · ‎01-23-2019

Do you have to include the send campaign & exclusion in the stream? Or, do you include only the send campaign?

Natasa_Dukic · ‎01-23-2019

I have 9 emails with varying pieces of content in each email so does that mean I need: 9 programs, 9 emails, 9 smart campaigns, and 9 exclusion lists?

This is how I've set it up so far.. I need guidance if this isn't right.

Grace_Brebner3 · ‎01-23-2019

Hey Natasa - this thread is three years old, & marked as resolved. You might want to create a new thread to get your questions answered

Natasa_Dukic · ‎01-23-2019

Okay, thank you! I'll go ahead and do that.

Morgan_Corbett · ‎01-05-2017

Edward Unthank (Etumos) Do you have a link to your original presentation? The one you provided last January no longer exists.

What do you recommend for progression statuses for both the Nurture channel and the Nurture Email?

Thanks,

Morgan

Edward_Unthank_ · ‎01-05-2017

Hey Morgan Corbett, I just updated that post with the correct link, if you check the above again.

For Nurture channel, I go with:

Member
Influenced

For Nurture Email (or "Nurture Cast," as I've refined it later):

Exclusion
Sent
Opened
Clicked
Converted
Unsubscribed

Cheers,

Edward Unthank

Heather_Van_Sch · ‎10-24-2017

Hi Edward Unthank,

For your Nurture Casts, how are you using the progression statuses - i.e., for reporting; directing leads; other?

Thanks, Heather

Edward_Unthank_ · ‎11-08-2017

Heather Van Schoiack

For Nurture Casts (aka the individual programs containing the email sends, not the engagement program), progression statuses are for reporting.

Cheers,

Edward

Robb_Barrett · ‎12-14-2016

Here's my method. Works well for me and it's quite extendable.

Length Matters: Engagement Programs that Don't Finish Too Quickly...

Robb Barrett

Anonymous · ‎01-07-2016

Thank you Jamie Lewis and Andy Varshneya! This is exactly the system I have been building this morning based on the info I got from Edward Unthank's presentation (linked above). I am glad we're interpreting it the same way - feel validated!

Edward Unthank, I appreciate the breakdown - very helpful. Can you confirm that if I follow these steps to exclude the lead (who previously downloaded asset) they would receive the next piece of content? What I'm trying to avoid is a lead skipping a week of nurture because they don't qualify for one of the pieces of content. Thanks!

Edward_Unthank_ · ‎01-07-2016

So long as you add the leads to be excluded to the program as "Exclusion" status, that piece of content will be skipped in the cast, so you won't waste a week of nurture!

Anonymous · ‎01-08-2016

Quick follow up question, Edward Unthank! When you add an exclusion status, how do you make sure Marketo actually excludes leads with that status in the email send program? What needs to be done in the background? Thanks!

Edward_Unthank_ · ‎01-08-2016

You need to change the "to-be-excluded" leads' program statuses to "Exclusion" in the email cast programs. Once they're members of those email cast programs, they'll be skipped by the engagement program when that program comes up next in the queue.

Anonymous · ‎01-08-2016

OK, once a lead's status is 'exclusion' Marketo knows automatically what that means? The word itself is recognized by the system and that tells the engagement program to skip the content? I'm just not understanding how the status directs the program without any back end information.

Thanks,

RJ

Edward_Unthank_ · ‎01-08-2016

Here's a diagram of how the cast is decided:

Engagement programs determine if they want that email/program for a cast based on two criteria: (1) the lead has received that email based on its unique ID (not applicable for programs) or (2) the lead is a member of the program being called.

"Exclusion" is an explanatory program status that I've dubbed to help make reporting obvious and readable—you could just as well put them into that program with a status of "Nice weather out today" if that exists on the program channel. The logic magic is when leads are added to that program before the cast.

Edward

Anonymous · ‎03-08-2016

Edward Unthank This is great information and it's exactly what we need but my light bulb is flickering.

We have an Engagement Program setup using programs to do the sends. The criteria for each of the program sends is that they are a member of this particular Engagement Program. Is the "Exclusion" status added to the Engagement Program or to the Email - Mass which is the program doing the send?

I would have thought it would have been to the Engagement Program but when I try and run a Change Program Status flow to a specific cast it references the status of the Email - Mass program. And if the "Exclusion" status is on the Email - Mass I don't see why it is excluded from the list's criteria.

Any info you or anyone could give to help me fully turn on this light would be appreciated.

Thank you

Anonymous · ‎03-08-2016

You ever hit "Add Reply" and then the light bulb finally lights up?

Yeah? Me too.

The adding of the status to the program makes them a "member" and therefor skips them from that send.

Anonymous · ‎01-12-2016

The light bulb has finally gone on! Thank you very much - will soon be up and running!

Anonymous · ‎01-07-2016

Perfect! Thank you for confirming and putting together your presentation as such a great guide.

Andy_Varshneya1 · ‎01-07-2016

To further elaborate on what Jamie is saying, instead of creating just emails, you'll want to create a program for each email in the nurture program and the program should have that email as well as a smart campaign and any smart lists you may need.

In the smart list for the smart campaign, you should include filters that fulfill the requirements of who to opt into the email. For example, the filters I use for this are:

Is a member of the engagement program
Has not received this email or any other email that would be ahead of this email in the nurture flow
Has not already viewed the asset in the email

The flow step will be "send this email"

Then in the engagement stream, you'll add the program instead of the email.