Set up a triggered campaign

Note: This feature is only available to CRM-integrated customers.

Triggered campaigns allow you to communicate with your customers in response to any CRM transaction. They can be used to automatically send personalized welcome emails, performance reminders, confirmation emails, and more.

Set up a triggered campaign

1. Go to Email > Create a campaign

2. Under Settings, select Triggered from the Campaign Type dropdown

3. On the Email step, select your email design or create a new one

4. On the Recipients step, assign the list that WordFly will use each time the campaign is scheduled to send

You won’t be importing any subscribers yet.

5. Test your campaign

Under the Testing tab, use Subscriber Preview to test a subset of your subscribers and to make sure you have all the correct personalized data pulling into the email.

6. On the Activate step, schedule your campaign to send

Learn more about automated scheduling options

7. Click Activate

Once you click the Activate button, your triggered campaign will be scheduled to send. The campaign will only send to subscribers that meet the list criteria at the time of sending. Once the campaign sends, it will be rescheduled to send again at the same time at the frequency you selected.

Test a campaign

After you select an email and subscriber list for your campaign, continue to Testing.

Test list criteria

You can test if your list criteria is pulling the right subscribers from your CRM before activating your campaign.

• In WordFly, go to the automated campaign’s Testing tab and select Subscriber Preview. You’ll be able to see any personalization for subscribers that meet the criteria.
• Tessitura customers: If you’re primarily concerned with the list that gets generated, then you can test your dynamic List Manager list in Test Tessitura to confirm that the correct subscribers are imported into the list. Run the list and output set in Tessitura using the List Manager > Results option or under Reports > Run List and Output set report. Check that the correct subscribers and data are returning.

Test personalization

1. On the Testing tab, click Subscriber Preview

2. Click Import Subscribers...

3. Select Import for Preview

• Your list and output set will be run in your CRM but promotion records won’t be created.
• The list is not imported. The data returned is only used for on-screen previewing. No subscribers will be imported.
• The preview displays up to 250 subscribers from the list. Even after the list starts sending, the same first subscribers will appear here. Use the search bar to find other subscribers that meet the list criteria. Tip: Search for @ to pull back all subscribers that meet the list criteria.
• The data is static once imported for preview. To pull updated data—for example, if your output set is updated or you re-map your list data fields—you must re-import for preview to pull the new data.

Stop or pause a campaign

1. Click on the Activate tab

2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Pause/Edit

When the campaign is paused:

• The campaign will not send.
• You can click the Settings tab and update the subject line and other options for the campaign.
• You can click the Email tab and assign a new email design by clicking Select a different email.
• You can click the Recipients tab and re-assign your list by selecting Change list settings.
• To reactivate the campaign, go back to the Activate tab. Update the Start Date and Time settings, click I’m Done. then click Schedule Now to resume sending.

Reactivate or reset a campaign

If you have experienced an outage with your CRM that affected WordFly’s ability to connect to the API and import a triggered list, you may want to reset your automated email campaign(s) to send at a new date or time. These steps can only be followed when the CRM integration is working again. 

1. Click on the Activate tab

2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Pause/Edit

3. Select a new Start Date and Time

• Click on the Today link to jump to the current date
• Click on a new date. When selected, the date box will be a solid blue color.
• Select a new time, if needed

4. Click I’m Done to close the calendar layer

• If the I’m Done button is greyed out, you have not selected a new start date

5. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Schedule Now to resume sending

How services disruptions affect automations

Troubleshooting

Tessitura customers: If your campaign didn’t send to any subscribers, here are a few things you can check.

• Check the Recipients tab to view the Subscriber Import Issues > Data Errors
  • Are there any data errors that point to integration, list, or data issues?
    
    
• Check the List Manager list assigned to the campaign
  • Was the list generated in Tessitura? Does it contain any subscribers? If no subscribers met the criteria or the list experienced a problem in Tessitura, the automated campaign remains scheduled to send.
  • Check the list properties in Tessitura. Are both TMS and Dynamic checked? Is the correct control group selected?
    
    
• Check the output set assigned to the campaign
  • The output set must return valid data (email and any other data needed for personalization) in order for the list to return subscriber data. If the output set doesn’t have any fields defined, the triggered campaign will still run every day. But when it runs the list in Tessitura, the import will fail.
  • Was the output set duplicated in Tessitura? Duplicated output sets may need criteria added again or re-defined.
  • Check the output set properties in Tessitura. Is TMS checked? Is the correct control group selected?

FAQ

Why are there 0 subscribers after assigning the dynamic List Manager list?

It is expected to have 0 subscribers when you initially assign your list to your triggered campaign. This step is a little different from a standard campaign in that you won’t be importing any subscribers yet. Triggered campaigns are designed to import subscribers at the time of sending.

Can I update the list assigned to the campaign?

Yes. You can go to the Recipients tab of the campaign to update the list assigned anytime, even when the campaign is running (not paused). Go to the Recipients tab and select Change list settings, then reassign your list. You must select Save/Continue after making the list assignment updates.

Can I update the email design when the triggered campaign is running?

Yes. Every time the triggered campaign sends, it will send the latest version of the email design. This allows you to make edits to your email while the campaign is activated. To edit the email for an active campaign, go to Email > Emails.

How can I check the list import and sending history when the triggered campaign is running?

• Activate tab > Sending history: View sending history
• Activate tab > Sent: See the next scheduled deployment
• Recipients > List history: Review any import history

Are sources generated with each list import?

Yes. Every time WordFly fetches the list, every subscriber who meets the list criteria will receive a promotion and source for the list import. If you selected “Only once” in WordFly and a subscriber met the list criteria every time the campaign ran, WordFly would only send the campaign to them once, but they would have a source code for every time the campaign runs. You may consider suppressing subscribers with previous promotions if those subscribers won't be imported again. This is typical for a welcome email series.

How long should a triggered campaign run before ending it?

For long-running triggered campaigns such as performance reminders and welcome emails, we recommend starting a new campaign each year. Many organizations use either fiscal year or production season as start/end dates. This ensures your campaign runs efficiently. It also gives you the opportunity to review data year-over-year as triggered campaign reporting is cumulative as one campaign.

Examples

We’ve put together a few automation examples. Visit these articles to learn more.

• Abandoned cart email
• Membership thank you email
• Performance reminder email
• Post-show follow-up email
• Welcome email