What is the Segment Entry Event?
The Segment Entry Event is a journey entry event that can be used in Listrak's NextGen Platform to enter a contact into a journey when they meet a criteria. The Segment Entry Event expands Journey Hub's functionality by allowing contacts to enter a journey based on a criteria that is relevant to your marketing program, such as changing loyalty tiers.
How does it work?
The Segment Entry Event allows contacts to enter a journey based on their presence in a NextGen segment. A NextGen segment identifies all points of contact (e.g. email address or phone number) that meet a single or series of criteria. Contacts can be entered into a journey organically as they move into a segment or can be entered on a recurring basis (e.g. every month on the 1st).
💡 Learn more about the type of available criteria that can be used to create a segment.
When do contacts enter the journey?
If using the segment entry to enter contacts organically using the new contacts option, The platform will identify a contact who have entered the segment in the previous 60 minutes and enter these new contacts into the journey.
If desired, all contacts who are currently part of the defined segment can be entered into the journey on initial activation. These contacts will be batched, or broken into smaller groups, and begin entering the journey as soon as it is activated. The number of batches will depend on the number of points of contact currently in the segment.
💡 If the criteria of a segment allows a contact to enter a segment more than one time in the relationship with your brand (e.g. last purchase date is today), each time a contact enters the segment they will be permitted to enter the journey unless you set an entry prevention rule.
If you enable the recurrence settings in the scheduled entry option, all points of contact will enter the journey on the next scheduled date after the journey is activated. Select how often the schedule should repeat (e.g. weekly, daily), on what day of the week, and how often.
Only contacts who meet the criteria at the scheduled entry time will be entered into the journey. For example, if a journey is scheduled to run on the first Monday of every month and today is Tuesday, contacts will not enter the journey until the following month and eligible contacts will be determined at that time.
💡 A contact could potentially be in the journey in multiple locations depending on the criteria of a segment and the recurrence pattern of the journey.
Who receives messages?
When a point of contact reaches a message step, Listrak will only send a message if the point of contact is subscribed to the specific channel. If a point of contact does not exist (e.g. no phone number to send an SMS message), or is not subscribed to, or is unsubscribed from the specific channel the message will be skipped.
Below you will find the basic setup of a journey and an outline of the elements that can be included in a journey, The specific properties you set up will be determined by your specific goals.
Configuring the Segment Entry Event
⚠️ Prior to configuring the event, you will need to create the segment in the contact management page. Only one segment can be used per journey.
The entry event determines which contacts are eligible to enter the journey. When configuring the event there are two tabs that house the properties: Entry Rules and Targeting.
The Entry Rules tab
Choose which type of segment entry event to use: New Contacts (enter when they meet the criteria) or Scheduled Entry (enter on a set pattern).
If using the New Contacts option, check the checkbox to enter current segment members into the journey on first activation.
If using the Scheduled Entry option, set the recurrence schedule for your journey.
⚠️ A segment can contain up to 2,000,000 contacts at the time of activation.
Set the Rentry Rules that control how often a contact is able to enter the journey if they meet the segment entry criteria. A contact can enter every time they meet the criteria, only once, or on a custom cadence.
Set the entry prevention rule to stop contacts from entering the journey even if they are eligible based on the segment criteria.
Currently in Journey prevents entry if a contact is in another already created journey.
💡 Use this option to prioritize one journey over another.
Email address prevents a group of contacts from entering based on their email domain (e.g. @gmail.com) or individual email addresses. Separate values with a comma to include multiple values.
Phone number prevents a group of contacts from entering based on phone number.
In Segment prevents a group of contacts from entering if they are a member of another segment.
The Targeting Tab
The targeting tab identifies the criteria a contact must meet to enter the journey by selecting a segment that establishes these criteria.
In the properties panel, select a previously created segment from the drop-down list.
💡 Learn more about creating a segment in the NextGen platform.
Under the segment, a list of marketable contacts is displayed for each channel provisioned in your account. A marketable contact is currently subscribed to the channel listed and may be eligible to receive messages in the channel if the journey were activated.
💡 Consider the number of marketable contacts when deciding what message types to include in a journey.
Configuring the Exit Event
An exit event removes a contact from a journey after they take a specified action. The contacts are removed before the end of the journey. Exit events are optional. If no events are added, a contact will flow through the entire journey.
Click on the exit event on the canvas.
Select an exit event type from the dropdown,
Click add event to add additional events, if needed.
Types of Exit Events
Journey Hub exit events can be broken down into three categories.
Onsite Activity: A contact can be removed when Listrak's integration records a purchase, abandoned cart, or website browsing session for that contact.
Journey Activity: A contact can be removed from the current journey when they enter another journey you have previously created.
💡 Use this option to prioritize one automated flow experience over another.
Segment Criteria: A contact can be removed if they are a currently a member of the selected segment.
💡 Use this option to help meet your business goals by prioritizing segments based on your specific use cases.
Customizing Your Journey
Configure the Flow
Now that you have determined how a customer becomes eligible to enter or exit the journey, you can determine the experience they will have by customizing paths based on past purchase history, messaging channel, and more.
Below are a few of the strategic considerations you may make when configuring your journey. Consider your specific goals and what you know about these contact to select the most relevant flow elements.
Actions
Coupons: Include coupons in the message to incentivize a contact.
Exit: Use the exit action to stop contacts in a specific path from continuing through the journey.
Webhook: A webhook can be configured to send information to a third-party system such as sending information to a system that manages your catalogs. Learn more about setting up a webhook.
Data Management: This action is used to subscribe or unsubscribe a contact from a list or write data into a contact's profile field. Marking a profile can help identify contacts who are involved in your triggered campaign series.
Wait Step
Use wait steps to pause a contact before they receive additional messages.
Messages
To add an Email message, add the Email element onto the canvas. When creating messages be sure to select the Master list. A contact's email identifier must be subscribed to the Master list in order to receive messages.
To add an SMS message, drag the SMS element onto the canvas. In the properties panel, select the sender code. A contact's phone identifier must be subscribed to the sender code in order to receive messages.
Decision Splits
Most decision splits can be placed anywhere in the journey to customize a customer's experience as they progress through the journey. Below are a few of the strategic ways decision splits can be used in a Post Purchase Journey. Once you have determined the strategy you would like to customize, learn more about configuring your decision splits.
💡 Use the multi-path option to create a fully customized experience for different groups of purchasers.
✉️ Engagement Split: This split can change a contact's path if they have engaged with a previous email or SMS message in the journey. Use this type of split to send additional messages to those who have shown interest.
📦 Purchase History Split: This split can customize a customer's path based on their past order history. Using the multi-split functionality you can tailor thank you messages based on the total number of orders a customer has placed to treat one-time vs. repeat buyers differently.
📱 Channel Affinity Split: This split can be used to prioritize the messaging channel used to communicate with a customer.
🔀 Random Split: The random split can be used to test different components of a campaign by sending a percentage of customers one experience and the rest another experience. Use the random split to test how many messages to include, which subject lines have impact on open rates, or test how long to wait between messages.
☑️ Subscription Split: This split can be used to customize a contact's path based on how, when, or if they are subscribed to a specific list. This can be used to tailor a customer's path based on their membership to other programs that may have lists in your Listrak account, such as a loyalty program.
📋 Profile Field Decision Split: This split can be used to change a contact's path based on data recorded in a standard or custom profile field. Evaluate a single field for different values, such as loyalty tier name, or use the multi-channel split to prioritize experiences by evaluating values across multiple profile fields.
Activating a Journey
Once all messages have been created and the paths established, you are ready to activate the journey so that contacts can start entering the journey. Upon activating, all contacts currently part of the segment selected in the entry step will enter the journey.
To activate, select the Activate button in the top right corner.
Types of Segment Entry Event Journeys
The number of segment entry event journeys is almost unlimited based on the meta data collected about your contacts in the custom profile fields. Some examples of common segments that trigger journeys are listed below.
A segment for each loyalty tier to send a message when a tier changes
A segment for unengaged contacts (based on your determined definition) to re-engage contacts
A segment for contacts who has a birthday today to send a birthday greeting
A segment of loyal purchasers who receive an update on their points status every month
A segment of contacts based on product attributes (brand, category etc.) gathered from past behavior (carted items, browsed items, purchased items)
A segment of contacts likely to purchase. Predictive Analytics subscription required.
A segment used to write data into another custom profile field run every week to sync to a third party system