Campaign Automation: Email Interaction Trigger

The Email Interaction trigger is used to check whether a specified email has been opened and/or clicked and may be used as an Entry Point Trigger or an Internal Trigger.

Goals

• Learn how to add an Email Interaction Trigger to a Campaign Automation
• Learn how an Email Interaction Trigger behaves when used as an Entry Trigger vs an Internal Trigger
• Learn how to set up an Email Interaction Trigger's properties

Add the Trigger to a Campaign Automation

To add an Email Interaction Trigger to a Campaign Automation, click on the trigger icon in the sidebar and drag in onto the Campaign Automation Canvas.

Entry Trigger vs Internal Trigger

Unlike other Campaign Automation Triggers, the Email Interaction Trigger works differently depending on where it is used in the Campaign Automation. If the trigger is an entry point, an Email Send draft will be selected in the trigger properties and then sent when the Campaign Automation is Published. If a scheduled Email Send is selected in this entry point trigger, please note that the email does not need to be sent using the "Send" button on the Email Send record. Instead, the option of selecting the date of the email send will be shown after clicking to publish the Campaign Automation.

The trigger will then check to see which participants click or open that email. If the trigger is an internal trigger it will check for clicks or opens on any selected email(s) sent in the preceding series via Send Email actions.

Trigger Properties

Once the trigger has been added to the canvas, click on it and you will see the right panel change to show the properties of this trigger.

Display Name (Required): Type a Display Name to show on the canvas.

Select Email Send (Required): Choose a draft Email Send. Before you publish this Campaign Automation make sure to add recipients to your Email Send. Split Test Email Sends cannot be used with Email Interaction Triggers.

Note: A note is an optional field for any details that need to be written about the trigger. Select which interaction to monitor:

• Email Clicked [recommended]: If checked, you will be given the option to choose which links to look for.
• Email Opened (without click): Check this if you want to do something if someone opens the email but never clicks

The opens and clicks from your emails will be updated for 30 days after the sending of your email. After this period, new clicks and opens will not be generated for the email, so please keep this limitation in mind when designing your automations.

Trigger Type

If Email Clicked is checked, the Select which links link will display. Clicking this link will open a window containing a preview of your specified template and highlighting links that you can monitor for clicks.

Select one link, several links, or all links. If any one of the links selected is clicked, this trigger will be activated.  This includes links used within image mapped images within the email template.

NOTE: If you have a series that includes multiple Send Email actions followed by an Email Interaction trigger, you have the option to tell the Email Interaction trigger to check for clicks on one or more of the emails that were sent in the preceding series. However, it's important to understand that setting one Email Interaction trigger to check for clicks in multiple emails is using OR logic. In order to go to the Positive Path, at least one link must be clicked in at least one email that the Email Interaction Trigger is checking for.

NOTE: Microsite, Global Unsubscribe, Subscription pages and MailTo links cannot be selected.

If Email Opened (without click) is ALSO checked, you may select the amount of time to wait for AFTER the participant has opened the email to see if they click first. For example, if you set this timer to 2 days, and the participant opens the email after 1 day but does not click, it will wait 2 days before proceeding down the positive path because of the open. However, if the participant clicks during that 2 days, it will immediately proceed down the positive path because of the click. If you do not select a time it will just wait to see if the recipient interacted in any way and when they do, it will immediately proceed down the positive path.

If Email Opened (without click) is the only one checked it will just wait to see if the email was opened.

Upon clicking in the canvas, you changes will be saved. To edit the node's properties, simply click on the node and make any necessary changes.

NOTE: There is a 1:1 relationship between Email Templates and Campaign Automations. This means that an Email Template can only be used within a trigger in one published Campaign Automation at a time. If, in a second Campaign Automation, you attempt to select an Email Template that is already in use and save it, an error message stating in which Campaign Automation the template is already in use will appear. However, the same Email Template can be sent via a Send Email Action within multiple Campaign Automations.

Now connect the Email Interaction trigger to at least one series.

Negative Path

In version 11.4, we added some additional options that can be checked for emails in a decision node on the negative path of an Email Interaction trigger. To access these, you will need to set up a decision node on the trigger's negative path like this:

Double-clicking the decision node and selecting Emails will open the conditions:

• Hard Bounced: Email was not delivered as it encountered a permanent delivery issue was hard bounced.
• Soft Bounced: Email was not delivered as it encountered a temporary delivery issue and was soft bounced.
• Marked as Spam: Email was not delivered as it was blocked by the email client since it was identified as spam.
• Delivered: Email delivered and was not opened/Clicked.