Once you have activated a program there are a number of ways you can change the content and the workflow, depending on the state of the program. You should always pause a program before making any changes, to make sure that no contacts are being processed at the time.
See also: Editing launched emails.
If you are restricted from making the changes that you want to an active program, you always have the option to copy the program, make changes to the copy and then activate that. This will cause you to lose continuity in the reporting of the original program, but will not affect business-level reporting such as Smart Insight.
Copying an Automation Center program affects certain node types differently:
| Node Type | Result of Copying |
|---|---|
| Form | Selected forms are copied to the new program. No action is needed. |
| Send Email | A copy of the originally selected email campaign is created. |
| Wait | Settings are unchanged. No action is needed. |
| Send SMS | Selected SMS campaigns are copied into the new program. No action is needed. |
| Web channel |
The web channel campaign has to be reselected. If a web channel campaign is already used by another Automation Center program (the source of the copy), it cannot be reused in another program. |
| Mobile Engage push message | Selected Mobile Engage campaigns are copied into the new program. No action is needed. |
| CRM Ads - add to audience | The CRM audience has to be reselected. |
| CRM Ads - Remove from audience |
Selected CRM audiences are copied into the new program. No action is needed. |
| MessengerPeople |
The MessengerPeople campaign has to be reselected. |
| Direct Mail | Selected Direct Mail campaigns are copied into the new program. No action is needed. |
Changing your program's status
You can see how programs behave in different states in the following table:
| Status | Contacts can enter the program |
Contacts can finish their journey | You can make small adjustments to the program | You can change the structure of your program |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| In Design | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| In Testing | Yes* *It depends on the test configuration. |
Yes | Yes | Yes |
| In Testing (Frozen) | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Scheduled | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Active | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Finished | No | Yes | No | No |
| Paused* | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Frozen | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Fail-safe | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Abort | No | No | No | No |
*The status of Paused programs changes to Frozen after three days. Contacts cannot enter the program but they are queued and will enter it when you reactivate the program. Contacts will not advance in your program.
Making small adjustments to your program
You can make the following small adjustments to a program regardless of its status:
- Change the program’s name,
- Replace the campaigns (email, push, SMS, In-app or CRM Ads),
- Replace the segments used in your program,
- Modify the program’s schedule,
- Modify the settings of nodes (e.g. Update contact list),
- Modify the settings of the Wait node,
When you change the settings of a Wait node in Active, Scheduled, Paused and Frozen programs, the updates will not affect contacts already waiting at this node (they will proceed to the next node based on the original configuration). The updated schedule only applies to subsequent contacts arriving at the node.
If you set the Wait note to a later date, then you can align the contacts to follow the new schedule with the following workaround:
Suppose that the Wait node is set to Tuesday 9:00 AM and you change it to Tuesday 11:00 AM. To make sure that contacts at the Wait node will proceed to the next node at 11:00 AM, freeze your program after changing the Wait nodes settings and resume the program at 11:00 AM.
- disabling or enabling a channel node.
The changes come into effect right after you confirm and save them. As a result, contacts will continue their journey in the updated program.
Changing your program's structure
The limitations mentioned in this section apply to all program statuses except for In Design. You can modify programs the status of which is In Design without any restrictions.
You can change the structure of your program regardless of its status as follows:
- You can add new nodes to your program.
You can insert a new node between two others by dropping it on the arrow connecting the two nodes. You can delete newly added nodes by clicking the Undo icon (before saving your program) or by discarding your changes.
- You can connect nodes with other nodes and delete connections.
- You can delete a single or multiple nodes or even a whole branch from your program.
- You can create new paths and add new branches to A/B splitter nodes.
- You can link a program to another one by adding the Transfer to program node to it.
Notes:
- You cannot change the participation settings of your program.
- Nodes that are not connected to other nodes cannot be left on the canvas.
- After saving the changes, the most recent version of your program will be displayed on the Program Summary page regardless of the selected interval. If you set the timeframe to a time period before you modified the program, then 0 will be displayed above the newly added nodes.
Deleting nodes
- You can delete a single or multiple nodes or even a whole branch from your program. It’s more efficient to delete nodes instead of copying the program because you will not lose its participation and reporting data and you don’t need to bother with renaming the program, finishing the old program and activating the new one and the campaigns within the program will not be copied. Deleting nodes comes in handy in the following cases:
- When you wish to delete A/B splitter branches after finding the winning strategy.
- When you would like to fine-tune your channel strategy based on your contacts’ engagement level.
Important: Deleting nodes affect contacts as follows:
- Contacts currently at the node will exit the program immediately after clicking Save & Apply.
- When you delete a whole branch, all contacts on that branch will immediately exit the program.
- When you delete channel nodes, contacts who have already arrived at the node will receive the message but they won’t continue their journey.
- When you delete a Wait node, contacts waiting at that node will exit the program.
- Reporting reflects the program’s current status regardless of the selected timeframe. As a result, deleted nodes can cause discrepancies on the Program Summary page. For example, deleting a Filter switch or any other filter node may result in seemingly unexplainable differences between the number of contacts who continued their journey from the previous node (i.e. the figure displayed next to Out) and the number of contacts who arrived at the next node (i.e. the figure displayed next to In).
Notes: Please consider the following when deleting nodes:
- Changes will only apply after clicking Save & Apply.
- You cannot delete entry points. Even if you have multiple entry points within your program, you cannot delete them.
- To avoid losing contacts who have already arrived at the node you need to remove, you can add an A/B splitter node before the one to be deleted and set the corresponding branch to 0%. When you are sure there are no contacts at the node anymore, you can delete it along with the A/B splitter node and reconnect the remaining nodes.
- You cannot delete nodes in Aborted programs.
- When you accidentally insert a node into the journey, you can undo the change in Active, In Testing, Paused, Frozen, In Testing (Frozen) or Finished programs by clicking the Undo icon. Please note that you cannot undo the updates after changing the program’s status because the program is saved after changing the status.
Editing finished programs
Once a program has finished you will not be able to edit any part of it. If you want to reuse the program with some modifications, you will have to copy the program, modify it and then activate the copy.