Automation processes can perform various types of marketing actions. By integrating actions into processes, you can automate tasks that users would otherwise need to do manually. For example, you can have a process send a newsletter issue to contacts that meet a certain condition or move contacts between different accounts.

 

You can add actions into flow of processes via action steps. When a contact reaches an action step in a process, the system automatically performs the given action.

 

The following action steps are available:

 

 

Managing contact accounts

 

1. Place the Change account action step onto the process designer grid.

 

2. Integrate the step into the flow of the process by connecting a preceding and following step.

 

3. Edit the step by clicking the pencil icon next to its name.

 

4. Specify the step's parameters:

 

•Account name - select the account that the action manages.

•Contact role - you can have the process assign a specific role within the account to the contact.

•Action - you can either add the contact to the specified account or remove it from the account.

 

5. Click Save.

 

See also: Accounts

 

Managing contact groups

 

1. Place the Change group action step onto the grid.

 

2. Connect the step with a preceding step and optionally with a following step.

 

3. Edit the step by clicking the pencil icon next to its name.

 

4. Specify the step's parameters:

 

•Contact group - select the contact group that the action manages.

•Action - you can either add the contact to the specified group or remove it.

 

5. Click Save.

 

See also: Contact groups

 

Setting contact properties

 

1. Place the Set contact property action step onto the grid.

 

2. Connect the step with a preceding step and optionally with a following step.

 

3. Edit the step by clicking the pencil icon next to its name.

 

4. Select which contact property the action changes (Property name).

 

5. Type the new Property value.

 

6. Click Save.

 

See also: Managing contacts

 

Setting contact statuses

 

1. Place the Set contact status action step onto the grid.

 

2. Connect the step with a preceding step and optionally with a following step.

 

3. Edit the step by clicking the pencil icon next to its name.

 

4. Select the new Contact status that the action assigns to contacts.

 

5. Click Save.

 

See also: Contact statuses

 

Deleting contacts
 

1. Place the Delete contact action step onto the grid.

 

2. Connect the step with a preceding step and optionally with a following step.

 

3. Edit the step by clicking the pencil icon next to its name.

 

4. Specify the step's parameters:

 

•Delete merged - indicates if the step also deletes merged child contacts. If not checked, the process splits all child contacts before deleting the parent contact.

•Move activities - check to move activities, relationships, IPs, and UserAgents to the parent contact when deleting merged contacts.

 

5. Click Save.

 

Replicating contacts to Salesforce

 

1. Place the Import to Salesforce action step onto the grid.

 

2. Connect the step with a preceding step and optionally with a following step.

 

3. Edit the step by clicking the pencil icon next to its name.

 

4. Specify the step's parameters:

 

•Deferred replication - if checked, the action step delays the replication of the contact until the system executes the scheduled replication process. When disabled, the action replicates the contact immediately. Using deferred replication helps reduce the number of Salseforce API calls made by your application.

 

5. Click Save.

 

See also: Salesforce integration

 

Logging custom activities

 

1. Place the Log custom activity action step onto the grid.

 

2. Connect the step with a preceding step and optionally with a following step.

 

3. Edit the step by clicking the pencil icon next to its name.

 

4. Specify the step's parameters:

 

•Activity type - select one of your custom activity types.

•Activity title - add basic information about the event that the activity represents.

•Activity value - you can assign a value to the activity. You can associate values with activities such as ratings or e-commerce purchases.

•Activity URL - enter the URL of the page where the activity occurred.

•Campaign - you can select a marketing campaign associated with the activity.

•Comment - here you can add any additional information related to the activity.

 

5. Click Save.

 

See also: Tracking contact activities, Adding custom activities

 

Managing newsletter subscriptions

 

1. Place the Newsletter subscription action step onto the grid.

 

2. Connect the step with a preceding step and optionally with a following step.

 

3. Edit the step by clicking the pencil icon next to its name.

 

4. Select the Newsletter.

 

5. Select the Action - you can either subscribe the contact to the newsletter or unsubscribe the contact from the newsletter.

 

6. Click Save.

 

See also: Newsletters

 

Sending e-mails

 

Prerequisite: You must have at least one SMTP server configured for your website.

 

1. Place the Send e-mail action step onto the grid.

 

2. Connect the step with a preceding step and optionally with a following step.

 

3. Edit the step by clicking the pencil icon next to its name.

 

4. Enter the sender's address into the From field.

 

5. Specify the recipients of the e-mail in the To field.

oYou can enter multiple addresses separated by semicolons.

oUse macro expressions to load the address dynamically. For example, {% Contact.ContactEmail %} gets the address of the current contact in the process.

 

6. Choose the content type of the e-mail:

 

•E-mail template - the content of the e-mail is based on the selected E-mail template.

•HTML formatted text - manually write the Subject and Body of the e-mail.

 

7. Click Save.

 

Sending newsletter issues

 

1. Place the Send newsletter issue action step onto the grid.

 

2. Connect the step with a preceding step and optionally with a following step.

 

3. Edit the step by clicking the pencil icon next to its name.

 

4. Select the Newsletter issue that the action step sends.

oYou need to choose both the newsletter and specific issue.

 

5. Click Save.

 

See also: Newsletters

 

Starting automation processes

 

1. Place the Start process action step onto the grid.

 

2. Connect the step with a preceding step and optionally with a following step.

 

3. Edit the step by clicking the pencil icon next to its name.

 

4. Select the automation Process that you want to start for the contact.

oYou cannot start a new instance of the same process that you are designing (to avoid the possibility of process loops).

 

5. Click Save.

 

Updating contact information Data.com

 

1. Place the Update from Data.com action step onto the grid.

 

2. Integrate the step into the flow of the process by connecting a preceding and following step.

 

3. Edit the step by clicking the pencil icon next to its name.

 

4. Fill in the E-mail address and Password of a valid Data.com account.

 

5. Click Set.

 

6. Configure the step's parameter:

 

•Buy enabled - if checked, the step automatically buys contacts that the assigned Data.com account does not not own. The step buys contacts only if there is one exact match in the Data.com registry.

 

7. Click Save.

 

 

See also: Data.com integration

 

Adding custom actions

 

Kentico allows developers to create custom action steps for use in automation processes. Developing actions step requires knowledge of programming and the Kentico CMS API. See Defining custom actions for more information.