Campaigns are a collection of sequenced activities that are either emails or follow-up tasks.
Campaigns are often referred to as "drip email campaigns", but it is important to note that sending emails is just part of what Campaigns can do for you!
Each activity is setup to execute according to the delay (in days) set for that activity.
For example, when a Lead registers, they receive an initial welcome email. Then 2 days later, they are to receive a follow-up email. After 4 days, a follow-up call needs to be scheduled, and so on.
Drip campaigns automate these messages and tasks.
Access and Review Your Campaigns Library
In your Leads and Contacts account
On the Campaigns page there is a list of campaigns pre-loaded in your account and ready to use.
To Create a New Campaign
Click Add Campaign at the top of the page.
On the Create New Campaign page, you will see a list of options to set including the campaign type, name, and description (see screenshot below). To create a drip campaign, be sure that you select "Drip Campaign" for the campaign type. When you have filled in all the fields, click the Create Campaign button.
You will then arrive on the Campaign Activities page, where you can set up each of the individual activities that you would like to be a part of this campaign.
Add Activities to the Campaign
To create the first activity, click Add New Activity at the top of the page.
You will now be able to choose what type of Activity this is to be, (typically your drip campaigns should only consist of email messages), who you want the activity to be assigned to (who the email will appear to come from), the description (also used as email subject line), and the delay (how many days after a lead is assigned do you want them to receive this?).
Fill in the content of your email using the text editor box. There is a wide variety of formatting options you can utilize as well.
When everything is set up the way you want it, click Save.
Continue this process to set up any additional activities for this same campaign.
Re-sequencing Activities
Activities can be re-sequenced by dragging and dropping an activity to its new sequenced position.
Leads that are attached to this campaigns will continue execute, however future activities may be affected by this change that you make.
Delay and Pause
When adding an Activity, values for Delay and Pause can be set.
Delay
Set the Delay in days from the previous activity.
If ZERO, will execute immediately.
The Delay value will be ignored (i.e. assumed zero) if there is any value set for Pause.
Pause
When Delay is ZERO, pause this number of minutes after the previous step (e.g. email), then send execute this activity.
Any 'Delay' will be ignored.
Using SMS in Drip Campaigns
When SMS Number services are added to your account, you will be able to add a SMS message as an action step in your drip campaigns.
When adding SMS as an action step, Delay and Pause values can be used.
SMS Time of Day Sending
There is a system defined 'blackout' time which is from 8pm to 8am local time.
SMS messages that would be sent during blackout times, will be held and sent out the next morning.
Be aware of the following scenarios:
- If the first activity in a drip campaign is an SMS message with Delay=0, then it will be sent out immediately (even if within the 'blackout' time e.g. at 2am!)
- For all other scenarios, SMS messages will only be sent out if outside the 'blackout' times.
For example, if the first activity in a drip campaign is an email with Delay=0, and the second activity is an SMS with a PAUSE value >0 , then the email will be sent immediately, but the SMS will only be sent if the time of day permits. I.e. If the time is 2am then it will not be sent, instead it will be held until 8am.
Examples
Send SMS as the first first step, Delay = 0
In this case, the SMS message is sent out just as soon as the campaign is attached.
Delay = 0, Pause= 15 following an email activity
In this case, the SMS message will be sent 15 minutes after the email.
Additional Articles
Reference Guide for Campaigns
A reference guide is available that provides more technical detail about how campaigns work.
Go to your Buying Buddy account and then Help and Support. See the Downloads and References section.