Working with Campaigns

Overview

The Marketing view in CSU Transfer Planner allows you to create and track your outreach methods. Using the Marketing tools, you can set up automated, personalized communications to any contact.

The Campaigns subsection is where you can establish communication plans for interacting with a specific audience or purpose. Through Campaigns, you can:

• Create and foster relationships with prospective contacts.  
• Generate interest and build attendance for specific events.
• Send reminders regarding deadlines.

From the Campaigns section, you can organize email and print communications based on audience and sequence. Examples include Drive to Apply Emails or orientation invitations for accepted students.

Navigating the Campaigns Page

1. Marketing Menu: select between Quick Messages, Campaign Builder, and Templates.
2. Campaigns Drop-down: use this drop-down to select between active and inactive campaigns.
3. Search Icon: use the search icon to find existing campaigns.
4. New Campaign: click the plus sign to begin building a new campaign.
5. Campaigns Grid: review your existing campaigns using this grid.
6. More Options: use this button to access the Copy, Delete, and Deactivate actions.

Prefabricated Campaigns

In CSU Transfer Planner, you'll automatically have access to several prefabricated campaigns. These include:

• TP Campus - Automated Emails: this campaign automatically sends an email to welcome new active TSP enrollments.

Creating a New Campaign

You can also create custom campaigns to fit your program's needs. To create a new campaign:

1. Using the Navigation Menu, click Marketing.
2. Click Campaign Builder.
3. Click the plus sign to design a new campaign.
4. Enter a name and description for your campaign.
5. Indicate the dates you want the campaign to begin and end. The campaign won't send any messages outside of this date range.
6. Use the Run Campaign As feature to indicate which user you want the campaign to operate under. By default, this is the account you're signed in with, but you adjust it by clicking Edit. Note that if the user cannot view select contacts, then the campaign won't be sent to them.
7. Select if the campaign is active. By default, the campaign will send messages once the start date arrives. You can disable the campaign and prevent it from sending any messages by deactivating it.
8. Select the audience for the campaign. Only contacts who are included in these filters will receive the campaign. Under Segment Type, select Student. Then, use the Include and Exclude fields to filter this campaign by Segments. Note that the Applications Segment Type does not apply for CSU Transfer Planner.
9. You can view how many contacts are included in the campaign in the blue information alert.
10. Click Save Campaign to save your template or click Cancel to discard your template.

Next, you'll need to create a campaign track (below).

Creating a New Campaign Track

Campaign tracks are individual communication plans within a campaign. Using tracks, you can establish a flow and cadence for all the messages you intend to send to contacts.

You can also establish tiers, which are the steps included in a track. For example, within a track for international students, your first tier might be a welcome message, while your second tier could be a message to remind students of missing materials. Each tier can also have multiple messages. For example, you may have alternate initial messages for different Segments of students.

1. Once you build and save a campaign, click on it to edit it.
2. Under Campaign Tracks, click Add Track.
3. Enter a name and description for your campaign track.
4. Indicate the dates you want the campaign track to begin and end. The campaign track won't send any messages outside of this date range.
5. Under Schedule Type, select the option that best fits your needs:
   • Select Send outreach on specific dates and times to have each campaign blast message sent at a predetermined date and time.
   • Select Trigger outreach based on days after the previous items were sent to schedule campaign steps in relation to each other. For example, you can send your campaign step 1 message at a specified date and time, and then send your campaign step 2 message four days after campaign step 1's message was received.
6. Select if the campaign track is active. By default, the campaign track will send messages once the start date arrives. You can disable the campaign track and prevent it from sending any messages by deactivating it.
7. Under Track Information, your campaign filter by Segment is already applied. If you want to filter who receives the campaign track further, enter additional segments in the Include Track Segments and Exclude Track Segments fields.
8. You can view how many contacts are included in the campaign track in the blue information alert.
9. Click Save Track to save your template or click Cancel to discard your template.

Next, you'll need to create a campaign step or blast (below).

Creating Campaign Steps and Blasts in Your Campaign Track

Campaign steps and blasts are a progression of messages within each campaign track. When creating your campaign track, if you selected:

• Send outreach on specific dates and times, then these messages are called campaign blasts.
• Trigger outreach based on days after the previous items were sent, then these messages are called campaign steps. In this documentation, we'll use "campaign steps" to refer to campaign steps and blasts.

Campaign steps can include several related messages scheduled to go to your contacts. For example, you can create campaign step 1 that will send an email to your newest contacts at the same time message. Then you can create campaign step 2 to send a follow-up message five days later.

1. Once you build and save a campaign track, your campaign step will automatically appear. 
2. Click Add Message, then select Email to select which of your email templates you'd like to send.
3. After you make your media type selection, configure your message.
   1. Select a preconfigured email template.
   2. Enter an internal name for the message.
   3. If desired, select a Segment to add an additional filter to any existing filters you applied to the campaign and campaign tracks.
   4. If desired, update the from name and email and reply-to name and email.
   5. Enter a subject line; this is visible to the contact.
   6. Select the delivery address that the email will be sent to (e.g., email address, secondary email address, etc.).
   7. If desired, select a Segment under engagement criteria.
   8. Edit the email template as needed. If you want to switch your email template, click Change. If you make any changes and want to save them as a new email template, click Save New Template.
   9. If you want to add an email attachment, click Attach File. When the email is sent to your contacts, the attachment will be located at the bottom of the email, and contacts can click a link to download it.
   10. Click Save Message to save your template.
4. Add additional messages to campaign step 1 as needed. For example, you can send different emails to different Segments.
5. Using the scheduling options, enter when you want to send the campaign step.
6. If needed, disable messages by using the Inactive toggle. Your campaign won't send inactivated messages, even if they are scheduled to go out.
7. If necessary, add additional campaign steps and messages. Additional campaign step messages are only sent after campaign step 1 messages are sent. Be aware of the following behaviors based on your Schedule Type selections:
   • If you selected Send outreach on specific dates and times, then you can set when the additional campaign blast messages are sent. You can also choose how often this campaign blast should repeat. Only contacts who haven't received the message already will be sent the campaign blast messages in the repeated campaign blasts. For example, Amy Student is not included in campaign blast 1 message because she doesn't meet the campaign track parameters. However, in two weeks she does meet the campaign track parameters, and so she will receive the campaign blast 1 message when it is repeated to go out again.
   • If you selected Trigger outreach based on days after the previous items were sent, then you can select how many days after the previous campaign step message was sent that the additional campaign step messages will be sent. You can also select what time of day the campaign step message is sent.
8. Click Save Track to save your template or click Cancel to discard your template.

Managing Campaigns

You can edit individual campaigns by clicking the three dots under the Actions column. Or to perform bulk actions on your campaigns, use the appropriate checkboxes to select them individually, or use the top checkbox to select them all.

Managing Campaign Tracks

From the Edit Campaign page, you can manage your campaign tracks by clicking the three dots under the Actions column.

Managing Messages within Campaign Steps and Blasts

You can manage individual messages within campaign steps and blasts by clicking the three dots.