Building a Marketing Path

To build a Marketing Path, follow these steps:

Step 1        Log into Digital Communication

Step 2        Select the Product Suite product and the Marketing Paths module

Step 3        Under the Add New section, click New on the Marketing Path card

Step 4        Define the following items under Details for the specific marketing path

Note: Anything in italics is an optional field as noted below. Some of the fields will auto populate from Account Settings.

• • • Marketing Path name
    • Description (optional)
    • Merge Fields – There are 10 merge fields available to be defined. These will be all merge fields applied to all emails in the path

Step 5       Click Continue to continue to the Path section

Step 6       Click Create Email. If you have already built your Marketing Path Emails, skip to Step 7.

Note: From here, follow the steps to build the Marketing Path Emails. Refer to the Creating an Email for Marketing Paths (from Scratch; Using a Template; or Using a Layout) document for step-by-step procedures.

Step 7       Click Dashboard from the main menu

Step 8       Click the Options icon  on the card of the marketing path

8.1             Hover over Edit

8.2             Click Marketing Path

Step 9       Click the gear icon within the gray bar that says Initial email

9.1             Click Select Email

Step 10     Click the Email dropdown menu and select the first email of the marketing path

Step 11     Click Save

Step 12     Click the Edit icon to the left of No rules triggered After 90 days to get to the Rule settings

Step 13     Type the number of days

Step 14     Choose the Action:

• • • End Marketing Path: the path will end after that time frame.
    • Send Email: select another email to be sent
    • Trigger New Marketing Path: select another Marketing Path from which to move the email recipient.

Step 15     Click Save once all selections are made

Note: If subsequent emails need to be built, click the Add email or Add email from template links in the bottom left.

Step 16     Repeat steps 12-15 for each email within the path until the path is complete. The last email campaign should have an action of End Marketing Path.

Step 17     Click Dashboard on the main menu

Step 18     Click the Options icon  on the card of the marketing path.

Step 19     Click Publish

19.1           Click Validate for each email

19.2           Click Next

Note: If any errors are found in the emails, a message will pop up alerting to what needs to be updated or corrected before the Marketing Path can be published. Navigate to Dashboard to edit the email and make the necessary changes. Please refer to the Creating an Email for Marketing Paths (from Scratch; Using a Template; or Using a Layout) document for step-by-step procedures.

Step 20     If no errors are found, click Next

Step 21     Enter a Notification Email Address

Step 22     Click Publish

Step 23     Upload the CSV file of email recipients

23.1           Click the Options icon  on the card in the Published tab

23.2           Click Upload

Note: The data file must be in a CSV format with the header row located within the first row. The header row cannot contain spaces, numbers, or special characters.

23.3           Drag and Drop the file into the box or click Select Files to browse and select the desired file

Step 24      Complete the Map Merge Fields page

Note: Mapping is the process of aligning the merge fields created within Digital Communication to the header fields contained in the CSV file.

24.1           Using the drop-down arrow, select the Recipient Email Address from the list

24.2           Use the drop-down arrow to select the appropriate field for each required merge field

24.3           Use the drop-down arrow to select the desired Action if blank:

• • • Use default value: The default value entered will be used in place of a custom value
    • Reject record: The email will not be sent to that recipient
    • Remove merge field from the email: The merge field will be removed from the email

24.4           If “Use Default Value” action is selected, enter the desired text into the Default value field

24.5           Select the optional fields, if desired

Note:  The Merge fields containing “Custom Field” in the name are optional data fields that can be populated for reporting capabilities but will not be placed in the email.

24.6           Click Continue

Note: If the data file contains Invalid and/or Corrupt Records, they will be automatically removed, and the file will be uploaded. Clicking the underlined number to the right of Corrupt Records will open an Excel file which provides reasons the records were classified as corrupt. Invalid Records indicate there is missing data and Corrupt Records indicate that an email address is not in the correct format.

Step 25     Click the Options icon  on the card in the Published tab

Step 26     Click Schedule Launch

Step 27     Enter Launch date and time

Step 28     Optionally enter a Notification email address and/or Comments

Step 29     Click Next

Step 30     Click Close once the confirmation message appears

Article Reference: DMX324