Workflow Actions

Every Workflow has a Start Point and it cannot be removed. The Start Point is where the title, notes and API ID are entered plus you can also control how frequently Users are allowed to trigger the Workflow within a custom time period.

The Start Point does not define how the Workflow gets triggered and any Workflow can be triggered through multiple methods e.g. link click, API, Form submission etc.

Other Workflows running currently for the selected User can also be optionally cancelled to exit the User from other Workflows early.

Emails within Workflows are sometimes also referred to as Autoresponders or transactional messages.

Essentially they are Email Templates and the Action has additional conditions to evaluate email preferences and frequency.

Rules can also be set to only send emails on selected days and within specified hours.

Delivery Time Windows

One of the options for sending automated emails is to set time windows on each day for controlling when delivery is permitted.

By default, delivery time windows are disabled and emails get sent as soon as the User journey reaches this Action.

When the User journey reaches an Action that is outside of any specified time windows processing is automatically delayed until the next available time window.

Emails queued outside of delivery time windows will be delivered within the first hour of the next window opening.

Sending of SMS within Workflows requires a connection to Twilio - once you have registered an account you will then be able to connect the details to enable this feature.

The Send SMS Action has full support for Merge Tags and there are two exit points. One for when the SMS is delivered successfully and the other where SMS delivery fails - this allows for graceful handling of unexpected delivery errors or incorrect mobile numbers.

Connection details for Twilio can be setup and tested within the Workflow editor and also within the Connected Apps section of the Account Settings edit page.

Delays between Actions can be set as either a static number of days, hours and minutes or they can be based on a dynamic value stored in the DOB field, a Custom Field or a Session Variable.

Offset Processing

Each Delay Action has a 'Wait Until' setting which can be used to proceed at a time before or after the selected date.

An example of where this might be used is a travel reminder where you may want to send an email 1 day prior to departure.

Offset processing can be set explicitly by ensuring the date variable contains a valid time component e.g. YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS

Where a time component does not exist within the variable the time will be set as the exact time the Delay Action is processed. There is no control over this because all Workflow actions are continually polled to detect if additional processing is required.

It is recommended that time components are included in date & time variables to ensure more predictable results.

Decision rules use exact matching on data which means you need to check to ensure white spacing and mixed letter case (where present / relevant) doesn't create unexpected results.

A Decision Point is used to send people down different paths within a Workflow. By default there are 2 outcomes and that can optionally be increased to a maximum of 5.

The label for each path can be customised on each Decision Point independently to make reporting easier to understand.

Outcomes are determined based on the rules that have been set and it's possible to create complex 'AND' and 'OR' statements to combine any of the following types of rules:

• User Profile Fields
• Custom Fields
• Date Anniversary (DOB or Custom Fields)
• Array Data
• List Preferences
• Click & Open Engagement
• User Tags

Date Format (YYYY-MM-DD)

Decision Point rules using date fields rely on data being stored in the format YYYY-MM-DD - rule analysis will produce unexpected results when dates are not stored in the correct format.

The time component can also be stored with dates by adding the data to the end e.g. YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS

Multiple Conditions

Quoted comma separated values can be entered for 'Contains' or 'Does not contain' statements.

This allows for combining multiple 'OR' conditions into one rule e.g.

"@gmail", "@hotmail", "@yahoo", "@aol", "@outlook"

Double opt-in is a feature that requires the User to click a link within an email before any further Workflow processing beyond that point can continue.

This Workflow Action requires a Template that contains the Double Opt-in Merge Tag so that when Users receive the email they are able to click and confirm their email address in order for processing to continue.

Click here to view the full list of available Merge Tags.

To find out more about the benefits of using Double Opt-in, click here.

As Users progress through a Workflow this Action provides the ability to update the values stored in Custom Fields based on the conditions you set.

This can provide a more dynamic approach to guiding Users through multiple Decision Points within a Workflow.

Tag Users using either static text or dynamically through variables. This provides a powerful level of profiling that can also be leveraged within future segmentation using the Targeting feature.

Manage opt-in and opt-out preferences for Lists as Users progress through a Workflow.

A typical example of where this is useful is when managing email preferences for prospects that are moving through sales stages. Time will be saved by removing the need for manual updates to User email preferences and it would also ensure prospects only receive emails relevant to them.

Reach out to other applications by making HTTP / HTTPS requests.

Automation Webhooks can be used to communicate with any application that has a web interface and there's also support for storing responses providing they are in JSON format.

Success and failure responses can be used to change the path of the User Journey and response data can be referenced in Workflow Decision Point rules and Template content.

There's a payload builder within the Webhook Action to specify GET, POST and to set key / value pairs of parameters.

Click here to read more about configuring Automation Webhooks and working with response data.

Notification Actions can be added at any part of a Workflow so that live email updates can be sent.

Not really a practical approach for higher frequency Workflows because of the number of emails that would get sent but they are much better suited to lower volume activity such as website enquiry forms.

It's perfectly valid for a Workflow to have multiple End Points. Users cannot exit a Workflow without hitting an End Point.

Each End Point can also be configured to connect to itself and therefore create a recurring process or it can trigger a separate Workflow.