Creating Nurture Campaigns

Overview

This page describes how to use Sugar Market's Nurture Builder to create and manage nurture campaigns. 

Understanding Nurture Flow

Before you design your nurture, it is important to understand how recipients flow through the nurture, especially since this has changed from the flow rules in the legacy builder.

Adding Nurture Recipients Using Scoring Profiles

Please consider the following rules when using scoring profiles to add recipients to nurtures.

1. Since Sugar Market provides the capability to auto-refresh all inclusion lists, a nurture recipient cannot flow through more than once solely as a member of a list or multiple lists included in the nurture. Nurture recipients can flow through a campaign more than once through scoring actions, forms, or listeners. 
2. If a nurture is configured to allow duplicates, it will not allow the same person to flow through the nurture more than once at the same time. When a recipient is flowing through the nurture and an action occurs that would add that recipient to the nurture again, the request to add the recipient is refused.

For example, if a recipient is flowing through step 3 in the nurture and at the same time hits an action that would add him to the nurture again at Step 1 (e.g. a form submission). The recipient will not be added to the nurture again but will continue to flow through from the original location (Step 3) to the end.  If the recipient had already reached a terminal step when the action occurs to add him to the nurture again, then he will be added and flow through the nurture again.

Updating Recipients in an Active Nurture

Please consider the following rules when recipients are updated while actively flowing through a nurture.

1. When a record is deleted from the Sugar Market's internal CRM or an external integrated CRM, the record is removed from all active nurtures.
2. Lead records that are converted while actively flowing through a nurture that is set to only allow lead records will not be removed from the nurture.
3. Changes to a record's email will be checked at every send step in a nurture.

Flow Timing

At the start of a nurture campaign, it can take up to 30 minutes for a participant to begin flowing through the nurture. After participants begin to flow through the nurture, they flow through action elements immediately, with the exception of Pause steps (participants remain in a Pause for the configured duration). The length of time to flow through conditional elements is variable since a match to each condition must be continually evaluated, which Sugar Market checks every 4 hours, with the exception of the Email Delivered element, which is checked every 10 minutes.

Working in the Nurture Builder

The Nurture Builder steps you through the process of creating your campaign with the following steps:

1. Define Setup Options
2. Design and Validate
3. Select Campaign Recipients
4. Defining Nurture Activation
5. Publish the Nurture

Accessing the Builder

Access Nurture Builder by: 

1. In the navigation bar, click the Nurtures module.
   
2. From the Nurtures list view, click the Create button.
3. Click the Nurture option.
   

Navigating the Builder

• Click the Save button at any point to save your work in progress.
• Click the Next button after you complete a step to advance to the next step in the builder.

Defining Setup Options

The nurture setup includes setting identifying information in Step 1 and your initial nurture design choice in Step 2.

Step 1: Basics

1. Identify a name and folder location where the campaign will be saved. If the folder does not yet exist, click the New Folder button, assign a name, and then click Save. Note that this folder is different from the folder used in Email Builder.
2. Add a description, if desired.
3. Select the "Allow people to pass through the nurture more than once" option to allow nurture recipients to flow through the nurture multiple times based on forms, scoring actions, or listeners or leave this option blank if you want recipients to only flow through the nurture once. Refer to the Understanding Nurture Flow section for more information on this option.
   Note: Recipients added to a nurture via a report recipient list will not pass through a nurture more than once, even if you have configured the report to refresh periodically.
4. Select the "Allow Leads/Contacts to be added to this nurture from within the CRM" option if you want to enable the ability to add leads and contacts through the Buyer's Journey Integration in your external CRM.
5. Click the Next button at the bottom right.
   

Step 2: Layouts

1. Select a Theme thumbnail in the left-hand panel to view the design in the right-hand panel. For detailed examples of nurtures that use each theme type, see the Nurture Playbook.
2. Click the Next button when the desired theme is selected.
   
   

Designing and Validating the Nurture

You design and validate your nurture in Step 3. See Flow Design Requirements to learn what is checked during validation.

Note: If you plan to use any alert elements in your design, you will need to create alert templates if they do not already exist.

1. Design your nurture by dragging elements to the canvas and configuring, as described on the Working with Elements page.
2. Nurture Builder utilizes Email Builder to create emails inline while designing your nurture. To design your nurture email, click the Create New button when you configure the Send Email element to launch Email Builder where you create the email.
     
   
3. Click the Complete button in Email Builder to return to the nurture designer, and then click the OK button in the Send Email dialog.
4. Click the Validate Nurture button in the designer toolbar:
   
   If any errors are present, an error message displays with the validation report and the elements containing errors are highlighted:
   
   

5. Resolve all errors and validate again. When no errors remain, click the Next button.

Using Form, Scoring, and Listener Triggers

When using a form submission, scoring action, or event listener as a trigger for your nurture, ensure you select the "Add to Nurture Builder 2.0" option. The "Add to Nurture" option is for the legacy builder. These triggers add recipients to the beginning of the nurture.

Selecting Recipients

In Step 4, select the recipients for your nurture campaign from Sugar Market lists. Quickly filter and search by list type, and then drag and drop the list into the include or exclude sections:

1. From the Lists section you can filter your lists by type and use the search field to find a specific list. You can also create a new distribution list by clicking the + button and the Distribution List option. Once the list is created it will automatically be added as an included list.
   
2. Drag the list name to the Include column for campaign recipients or the Exclude column for lists to specifically exclude.
   Note: Contacts without an email address will be prevented from entering nurture campaigns that include an email send step.  
3. If a list has qualifiers, drag and drop the list name, and then click the overflow option to select the qualifier.
   
4. To set an interval at which Sugar Market should check your include and exclude lists for updates, click the Auto Refresh icon and then select a time interval.
   Note: Recipients added to a nurture via a report recipient list will not pass through a nurture more than once, even if you have configured the report to refresh periodically. For dynamic distribution lists, the auto-refresh setting here is independent of the auto-refresh setting defined in the list settings.
   
5. To manually include or exclude individual email addresses, type the address at the top of the Include or Exclude column, and then click the Add button. The individual names are displayed in the lists at the bottom of the page. Sugar Market creates a new contact with the email address if it does not already exist.

6. Click the Next button when you are done.

Narrowing Lists with Qualifiers

You can use the following qualifiers to refine your list members to include or exclude when using Campaign, Event, and Nurture list types: 

Campaign Lists

• Past Campaign: Contact was a member of the selected campaign, regardless of their open and click status.
• Opened But Not Clicked: Contact opened the email but did not click through any embedded links.
• Opened and Clicked: Contact opened the email and clicked through at least one embedded link.
• Did Not Open: Contact did not open email.

Event Lists

• Registered: Contacts who registered for the event.
• Attended: Contacts who registered for and attended the event.
• Requested Follow-Up: Contacts flagged for follow-up information after the event.

Nurture Lists

• Currently and Previously Enrolled: Contacts that are members of the nurture, or were members of the nurture in the past. To select currently enrolled members that are in the process of flowing through the nurture, use the Active qualifier instead.
• Completed: Contacts that have flowed through and reached the terminating step in the nurture.
• Active: Contacts that are currently flowing through the nurture.
• Removed: Contacts that were removed from the nurture by any method, including manually and by a trigger.

Preference Lists

• Opt In: Contacts in the preference list that are opted in.
• Opt Out: Contacts in the preference list that are opted out.

Defining Nurture Activation

In Step 5, identify when the nurture will be sent.

• To begin your nurture immediately after publishing, select the "Begin Nurture immediately" option.
• To schedule the nurture to begin in the future, select the "Schedule Nurture Activation and Start Date" option, click the clock icon to select the date and time, and then click the Set button. The timezone defaults to your current timezone; use the dropdown to select another timezone if necessary.

Note: Any date and time rules defined in the nurture campaign will be respected when scheduling nurtures. For example, if a campaign is scheduled to begin on a Monday, and Mondays are not defined as a send day in the Date and Time rules, then the nurture will begin on the Tuesday after the scheduled date.

Date and Time Rules

Drag the sliders to the Yes position to enable the following date and time rules. 

Sending Emails During Specified Times

To limit email sends to a specific time range:

1. Slide the day and time option to the Yes position.
2. Click the clock icons to set the start and end times to define the time range when the emails should be sent. Either type numbers in each field or use the arrows to increase and decrease the numbers.
3. Click the AM/PM button to toggle to the desired period, and then click the Set button.
   
4. Click the down arrow in the Set Timezone field to select another time zone.

 To limit email sends to specific days of the week:

1. Select the checkboxes next to the days when emails should be sent; or
2. Choose the Weekdays or Weekends option to automatically choose days.

In the following example, nurture emails will only be sent Monday through Friday between 8:00 AM and 6:00 PM Azores Daylight Time. Click the Weekends label to also send emails on Saturdays and Sundays.

Throttling Nurture Emails

Throttling checks whether the recipient received any other email communication from you within the selected time period (e.g. a 2-day throttle holds the nurture email for 2 days and then sends). It can be useful to enable throttling when you are also sending targeted emails at the same time, ensuring your contacts do not receive too many emails from you within a short time period. Be careful using this feature when your nurture includes time-sensitive information.

To enable throttling:

1. Slide the throttle option to the Yes position.
2. Type a number or use the arrows to increase or decrease the number of increments.
3. Click the down arrow to display time increments and then make a selection.

Using Blackout Dates

Blackout dates will pause send email action elements for all nurture recipients. Nurture recipients will proceed through the send email action element on the next non-blackout date that meets all other set conditions. You can identify blackout dates for your nurture individually or by a group of dates contained in a blackout calendar. 

To use blackout dates: 

1. Slide the blackout calendar option to the Yes position.
2. Click the Add New Calendar link to upload a new calendar, identify specific days, or choose an existing blackout calendar. 

Adding a New Blackout Calendar

Blackout calendars contain groups of blackout dates. You may want to use blackout calendars to group and identify sets of related dates (e.g. Sales Holidays, Trade Shows). You can attach an unlimited number of blackout calendars to your nurture. The required format for calendars is an .XLS, .XLSX, or .XLSM file with one column for Name and one column for Date (MM/DD/YY), as in the following example:

To add a blackout calendar:

1. In the Add New Calendar dialog, select the Upload New option.
2. Either drag a file to the space indicated or click the Choose File button to navigate to the file location.
3. The file name automatically populates the Blackout Calendar Name field. To use a descriptive name for ease of identifying the calendar in the future, overwrite the name (e.g. Support Holidays).
   
4. Click the Add button. The calendar name appears in the Blackout Calendars section and the dates are shaded on the calendar.
   

Identifying Specific Blackout Dates

To add individual blackout dates:

1. In the Add New Calendar dialog, select the Select Individual Date option.
2. In the Date Name field, add an identifying name for the date (e.g. New Year's Day).
3. Either type the start and end dates or use the calendar widgets to select dates. This can be an individual date or range of dates.
4. Click the Add button. The date name appears in the Blackout Calendars section and the dates are highlighted in blue on the calendar.
   

Using an Existing Blackout Calendar

All previously uploaded blackout calendars are saved in Sugar Market, and there is no limit to the number of calendars you can use in a nurture campaign.

To use an existing calendar:

1. In the Add New Calendar dialog, select the Select Existing Calendar option.
2. Shift the focus to the Blackout Calendar Name field, and either start typing a calendar name or use the scrollbar to browse the existing calendars.
3. Select the desired calendar, and then click the Add button. The calendar name appears in the Blackout Calendars section and the dates are highlighted in blue on the calendar.
   

Removing a Blackout Calendar

Remove a blackout calendar that is attached to your nurture on a temporary basis by selecting the checkbox next to the attached calendar name, or click the trash icon to remove it from the nurture entirely. This does not remove the calendar from Sugar Market; it will still be available in the list of existing calendars.

Publishing the Nurture

Also in Step 5, the final step is to activate the nurture. The label of the button that activates the nurture dynamically updates to reflect the activation method you selected above. Click the Publish/Schedule button at the bottom right, and then click the Yes button to confirm that you are ready to activate the nurture campaign. The nurture will start immediately and the nurture status will change from Draft to Published.

Note: If there is an active edit session open for any emails referenced in the nurture, then an error message will prompt you to close all active email sessions in Email Builder before the nurture can be published or scheduled.