Overview

The Podium Fork component gives the marketer the ability to create multi-path forks within the orchestration and to choose which path contacts should follow based on qualifying criteria. Included is the option to skip the action component in any of the forked paths, so contacts who do not meet message criteria can remain in the orchestration and continue through an alternative orchestration path. 

Example

This example will recreate the cart abandonment Podium orchestration, but this time, using a fork to configure three distinct paths. The qualifying criteria for each path will be based on the total value of an abandoned cart.

To get started, we created a new Podium orchestration using the cart custom event as the contact’s real time behavior trigger. You can add the fork component by hovering the plus icon directly underneath the trigger.

Forks can also be added underneath action components.

Fork settings

The fork settings modal will appear for you to provide the fork name as well as add, configure, and prioritize paths.

A valid fork consists of at least two paths, each with a unique name and at least one audience rule. Simply click a path to expand options for its name and audience rules.

The audience rules at the path level set the qualifying criteria contacts must meet to enter the path.

You can prioritize paths by dragging them up or down in the stack. This is also the order in which paths will appear in the orchestration view from left to right. The topmost path will receive highest priority. Contacts who qualify for more than one path at the same time will be assigned the one that ranks highest.

Path audience rules

We configured two of our paths with an email action to send discount coupons when a contact's abandoned cart reaches the specified total value. The third path does not offer a coupon and will skip the message action altogether. You can add a new automation underneath the skipped action and give those contacts an alternative path forward.

Our path rules

20_coupon: for contacts with an abandoned cart valued at more than $99, offering a 20% off coupon
10_coupon: for contacts with an abandoned cart valued between $50 and $99, offering a 10% off coupon
No_coupon: for contacts with an abandoned cart valued at less than $50, offering no coupon

Here is a look at our 20_coupon path audience rule. The Cart Items audience rule lets us specify total cart value thresholds. Note that all three paths use the same Purchases audience rule to exclude contacts who made a purchase within a set number of days.

Skip an action

After configuring fork settings, your paths will be mapped in the orchestration view. From here, you can edit the wait until, delay, filter, and action components for each path as needed. Note that you can also set a delay directly above the fork component.

To skip an action, click the action component and choose Skip Action.

Skipped action component stats will report the number of contacts Processed. These contacts can continue through a new automation inside the existing fork or after the End of Fork merge node.

When a draft orchestration is published, existing Podium insights will not be affected, unless the orchestration contains an experiment or fork component, in which case, the republished version insights will be reset. Aggregate insights are unaffected.