Creating a dialog activity

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.

Before you begin

Make sure that a site administrator has configured your site to support Management Center marketing features. See Configuring marketing for Management Center.

Before you can create an effective dialog activity, you must understand the purpose of triggers, targets, and actions. See Activity building blocks: triggers, targets, and actions.
To view examples of dialog activities, click any of the links in Triggers in dialog activities.
If you want to create activities with multiple paths, see Branches in marketing activities.

Depending on the type of dialog activity that you are creating, you might need the following defined for your store before you begin:

Email 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 have 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:
1. 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.
2. Click the trigger to display its properties in the properties view.
3. Complete any required properties for the trigger.
Define the action that you want to take when a customer triggers the activity:
1. 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.
2. Click the action element to display its properties in the properties view.
3. Complete the properties for the action element.
Optional: If you want to specify which customers participate in the dialog activity, define a target:
1. 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.
2. Click the target element to display its properties in the properties view.
3. 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.
1. 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.
2. To add more paths, right-click the Branch element in the work area; then click Add Path.
3. Click the Branch element in the work area to display its properties in the properties view.
4. Complete the properties for the Branch element.
  For more information, see Using the branch element in web and dialog activities.
5. 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.

What to do next

You must activate the dialog activity before it becomes available on the storefront.