Drip Series Email Setup

Drip Series is the process of automatically sending emails  on a scheduled basis. Email templates are created and sent out in a series at user defined intervals. This is a great tool for prospecting/campaigning to an existing customer base. It can also be used to stay in touch with your customers at regular intervals.

Setting up Drip Series Emails in AmeriCommerce online stores is a 4 step process:

1. Create Email Templates
2. Create and Define Drip Series Settings
3. Choose customers to send Drip Series Emails to
4. Test and make your Drip Series campaign Active

Step 1: Create Email Templates

Create the series of emails you want to send out at scheduled intervals using merges to display customer specific information. You can do this under Marketing > Email Templates.

You can read more about email templates Here

Step 2: Create and Define Drip Series Settings

Create the Drip Series

Browse to Marketing > Power Features > Drip Series Emailing

Click the New Button in the top right to create a new Drip Series.

Drip Series Name: Name the Drip Series and mark as Active when you are ready to make this series Active. The name is shown in dropdowns and settings screen throughout the application. Active flag turns this drip on and off. If inactive, this drip series will not process automatically.

Click the Save Button after naming the Drip Series.

After saving, click New Action.

Define the Drip Series steps and settings from New Action:

1. Define the settings for this Step:
   

   Step Name: The name of the action for quick reference. There is no real logic associated to this, it is here for understanding at a glance.

   Do This: Tells the scheduler what action to do:

   Send Automatic Email (the system will just send it with no user interaction)

   When to do this: Tell the scheduler when to perform the action and at what time interval(s). A minimum time interval of 15 minutes is required between two steps.

   Examples:

   30 Minutes AfterSeriesStart will send 30 minutes after the customer is inserted into this drip series. 3 Days RecurringUntilNextStep will send every three days until the next step fires

   Note: If you have a RecurringUntilNextStep setup as the last option, this will send the email at the timed interval without stopping. We recommend you have a last step setup with an AfterSeriesStart as your last email. This is to avoid sending emails repeatedly without an end date.

   Email Template: The selected email template to send in case of an AutoSentEmail.  This template and it's settings will be used for the selected step.

   Sort Order: Sort order of this action.

   IMPORTANT: Please keep these in the proper sort order. Keep them in order of when they will logically be happening.

   Example:

   30 minutes AfterSeriesStart should be sorted BEFORE 24 hours AfterSeriesStart, etc.  This cannot be automatically done because RecurringSteps have no logical placement without the user defining it.

2. Click the Save button to save this step.
3. Repeat the above steps to create more Drip Series Steps. You can create as many steps as you need.

Creating the Drip Series Steps completes the step of defining the steps to use for the Drip Series Campaign.

Step 3: Choose customers to send Drip Series Emails to

View All Drip Series

Browse to Marketing > Power Features > Drip Series Emailing

To add customers to send the Drip Series to:

1. Click the people Icon for the drip series you wish to add a customer to.    
2. Type in the name of the customer you wish to add.
3. Select the correct customer record from the drop down box.

Selected customer is automatically added to the list.

 Note: You can send the Drip Series to your existing customer list only. If you need to send the Drip Series to someone  not on the list, add them it under People > Customers > New.

Add to Drip Series in Customer Edit

You can also add a single or group of customers to a drip series in the Customer list under People > Customers.  Filter customers if necessary to get a manageable list to select customers from.

1. Check the check box for applicable customers from customer list.   
2. Click More Actions.
3. Click Drip Series.
4. Click Add Customer To.
5. Select the desired drip series from the list of active drip series.

Step 4: Test and make your Drip Series campaign active

You can now make the Drip Series Active by checking the Active checkbox and save. Start the campaign. Or run a manual test by using the Process Now button under the "Action" tab.

The Process Now button will process the drip series. On big series this will take a while.  Once started manually, this will automatically call the system periodically for the following steps. This is here to test your settings and manually start a drip. 

Testing Hint: If you delete emails from a customer's email log, they will then be scheduled again for any previous steps that got deleted.