This article addresses users of the Scenario module. If you are using Journey for your welcome campaigns, please refer to our dedicated article.
What - Definition & context
If you want to encourage your new customers to opt-in to receive commercial messages, or to join your loyalty program(s), you may consider a message chain operation like the welcome pack.
The idea is to send to each new contact one message at a time, to offer them the ability to confirm the email address, phone number, or to join your newsletters and loyalty programs.
To create a welcome pack or a simple welcome campaign, you shall follow the below steps.
Openings: In this article, we are showing examples of filters using email openings. Please note that this metric will be impacted by the Apple Mail Privacy protection.
How to - Steps
Step 1 - Creating contact filters based on date of creation
You can manage certain welcome scenarios by filtering your contacts according to the date when they entered into your database.
To do so, use the "Date of creation in DB" condition from the "Individual" section.
"Event fixed date" allows you to select any specific day as the point of reference, whereas with "Event rolling date" you can set a date relative to the time of calculation.
The condition list menu
If your data flow is batch - the day after, you can set for your campaign to be sent out the day after with condition 'some time ago (1 day)'.
If your data flow is real-time via API, you can set your filter using "less than some time ago".
It is not possible to use "more than some time ago" on the condition "Date of creation in DB" for contact filters in the context of a real-time trigger campaign.
Once the filter has been created, you can work on your design by inserting custom variables and, after, you will be able to setup your campaign.
Contact filter based on date of creation of your contacts who did not add the Mobile Wallet Pass (optional)
Welcoming your customers by sending a personalized email is definitively a must; however, encouraging them to visit your stores to pick up a welcome gift is the type of engagement you should be aiming for.
Adding the Pass is the needed step to be active on mobile and being alerted anytime on news, latest updates, new opening, rewards and coupons! If you want to have more information on the Mobile Wallet, please do not hesitate to contact us.
If your customers have not added the Pass the day they subscribed, wait a few days before sending a reminder on the benefits of the Mobile Wallet:
Step 2 - Adding variables to your design
In the below capture, you can find a design that customizes the greeting depending on whether the contact is a prospect or a customer, by verifying if there is a completed order.
<p> Dear {SPLIO IF $nb_orders$ > 0 AND $firstname$ != ""}
$firstname$
{SPLIO ELSEIF $nb_orders$ > 0 AND $firstname$ = ""}
customer
{SPLIO ELSE}
subscriber
{SPLIO ENDIF},
</p>
<p>Welcome to Our Brand!</p>
A quick look at the code:
Dear {SPLIO IF $nb_orders$ > 0 AND $firstname$ != ""}$firstname$
Verifies if the contact has made an order AND if the firstname is disclosed. If all conditions are true, we'll display the contact's first name.
{SPLIO ELSEIF $nb_orders$ > 0 AND $firstname$ = ""}customer
Else, if the contact has made an order AND the first name is not disclosed (field is empty), we will display "customer" instead of nothing.
{SPLIO ELSE}subscriber{SPLIO ENDIF}
If the contact does not meet the criteria, we will display "subscriber" instead. End of condition.
Multi-language messages:
You can use the conditional blocks to manage multiple languages at once in the same message.
Here is an example of SMS message handling multiple languages:
{SPLIO IF $language$ = "FR"}
Bienvenue chez Splio ! Pour vous connecter sur Splio, visitez www.splio.com!
{SPLIO ELSEIF $language$ = "ES"}
¡Bienvenido/a a Splio! Para conectaros a Splio, visitad www.splio.es!
{SPLIO ELSE}
Welcome to Splio! To login to Splio, visit www.splio.com
{SPLIO ENDIF}
Beware of the character count. The character counter does take into account the conditional blocks and will return the total number of characters for the whole multi-language message.
Step 3 - The campaign's creation
Welcome campaigns belong to the automatic campaigns. In the case of welcome, because it is triggered by en event, you shall work either choosing trigger (option 1) or real-time trigger (option 2).
Options available when selecting an automatic campaign
It is important to understand that all trigger campaigns are launched once per every object (contact, receipt, or abandoned cart) in the filter or list on which they are based.
Never modify the filter! Make sure your filter works as intended before launching any trigger campaigns. You should never, ever modify a trigger campaign filter once the campaign is running. This is because trigger campaigns are sent to all contacts (or, e.g., owners of receipts) entering the filter. All contacts added to the filter due to your modification will be targeted immediately (if real-time trigger)! Which you would rather avoid.
Trigger
The plain, or “not-real-time” trigger campaigns are also launched once per object. However, in other aspects, they are processed like automatic (periodic) campaigns. When an object lands in the target filter, it gets queued and the message will be sent the next time the campaign is processed. The timing and frequency of the campaign are defined in the scenario. This type of campaign can be sent from the minimum of once per month to the maximum of once per day.
A common misunderstanding takes place when clients update their data via batch (e.g., DataHub). Contrary to some expectations, such campaigns are sent on schedule, once per day maximum. Batch uploads work with plain triggers, the real-time sending is reserved to API connections.
Your welcome campaign can be a trigger campaign, sending the welcome to the user who subscribed the day before. The import frequency of your contacts will define the type of campaign you should use. In the case of plain trigger, you shall know the hour of data import to ensure that your campaigns gets launched with the new contacts (for instance, if your files are being sync in Splio every day at 9.00 AM, take a safe margin of extra half hour and schedule your welcome starting 9.30 AM on-wards).
Real-time triggers
One of the options you can see in the screenshot above is the real-time trigger. These campaigns are launched immediately after the object (contact, receipt, or abandoned cart) and they are updated via the API. This can happen only once, and further updates to the same object will not launch the campaign.
The three classic use cases here are the Welcome, Purchase confirmation, and Abandoned cart campaigns.
This type of campaign needs an API upload of data to work. In this case the time schedule set in the campaign is ignored and it can be launched at any moment, and as many times as needed per day.
For trigger campaigns, if you decide to update the design, this change will only be taken into account once per day regardless of the send out of the campaign (event triggering).
Step 4 - Creating a welcome pack using the campaign category (optional)
For trigger campaigns, it is not possible to directly add a sequence into the scenario of the campaign, however, it is possible to create a follow-up campaign linked to another one by using the campaign category.
Remember that you can not add a category to an existing campaign, you need to do it during its creation. Once created, a campaign category cannot be deleted.
The campaign category field is filled in during the first step of the campaign creation Scenario > New Campaign > Campaign category
Once you have created your campaign, you will be able to create a follow-up using a new filter calling the campaign category used previously. For example here: you need to create a contacts filter which matches contacts who opened the email confirmation message earlier in the chain.
Example of a filter condition using the campaign category
Notice the time constraint set here, which means that only the contacts who opened the email within the last 24 hours will be targeted by the new campaign using this filter (which is perfect if the follow-up message is set up to go once per day).
You can find more information on e-targeting with the campaign category in our documentation.
When - Our tips to time your campaign well
The data import frequency to consider:
- Through SFTP/Data Hub: you will hit your customers the day after. We would recommend scheduling your campaign to start early in the morning (as soon as your customer checks their phone or just after breakfast. 8.00 – 9.30 AM): keep in mind that the start date of your campaigns shall be always after the data has been synced in Splio.
- Through API: you can hit your customers in real time, right when the event has happened (a few seconds | minutes after they fulfilled a condition or an event).
Different strategies:
The different one:
- Asking subscribers to follow you on social media, encouraging to follow the brand on Twitter and Facebook.
- Asking subscribers to add you to their “safe senders” or contact list.
- Asking extra info by form (interests, city, birthdate, etc) to personalize the interactions with your customers. This is known as “progressive profiling” for improving the user experience and gaining more information on your database.
The organised one:
- Telling recipients what to do next by introducing a “getting started” kit.
- Offering products or services in your welcome email.
- Giving a gift to your subscribers.
The standard one:
- Using the word “welcome” in the subject line or, alternatively, a powerful subject line for higher email open rates (speaking directly to you).
- Playing around with personalization: introduce subscribers to your social media channels | engage immediately with photos of your brand community | show your uniqueness though the use of colours, images and words specific to your brand.
- Putting an e-commerce storefront in your email to boost online conversions while welcoming your newly subscribers.