Distribion Marketing Automation, "Programs"

We call it Programs, for short.  Programs automate the distribution process of Direct Mail and/or Email campaigns in any combination over a period of time.  It could be one day/one send or continue over several years.

The key to setting up Programs is the contact data.  Conditions are placed on the Program that cause the automation to 'fire' for a particular contact when they become true.  These conditions could be pretty much anything, but are commonly dates (bought a house; policy or service expires on date; birthdate), string value (is customer_type=VIP; loan_type=Refinance; policy_type=Life) or an integer.  Another condition can be the contact group the contact exists in, for example contact is in group "My Contacts", or "My VIP Contacts", or "Website Leads". 

For Programs to be successful they require very timely contact data be pushed into the platform, so an automated contact integration is the preferred method for contacts to be added/updated.

A program consists of components.  These can be either print/pdf or email templates.  A pdf can represent static printed items, dynamically printed direct mail or even promotional items.  All can be, and are expected to be personalized, but should require no user interaction.

Program Examples

1. Customer buys a house.   As soon as the contact record is updated with the closing date of the home purchase, a Program 'listens' for that contact record to be updated.  If the closing date "was 5 days ago" AND the loan was for a "purchase" rather than a "refi", then the Program executes and the first component is ordered/sent.  In this case, a nice personalized gift is sent to fulfillment vendor to pick-and-ship. 6 months later an email is sent asking for a Zillow testimonial. 6 months later, a client referral or testimonial.

2. New Hires.  Programs can be used for your own internal automation as well.  When a new employee is hired, their data can be pushed to the platform as a contact, along with their start date.  A Program 'listens' for that date, and one week before the start date, an order is placed for business cards, desk gifts, T-shirt, etc…

3. Consumer Notifications – A visitor to your property, retail location, club etc could be sent a series emails, all timed backward from the date of their visit.  7 days before their visit, an email reminder could be sent. 3 days before an agenda could be sent. 1 day before a link to a Google map, parking directions, etc.  

Program Types

1. Fixed Date – These are commonly used for recurring communications or event marketing.  Each component of the program has a fixed delivery or order date that is determined by Administrator during Program setup.  If a user opts-in to participate midway through, or a contact meets the conditions, they will start with the next component in the flow.  The contacts may or may not receive every communication in the flow.
2. Cascading – These are used where continuity in the message or communication is desirable.  Rather than using fixed dates, each component is assigned an interval of time. As contacts meet the conditions, they will always start with the first component and continue through the flow to completion, or Program expiration.

User Participation

There are also two types of User Enrollment – these are determined when the Program is setup.

1. Forced enrollment – The administrator determines the users that will participate.  This could be individual users or usergroups.
2. Opt-In enrollment – Users choose to participate.  You publish the Program into the Marketing Library for their voluntary participation.  This is desirable when Programs have fulfillment or promotion costs.

Like all templates / assets in the platform, you can determine a category for the Program to be displayed and add template level permissions, although we discourage use of that.  Instead we recommend, like all assets in the platform, that you let the category determine access permissions instead of the individual assets. It is a much more sustainable methodology with much less administrative overhead.

What about the Costs?

While emails have no costs for deployment, print and promo assets usually do.  These costs will be gathered from the original template, along with shipping and/or postage (in the case of direct mail) and will be calculated for the quantity of contacts that meet the conditions.

Administrators can determine how the costs for execution of the Program can be accounted for, or even paid directly by users via credit card.  Since a programs' execution is dependent on timing usually, a 'fallback' payment method may be chosen if credit card payment is the desired payment.

When credit card payments are enabled, the user enters their payment information at the time of enrollment.   Each time the Program executes (finds eligible contact(s)), an order will be processed, but only once a day. A program order can be executed for more than one contact at a time, but they do run daily.

Fallback methods can include "Invoice Me" which will reference any profile information so that there is some attribution for the order.  Typically, it is a department designation, cost center number or region. Secondly it can include "Other" which has no attribution for the order.

Should the credit card be declined during the course of the Program, the order will still be placed using the secondary payment method. If both payment methods fail, the order will be placed and its status will be set to "On Hold for Payment".  Print vendors will not be notified to execute the order. An email will go to the user asking them to reconcile their payment information. By default users have 7 days to reconcile the non-payment or the order will automatically be "Cancelled".

Administrative Options

Thumbnails

Since Program generally consist of multiple components, a simple thumbnail is often not representative of the entirety of the marketing effort or impact.  We provide an option to attach a custom thumbnail to better visually depict the whole of the Program.

Descriptions

Descriptions can be added the admin to accurately describe the components, intended usage, guidelines as well as approximate cost for execution.  Since many components may have a cost, there is no dollar amount provided. It is best to describe what it will generally cost on a per-recipient basis.  Descriptions support html markup so you can stylize the description to fit your requirements. Bold and font colors are commonly used.

Stop, Start or Expire

Administrators can deactivate a Program at any time.  All activity will cease as of the next execution. (the next day for cascading, immediately for fixed-date)

For event marketing purposes, we provide both a fixed start and an end date that applies to both types of Programs.  This will ensure no marketing activity occurs before, or after it is no longer relevant.

If a Program simply needs to be 'stopped' it can be disabled by deselecting the "Enable Program" checkbox.

Revalidate Contact Group Conditions

Typically marketers would desire that a participant (contact) in a Program would receive all the messaging contained within the components.  However, there is an option to remove a participant by simply removing them from the contact group that has been enrolled to participate. THESE DO NOT APPLY TO THE CONDITIONS OR LOGIC USED, ONLY TO THE CONTACTS PARTICIPATION IN A CONTACT GROUP.

Programs can be an integral mix in your marketing repertoire, but can seem daunting to implement.  We get it! Feel free to reach out to your Distribion Account Executive for guidance in the execution of these powerful marketing tools.