In this article, we’ll guide you through the steps required to build a Dotdigital Program. We’ll also cover how to start, stop and pause your Program.
Before starting, you should be familiar with:
TIP: If you’re thinking about building a Dotdigital Program, there are a number of pre-built templates available for Spektrix users. For more information take a look at our article: Dotdigital Program Templates.
In this guide there are four main steps:
- Preparing to build a Program
- How to set up Triggered Emails
- How to build a Program
- How to start, stop and pause your Program
Preparing to build a Program
To create a Dotdigital Program, you will need:
- A synced address book
- A synced Tag Group and any synced Data Fields you intend to use as part of your Program
Planning and purpose
How you plan your Program will depend on what you want to achieve with it.
Before you begin building your Program, you should:
- Have a clear goal
- Think about what action you want customers to take
- Plan the emails and decisions that will make up the Program
For more ideas and inspiration on how you can use Programs, take a look at the Dotdigital Program Templates article.
How to set up Triggered Emails
Triggered emails are needed for use in Dotdigital Programs.
When setting up your email, under Campaign Settings, set the Campaign Type to Triggered.
When building your Program, you will have the option to choose from any Standard emails you have set up but will be prompted to convert them to a Triggered email:
Choosing this option will create a copy of the campaign within the Campaigns folder. To make edits to the campaign in your Program, you must edit the Triggered version of the email campaign.
For step by step instructions on how to set up and design Dotdigital emails, read the following articles:
How to build a Program
In the Program Builder you can create an automated communication workflow using Nodes. Nodes let you add actions, delays and decisions to your workflow. Enrolled customers will move through your Program according to the rules and decisions you set.
Dotdigital Programs are made up of:
To get started with a new Program, click through the steps below.
REMINDER: When building your Program don’t forget to regularly click Save to save your progress. The work you do in the Program builder will not be automatically saved.
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1. Navigate to the Automation section of the Dotdigital interface and then go to Programs.
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2. Click the NEW PROGRAM button to start building a new Program.
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3. Choose a template. In this example, we’ll choose the Blank Template.
REMINDER: There are a number of pre-built Dotdigital Program templates available. For more information about how to use pre-built templates, read Dotdigital Program Templates.
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4. Give your Program a clear and descriptive name:
Click Continue.
Start Condition
The first step to building a Program is creating a Start Condition.
The Start Condition determines the criteria by which customers are enroled into your Program. Customers will only be enroled if they are in your synced address book.
Click on the blue start condition node to set the criteria for enrolment:
On the right, a panel will appear. You will then need to set the:
- Enrolment scheduling
- Enrolment rule
- Enrolment limits
You can edit your start condition at any time before your Program is activated.
Enrollment Scheduling
Enrollment Scheduling dictates how often contacts are enrolled into your Program.
Under 1. Enrollment Scheduling, click SET SCHEDULE.
You can choose:
- No scheduled enrolments
- Daily
- Weekly
- Monthly
- On a set date
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Choosing the No scheduled enrolments option means that customers won’t be regularly added to this Program.
Enrolling customers based on sign up forms or the API is not possible as part of the Spektrix integration.
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Choosing the Daily option means that customers will be enrolled in your Program every day.
After you choose Daily, you’ll be asked to set the specific time of day that customers will be enrolled.
Spektrix syncs data at 6am local time. This means if you want the Program to use the status of today's Tags the enrolment time should be after 6am.
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Choosing the Weekly option means that customers will be enrolled in your Program every 7 days.
After you choose Weekly, you’ll be asked to specify a day of the week and time of day that customers will be enrolled.
Enrollment can take place every seven days, or you can select more than one day of a week. For example, choosing Monday and Friday means contacts are enrolled on those two days every week.
Spektrix syncs data at 6am local time. This means if you want the program to use the status of today's Tags the enrolment time should be after 6am.
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Choosing the Monthly option means that customers will be enrolled into your Program every month.
After you choose Monthly, you’ll be asked to specify a day of the month and time of day that customers will be enrolled.
You can choose a specific date of the month (for example 1st), or enrol on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th or last specific day of the week of every month (for example 1st Monday).
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Choosing the On a set date means that customers will be enrolled into the Program on the exact date you choose.
You can use On a set date if you only want to enrol customers once on a single date in the future.
Once you have made your selection, click APPLY.
Enrolment Rule
The Enrollment rule decides which customers are enrolled in your Program.
Under 2. Enrollment Rule, click SET RULE.
You can choose:
- Contact date field - enrol customers based on a specific date. For example, date of birth or the date the customer last opened an email.
- Segment - enrol customers based on their engagement with email campaigns or Data Fields.
Trigger from date field
Trigger from a contact date field will enrol customers based on a contact date field or their birthday / anniversary.
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If you choose Contact date field, you will need to decide if customers are enrolled on or before / after the date field you choose.
From the date dropdown, you can choose any of your Data Fields which are a date.
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If you choose Birthday / Anniversary, customers will be enrolled once a year on or before / after the date field you choose.
From the date dropdown, you can choose any of your Data Fields which are a date.
Trigger enrolment from a segment
Trigger enrolment from a segment will enrol customers based on Data Fields or a customer’s behaviour such as engagement with an email campaign. These data fields can include information synced from Spektrix using Tags / Integrated Data Fields.
You can copy an existing segment or create a new one.
If you click CREATE NEW, you’ll open up the Segment builder.
- Drag and drop rules from the menu on the left into the boxes which say Drop rule here.
- Then, click on the rule to define the limits of the rule.
You can learn more about building Segments in the Dotdigital Help Center: Create a Segment.
You can Segment on Opens, Clicks, Sends Replies and Data Fields. Click into each section below to learn more.
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You can Segment on email Opens of previously sent Dotdigital campaigns.
You can choose from:
- Not opened any campaign they were sent
- Opened any campaign they were sent
- Not opened specific campaigns they were sent
- Opened specific campaigns they were sent
- Opened campaigns with specific tags (Dotdigital email campaign tags)
You can then select the individual email campaigns from the list by checking the box next to each campaign.
From the Date dropdown, you can choose:
- At any time
- Today
- In the last
- On the date
- On or after the date
- Date range
To qualify into the Segment, the customer will need to have opened or not opened the emails you specify within or on the date you specify.
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You can Segment on email Clicks of previously sent Dotdigital campaigns.
Under the For any campaign dropdown, you can choose from:
- For any campaign
- For selected campaigns
- Specific links
- For campaigns with specific tags (Dotdigital email campaign tags)
You can then select the individual email campaigns from the list by checking the box next to each campaign.
From the They have not clicked any link dropdown, you can choose:- They have not clicked any link
- They have clicked any link
- They have not clicked specific link groups
- They have clicked specific link groups
From the Date dropdown, you can choose:
- At any time
- Today
- In the last
- On the date
- On or after the date
- Date range
To qualify into the Segment, the customer will need to have clicked or not clicked the emails you specify within or on the date you specify.
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You can Segment on email Sends of previously sent Dotdigital campaigns.
Under the Not sent any campaign dropdown, you can choose from:
- Sent any campaign
- Not sent specific campaigns
- Sent specific campaigns
- Sent campaigns with specific tags (Dotdigital email campaign tags)
You can then select the individual email campaigns from the list by checking the box next to each campaign.
From the Date dropdown, you can choose:
- At any time
- Today
- In the last
- On the date
- On or after the date
- Date range
To qualify into the Segment, the customer will need to have been sent or not sent the emails you specify, within or on the date you specify.
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You can Segment on Replies received on your sent Dotdigital campaigns.
Under the Replied to any campaigns they were sent dropdown, you can choose from:
- Replied to any campaigns they were sent
- Not replied to any campaigns they were sent
- Replied to specific campaigns they were sent
- Not replied to specific campaigns they were sent
- Replied to campaigns with specific tags (Dotdigital email campaign tags)
You can then select the individual email campaigns from the list by checking the box next to each campaign.
From the Date dropdown, you can choose:
- At any time
- Today
- In the last
- On the date
- On or after the date
- Date range
To qualify into the Segment the customer will need to have replied or not replied to the emails you specify, within or on the date you specify.
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You can Segment using the Data Fields in your Dotdigital account.
You can set up integrated Data Fields which sync with your Spektrix account by following the steps in the Data Fields article.
When you select a Data Field in the Segment builder, you will then need to define the parameters of the Data Field. For example, if you use the WEEKSSINCELASTVISIT Data Field, you will need to choose the number of weeks and:
- Is equal to
- Is not equal to
- Is more than
- Is less than
- Is at least
- Is at most
- Is empty
- Is not empty
Once you have completed your segment, click Apply.
Any validation errors will be displayed under the Validation heading. For example, if you add a Data Field to a Segment but do not specify the Data Field, you will not be able to create the Segment.
TIP: When creating your Tags and Data fields for use in Dotdigital Programs, it's important to remember that data is synced between Spektrix and Dotdigital daily at 6am. This means the Tags you set up in Spektrix should be set up to look for actions “Yesterday” regardless of the Program send time.
For example, if you were looking to set up a Program to find people who have purchased tickets for the first time you would want the Tag in Spektrix to look for someone whose first purchase was yesterday.
Enrolment limit
Enrolment limits dictate whether customers are re-enrolled or not.
For example, you can choose to enrol a customer every time it's their birthday or only the first time it's their birthday.
This features three options to choose from:
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Enrol contacts in program only the first time they meet the start criteria.
Customers will only be enrolled into this Program once.
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Re-enrol contacts on the program every day they meet the start criteria.
Customers will be enrolled into the Program every time they meet the enrolment criteria as long as they aren't currently enrolled.
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Re-enrol contacts on the program if they meet the start criteria, but not if they have been enroled in the last.
Customers will be enrolled into the Program every time they meet the enrolment criteria as long as they haven’t been enrolled in the last number of days you specify. You can set a minimum number of days, up to a maximum of 366 days. For example, if you don’t want to enrol customers more than once a month, you could set this to 31 days.
Once you have set your enrolment limit, click APPLY.
Exit Condition
Every Program must have an Exit Condition. When customers meet the criteria for the Exit Condition, they will be removed from the Program.
Click EXIT CONDITION from the navigation bar.
There are two default Exit Conditions:
- Reaching one of the end Nodes.
When the customer reaches the final Node in your Program, they will be removed. They may or may not be enrolled again depending on your Enrolment Limit.
- Unsubscribing from the account.
If a Customer is removed from your synced address book, or unsubscribes by clicking a link in an email which is part of the Program, the customer will be removed from the Program.
We always recommend that you set up an Exit Condition which removes customers who are no longer in your synced address book. This is essential to ensure that customers will be automatically removed from the Program when changes are made to Contact Preferences on Customer Records in Spektrix.
WARNING: If you do not set up an Exit Condition which removes customers who are no longer in your synced address book then customers may continue to receive emails from you if they are enrolled in a Program.
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To set up an Exit Condition which removes customers who are no longer in your synced address book, follow the steps below:
- From the menu bar at the top, click EXIT CONDITIONS.
- Choose Add an Exit Condition > Create New
- Drag and drop Lists into the Include contacts that match all the rules in this group section.
- Click on are present in any list. Change the dropdown to Not in specific list.
- Choose your list that's synced with Spektrix. Click Okay and then Apply.
- The Exit condition should read "on meeting one of these rules:" and then "Are not present in the [Spektrix Sync] List".
- From the menu bar at the top, click EXIT CONDITIONS.
You can also create additional custom Exit Conditions. For example, you might want to choose to remove a customer from a Program once they have taken a certain action. This can include having clicked a link in an email, or related to a Data Field.
You can copy an existing segment or create a new one. If you click CREATE NEW, you will open up the Segment builder. The Segment builder works in the same way as creating an Enrolment Segment.
You can learn more about building Segments in the Dotdigital Help Center: Create a Segment.
Nodes
Nodes are what make up Programs.
There are six relevant types of Nodes: Messaging, Actions, Delays, Decisions, End Node and Annotations.
- Drag and drop Nodes from the menu on the left onto the canvas.
- Click on each Node to configure its settings.
- To link nodes together, click and drag the connector from one Node to another.
- By using decision nodes you can create branches in Progams.
You can learn more about working with nodes, connectors and the program builder canvas on the Dotdigital Help Center.
Click into each section below to learn about the different types of Nodes.
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To add an Email Campaign to a Program, you will need to drag and drop the Email campaign node from the Messaging section.
- Drag and drop the Email campaign node onto the Program canvas, then click the node to select an email campaign:
- Choose Select a campaign or Create a campaign. If you choose to select, you’ll be able to choose from the Standard and Triggered campaigns available in your account. If you choose to create a new campaign, you’ll be directed away from your Program to the campaign builder. If you choose a Standard campaign you will be prompted to convert it into a Triggered campaign.
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Action nodes can be used to:
- Add a contact
- Remove contact
- Update contact
- Facebook audience
- Google Ads
TIP: You can use the Facebook Audience and Google Ads nodes to power ad automation using Dotdigital Programs. To learn more, read our article on Using Ads Automation in Dotdigital Programs.
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Delay nodes can be used to add a time period between the sending of email campaigns in your Program.
- Drag and drop the Email campaign node onto the Program canvas, then click the node to select the length of the delay:
You can choose from:
- Wait a set number of days
- Wait until a set time of day
- Wait until a set day/days of the week
- Wait until a set day of the month
- Wait until a set date
- Wait until a calculated date
Enter the parameters of the delay and then click APPLY.
Read more about the Delay Node on the Dotdigital Help Center.
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Decision nodes can be used to create a branch in your Program.
There are five types of Decision nodes:
- Decision
A Decision node is used to send customers down two different routes in the Program. The decision is based on whether the customer meets the criteria you set - if they do, they’ll go down the Yes route, and if not, they’ll go down the No route. The criteria can be based on email engagement or Data Fields (including custom Data Fields which use Tag and Attribute data from Spektrix).
For example, you can create a decision node based on whether a customer has purchased tickets for a certain Event (by setting up a custom Data Field linked to an Auto Tag).
Read more about Decision Nodes on the Dotdigital Help Center.- Multi decision
Multi decision nodes are used to send customers down multiple different routes in the Program. The decision is based on whether the customer meets the criteria you set and the number of potential outcomes. The criteria can be based on email engagement or Data Fields (including custom Data Fields which use Tag and Attribute data from Spektrix).For example, you could create a decision node based on the number of Events a customer has purchased tickets for. You can set up one route for customers who haven’t booked any tickets, another for customers who have purchased tickets for between 1 and 3 Events, and another for customers who have purchased tickets for 3+ Events (to do this you would need to set up custom Data Fields linked to Auto Tags).
Read more about Multi decision Nodes on the Dotdigital Help Center.- Date split
Date split nodes are used to send customers down different routes in your Program based on the date and time.
For example, customers enrolled in a Program who reach the decision node before the date you specify will go down one route, then, once the date is reached, any further customers who reach that node will go down a different route. This can be useful if you want to use different email campaigns before or after certain announcements.
Read more about Date split decision Nodes on the Dotdigital Help Center.- Quantity split
Quantity split nodes are used to send customers down different routes in your Program based on a specified number of customers reaching the node first. For example, the first 100 contacts to reach the node go down one route and the rest go down another route. You could use this to send out a limited Offer or a competition.
Read more about Quantity split decision Nodes on the Dotdigital Help Center.
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Random split
Random split nodes can be used to add a split of a percentage to your Program based on a probability percentage. The percentage of probability is applied per customer.
For example, if you set the probability as 80% for one route and 20% for the other, each customer reaching the node has an 80% chance of being sent down one route and a 20% chance of being sent down the other route.
Read more about Random split decision Nodes.TIP: Decision and multi decision nodes can also contain conditional delays. For example, upon reaching a Decision node you can choose for customers to progress down the Yes route immediately and add a delay before a customer progresses down the No route. Adding a delay means the condition will be checked daily, if the condition becomes a Yes, the customer will exit down the Yes route immediately if not they will continue to be held. Once the delay length is met customers will exit down the No route.
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Customers will exit the Program when they reach the End Node (if they haven’t already met the criteria for an Exit Condition).
You can drag and drop the End Node into multiple points on your Program.
Giving your End Nodes unique and descriptive names will be useful when reporting on your Programs.
Read more about Program Reporting on the Dotdigital Help Center.
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We recommend that you add Text labels to your Program to explain or add context to your Program. This can be helpful if other users in your organisation view your Program or need to make edits in the future.
Drag and drop the Text label Node onto the canvas and then add text:
How to start, stop or pause a Program
Before you start a Program, your Program must pass the Validation requirements.
You can save an invalid program but you won't be able to activate it until all issues are resolved.
Click the Validation menu item to see the errors in your Program.
You can learn more about program validation on the Dotdigital Help Center.
Save and activate your Program
You can save your program and come back to it at any time by clicking the SAVE button.
Once you've set up your Program, to start enrolling contacts and sending emails, click the ACTIVATE button.
WARNING: You cannot edit your Program while it is activated.
Deactivate a program
To stop or pause a program, click the DEACTIVATE THIS PROGRAM button.
If the program has ever enrolled any contacts, it will become Deactivated.
If it has never enrolled any contacts, it will revert to a Draft.
If you deactivate while customers are in the Program, they will remain at the Node they are at. If you then reactivate the Program, the customers will continue on their journey.
Reactivate a program
To restart a program, select ACTIVATE on the program toolbar. The program needs to have been saved and have no validation errors to be able to do this.
If the program has already enrolled customers, then you also have the option to disable or resume enrolments once reactivated. Disabling enrolments lets customers who are already enrolled continue to progress through it without enrolling any more customers into the Program.
To do this, expand the UTILITIES dropdown menu and click Disable contact enrolment.
Further Reading
We recommend starting with our Dotdigital Program Templates.
For more ideas and inspiration on how to automate your email marketing, check out the Spektrix blog: