smartlist

[Jason_Good]

Do people get automatically removed from a Smartlist when they no longer qualify?  I'm very concerned that they do not, which is causing me great concern.  

[Chris_Wilcox]

Hi Jason,

Yes, when they no longer qualify they are removed. The people in the smartlist are those that currently qualify based on the Smart list criteria.

How are you using the Smartlist asset? It's possible there's a cleaner way to achieve your goal without relying on a smartlist and reduce the load on your instance as have a lot of Smartlists can slow things down sometimes. 

Thanks!
Chris

[Jason_Good]

What I am doing is creating a Smart List and if someone achieves certain goals within our product, I would want them to be removed from the Smart List so they don't get emails associated with that Smart Campaign anymore.  But customer support told my colleague that persons are NOT automatically removed from Smart Lists.  Once they are on the list, the never come off.  I just have a hard time believing that.

I have two criteria on my Smart List.  X = True.  Y = True.  As soon as X = FALSE they no longer meet the criteria and I want them removed from that Smart List and to no longer receive emails within that campaign.

I would put them on a different Smart List where X = False and my communication would be different.

My assumption is that a Smart List is dynamic and only sends an email to someone if they qualify.  Even if they qualify for the first 3 emails of the Smart Campaign and then they no longer qualify for the Smart List they would not receive the last 3 emails of the campaign.

We used to use Pardot and this is how their Dynamic Lists worked.  Thank you SO much.

[Chris_Wilcox]

The way you described smart lists is exactly how they work. 

Are you using "member of smart list" in your criteria for the email send? Can you describe your program structure a bit more? Is it an Email Program type? Default? Are you then using "Member of Smartlist" as your include rule for your send? 

Can you describe a bit more the use case for me? I understand the two criteria, and how users would no longer receive those emails once they don't qualify. Are users only ever supposed to be getting a single set of these emails?  So, once they are X = FALSE, are they 'graduating' to another email campaign(s)?  

[Jason_Good]

Thank you again for this help!

I created a Smart Campaign. Then I created a Smart List. In the Flow it is

just a series of emails where I wait a certain number of days between each

send. I was told by a colleague to add a Trigger, too. Just qualifying for

the Smart List isn’t enough to get things started. These are Operational

emails, too. Apparently they need to be Operational (I think that is why I

need the trigger). I was told to make them Operational so emails can be

sent immediately instead of having to choose a time. We need the emails to

go out right away.

I hope this helps.

On Fri, May 17, 2019 at 1:23 PM Chris Wilcox <marketingnation@marketo.com>

[SanfordWhiteman]

Someone is really giving you mixed-up advice. In all seriousness, stop listening to that person and listen to us.

[Chris_Wilcox]

Ok so, this makes sense. What's happening is, the person is qualifying for the FIRST email send because they are a current member of your smart list when the program initially runs. Once that happens, they get added to the flow. At that point, they've qualified and will continue to go through that flow until they complete ALL of those steps. 

In Marketo, once you qualify for a smart campaign, it will complete all flow actions. There is no additional re-qualification throughout that flow, so if they qualified that first time, it'll push them through the entire flow (i.e., they'll get every email).

[SanfordWhiteman]

Neither "add" nor "remove" are the right terms to use with Smart Lists.

A person either qualifies for a SL or does not. There's no act of formal addition or removal (as opposed to static Lists).

Your assumption is correct that if people dynamically stop meeting the qualification rules for a SL, and if they're not already in a Smart Campaign flow that is related to a SL, they will have nothing to do with that SL. So support gave you some very misleading info, or communicated poorly.

There is a grain of truth that someone who is a member of a Smart Campaign doesn't have that membership "unwritten" if they no longer qualify for the entry Smart List. Nor are the actions taken by a Smart Campaign rolled back if someone de-qualifies (because "de-qualification" isn't really a thing). But you probably already knew these points.

[Chris_Wilcox]

Hey Sandy,

Had the same exact thought about Smart Campaigns which is why I am curious about Jason's program structure. There is likely confusion here between "Smart Campaign" criteria and "Smartlist" criteria. If Jason is using a Smart Campaign with a "send email" in the flow for his email sends, it's accurate that a user will not be 'removed,' from that smart campaign once they no longer qualify since the previous send activity already took place, but that user will no longer be a current member of the Smart List that is the criteria for the Smart Campaign for the next time the email gets deployed. 

Thanks!

[Jason_Good]

Thanks everyone. This is great.

I'm using emails to onboard people to our product.  There are certain things they need to do to finish onboarding.  As these steps are completed I need to move them over to a new series of emails.  If they get "stuck" on a step then they just get additional emails telling them to complete that step.  As soon as they complete a step I have to pull them out of a Smart Campaign and put them in another one that is appropriate for where they are in the process.  

What is the best way to do this in Marketo?  And the emails need to go out immediately.  I can't wait until a specific time to send the email.  It needs to go out as soon as they do something.  I can't tell them to take an action that they have already taken by keeping them in the same Smart Campaign.  They need to be moved to another one. 

Any tips?  Advice?  This was so simple in Pardot.  🙂