Our Welcome Program template is designed to help you welcome new Customers when they join your mailing list.
Before you start, you should be familiar with:
Why set up a Welcome Program?
Sending a welcome email is an opportunity to start a warm relationship with your new Customers and make a great first impression.
You can also take the opportunity as a chance to learn more about your new Customers by asking for extra information such as date of birth, interests or access needs. You can then use this information to tailor your future communications further.
How does it work?
The Welcome Program works by identifying new sign ups based on when an account was created in Dotdigital. Customers are synced between Spektrix and Dotdigital daily at 6am. Every morning the Program will automatically enrol any new sign ups.
You’ll need to add two emails to the program, one for Customers who have purchased tickets and one for Customers who have not yet purchased tickets. This means you can personalise your messaging and targetthe Customer with relevant information.
TIP: You may also want to consider excluding new Customers from your general marketing emails whilst they are on the Program. To do this you could set up an Auto Tag to find new accounts and use this to exclude contacts from other Mailings.
Before you start
Before you start to build any Dotdigital Program Template, you’ll need:
- A synced address book. Contact Support if you need to set up a new synced address book.
- Calculated Metric Data Fields. To do this, follow the steps in the Calculated Metrics section of the Data Fields in Dotdigital article.
For the Welcome Program, you’ll need to prepare:
- One triggered email campaign aimed at new sign ups who have not purchased Tickets.
- One triggered email campaign aimed at new sign ups who have purchased Tickets.
TIP: Consider using Dynamic Content and Personalisation to make your emails more effective. For example, you might want to make dynamic recommendations based on what a Customer has purchased so far, or consider a welcome offer to Customers who have not yet purchased tickets.
How to set up a welcome program
In your Dotdigital account, navigate to the Automation > Programs. Click on the folder named Spektrix Templates. Find the Welcome Program template.
REMINDER: When building your Program don’t forget to regularly click Save to save your progress.
1. Set the Spektrix Sync Exit Condition
Follow the instructions in the Dotdigital Program Templates article to set the Spektrix Sync Exit Condition.
2. Add another Exit Condition
Additionally to the Spektrix Sync Exit Condition, create another Exit Condition. From the menu bar at the top, click EXIT CONDITIONS.
- Choose Add an Exit Condition.
- Click 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".
3. Create a Start Condition
Click on the blue start node.
Apply the following settings.
Enrolment Scheduling
- Click Set Schedule.
- Choose daily.
- Set the time of day you want contacts to enrol.
- Click Apply.
Enrolment Rule
- Click Set Rule.
- Choose Contact date field, then click Select Date Field.
- With Trigger from contact date field selected, choose the on option next to Add contacts.
- From the Date dropdown, choose Email Created.
- Click Apply twice.
Enrolment Limit
- Click Set Limit.
- Choose Enrol contacts in program only the first time they meet the start criteria.
- Click Apply twice.
4. Create a Decision
Click on the purple decision node.
Apply the following settings.
Condition
- Click on Select Condition.
- Choose Present in the selected segment.
- Click Create New.
- Drag the Data Fields metric into Include contacts that match any of the rules in this group section.
- Select [Click to select data field]. Choose NEVERBOOKED from the list. Make sure the dropdown says Is yes and then click Ok.
- Click Apply twice.
Maximum wait time
- Choose Immediately.
- Click Apply.
5. Add an Email Campaign
- Under the Yes branch, select the green email campaign node.
- Select or create the triggered email campaign you want to send to welcome Customers who have signed up and have purchased tickets.
6. Add an Email Campaign
- Under the No branch, select the green email campaign node.
- Select or create the triggered email campaign you want to send to welcome Customers who have signed up and have not yet purchased tickets.
Activate the Program
To start your Program click the Activate button.
WARNING: You will not be able to start your Program if there are any validation issues.
Validation issues will be listed under the Validation menu.
You can't edit a program while it is active, but you can deactivate the Program at any time to make changes.
Building on the Welcome Program
To enhance your Welcome Program further, you could consider adding the customers who exist in this program to your social media Ad accounts. You can then target these customers elsewhere online.
To get started using Ad Automation and Dotdigital Programs, take a look at our article: Using Ads Automation in Dotdigital Programs.
Reporting
We recommend that you test and refine your Program to see which settings are most effective. You can use the Dotdigital Program report to evaluate this Program.
Consider the following:
- A/B testing different email content.
- The number of days in your delays.
- The send times of your campaigns.
Further Reading
To continue learning about Dotdigital, take a look at the Communicate with your Customers category on the Support Centre.