Automated Journey Builder Program Flow Guide

The program flow is where you build your Automated Programs in a visual workflow in the Automated Journey Builder.

Access the Program Flow for an Automated Program

1. Go to Automation > Automated Programs.
2. Open an existing Automated Program or create a new one (details here).
3. Build > Program flow is where you’ll build your program in the visual workflow builder.

Build your Program Flow

Each new program has a Start and Exit step. You’ll build your program between those steps, using the + buttons:

Clicking the + button opens a window where you’ll select the type of step to add:

For information about each step, see below.

Immediately after a step is added to the program, it is highlighted with a blue border. This makes it easy to see the most recently added step.

To edit, you can click anywhere on the step. When you hover over a step, you'll see options to Move, Copy, or Delete. 

You can leave some information blank in a step while creating an outline for your program, but this will need to be filled in before the program can run.

Program Step Options

• Send Email – Send an email message to all contacts, or send one or more different messages depending on the conditional rules you've defined.
• Send SMS – Send a text to opted-in contacts. 
• Branch – Send contacts to another path in the program based on their profile or behavior.
• Wait 
  • Wait – Pause for X hours, days, or weeks, before moving to the next action step
  • Wait Until – Pause until a specific day and/or time. This step may be used in conjunction with the Wait step.
    • The Wait Until step also allows you to pause contacts from moving forward on weekends (Saturday and Sunday) or outside of specified time ranges during any individual day. These options are both available when selecting the Specified Times Every Day option in the Wait Until drop-down. When selected, the Weekdays Only check box will immediately appear. To control the daily time range, select a frequency other than 'Once Daily' from the Proceed drop-down, and the Not After time field will appear.
    • If you check the Weekdays Only box, contacts entering the Wait Until step Monday through Friday will proceed to the next step in the program. Contacts entering the step on Saturday or Sunday will pause until Monday before moving forward. Similarly, if you specify a Not After time of day, contacts who enter the Wait Until step after that time must wait until the Starting At time the next day (or the next weekday).
  • Wait Until Time - Select a specific date before the program begins or continues. This may be useful when planning messages that are more than 4 weeks out. As soon as the prescribed time and date is reached, contacts will automatically move to the next step.
    • • Pro tip: Remember to always use a Wait step after sending an email if you are using that email for conditional logic. This provides time for your contacts to open/click the message before the program checks that condition - otherwise it will check immediately.
• Opt-Out - Any contact who enters this step will be added to your accounts Opt-Out list but will remain in the program. This will allow you to remove non-responsive contacts. Contacts can be opted back in via the Opt-Out list, under Bounces & Opt-Outs.
• Change Field – Set values in one or more fields within a specified list. This step may apply to all contacts or may depend on conditional rules you've defined.
• Copy to List – Copy contacts to another list.
• Send Alert - You can send an email alert to any email address when contacts enter a specified step in an automated program. The alert email will include a table of the contacts, including their score.  You can choose which score sheet to use for the alert, so if the program pertains to a particular campaign, you can just show the campaign score.  You can also choose to hide the specific recipient data, which will require the user to log in to see the report. The alert email will be sent no more than once an hour.
• API - Send contact information through an external API call.

CRM-specific Steps

• Add a Task - Assign a Salesforce Task to the Contact Owner in Salesforce as the record hits a specific step of an automated program for sales follow-up. This is also available when Microsoft Dynamics is enabled in your Act-On instance.
• Add to a Campaign - Assign the record to a Salesforce Campaign as the record hits a specific step of an automated program for campaign reporting, and update their Salesforce Campaign Member Status.
• Create in CRM - See detailed information about this step for Salesforce, Zendesk Sell, and SugarCRM.

Exit Program & Go To Steps

• Exit Program – An Exit Program step is automatically added to the end of every conditional branch, and to the end of the entire program. When a contact hits this step they have completed the program and the exit event will be added to the contact's Activity History. You can also modify scoring rules and create segments based on contacts who exited the program.
• Go To – An Exit Program step can be changed to a Go To step by hovering over the Exit Program step and clicking on the “Change to Go To step” icon. Instead of exiting the program, contacts go to the selected destination step and continue in the program. Go To step can be changed back to an Exit Program step and the destination of the Go To step can be edited by hovering over the step and selecting the appropriate option.