Create dialog activities to market to customers when they do something specific or when
an event occurs. First, you define a trigger for the dialog activity, for example, when
a customer registers or places an order. You then define the action to take, for
example, sending an email to the customer or adding the customer to a customer segment.
You can also define targets in dialog activities to limit the marketing actions to
specific customers.
Note: To help create dialog activities more quickly, an
administrator can copy activities and other marketing objects from one store or instance into
another. For example, to help set up a test environment or a new store. For more information about
this new feature, see
Before you begin
Make sure that a site administrator configured your site to support Management Center marketing features. See Configuring marketing for Management Center.
Depending on the type of dialog activity that you are creating, you might need the following
defined for your store before you begin:
- E-mail templates–Required to
use the Send Message action to send an email to a customer.
- Customer segments–Required to target the dialog activity to a specific
customer segment, or if you are using the Add To Or Remove From Customer Segment action in your
dialog activity.
- Promotions–Required for dialog activities that reference a
promotion, such as the Customer Checks Out With Promotion trigger.
- Marketing content–Required for dialog activities that send a text
message to customers.
Procedure
-
Open the Marketing tool.
- From the toolbar, click
the arrow on the right side of Create New;
then select Dialog Activity.
The
New Activity From Template window opens.
-
In the left pane, click the name of the folder that contains the template that you want to use.
The Custom Templates folder contains any templates that you created. The
Standard Templates folder contains the Blank Dialog
Activity template, which presents an empty template for you to use as a starting point.
Alternatively, you can search for a template name in the search field.
-
In the right pane, click the name of the template. Then, click OK.
The Activity Builder opens.
The top half of the page is the work area. The bottom half of the page is the properties
view.
-
In the properties view, set the following properties for the activity:
Property | Description |
---|
Name |
Enter a name. This name displays in the Activities - List page, and identifies the
activity. |
Description |
Enter a description. This description displays in the Activities - List page, and it should
explain what the activity is intended to do. This description helps business users understand the
activity at a glance without having to open the Activity Builder. |
Start date |
Define a start date and time for the activity. You can either enter a
date in the field, or select a date by using the calendar tool. Similarly, you can enter a time
directly into the field, or you can select one using the clock tool. If you do not specify a start
date, the activity can be available on the storefront as soon as it is activated. |
End date |
Define an end date and time for the activity. You can either enter a date in the field, or
select a date by using the calendar tool. Similarly, you can enter a time directly into the field,
or you can select one using the clock tool. If you do not specify an end date, the activity can run
indefinitely. |
Repeatable |
Specify whether the activity is repeatable. A repeatable activity allows a customer to enter
and complete the activity multiple times. Consider what your activity is trying to accomplish to
decide whether to make the activity repeatable. For example, if your dialog
activity waits for a customer to place an order and then sends an email and a coupon, you might want
each customer to receive the email and coupon only one time. In this case, clear the
Repeatable check box. |
Campaign |
If you want to organize this activity under a campaign, specify the campaign. |
-
Define the customer behavior or event that starts the dialog activity:
-
From the Triggers section in the palette, drag a trigger element onto
the flow connector between the green and red circles in the work area.
-
Click the trigger to display its properties in the properties view.
-
Complete any required properties for the trigger.
-
Define the action that you want to take when a customer triggers the activity:
-
From the Actions section in the palette, drag an action element onto the
flow connector to the right of the trigger element in the work area.
-
Click the action element to display its properties in the properties view.
-
Complete the properties for the action element.
- Optional:
If you want to specify which customers participate in the dialog activity, define a
target:
-
From the Targets section in the palette, drag a target element onto the
flow connector to the left of the action element in the work area.
-
Click the target element to display its properties in the properties view.
-
Complete the properties for the target element.
- Optional:
Add branch elements to your activity if you want to split a single path in the activity into
two or more paths.
You can then use different trigger, target, and action elements on each path within the same
activity.
-
From the Branches section in the palette, drag a
Branch element onto a flow connector at the point where you want to split a
single path into multiple paths.
-
To add more paths, right-click the Branch element in the work area.
Then, click Add Path.
-
Click the Branch element in the work area to display its properties in
the properties view.
-
Complete the properties for the Branch element.
-
Change elements on the paths that extend from the Branch element. These
changes can involve adding or deleting elements on each path, or changing element properties.
- Optional:
Add more triggers, targets, actions, or branches to complete your activity. You can right-click
on any element to open a context-sensitive menu that has tasks that you can perform. This menu
includes an option to Delete unwanted elements.
-
From the File menu, select Save to save your
activity.
Results
The new activity is created in the Inactive state.