Hi everyone,
Have you ever found yourself in a situation where there was a lack of information in the Community posts or even in the Marketo documentation? I have. In fact, it happened while my team and I were working on a complex Nurture Program for one of our clients.
The problem/need
Can Marketo determine if a person has already received a specific email from another campaign? The email I’m talking about is also included in one of the Engagement Program Streams. We know that emails within a Stream automatically have this safety feature and skip sending emails to the same person twice. However, we must confirm that emails sent in a Smart Campaign outside of the Streams also include this safety feature.
Eloqua world
For a comprehensive picture, I think it's useful to know how other marketing automation platforms, such as Eloqua, handle this situation. As a result of my extensive experience with Eloqua, I was not required to test this part since I have dealt with this situation many times over the years.
A platform-wide suppression in Eloqua prevents the same marketing email from being sent to the same contact or set of contacts, regardless of whether the email is from the same campaign or a different one.
Marketo world
To effectively nurture people in Marketo based on their content consumption, we must add them to different Streams within an Engagement Program, which are divided into a few stages.
As soon as a person qualifies for a behavior(s) and filter(s) such as download, video watch, link click, or page visit, we need to send them an email as soon as possible. After that, the person is added to a specific Stream within the Engagement Program, depending on the trigger and filter they qualified for. Since the streams have a cadence for casts, we have to use a Smart Campaign outside of the Engagement Program Streams to send the instant email.
Once the person is added to the specific Stream, we have to make sure that the next emails are sent in a specific sequence at a specific cadence that respects the receiver’s time zone. The Default Programs within the Streams contain various emails, including the same email that was first sent as an “instant” email when the individual entered the Stream via a Smart Campaign.
Our goal is to ensure that the “instant” email that gets sent right away from a Smart Campaign outside the Engagement Program and the Default Programs within the Streams sent all required emails but SKIP the email that was already sent to the customer.
Hypothesis
IF we place an email in a Smart Campaign, outside the Engagement Program, that will be sent as soon as the Smart Campaign triggers AND the same email placed within a Default Program in a Stream where the person gets added right after but scheduled for the next cast, THEN that will NOT result in the person receiving the same email twice (once via the Smart Campaign right away + one via the Engagement Program Stream on the next cast).
As mentioned at the beginning of this post, we know that emails within a Stream automatically have this safety feature and skip sending emails to the same person twice. However, we just test that emails sent in a Smart Campaign outside of the Streams also include this safety feature.
Testing
We’ve built the following:
- A Smart Campaign that sends the “instant” email and adds the person to the Stream. This Smart Campaign is placed outside the Engagement Program.
- The Engagement Program used in the previous screenshot, has Streams with Default Programs (what uses a Smart Campaign of course to send the emails).
- In the above Stream, if you check Default Programs #1 and #2, they use the same emails as previously shown Smart Campaigns.
To test this, we have set the cadence to daily and run the test for 2-3 days to be sure and activate the Smart Campaign and the Engagement Program.
Results
Our results indicate that Marketo automatically skipped the email sent by the Default Program within the Stream if the person already received the same email from the Smart Campaign outside the Stream.
Conclusion
Although this is not officially documented in Marketo, we can say that the platform recognizes when someone has already received an email from another Smart Campaign and skips sending a second one.
Please let me know if anyone else has dealt with similar situation, and I welcome any additional thoughts you might have.
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