Workflow Elements
There are several different types of elements you can drag onto your workflow from the left menu bar. To begin, click on any of the elements available with your mouse and drag them to the open canvas.
Groups
The first element available is Groups. Except in situations where you are starting out with an emfluence landing page and form (with group attached), you will need a group to start your workflow. When contacts are added to the starting group they will start flowing through the flow. NOTE: All elements must be active and connected and the workflow must be published in order for the contacts added to move through the flow as intended. Drag your group icon onto the canvas and click the Select Group button to either find an existing group to add to the canvas or create a new group. Both static and dynamics groups can be used in a workflow. However, dynamic groups cannot be put in the middle of a flow and fed with another element (because the query tied to the group determines who is part of the group). Groups can be connected to Emails, SMS Messages, Decisions, and Delays. NOTE: A Dynamic Group cannot feed another query (either a decision or delay) as the results of the dynamic query need to be deposited before another query can be run. If you are wanting to a dynamic group to feed an automated email it will need daily schedule which you can set up on the email itself rather than using a delay. Because dynamic groups feeding emails need exact times to trigger, you cannot use a delay (which is applied prior to schedule) on an automated email being fed by a dynamic group.
Email
Automated Emails can be added to the workflow. As with groups, drag the email icon onto the canvas and click Select Email to either choose an existing automated email or create a new one. You can create your entire email inside the workflow if you wish, or make it in the messages section and added in the workflow later. NOTE: If you accidentally made an email as a manual draft or if it is already part of an existing published workflow, you will not be able to add it to your new workflow. Emails can be connected to Groups, Decisions, SMS Messages, and Delays. Multiple Emails can feed 1 group, but only 1 Group can feed an Email.
SMS
If SMS is enabled in your account, you will see the SMS message icon available to you. Just like an email, drag the SMS icon onto the canvas and click Select SMS to choose either an existing SMS Message or create a new one on the canvas. SMS Messages can be connected to Groups, Emails, Decisions, and Delays.
Landing Pages (with Forms)
A Landing Page with an emfluence form can be added to a workflow and connected to a Group, Custom Decision, Delay, or Email. The individual settings on the group (if submissions are being added to other groups) are not shown on the workflow. Learn more about using pages on workflows here. NOTE: Only pages with forms can start a workflow.
SMS Keyword
If you have SMS enabled within the platform, you can start a workflow off with a SMS Keyword Trigger. Choose your keyword, and connect your messaging service. When an incoming keyword comes in to your number the trigger can push a contact to a connected email, delay, SMS message, custom decision, or static group. As a trigger, it cannot have any incoming connections as it will be fed by the SMS keyword only.
Decisions
All three types of Decisions can be added to the workflow canvas: Email View Decisions, Custom Decisions, and Click Decisions. Both View and Click Decisions must follow an Email. Click here for more information about using Decisions.
Delays
Similar to the Delivery settings on an automated email, Delays allow you to set a period of time before a contact moves to the next step of your workflow. This can either be a period of days, hours, or minutes, or you can put in a daily schedule. In the example of the daily schedule, if you set Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 8am to 5pm, anyone added to the daily during that period would move through ASAP but anyone added outside that window (ex: Sunday at 3pm or Monday at 8pm) would remain in the delay until eligible to move again. You can use a combination of delays and schedules but remember (just like automated emails) the delay comes first and then the schedule (so in the example above if you added a 2-day delay and someone came in on Thursday night the delay would keep them ineligible until Saturday night and then the schedule would keep them ineligible until Monday morning). NOTE: Unless you are using a dynamic group feeding an email, we suggest you use a delay rather than set the delay in the email's settings. Also, don't set them in both places. If you set them in both places, both will apply.
Notes
Notes allow users to add information to the Workflow Canvas about your Workflow. This might just be information about the purpose and flow of Workflow layout, details about specific nodes of your Workflow, or for placeholders for items that would need to be addressed outside the emfluence Marketing Platform (such as a print campaign). Learn more about Notes here.
