Data-triggered Campaigns

Overview

Like standard one-time Campaigns and Recurring Campaigns, data-triggered Campaigns are a combination of when, who, and what:

• When: Instead of sending on a specific date, or at a specific time every day (or week, or month), a Data-triggered Campaign sends when a contact's data changes such that they enter an Audience. This could be triggered in a variety of ways:
  • Maybe the contact was updated in your external system and sent to Mainstay in an integration, such as a status changing from "Pending" to "Complete".
  • Maybe someone on your team imported a CSV of updated records, such as assigning the contact to a specific group or advisor/manager.
  • Maybe you sent out a survey campaign that collected information and updated the contact recording using Save Actions.
  • Or maybe the contact record was updated in some other way - even a manual change on the Contact Panel.
• Who: Regardless of how the data changed, the contact record could automatically join an Audience based on its rules. Data-triggered Campaigns allow you to send a message when a contact enters a specific Audience.
• What: Like all other Campaigns, the contact will be sent a Script. This can be a simple nudge, like a reminder of important deadlines or next steps, or an interactive workflow that guides them through a process or asks for feedback.

Configuration

On the Campaigns tool, click + Create Campaign to go to the Campaign Schedule page.

On the Triggers screen, select Send when a contact enters this Audience.

After you select this trigger, additional options will appear:

• Send after...: This determines the gap between when a contact enters the Audience and when they will be sent the selected Script. In the event of an accidental import/integration that updates contacts incorrectly, we require a delay of at least 30 minutes so your team can disable the trigger and correct the information. But you may want to set a longer delay, such as for sending a follow-up message a day after a contact completes a task.
• Send to audience contacts one time only: If checked, then when a contact exits and later re-enters this Audience, they will not receive this script again. This is useful for intros and workflows that generally go in one direction, where re-entering the Audience usually indicates an upstream data issue.

Note that contacts may enter an Audience at any time, especially if you have overnight integrations set up. Make sure your Allowed Hours are set to prevent unexpected messages at 3am!

Viewing

On the Campaigns tool, click on Data-triggered Campaigns in the sidebar to view all of your configured triggers.

• Campaign: This column lists the name and description of your triggers.
• Type: If there are any yes/no, multi-choice, or open-prompt questions in the Script, this will show "Interactive", or else it will show "Nudge".
• Sent: This shows the total number of contacts who have triggered this Campaign to date.
• Last Sent: This shows the date and time of the most recent send.
• Enabled: Use this toggle to set whether the trigger is currently active. When you disable the trigger, if there are any pending sends - that is, contacts who have entered the Audience but haven't received the Campaign because the delay has not yet elapsed - they will be cancelled.

Updating / Deleting

If you click into a trigger configuration that has not yet sent to any contacts, you will be able to update most aspects of your configuration:

• delay
• one-time only option
• Audience
• Script

However, if you wish to change this to a standard one-time Campaign or Recurring Campaign, you must instead delete this configuration and create a new Campaign.

Reporting

If you click into a trigger configuration that has sent to one or more contacts, you cannot update your configuration (except to disable or re-enable it). Instead, you will see reporting similar to the standard and Recurring Campaign Insights, including the Overview, Campaign Engagement & Delivery Failures, and Responses. You can also filter the results by any Audience.

Like other Aggregate Campaign Reporting, you can download a report of "all time" interactions, or just those within a specific date range.

Use the Script tab to view the Script that was sent to these recipients.

Use the Recipients tab to view the Audience rules at the time the Campaign was sent. The recipients are contacts who started to meet these rules while the trigger was enabled.

Use the Queue tab to view contacts who have recently entered this Audience and therefore will receive this Campaign after the Delay elapses. You can also search this list for specific contact records by name, phone, email, or CRM ID.

Audience Activity

In the Audience Manager, you can view activity related to your Audiences. The Activity tab will show the same high-level information for Data-triggered Campaigns as what's shown on the Campaign listing page.

Complex Situations

Data-triggered Campaigns provide a powerful automation, but there are certain scenarios that may lead to unexpected results. In deciding how to handle each situation, Mainstay's guiding principle is to avoid sending a message if we're not 100% sure the recipient should receive it.

What if I accidentally upload the wrong data and put contacts who shouldn't be in this Audience... into this Audience?

Don't panic! This is why these configurations have a delay. You should immediately disable the Data-triggered Campaign configuration (see below) and then correct the data with a new upload and/or manual contact edits.

What if the Data-triggered Campaign configuration is DISABLED before the contact receives the Campaign?

Disabling a configuration will "clear the queue" of any contacts who entered the Audience but did not yet receive the Campaign. Re-enabling the configuration will NOT put these contacts back into the queue.

What if the Data-triggered Campaign configuration is DELETED before the contact receives the Campaign?

Similar to disabling a configuration, deleting a configuration will "clear the queue" of contacts who entered the Audience but did not yet receive the Campaign. Note that this option is not available once the Campaign has sent to one or more contacts - like a normal scheduled Campaign, it can only be deleted before sending.

What if the contact enters an Audience and then LEAVES before the Campaign sends?

When the time comes to send the Campaign (ie, the delay time runs out for that contact), if the contact is no longer part of the Audience, they will NOT receive the Campaign.

What if the contact enters an Audience, then leaves, and then REENTERS before the Campaign sends?

The contact will still receive the Campaign, once. 

What if the contact enters an Audience and receives the Campaign, but then later leaves and then REENTERS the Audience?

If this is configured as "Send Campaign Once", then the contact will only receive the Campaign that first time. Otherwise, they will receive the Campaign each time they reenter the Audience.

What if the contact enters the Audience LATE AT NIGHT (outside of Allowed Hours)?

When a contact enters the Audience, we calculate the time they should receive the Campaign based on your configured delay. However, we don't process these pending events outside of the Allowed Hours window. That means these events will sit in the queue until the next morning, and then contacts will receive the Campaign when the Allowed Hours window opens up.

What if I EDIT the Audience rules?

You will be unable to save changes to an Audience that is attached to an enabled Data-triggered Campaign.

If you disable a Data-triggered Campaign, you can edit the Audience rules, which will likely find different contacts than before. When you re-enable the Data-triggered Campaign, these contacts will NOT receive it, because they weren't actually updated and the Campaign wasn't enabled when they entered the Audience.

What if I CHANGE which Audience is used before the Campaign sends?

You can select a different Audience, but only before the Campaign sends to a contact for the first time. Any contacts who had entered the original Audience will be effectively cleared from the queue, and tracking will begin for the newly selected Audience.

What if I CHANGE which Audience is used after the Campaign sends for the first time?

After the Campaign sends for the first time, you will not be able to switch to a different Audience. If you need to, you should disable this Data-triggered Campaign and create a new one.

What if I manually REFRESH an Audience from the Audience Manager?

Whether you manually refresh the Audience or wait for it to update on its own (which happens every ~5 minutes), only contacts that are genuinely entering this Audience will be queued up to receive the Data-triggered Campaign. Contacts that were already in the Audience and stay in the Audience will not receive the Campaign.

What if a contact is updated such that they enter two DIFFERENT Audiences at the same time?

If a contact is updated, such as in an import or via integration, such that they join two different Audiences that are both configured for Data-triggered Campaigns, then they will simultaneously be eligible for both Campaigns. If they have different delay times, then this is generally not a problem, but it's certainly possible to end up in a situation where the contact is "double-scheduled". (This is also possible with normal one-off Campaigns and Recurring Campaigns.)

The contact will receive one Campaign and then the other in close succession. If they're nudge Campaigns, then this isn't much of a problem. But if the first one they receive is interactive, they will not be able to interact with it, because they will be immediately moved into the second one.