Workflows

Workflows are located under the Campaigns section of the emfluence Marketing Platform and allow clients to design, edit, create, and keep track of their automated campaigns. From a simple autoresponder to a 20-plus part drip series, you can view your entire automated series on the Workflow Canvas.

Adding Elements to the Workflow Canvas

Test Mode

Important Tips About Workflows

Clicking into Workflows you will find your existing automated series and have the ability to edit them or create a new Workflow. If you already have autoresponders set-up in the system you will notice that each have their own Workflow. The first time you create a Workflow you will see a 9-part tour explaining each piece of the system. If you want to see the walkthrough again, you can click on the question mark on the right side of the page next to the publish button.

Adding Elements to the Workflow Canvas

From the left sidebar drag emails and groups onto the canvas to set up you automated campaign. As you add elements to the canvas you will see them appear in the miniview in the top right-hand corner of your Workflow.

This will add a placeholder to your canvas. In order for this to feed an email you will need to fill the placeholder with a new or pre-existing group. To do so, click Select Group.

You have the option to select a pre-existing group or create a new group. If you choose to create a new group, you will be given the option to make a Static Group or a Dynamic Group. In making a Dynamic Group you will see Query Builder load inside the modal. Create your query the same way you would in the Group section. For both Static and Dynamic Groups, you will need to provide a name for a group (you can also provide a friendly name and description if you wish). Note: You can't add a Dynamic Group into the middle of a workflow, the only thing that can feed a Dynamic Group is its query.

In the bottom dropdown, you will be able to choose which system users can send to this group (as you can do when making a new group in the Group section).

Just as you added groups to the Workflow, you can do the same with emails. Dragging an email to the canvas will create a placholder email which you can then choose to fill with a pre-existing automated email or create an email draft.

If you choose to create a new email the Create New Email process will launch inside a modal. You can choose your template, compose your email, and set your schedule/delay. NOTE: The Select Group step is disabled as you will be connecting a group to your email on the Workflow Canvas.

If you choose a pre-exiting email you can save that to the canvas and edit it in the canvas or in a new tab. To pop-up the modal and edit your email inside the canvas modal hover over your email and click on the pencil. To pop-out the email into a new window select the Go To Email link instead. NOTE: If your email is already published, you will have to pause or deactivate prior to making changes.

Groups and Emails can only be included in a single published Workflow. If you attempt to add a group or email that is currently being used in another Workflow you will receive a notification that you will need to remove that element from the other Workflow first in order to add it into your new Workflow.

Once you have multiple elements on the canvas you can begin connecting them together by dragging an arrow from one element's border to another. You can either set delays by using Delay nodes (this is the suggested method) or by setting them on the individual automated emails. If you set them on the individual emails, they will be applied on the canvas as you link each element together.if you set the on a delay the delay time will be shown on the delay itself. You cannot set delays on individual SMS messages, you will need to use a delay before the message.

Remember to save often when creating your Workflow. If you have any errors in your Workflow you will see an error icon appear on the individual elements . For more information about these errors you can expand the Workflow Items menu to see what steps need to be taken to complete your Workflow before it can be published. When you are finished, don't forget to publish.

You can remove various elements from the canvas by clicking the "X" on each. You can disconnect the flow of your Workflow by clicking on the broken chain icon between two pieces of your automated series. If you need to clear your work and start over, you can you the "Clear Canvas" button.

Workflow Test Mode

In Test Mode, you will be able to test your workflow against a single email address. Test mode will move you step-by-step through your Workflow and even send you proof emails of each email in your series. You can run Test Mode in both a Draft of a Workflow and a Published Workflow.

To enter Test Mode you will click on the Test button located at the top of your Workflow.

If you wish, you can change the state from Draft to Published, and vice versa, if you wish to test a Draft which is different from your Published version.

When you begin a test, a modal will appear. Enter the email address that you would like to use to test your Workflow.

If the email you are testing is already in your Workflow you will be prompted to remove that contact from the Workflow in able to test the entire series. If you chose to ignore rather than remove, you will only be able to test that contact in the steps of your Workflow they have not already received. If the email you have chosen is not in your Workflow prior to testing, you will not receive this notification.

Once the Test Mode has begun you will notice your left sidebar will be replaced with information about your test and you will be prompted to pick a starting point to test your Workflow. If you wish to test the entire Workflow you can start at the beginning. We always suggest testing your Workflow for all variations before beginning to send an automated series. If you need to stop your test at any time you can exit Test Mode by clicking either of the End Test buttons located on the top of your Workflow and in the left sidebar.

After clicking on an element in your Workflow to choose your starting point, you will then be able to Start Test. For each step of your test the left sidebar will give you information about your test contact as it moves through your Workflow. Hit the Continue button to move through each step.

Where delays exist in a Workflow you will be able to ignore those rules and send yourself an email, moving your contact through each step of your Workflow.

When reaching the end of your Workflow you will be prompted to either End Test or Repeat Test. If you choose to repeat the test you will be prompted to either Remove Test Contact or Ignore. If you have limitations on your Workflow, such as a recipient can only receive each email once, you will see warnings on your second time through your Workflow. As before, you will be able to ignore those warnings and continue. However, in your actual Workflow any contact which does not meet the frequency limit (editable in the individual email) won't receive duplicates of the emails.

When you are finished, you have the ability to end your test and then re-enter Test Mode choosing to test a different email by clicking on the Test Mode button at the top of your Workflow.

Important things to remember with Workflows

1. No loops are allowed (you can't connect the end of your series back to the beginning).

2. You cannot have more than 5 incoming connections feeding a single piece of your Workflow.

3. While emails can connect to both groups and other emails, groups cannot connect to other groups directly.

4. Dynamic groups cannot have an incoming connection (by definition these groups are being fed by their own internal query logic).

5. While two emails can feed the same group, two groups cannot feed the same email.

6. Workflow Test Proofs, and the tracked links within them, have a limited lifespan. When the emails expire, the links within them (which rely on emfluence's tracking redirect) will no longer function correctly.

7. Not everything on your workflow has to be connected. You can have separate segments on the same Workflow, which you would need to do if you were using dynamic groups in the example of a birthday series.