This article...

• Details how Campaign Starter Kits provide pre-configured campaign workflows that you can customize for your unique campaign.
• Describes the Campaign Starter Kits that are available for the membership lifecycle and event promotions.
• Explains how Advanced Starter Kits provide the ability to import message content into campaigns, and that imported content should be reviewed and customized.
• Describes the distinct set of campaigns that are available for Higher Logic Thrive Platform customers.
• Instructs how to access starter kits, import content, and edit campaign messages.

Higher Logic Campaign Starter Kits are pre-configured campaigns that take some of the guesswork (and legwork!) out of creating, designing, and configuring a campaign.

The steps of the campaign workflow are pre-placed and pre-populated which reduces the amount of work you have to do. You can review the campaign, make any necessary customizations, and then activate the campaign.

Campaign Starter Kits in your account

Every Higher Logic Thrive Marketing Professional (Thrive Marketing Professional) account has access to the basic set of Campaign Starter Kits. Below is an overview of it and the others that are available.

• The Campaign Starter Kits is a basic set of pre-populated campaigns that make it easier for you to quickly customize your campaigns so you can get them up and running.
  • These campaigns are described below in Campaign Starter Kits.
• Advanced Starter Kits are a step up from the basic set; these campaigns not only have preconfigured campaign steps, they also give you the ability to import content that has been crafted by experienced Higher Logic campaign designers so that you get the campaign to "ready to send" more quickly.
  • These campaigns are described below in Advanced Starter Kits.
• Lastly, customers who license Higher Logic Thrive Platform (Thrive Platform) have an additional set of dedicated Thrive Platform Campaign Starter Kits, which were created specifically for the activities that are unique to an online community.
  • These campaigns are described below in Thrive Platform Campaign Starter Kits.

Campaigns for memberships and events

Across these three offerings, there is a starter kit for every phase of the membership lifecycle:

• Welcoming new members (Welcome Campaign)
• Membership renewals (Renewal Campaigns)
• Soliciting prior, lapsed, and expired members (Win Back Campaigns)

There are also starter kits in support of your organization's events:

• Events of all sizes (Promotion Campaigns)
• Seeking donors and donations (Fundraising Campaign)

Access the starter kits

All of the starter kits are accessible on the Campaign Starter Kit selection dialog when you click Create on the Campaigns List page.

To learn how to access the Campaign Starter Kits and then create, customize, and configure a campaign, see Create a Campaign.

Starter kits notes

All of the starter kits are pre-populated with the recommended steps for the particular campaign, as shown in the following example. The steps vary from one campaign to another because their inclusion is based on the individual campaign's purpose.

• The gray boxes offer guidance, tips, and important information that are specific to the individual campaign. Be sure to review this information as you work through creating the campaign.
• The messages, decision points, and wait intervals that populate the canvas are "best practice" recommendations for the selected campaign. You can customize these elements and their settings to suit your campaign.

Watch the videos

Check out these videos before getting started with campaigns.

Welcome Campaign Starter Kit video	Renewal Campaign Starter Kit video

Campaign Starter Kits

The following table describes the basic set of Campaign Starter Kits that are available in all Thrive Marketing Professional accounts. Before starting to create a campaign, review the descriptions to understand the function of each; choosing the right starter kit can save you time.

TIP: The Campaign Starter Kits are pre-configured with recommended messages, decision points, and send intervals; however, these campaigns are completely customizable to suit your needs.

Starter Kit	Description
Blank Campaign	An "empty canvas," ready for your complete customization.
Welcome Campaign	A series of messages that get sent during the first few weeks after a member joins your organization. It includes messages for "non-openers".
Basic Renewal Campaign	A renewal campaign that starts 90 days prior to membership expiration. It includes messages to be sent at various intervals for those who haven't yet renewed.
Advanced Renewal Campaign	A renewal campaign that starts 120 days prior to membership expiration and for inactive members. It includes messages to be sent at various intervals for those who haven't yet renewed.
Win Back Campaign - 3-6 Months Lapsed	A renewal campaign that targets prior members whose membership renewal is past due by 3 to 6 months. Use this campaign to remind them of the benefits of membership (to themselves and the organization) and to encourage them to rejoin.
Win Back Campaign - 7-24 Months Lapsed	A renewal campaign that targets prior members whose membership renewal is past due by 7 to 24 months. Use this campaign to remind them of the benefits of membership (to themselves and the organization) and to encourage them to rejoin.
Fundraising Campaign	A less-complex campaign that appeals to members to donate to your organization. It includes messages to be sent at various intervals for those who haven't yet donated.
Small/Mid Size Event Promotion Campaign	A three-invitation campaign for promoting small to mid-sized events, such as webinars, local chapter events, and professional development courses.
Large Event Promotion: Open Registration/Last Chance	A seven-invitation campaign for promoting large events, such as multi-day conferences. The intervals of the messages can be customized, and there is a "last chance" message.
Large Event Promotion: Save the Date/Early Bird Registration	A multi-invitation campaign for promoting large events, such as multi-day conferences. The "save the date" message is followed by "early-bird pricing" messages, the last of which is a "last chance" message.

Advanced Starter Kits

Advanced Starter Kits enhance the usability and convenience of the basic set of preconfigured campaigns by adding the ability to import content.

The content that you can import is templated, recommended sample text that has been crafted by experienced Higher Logic campaign designers. Further, after importing content, you can customize it for your unique campaign.

NOTE: In campaigns, the importing content functionality is exclusive to the Message step. You can also import content when creating and editing messages.

You can import content into the following campaigns.

• Welcome
• Renewal
• Win Back (3-6 Months Lapsed Members)
• Win Back (7-24 Months Lapsed Members)
• Fundraising
• Event Promotion (Thrive Platform only)
• Community (Thrive Platform only)

When you import content, you're doing so from a Message step in the campaign, so:

• the content automatically aligns with its associated step and
• the tone and the amount of content are tailored for the associated step.

TIP: Learn how to import content into a campaign and then customize that content to make it unique to your campaigns.

Thrive Platform Campaign Starter Kits

Thrive Platform customers have additional Campaign Starter Kits that are designed specifically for online-community activities.

• The titles of these starter kits are prepended with THRIVE.
• On the Campaign Starter Kit selection dialog:
  • THRIVE - 90 Day Member Renewal is in the Renewal group of the dropdown.
  • The dropdown has an additional option, Community, which has several starter kits.

Import content into a campaign

This section describes how to import content in a Message step in a campaign.

NOTE: In campaigns, the import-content functionality is exclusive to Message steps.

You can import content in any Message step:

• when creating a campaign.
• when editing a campaign.
• in a Message step that already has a message (via the Edit Mailing option).
• in a Message step does not already have a message (via the "copy" and "create" options in the dropdown).

The "import" process is identical in all of the above situations. Note, however, that the Send Mail Options dialog might display differently and present different options depending on the above factors.

NOTE: The example in this section uses the Create New MD2 Message option to add a message to a Message step and then import the relevant content.

To import content:

1. Click a Message step in the campaign canvas (e.g., [First Name], Get Started!).

2. On the Send Mail Options dialog:

• Change the name of the message (optional).
• Click the dropdown and select Create New MD2 Message.

• Click Create.

A popup message indicates that the campaign will be saved and that you are being routed to Message Designer; click Continue.

Campaign Message Designer opens on the template-selection page.

3. Choose a template as the basis for your new message.

4. On the Design Message tab, click Add Content and select a content layout.

NOTE: Content can be imported into the following layouts only: Text, Text with Headline, Image with Text, News Item, and News Story with Button.

5. In the Text Properties panel that opens on the left, click the down-arrow icon (Import Content) in the toolbar to open the Import Content dialog.

6. On the left side of the Import Content dialog:

• • Click a Campaign Type to expand it and display its message options.
  • Click a message name to preview its content in the right panel.

NOTE: The name of the message that you select (e.g., Welcome Email 3) will populate the subject line of the message. You can customize when you return to Campaign Designer.

7. Click Insert to populate the message with the content. (Click Close to cancel.)

The content of the message that you selected displays in the:

• Text Properties panel editor and
• the message preview on the canvas.

8. Review the imported content and manage it as described in the next section.

Customize imported content

Despite being crafted by Higher Logic, the content that you import can be customized to suit your organization's messages and campaigns — in fact, we recommend it!

Before activating a campaign into which you have imported content, review the imported content in the the Text Properties panel editor, and:

• Edit/re-write the text, as necessary, to align with your organization's preferred "voice" and nomenclature.
• Verify and/or replace any text that references "important" information, such as event names, dates and times, contact information, website links, registration-page links, peoples' names.

NOTE: This is not a comprehensive list. This is why it's important to review the content and make any changes that are necessary in order to ensure that campaign messages have accurate and up-to-date information.

• Review the highlighted text passages and manage the information as described below.

Manage highlighted imported content

The highlighted text passages indicate content that Higher Logic is intentionally calling out and recommending that you replace with your organization's personalizations and/or links and other information.

NOTE: If your account is integrated with an AMS/CRM database, use your integrated personalization options when inserting personalization values.

Other highlighted text passages are prompts to get you thinking strategically about what you want to include in your messages and campaigns. For example:

>>Identify something that only dues-paying members have access to.<<

...is text that you might see highlighted after importing content. Upon reading it, it's clear that this is a prompt for you to add text about a membership-based feature or perk.

TIP: Higher Logic uses this type of content to give you a little friendly nudge and to make your messages and campaigns more appealing, more effective, and more successful.

Review as you work

As you customize the imported content and other text in the editor, your changes display in real time in the content layout on the canvas.

Use this preview to ensure that your content (text, personalizations, formatting) looks exactly how you want it to look.

Related articles

• Campaign Designer Overview provides a comprehensive overview of Campaign Designer with a focus on its features, tools, and navigations aids.
• Campaign Steps and Connectors describes the steps, how to add and position them, and how to use the connectors.