Virtuous Automation is the engine behind Virtuous Marketing. By successfully using Automated Workflows, your team can reach more of your Donors. Your conversations, asks, and relationships can be more personalized and valuable without having to add more work to your plate. This article will cover what an Automated Workflow is, the parts of an Automated Workflow, and how it works by walking through a specific example.
Table of Contents
- What is an Automated Workflow?
- How Does an Automated Workflow Work?
- Sample Workflow
- Recommended Resources
What is an Automated Workflow?
Virtuous Automation is made up of Workflows. A Workflow, at its most basic, is a script, or recipe, of Steps and Actions for Virtuous to perform automatically. Workflows may be either Contact-based or Individual-based, but never both. Each Automated Workflow may contain one or more Steps, each of which is tied to a Query. In the example below, there are three columns, each representing a Step. Within each Step, each line item represents an Action, or the actual activity Virtuous CRM will execute on your behalf.
How Does an Automated Workflow Work?
For Contact Workflows only Contact Queries are eligible to be used as matching criteria. For Individual Workflows only Individual Queries are eligible to be used as matching criteria.
Automated Workflows are designed to run once per day, every day, in the early morning. Every morning, Virtuous will run each Query associated with an Automated Workflow Step to determine which records meet the criteria. Records that match will be "enrolled" in the Automated Workflow. In many cases, a record will continue to be enrolled in an Automated Workflow as they make their way through an automated journey. The records that no longer meet the Query criteria will be unenrolled and no longer move forward in the automated process.
After a record in enrolled in a Step it will begin the Actions in the specific Step they qualify for. These Actions include activities like sending Marketing Emails, creating Tasks for Users, and even updating Tags and Custom Field values on records.
Sample Workflow
To illustrate this process, let's work through an example. In the Automated Workflow pictured below, there are three total Steps, which you can see laid out in three columns from left to right. The three main journeys established are "Nondonor", "First Time Donor", and "Recurring Donor".
Let's take a closer look at the first Step.
This Step is named "Nondonor". Below the name, you can see that this Step is connected to a Contact Query named "Nondonors - Best Practice Query" This is a very basic Contact query that simply looks for all Contacts who have never given a single Gift.
As an example to follow through the Automated Workflow process, let's say someone who has never donated and does not exist in your database submits their information via a Lead Form. The next day, you will see this submission available for review and import in the Gift and Contact Import Tool. Through the import process you will create a new Contact record for them.
The next morning, Virtuous will run the various Queries associated with your Automated Workflows, including the "Nondonor" Query associated with the "Nondonor" Step in this example. This new Contact record will be enrolled in this Automated Workflow Step because he matches the Query criteria. Virtuous will execute the first Action, which is to add the "Nondonor" Tag to the Contact record. The next Action will then be executed. In this example, the next Action would be sending out a Marketing Email.
The third Action is a "Delay" of seven days. This means the system will wait for seven days before moving to the subsequent Action. Seven days later, Virtuous will send the second Marketing Email to the Contact. As time continues, Virtuous will continue moving down the Step to execute the Actions.
Perhaps the Contact receives the second Marketing Email and the messaging motivates them to send their first donation within the 14 day Delay period. The next morning, you will have the Gift available to review and import in the Gift and Contact Import Tool.
After the import process is complete, the Contact record now has a Gift count of 1. The next time Automation is ran, this Contact will no longer match the criteria for the Nondonor Step in the example Automated Workflow. The Contact will NOT receive further Actions associated with the Nondonor Step.
In some Automated Workflows, this might be the end of the line. But this example has multiple Steps. Instead, this Contact will match the First-Time Donor Query criteria and therefor the First-Time Donor Step. The Contact query "First-time Donor - Best Practice Query" is looking for all Contacts who have made just one Gift. The Contact will begin working its way through the associated Actions.
The first Action Virtuous will execute is removal of the Nondonor Tag from the Contact record, addition of the "First-time Donor" Tag. Just as with the first Step, Virtuous will continue down the list of Actions as time continues and the Contact continues to match the Query criteria.
Recommended Resources
Getting started with Automated Workflows may seem a bit daunting. Thankfully, there are plenty of resources to lean on as your build your first Automated Workflows and maintain them moving forward!
- To review a full selection of Support Articles covering the various Workflow Actions available to automate, check out this Section of the Support Center.
- How to Start Building Your Automation Workflow
- How Do I Create an Automation Workflow?
- Virtuous Academy Course - Marketing Automation
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