Campaigns are a great way to map out a sequence of mailings for your subscribers. In addition to the benefits you get in the planning process, you also create a more interactive experience for your subscriber.

Campaigns are built using steps that direct the flow of emails and keep your subscribers moving through the campaign.

How it works

On the Campaigns > Create page, you can begin the campaign-creation process.

• The grid-lined area is called the canvas; this is your workspace.
• The left side displays the steps you can add. Think of this as the "palette," such as an artist would use.

To build a campaign, simply drag-and-drop steps from the palette to the canvas.

Leverage the Wait and Decision steps to create a dynamic and responsive campaign that meets your needs, and provides your subscribers a good experience.

See Campaign Steps to learn more about each available campaign step.

Campaign Designer overview

Sometimes, the design of a campaign requires a large number of steps to create the flow and routing needed, but this can make it challenging to see the entire campaign on the Canvas. The following tools help you to navigate the canvas and view your campaign more efficiently.

Navigator

The Navigator provides a bird’s eye view of the campaign. Click the dark blue Navigator tab on the right-hand side of the screen to expand that panel. You can then slide the selector box around to jump to that view in the main campaign display.

Additional Designer tools

1. Zoom - This slider increases and decreases the size of the campaign on the Canvas.
2. Print - Print the Canvas view of your campaign.
3. Take a Tour - Provides a step-by-step on-screen tour of the Campaign Designer interface. This is particularly helpful for new users of Campaign Designer.
4. Align - Reorganizes the steps on the canvas. The steps remain in the same left-to-right order that they were placed on the canvas, but the spacing is adjusted to be as equal as possible and the connecting lines are straightened as mush as possible. Keep in mind that any comments on the canvas will be grouped together and placed in the lower-right corner of the canvas. See the two images below for an example of Align being used.

Before clicking Align

After clicking Align

How campaigns differ from mailings

Most customers come to Campaign Designer after having sent numerous "one-off" mailings from Higher Logic Thrive Marketing Professional or other email marketing programs. There are a few key differences in the campaign mindset:

• There is a little more planning to create a campaign - but that's a good thing!
• Once a campaign is activated, it does not require any direct support by a staff member.
• The need to have a send date is greatly diminished. Recipients in the campaign receive the next mailing based on the flow of the campaign. It's intentionally variable in order to best respond to the subscriber's interaction patterns.
• While opens, clicks, and forwards are still important metrics, the most important metric is the conversion a campaign is aiming for. Whether it's registering, volunteering, purchasing, or participating - THAT'S what you ultimately want to measure and that's what will determine your overall effectiveness.

The combination of making your team more efficient and providing a more subscriber-centric experience make Campaign Designer an extremely powerful marketing tool for you and your organization.