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Grégoire_Miche2
Grégoire_Miche2
Level 10
March 8, 2016
New

Possibility to add "skip content" filters in engagement programs

  • March 8, 2016
  • 7 replies
  • 4965 views

Today, when setting up an engagement program, there are 2 possibilities:

  • adding plain emails, that will be sent unless this email has already been sent to the lead
  • Adding sub-programs that may do some testing before sending (filters or choices in the smart campaign), with the big drawback that if the lead does not qualify of the smart campaign, the lead receives nothing.

Neither of these 2 possibilities enable to skip a content in cast and move directly to the next one under certain conditions.

This idea is to add the possibility, on each content of the stream, to add a "skip content" smart list with filters (no triggers). When the cast occurs, Marketo would evaluate the smart list BEFORE assigning the lead to the content and automatically move to the following content in the stream if the list is a member of the "skip content" smart list. This evaluation would be done at each cast, so if the lead is no longer member of the "skip content" list at next cast, then the lead would qualify for the content.

-Greg

    7 replies

    Robb_Barrett
    Robb_Barrett
    Level 10
    March 14, 2016

    Please explain this more.  In my Engagement Programs, I do the following:

    Cast 1: Send Email 1.

    Cast 2: If you've opened Email 1, Send Email 2. If not, Send Email 1b.

    Cast 3: If you were sent Email 1b, Send Email 2. If you were sent Email 2 and didn't open it, send 2b. If you opened Email 2, send Email 3.

    Etc, etc.

    It's not quite as complex to build as it sounds. It sees if you're qualified for an email and sends it if you are or skips it if you are not.

    Robb Barrett
      Grégoire_Miche2
      Grégoire_Miche2Author
      Level 10
      March 14, 2016

      Hi Robb,

      You method works, but I still see 1 major problem: at each cast, you always add 1 more "if". After 10 or 11 casts, this becomes a pure nightmare.

      The method I propose makes it much simpler. You get the email or you are moved to next content.

      -Greg

        Robb_Barrett
        Robb_Barrett
        Level 10
        March 14, 2016

        No, actually it doesn't.  The first time I built it it did, then I simplified it.

        PM me if you want to set up a time to run through it.

        Robb Barrett
        Dan_Stevens_
        Dan_Stevens_
        Level 10
        March 14, 2016

        I'd be interested as well - can you share here with the community?

        Robb_Barrett
        Robb_Barrett
        Level 10
        March 14, 2016

        I'm putting together a blog post on it now.

        Robb Barrett
        Robb_Barrett
        Robb_Barrett
        Level 10
        March 14, 2016

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

        Robb Barrett
        A
        Anonymous
        May 10, 2016

        I also want to be able to skip emails that promote content that the lead has already consumed through other channels (if they already attended the live webinar, I don't want to send them an invitation to view the recorded version as if they have never heard of it). Building programs around this is a lot of work and it would be so much easier to just control it on each email in the engagement streams.

        When I suggested this a few years back Marketo replied that they wanted to keep the engagement streams as simple as possible and not add this extra functionality. I hope they are willing to reconsider

        Dan_Stevens_
        Dan_Stevens_
        Level 10
        August 24, 2016

        According to the updated product docs around this, it sounds like using smart lists in your programs nested within an EP, those that don't qualify will never qualify for another cast - they'll be stuck in a loop!

        Add a Program to an Engagement Program Stream - Marketo Docs - Product Docs

        What happens to people who don't meet the smart list criteria?

        If the engagement program calls a smart campaign within a program, people who don't meet the smart list criteria won't receive the email. They also won't move on to the next program in the current cast or in subsequent casts. Essentially they'll be stuck in an infinite loop, where they never qualify. You may want to use choices on flow steps to filter people out instead of adding these criteria to smart lists when you nest programs inside of an engagement program.

        Robb_Barrett
        Robb_Barrett
        Level 10
        August 26, 2016

        That's what I like about my solution: it continuously runs people through the entire program, stopping only when the right condition exists. The engagement program never skips them because they'll always qualify for something. Even if they loop eventually they'll hit an unused step.

        Robb Barrett
        K
        kh-lschutte
        February 6, 2020
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