Setting up e-mail marketing automations is a lot easier and faster with flows. With a flow, you create a path full of contact moments. Your customer's actions determine which path he or she follows. So your emails become a lot more personal and well-tuned to your customer's behavior. And the great thing is: thanks to the schematic representation, all your paths remain super clear.
You can set up a flow in four steps:
Creating a new flow
Creating the content of the flow
Activating the flow
Analyzing the flow
Below I explain all the steps one by one.
1. Creating a new flow
In the flows overview ("E-mails" > "Flows") you will find a list of all your existing flows. To create a new flow, click on the blue button "New flow" in the upper right corner. You will enter a screen where you set the basic settings for the flow.
In this screen, you fill in the following items:
Name: here you enter the name of the flow. You only see this name; your customers do not.
Flow description: in this field you can enter a description of your flow. You only see this description; your customers do not see it.
Condition: in this option you select the condition for the flow. You have three options:
More than once, and enter in multiple times. With this setting, a profile may be in the flow more than once at the same time (i.e. at the same time), and step in multiple times.
Only once, and enter multiple times. Here a profile is allowed to be in the flow once, but enter multiple times. So the same profile may enter the flow more than once but not at the same time.
Only once, and enter one time only. Here a profile is allowed to be in the flow only once, and get in only once. So a profile may only go through the flow once.
Description of start node: in this field you give the starting point a description. You only see this name yourself; your clients do not see it.
Below all entry fields you select the entry rules. Which rules do profiles have to match in order to enter this flow? By clicking the "+ Add New Filter" button, the rules system opens and you can compile the desired rules.
Note that a flow, like a trigger, needs a time-based rule. This prevents a profile from matching the flow again at any time of the day and continuously receiving the same emails.
Have you filled out and set everything? Then click "Next" at the bottom right to design the content of the flow.
2. Creating the content of the flow
By default, the design of the flow contains two points: the starting point and the ending point. To add a point, click on the plus sign. You get to choose from 4 different options:
An email
A delay
A condition
A filter
With the Email option, you send (you guessed it) an email. Do you place the email directly behind the start point? Then the start condition determines when the email is sent. For example: the flow has as a starting point "Left cart 15 minutes ago." The email is sent immediately when the profile matches this starting point.
In a flow, you only set the sender, subject and pre-header for the email. You don't need to set the target group. This is already determined when setting up the flow. In the second step, you create the design of the email.
Delay
Instead of setting a sending moment in the email settings, you put a delay in the flow. In the delay menu, you set how many seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months or even years the profile should wait to move forward in the flow.
Tip: add enough "pause moments" to the flow. For example, don't send multiple emails a day or emails in quick succession. This way you avoid irritation with the target audience.
Condition
You can add conditions to the flow at any time. With a condition you can determine the path of the profile in the flow. An example is the value of the abandoned cart. You probably want to approach a customer who has a €500 abandoned cart differently than a customer with a €25 shopping cart.
Filter
A profile at a checkpoint may not yet meet the desired condition. To avoid having to design a separate path for such a profile, use a filter. With a filter you pause a profile that does not (yet) meet your condition. As soon as the profile meets your set requirements, it flows through.
3. Activate the flow
Is your flow all set and have you tested the emails? Great! Your flow is ready to be activated. By clicking "Next" at the bottom right, you get to see the summary of the flow. The flow is automatically checked on a number of points. Is everything OK? Then you can click "Activate" at the bottom right. Your flow is live!
4. Analyze the flow
It is advisable to regularly check your flow. Analyze your results and sharpen your emails, conditions and filters. You can do this while the flow is live.
There are several statistics of your flow available. In the design overview of the flow, you can see how many people are in each step with the click of a button. To make these statistics visible, click on the graph in the flow at the top right.
A brief explanation of all the different statistics per node:
Start condition: here you see all profiles that currently meet the start condition.
At an email node you will find the following statistics:
Entered: these are the profiles that meet the criteria to join the email.
Sending: this is the status of the email, showing how many profiles are currently receiving your email.
Filtered: these are all profiles that have not received your mail, because they are filtered out.
Sent: here you see the total number of profiles that have received your mail.
Sales: here you can see how much turnover this specific mail has generated.
Open ratio: here you can see the total number of opens compared to the total number of mails sent.
Click ratio: this shows the total number of clicks compared to the total number of emails sent.
With a condition you see how many profiles meet your condition, and of course how many profiles do not meet your condition.
With a filter you see how many profiles are currently waiting to meet your condition, and how many profiles already match your filter.
With a delay, you see how many profiles are currently waiting to flow through in your flow.
Finally, you see how many clients are leaving the flow at that time.