Marketing automation Thanks… this session is about the MA module in EN This is a more practical session - Mostly concentrating on the software but with some examples There is a strategic session this afternoon if you want to get some great ideas of how to use it.

Outline What is Marketing Automation and when to use it Setting up an automation strategy Types of automations available and what to use Examples & demonstrations Reporting Tips and troubleshooting Some tips so you can get the most out of the tool

What is Marketing Automation? In EN, MA is a way to set up a sequence of emails You have a start and a finish, so supporters enter the automation according to some criteria you set Then they leave the automation at the end, or if they unsubscribe or if they reach the objective An automation consists of a sequence of emails With preset delays in between, called Waits You can also have If blocks, then can send supporters down differenet paths depending on how they respond to the email you have sent

Why Marketing Automation? Traditional email campaigns are static Marketing automation is dynamic Defined sequence of pre-set emails Behavioural segmentation Checks for matching supporters daily Reduce the workload of manual sending Traditional email campaigns talk to everyone the same no matter how they behave EMA allows you to pre-build communications that depend on scenarios as they change over time Behavioural segmentation means you can pre-build responses for every scenario Workload - Repetitive tasks of data selection, creating and sending emails

But… Engaging & relevant content Test your audience Begin simple Marketing automation is a tool. It can be as harmful as it can be helpful Begin with a good strategy What do you want to achieve? activism / lead conversion / re-engagement / fundraising How is your data going to be structured? new supporters / imported / existing / profile Are you correctly recording supporters’ activity for decision branches? How will people leave the automation? Engaging & relevant content Test your audience Begin simple Marketing automation is a tool which can be as harmful as it can be helpful without the proper planning, it can amplify the issues you already have Define a good strategy What do you want to achieve? How is your data going to be structured? – importing? Tagging? New supporters or existing? How will they leave – unsubscribe, opt-in

What automation types are there?

General (automation profile) What automation is appropriate? Example task Example automation Offline imported New to First Action Newsletter sign-up General (automation profile) Acquisition campaign New to Donor Sunset Reactivate donors Birthday Birthday message Recurring card donor Card Expiry Imported supporters from an event Reactivation – were a donor but having given money for a year Reactivation – not responded to emails

? Segregating supporters in automations Check your account preferences Prioritise Supporters could match more than one automation, or another standard email campaign, at once. So there are tools to prioritise where they should be Prioritize email triggers (if checked, supporters can only be on one trigger at a time) - It is recommended that you tick this option so that supporters don't get emailed multiple automations. If this is ticked, you can also prioritise your automations Cancel pending email when email trigger is inactivated - If this is checked then when you Stop an automation, any upcoming emails are removed from the queue, otherwise they will receive any triggered emails (but nothing from then on) Include supporters, active in journeys, to all outbound email broadcasts - If this is checked then supporters in automations are eligible to receive emails from Email Campaigns in addition to automations ?

Real-life example Compassion in World Farming Care2 acquisition campaign Around 11,000 supporters That all sounds fine, but the marketing manager who owns the campaign has asked if you could leave out the donation value.  Comment wise, not much. We realised part way through that there was a problem with the way we had set it up. The first email in the campaign (New Care2 supporters August 2017) mainly linked to our factory farmed map, which was not actually an action page, but had links to a related action. This action was linked to from the email, but low down and wasn’t really what we were pushing. However the rule was set up so that the second email sent would depend on whether supporters had converted from the first email, and most of the people who did, did so via the map page, so were not recorded as having completed it. I appreciate that this was an error our side, so not really anything to do with functionality.  Although what I would say, is that it would be useful to have the option of saying “if a supporter has taken this action…” rather than/in addition to “if email converted”, as I’m sure we can’t be the only people who link to static pages.  From a reporting point of view, it would be good if there was more flexibility. From what I can see, the only report you can generate is a full list of people with a line per email sent. I would find it more useful to have some way of identifying these people in the query builder for data exports. There’s a “triggers” section in the query builder, but this only seems to relate to welcome sequences in the legacy tools, and you cannot find the emails in the email section of query builder, so unless they are marked in some way by us or we use the profile, we cannot export them. And even if we export them using the profile, we cannot include the data from the emails, as the emails are not there to select.  I also don’t think email interaction shows up on the supporter’s record, although if they take an action, that does.  On another note, I now can’t remember whether people in sequences are excluded from normal email broadcasts. I know this wasn’t part of the functionality, so I requested it, but I cannot remember now whether that happened, and for some reason, the automation section of Supportal requires me to have an account (but not my EN account), which I have now applied for, but need to have confirmation for it, so I can’t look this up.  Many thanks,  Kate

CIWF selection Sends a series of emails Uses a marketing automation profile that selects imported supporters Includes opt-in list Excludes donors

CIWF workflow That all sounds fine, but the marketing manager who owns the campaign has asked if you could leave out the donation value.  Comment wise, not much. We realised part way through that there was a problem with the way we had set it up. The first email in the campaign (New Care2 supporters August 2017) mainly linked to our factory farmed map, which was not actually an action page, but had links to a related action. This action was linked to from the email, but low down and wasn’t really what we were pushing. However the rule was set up so that the second email sent would depend on whether supporters had converted from the first email, and most of the people who did, did so via the map page, so were not recorded as having completed it. I appreciate that this was an error our side, so not really anything to do with functionality.  Although what I would say, is that it would be useful to have the option of saying “if a supporter has taken this action…” rather than/in addition to “if email converted”, as I’m sure we can’t be the only people who link to static pages.  From a reporting point of view, it would be good if there was more flexibility. From what I can see, the only report you can generate is a full list of people with a line per email sent. I would find it more useful to have some way of identifying these people in the query builder for data exports. There’s a “triggers” section in the query builder, but this only seems to relate to welcome sequences in the legacy tools, and you cannot find the emails in the email section of query builder, so unless they are marked in some way by us or we use the profile, we cannot export them. And even if we export them using the profile, we cannot include the data from the emails, as the emails are not there to select.  I also don’t think email interaction shows up on the supporter’s record, although if they take an action, that does.  On another note, I now can’t remember whether people in sequences are excluded from normal email broadcasts. I know this wasn’t part of the functionality, so I requested it, but I cannot remember now whether that happened, and for some reason, the automation section of Supportal requires me to have an account (but not my EN account), which I have now applied for, but need to have confirmation for it, so I can’t look this up.  Many thanks,  Kate ?

Into the software… We’ll make a new automation It’ll be for new supporters that we’ll be importing The objective is to get them to donate Create a new automation Objective= new to donate Selection: Optin // Import tag = ABC123 // Exclude optin Explain why we are excluding optin - Build: email >> wait >> email welcome >> wait >> email donate >> wait >> (if donate >> end, if email sent (unopened) >> wait >> email >> loop to donate) Explain wait while we are doing it Launch

Reporting Quick reports Report export Who is in the automation and where? Query builder integration Who is in automation – show example (maybe run some a couple days before) New! New!

Tips & troubleshooting

How selecting works All criteria checked for entry into automation Only the exclusion criteria is checked per email send

Tips Exclude the opt-in (=N) Create a new profile each time Import data after you launch the automation New supporters are only new once Test your query before launching Keep an eye on the automation after launch

? Lower than expected numbers? Profiles do not run until you launch the automation Is your query right? Prioritisation can exclude supporters from an automation Automation timing & profile timing Automations remember who was rejected – they cannot re-enter Be wary when editing live automations’ selections Main campaign emails showing less? They could be in an automation Be wary of editing live automations. Do not swap a profile once live ?

Coming up in future releases Redirect to another workflow Memberships (new, expiring etc) Marketing automation data in supporter lookup

More information  support@engagingnetworks.community  support.engagingnetworks.net  engagingnetworks.academy  020 7253 0753  #ENCCUK18 3.35pm today (Salt and Pepper, 1st floor) Build long-term relationships with Marketing Automation