Overview

Podium orchestrations make it easy to set up a welcome series for contacts when they join your program. Using Podium, you can build the trigger, delays, filters and message content all in a single orchestration view.

Once the orchestration is published and enabled, you can check performance stats on each automation of the series.

Pass the trigger data

In order for the welcome messages to send, there needs to be data sent to the system that will trigger the automation.

In the case of a welcome message, we w'll use the trigger of when a contact is added to a list. Learn more about how to create list attributes.

There are two implementations you can use to send the data to Cordial:

• Javascript listener implementation: Javascript code placed on your website that sends data to Cordial from the client side browser. Learn more about setting up the core Javascript code.
• REST API implementation: a server side alternative to Javascript that sends data to Cordial via the API. Learn more about updating contact records via the API.

This strategy utilizes one primary piece of data: a list attribute.

• Purpose: Used to flag a contact as "in" or "out" of a specific list. It's recommended that "Date Tracking" is enabled on the list, which tracks the date each contact is added to this list.
• Data type: A list is a type of contact attribute. This value is passed as a boolean true/false value.

Create the orchestration

1. Navigate to Message Automation > Podium Orchestrations and click New.

2. Give the orchestration a name (we'll name this orchestration Welcome Series), and click Continue.

3. You will be taken to the main orchestration page where you can set the trigger, delay, filter and message content.

Define the trigger

This welcome series orchestration will be triggered by a contact being added to the Newsletter list.

To set up this trigger in Podium, click the Trigger component and complete the follwing fields:

• Select the option for A contact's profile data is updated
• Select the option for When a contact is added to a list
• Choose the list (newsletter in this example)

Initial message

Once the trigger is set, you can build out each automation in the welcome series by configuring the delay, the audience filter and the message content.

Define the delay

1. Clicking on the Delay component allows you to set a delay for the message send after the trigger is met.

2. For the first message in our welcome series we'll set the Delay for Immediate. This way a contact will receive the initial welcome message as soon as they are added to the list.

Define the filter

1. Clicking on the Filter component allows you to set an audience filter for the automation to include or exclude contacts. You are able to create an audience from scratch or recall a saved audience.

2. For this message, we won't add a filter because we want to send to all contacts who meet the trigger criteria.

Define the action

1. Clicking on the Action component allows you to define the action for this automation. We'll be using the email channel for this welcome series, so we'll choose Send an Email.

2. Complete the fields for Message Name, Message Tags, and choose the Message Editor Type.

3. Clicking Continue will take you to the familiar Compose Message page.

4. Here you can configure the Message Header, Message Content as well as Goals & Tracking and Delivery Settings. If the message has been sent, you are also able to view Message Performance for both individual and aggregate sends.

5. Once the message has been created successfully, Publish the message.

Additional messages

1. After composing the first message in the series, you can easily add additional messages. Clicking on the Plus icon to the right of the first message will create a new automation under the initial trigger. You can then add the Delay, Filter and Action.

2. For example, if you would like the second message to be sent a day after the initial trigger, choose to delay the second message by one day. You can then add additional messages with the desired delays from the initial trigger.

3. After adding two additional messages to our series, we now have a welcome series consisting of three messages, each delayed by a day.

Additional triggers

1. It's also possible to add additional triggers by clicking the Plus icon below the initial automation.

2. When a secondary trigger is added, it will be labeled as Wait Until, denoting that the message will not be sent unless the specified behavior is performed by the contact.

There are options for:

• Do not wait
• Wait for previous message events (opened, clicked or bounced)
• Wait for other event (message event or custom named event)

For example, if a contact engages with the initial message or visits your website, you could trigger a follow up message.

Horizontal or vertical orientation

Podium's flexible infrastructure allows you to build complex campaigns using multiple channels and data sources working in concert with one another. Our example welcome series can be rearranged vertically where the three automations are stacked, starting with the Welcome Series One automation at the top, followed by the second and third automations.

The advantage of stacking automations lies in the Wait Until component, which allows you to set additional triggers your contacts must meet before moving down the automation path. If your use case does not require additional triggers, but you wish to stack auotmations vertically, you can instruct the Wait Until component to not wait, allowing your contacts to continue on the path down to the delay and filter components.

One Podium orchestration can execute multiple welcome series as long as the main orchestration trigger applies to all of them. For example, contacts can enter an orchestration when added to the Welcome list, but in order to continue, they would need to qualify for one or more automation paths as defined by your Filter components.

Publish and enable

1. Once all components are configured and messages are published, you can publish the entire orchestration by clicking the Publish Draft button.

If any components are not complete or there are unpublished messages, you will see an error with the incomplete components highlighted.

2. After successfully publishing the orchestration, you can then enable it using the Enable/Disable dropdown.

3. Once messages start sending, you'll be able to view message performance stats right in the orchestration.