Best Practices: Campaign Builder

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Applies to: All ONTRAPORT accounts.

Campaign Builder a new feature as of June 6, 2017. This article covers what we believe is the recommended order for planning and building your assets for a Campaign.

A Campaign Map allows you to visualize the flow and conversion of leads into paying customers. A funnel is a reliable system that turns leads into loyal customers and brand advocates by focusing on the main phases of the customer relationship. When you understand and analyze the process, only then can you take actions based on measurable statistics to improve that flow.

Do This First: Two Prerequisites to Successful Campaigns

Below are the two most important steps to complete before creating your Campaign Map.

1. List your Goals. Goals are the primary things you want your contacts to do and that you want to measure in terms of percentages, conversions, numbers. Some common examples:
   • Fill out a form
   • Purchase a product
   • Open an important email (e.g., lead magnet delivery, product delivery)
   • Visit a Page
   • Become a Partner
   • Log into a membership site
   Goals can be configured to act on any contact on the Campaign above the Goal, on any contact ont he Campaign Map at all, or even any Contact in your account. This allows you to add a Contact to a Campaign Map "in the middle" if they meet your Goal criteria.
2. List your Triggers. Triggers define the ways that contacts enter your Campaign Map. Triggers are like Goals in that they can add the Contact to the Campaign based on virtually any action they take. Triggers only appear at the top of the Campaign as an entry point. Some common examples:
   • Fill out a form
   • Purchase a product
   • Open an important email (e.g., lead magnet delivery, product delivery)
   • Visit a Page
   • Become a Partner
   • Log into a membership site
   • Have a certain lead source or other tracking variable (medium, content, etc.)
   • Has not completed any activity in the last X days
   • Has ordered under a certain quantity or sales amount of product

These two steps provide the logic necessary to dive into the Campaign Builder and quickly create a Campaign. You can add additional Triggers and Goals later so don't worry about capturing every possibility at the very beginning.

You can create messages, landing pages, and other assets to use in your Campaign on the fly, but you may want to consider building these assets first. The Campaign Builder keeps track of the elements you add to the Campaign Map that need further configuration, but does not track secondary items such as draft emails you may need to configure further. The following section discusses the assets and if you can or should build them while creating your Campaign.

Pre-Build or Create While Making the Campaign?

Many people like to jump right in and build their Campaigns and all the associated assets from the Campaign Builder interface. If they run across something they can't complete in the Campaign Builder they just add a note to the Checklist and complete it later.

Here are the assets you can create from within the Campaign Map workflow:

• Campaigns
• Contact Tags
• Custom Fields
• Email messages
• Fulfillment Lists
• Landing pages (ONTRApages or Legacy landing pages)
• Lead Routers
• Legacy Sequences (if they exist in your account; not recommended, see note below)
• Postcards (US Only, using Firefox browser only)
• Products
• SMS Messages
• Tasks
• Webhooks

Certain assets cannot be added while working in the Campaign Map. We strongly recommend you create these assets first. These include:

• Coupon Codes
• WordPress Membership Sites
• Membership Levels for Existing WordPress Sites

Coupon Codes are available as a merge field inside the message or landing page editors. You can use a placeholder, add a note to the Checklist and then create the Coupon Code later, then return to edit the email message. This takes a bit longer to do, and if you know your Goal includes the possible use of a Coupon Code, it is easier to create it first.

Ready to launch? Check these items first.

Before you launch your Campaign, we recommend reviewing and confirming all of your elements are set correctly.

1. Confirm there are no items in your checklist.
2. Check all Triggers and Goals have the appropriate settings.
3. Check all Waits for the right timing.
4. Check all Action elements and confirm that each one has a selection and is not in a draft mode. In other words, is the email message being sent selected in the settings?
   • Press preview on each action element to ensure the right message is selected.
   • We also recommend editing messages to ensure items like email from names, email from addresses and copy from HTML are completed from the settings of email messages.
   • If you're using the action Add to Campaign element, check everything in that Campaign as well.

Save and Publish a Campaign

1. When you're ready to launch your Campaign, click the Save and Publish button.
   
   
   
2. Optional: If you'd like to give your audience the ability to unsubscribe from the Campaign, click the Subscription Settings link.
   
   
   
   
   • Check the box next to Show this Campaign on the Subscription Management page.
   • Enter a public name and description. The text entered in this box will show on the manage email preferences page if your audience clicks the link at the bottom of their emails to unsubscribe.
   • Click the Save button to confirm the Subscription Settings.
     
     
     
3. Click the Save and Publish button in the Publish Campaign window.
   
   
   

Articles in this section

• Campaign Builder Introduction
• Best Practices: Campaign Builder
• Campaign Builder Triggers and Goals
• Campaign Builder Actions
• Campaign Builder Filters
• Campaign Builder Webhooks
• Campaign Builder FAQs
• Campaign Builder Checklist and Notes
• Campaign Builder Modes
• Campaign Builder Revision History

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