Automations

JustRelate Automations lets you send any number of consecutive mailings at intervals of your choice, and also split follow ups based on the links the recipients clicked in the preceding email.

The “Automations” section gives you an overview of the automations that have been set up so far. Click an automation in the list to open and then modify it as needed.

You can set up an automation by creating one or more workflows for it, each of which defines a sequence of mailings. The starting point of every workflow is a trigger that initiates the next action in the flow, e.g., a follow-up mailing or a cascade of such mailings, sent automatically and individually, optionally after a specified period of time. The option to add more than one workflow to an automation allows you to address multiple target groups with pinpoint accuracy within the same measure.

In the “Automations” section, click the button at the bottom right, “Create automation”.

After giving the new automation a title and, optionally, a description, click “Save” – again at the bottom right –, then start creating a workflow for it by clicking the corresponding button. Workflows have a title and a description, too.

For creating and editing workflows, a graphical editor is available that lets you add workflow actions from an “Elements” pane on the left-hand side to the composition area in the middle using drag and drop. In this area, drop zones help you position the elements you want to add to ultimately create a tree-like flow chart that represents the sequence of actions.

After adding an element, or selecting one subsequently, its properties are displayed and can be changed via the details pane to the right.

As mentioned, the first component of a workflow is always the trigger. There are several trigger types:

• Mailing recipient converted applies if a mailing recipient has clicked a link in the email, and was sent to the linked web page where they performed the desired action, e.g., subscribed to a newsletter. This functionality requires link tracking to be enabled for the mailing.
• A specific mailing that, after it has been sent, sets the workflow in motion. Only mailings from the “Marketing” category can be selected as the trigger mailing.
• A profile has subscribed to a topic, for example, via a form on a web page. Workflows with this trigger type require an initial mailing from the “Transactional” category.
• The Form submission trigger lets you send a transactional email to a website visitor who submitted the specified form on a web page they were sent to via a link in an email.

After the trigger details are set, you can grab and drag an element of the desired kind from the “Elements” pane to the composition area, and drop it onto the target zone highlighted in green, e.g., directly below the trigger. You can choose between the following types of elements:

• Email: Usually a follow-up mailing that builds on the marketing objectives of the preceding mailing.
• Conditions: Defines follow-up actions to be performed – usually mailings to be sent – depending on the links the recipients clicked in the preceding email. See below for details.
• Delay: The amount of time the workflow pauses until proceeding with the next action.

The “Conditions” element lets you specify “tags” for the workflow to determine which of the segmented follow-up mailings should be sent to which recipient.

You can, of course, add as many further consecutive segment mailings to any branch of any segment mailing.

If you have already created follow-up mailings, you will have noticed that one cannot add recipients to them. This is because follow ups are automatically assigned recipients from the preceding mailing, be it the one that triggers the workflow, or the immediately preceding follow up. Only those recipients who clicked the link specified in the tag of a segment mailing will be added to it.

After completing a workflow, it needs to be activated by clicking the corresponding button. This validates the workflow, meaning that all its components like tags or mailings are checked for completeness.

The errors found during validation are displayed on the details pane. You cannot activate a workflow until all the required data has been provided and is free of errors.

You can deactivate a workflow if, for example, you found it to be faulty and would like to sort something out.

If emails are being sent for a segment mailing, deactivating a workflow this mailing is a part of stops the dispatch. After reactivating the workflow, it continues where it left off. Automations ensures that no email is sent more than once to the same recipient.