Features by Screen: Autopilot 

Autopilot Tab

The Autopilot Tab is where you’ll create all your marketing sequences. Anything pre-scheduled, like a monthly newsletter, will also be organized here. Also, all Active Response rules will be created and edited from this tab.

Sequences

Sequences are at the heart of your marketing automation program. Sequences are a series of steps that a contact is taken through. The steps can be an automatically delivered communication to the contact (emails, postcards, etc.) or a reminder to you or someone else in your company to call the contact or to perform some other task. Each step is completed on a time-released schedule of your own design.

Contacts will begin to ‘receive’ the steps in a sequence as soon as they’re subscribed to it. A contact can be subscribed to a sequence in several ways, which we’ll get into later. Although fundamentally all sequences work the same way (automatically performing actions - or ‘steps’ - on a pre-arranged schedule) we've created two different types of sequences that are scheduled a bit differently from each other and are used for different purposes. They are Step Sequences and Date Sequences.

Sequence Information

Both Step Sequences and Date Sequences have a "Sequence Information" area which is right at the top of the screen when you're creating either type of sequence. This is simply the place where you indicate some basic information about the sequence you're creating.

• Name: This is the name of the sequence for your internal use. Name it something memorable, while observing the our recommended "Naming Conventions" so as to keep your system all clean and organized
• Public Name & Public Description: This is the name of the sequence as it will appear when people click "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of an email (God forbid!) and are taken to the "Subscription Modification" page. Here they'll see a list of all the sequences they're subscribed to, along with a description of each. They're also given the option to unsubscribe from all, or just those they no longer wish to receive. This is your chance to 'sell' them on the value the information that you're sending through the sequence in order to keep them from unsubscribing from it.
• Unsubscribe after Last Step (only found in Step Sequences, because there is no real "last step" per se, with date sequences, since steps fall in individualized chronologies for different contacts, due to the fact that they're scheduled around variable dates like birthdays and anniversaries): This is simply where you indicate whether you'd like someone to stay on the sequence after the last step is sent, or to have them removed from it. The choice is yours, but it can be a very good idea to let people stay on a sequence forever, so that they're not accidentally resubscribed to the sequence later (which can be annoying for them, and embarrassing for you: imagine getting a bunch of "Buy our thing" type emails after you've already bought it. Total rookie maneuver.). Leaving people subscribed to a sequence can also be a good way to segment your list, and quickly see if they've received certain communications.
• Run this sequence on Weekdays only: Pretty clear. Some believe that emails sent on weekends are less effective because people aren't at work when they receive them. You can further customize the scheduling for step sequences below in the 'Schedule Step' area per each step.
• Show on Unsub. page: When checked, this will show the sequence on the Unsubscribe page so that if they choose to, your contacts can opt-out of it. You should check this for all marketing type sequences, however, if there's vital information that customers must get in order to fully make use of a product they've already purchased, or say, emails letting them know about the time/date of a webinar they've signed up for, then you should leave this unchecked so they don't accidentally opt-out of it.

Step Sequences

We called the first type “Step Sequences”. If you’re familiar with the auto-responder, or drip email concept, this one works the way you’re used to. Sequences start on ‘day 0’ when the contact is subscribed to the sequence. Every contact always starts at the first step, and moves step by step through the sequence based on their original subscription date. So, a contact recently subscribed to a sequence may be on step 1 or 2,

while someone subscribed weeks ago will be much further along in the process. In Step sequences, everyone starts at day 0 when they’re first subscribed to the sequence, and will get each step in order after that. Steps are scheduled in ‘days from the previous step’. Now, if the first step

goes out on day 0 (which is immediately) and the next step is scheduled for five days later, well, that second step will go out on the fifth day. If the third step is scheduled for five days after that, the third step will go out on the 10^th day from when they were subscribed, and so on.

Scheduling Steps in a Step Sequence 

1. Fill out the ‘days from last step’ field. (If you want a step to go out immediately after the contact is subscribed to the sequence, leave 0 in the first field and ‘immediately’ in the time spot.)
2. Choose what day(s) you'd like the step to fire on. This is useful for marketing recurring weekly events and you can learn all about using this scheduling feature here.
3. Choose the time of day it will go out. (If you leave the time blank, it will go out at 10am, local time.)

Date Sequences

With Date Sequences, all contacts subscribed receive the steps based on the date you have scheduled the step around, NOT based on when they were subscribed. So instead of scheduling steps starting at ‘day 0’ and then moving on from there, the steps are scheduled around one of two kinds of dates.  

Specific Date

A Specific Date is fixed on the calendar, like January 1^st, 2012, say, for a “Happy New Years” promotion.

Specific Event (Variable Date)

Specific Events (Variable Dates) are any dates that vary from person to person. Birthdays are the classic example of this, first purchase date is another great and useful example.

Imagine that you want to send an email to everyone on your list for their birthday. All you have to do is set up a new Date Sequence, and add just one step scheduled to go out on or near each contact’s birthday.   You can schedule Date Sequences around any field in a Contact Record that’s a date. For example, you might want to send purchase anniversary emails.

Scheduling Steps in a Date Sequence

1. Choose either a specific date (fixed) from the calendar, including year, OR a Specific Event (variable on a person-by-person basis) which appear on the right.
2. Use the slider underneath to set the step to go out some number of days before or after the date you chose above.
3. Click 'Advanced' and two more scheduling options will be revealed.
4. Check the box if you'd like the step to repeat every year (for say, "Happy Birthday" or "Happy Purchase Anniversary" type communications).
5. Below, indicate if you'd like to have months or years added to your scheduling (to have a step go out, say, 1 year and 11 months after their purchase date, letting 'em know it's time to purchase new batteries to keep the whizbang they bought from your company working perfectly).
6. Indicate what time of day you'd like the step to go out.

Adding Steps

Adding Email Steps

1. Start by clicking the ‘Add Email’ button.
2. Schedule the step (which will go differently, depending on whether it’s a date sequence or a step sequence, but we cover that in the section on scheduling steps).
3. Next, you’ll create or import the message you want to use. From the top down, you’ll first see the Split Testing A/B/C/D option (if you’re a Habanero, Pro OR OfficeAutopilot user). This is for creating alternate versions of a given email step in order to perform a ‘Split Test’ to learn which ‘pulls’ the best response. Watch a video that'll teach you all about creating a split test of your emails within a sequence.
4. Next is the ‘Select Stored Message’. This dropdown box will have all your messages from the Message Library, which you can select to load into the editor below. Note that you need to wait for the screen to FULLY load before you select a stored message, otherwise it may not load properly. NOTE: If you update the message in the message library after loading the message, you will need to reload the message in the sequence.
5. Next, there’s a dropdown to select WHO the email will be sent from. The default is the ‘contact owner’ but you can select anyone in the organization with this field (if you’re a multi-seat OfficeAutopilot user). 
6. Then, it’s all the basics you’re familiar with. From top down, it’s Subject line, email WYSIWYG editor for the HTML version, the merge field selector, and the Insert Hosted Image button. 
7. Then you can copy the HTML version to create the plain text version of your email, and finally at the bottom, you can add an attachment to the email. Note that if you pull in an email from the Message Library that already has an attachment on it, the attachment will show up here in the sequence as well. Then there’s the “save step” button. If you run into questions about this part, look at the section on ‘Sending Email’ in the Contacts Tab section, above, or watch the video here.
8. When you’re done editing, remember to save the changes to the email step with the "save" button at the bottom. If you’re done editing the sequence,                                               

Adding Postcard Steps 

You must first have created the postcard you'd like to use in the sequence.

Adding postcard steps is done the same way as email steps, except that you must select a postcard from the dropdown box. You can even split test your postcards to see which gets a better response!

Adding Task Type Steps

[Note: SendPepper Pro and above only]

Tasks are how you get people involved in your process. Whether they’re company employees, outsourced vendors or assistants, OfficeAutopilot can automate the process of tasking them with work and ensuring that it gets done on time.

First, create a Task Step and schedule it per the instructions above, in the section about scheduling a sequence. 

When you click [edit] in the Subject/Body section, you’ll see a simpler interface that looks like a text-email field. In fact, that’s exactly what it is.  This is where you’ll describe the work that the recipient needs to get done. For example, you might write something like this: 

Topic

New Lead Notification – Please Call ASAP

Details of your Task

New Lead: [First Name] [Last Name] Please call asap at [Office Phone] or email at [EMail]. They found us via [Lead Source].

Here’s a script: Blah blah blah. 

Note: Be sure to disposition this lead once they’ve been contacted. Mark task complete when contact is made or message is left.

Notification and Other Options

The third section in a task step is the Other Options. This is a very important section, because it’s where you decide who’s going to get this task, how they’ll be notified, and more.

1. Set Task Owner

You can assign the task to anyone inside the organization, any ‘role’ in the organization, or to the contact’s record owner. Since this requires the use of multiple seats, you must be an OfficeAutopilot customer for this.

2. Who’s going to be notified about this task and how

Check as many boxes as you’d like.

-Task Owner's to do list: This just has the task show up in the the task tab.

-Send an email to task owner.

-Send an email to someone else. This allows you to delegate! Any email sent out will have a ‘click here when task is complete’ link at the bottom of the email. When the recipient clicks it, they’ll be taken to a page where they can add notes about the task, such as what happened on the call. Those notes will be appended to the task in the Contact Log for that contact.

-Send a cell phone alert to someone.

 3. Pause the whole sequence until this task is marked complete

Note that subsequent steps will be sent based on when this task is completed. That is, if the next step is scheduled to go five days later, it will go five days after the task is completed, not after it was assigned (when 'pause until task is complete' is checked).

 4. Set task type

You can create different task types, each of which can have its own unique characteristics and abilities for slick follow-up. Learn about creating different task types here.

Adding Fulfillment List Steps

[Note: SendPepper Pro and above only]

Fulfillment lists are actually another kind of task, but they are meant to manage offline steps in groups.

Add Fulfillment List Steps here.

Adding Rule Steps

Rule steps are actually just like Active Response triggers (which are explained in detail below) except instead of running ALL the time, they only run when they’re scheduled to run in the sequence. They only affect those contacts who meet the conditions (or criteria) you've set for the rule at the very moment the contact hits that step.

This is useful in lots of ways. Sometimes, it’s just convenient to create a rule in a sequence as opposed to globally, in Active Response. Other times, it’s the only way to get something done.

For example, if you want to automatically subscribe a contact to a second sequence at the end of another, you’d add a rule as the last step in that first sequence, subscribing them to the new sequence.  For details on how to use Active Response, see the section on it below in sequences, it works just about the same.  The only difference is that there’s no ‘when should this rule be triggered’ part in the rule. The rule will always trigger according to the step schedule.  Note that if you want to create a rule that’s triggered from when a contact clicks a link in an email, that email MUST have been created in, and be stored in the message library.

1. Schedule step as usual.

2. Enter a short description of this rule for your reference.

3. What are the conditions of this response? In other words, what must be TRUE about the contact's record in order for this rule to affect them?

4. What should happen?

Adding Voice Step

We integrate with VoiceShot, which allows you to automate the calling of your contacts to leave them (or their answering machine) with a pre-created message. This message can be either in your own voice, or a computerized (but quite good) artificial voice. You record the messages and set up the actual voice campaigns in VoiceShot, and we show you how to do that in the video, here.

These are great for following up with prospects who’ve, say, signed up for a free trial, but who haven’t used it yet, or for reminding clients or patients of upcoming appointments, automatically.

To schedule a voice step, you must: 

1. Create campaigns with www.VoiceShot.com.

2. Add the campaigns to your OfficeAutopilot system using the VoiceShot Admin link in the Admin area. To watch the video that will teach you how to do both of these steps, click here.

3. You would indicate when you want the step to go out.

4. Then select the Voice Campaign you want to use.

5. Type in a description of the campaign: maybe it’s “Dr. Stohl appointment reminder” or “Free-Trial Follow up”.

6. Select your phone number priority. Since you may have several phone numbers for your contacts, you’ll need to select which one you want it to use. If you want to have the system call multiple numbers for each contact, you can indicate this easily by clicking on the ‘Add another number’ link and then choosing which other number you’d like it to call.

7. Next, indicate whether you’ll be using ‘TTS’ or Text-to-speech, as opposed to a recorded message of your actual voice. If you’ve indicated that you’ll be using a campaign that’s got a “TTS” message written for it, you’ll see it appear in that box.

8. Finally, save the step. As with every step in every sequence, you should definitely test this out on yourself BEFORE you let this loose on your contacts. Trust us.

Sequence Details

When you click anywhere on the sequence row, you'll be able to view a number of different useful details and statistics about it, including...

Steps in the Sequence

This includes all kinds of details about all the various steps in the sequence and all the different versions of each step, including...

Steps

This is the step number in chronological order.

Step Types

This is what type of step it is (Email, Postcard, Task, Rule, Voice Broadcast, Fulfillment List).

Emails Sent

This is the total number of emails sent per this step.

Emails Delivered

This is the total number of emails delivered and the percentage of how many got delivered out of the total number sent. We calculate this by how many were sent minus how many emails bounced.

Emails Opened

This is the percentage of emails that got opened out of the total number that were successfully delivered. [Note: "email opens" are only trackable at around 50% accuracy (why?).]

Emails Clicked

This is the percentage of emails that had links clicked out of the total number of emails sent. 

Unsubscribed

This is the percentage of people who clicked on the "Unsubscribe" link at the bottom of the email and then opted-out of the sequence out of the total number of emails sent. 

Complaints

This is the percentage of people who complained about receiving the email you sent.

Active Response 

The Active Response system is an event-triggered system that makes incredibly sophisticated and flexible marketing and business automation possible. The possibilities are nearly infinite for how you can use Active Response to trick out your marketing.

This section is meant to give you a broad overview of how Active Response works and get your mind to start working out how you could use the system in your own business. We’ll be creating “Use-Case” type videos in the future to give you some ideas of specific ways to use the Active Response system.

With Active Response, you can create rules that are triggered when specified events occur. Once triggered, the Active Response rule then performs some action of your choosing.

Rules can be triggered by all kinds of events – just about anything that changes a contact record in any way. From email opens to web page visits, just about anything you can think of can trigger an active response rule. (If a particular trigger isn’t obviously available in the rule wizard, let us know! We’ll show you how to do it, or else we can probably make it happen.)

The triggers are:

You can get even more specific about who the actions get triggered for by using Conditions. There are things that must ‘also be true’ in order for a specific rule to apply to someone.

The possible conditions are:

The actions that ActiveResponse can trigger are also many:

With the creative use of Active Response and Sequences, the goal of truly automating marketing with precision message targeting becomes possible. 

Example: Jordan visited your website nine months ago and requested information on your wizbang gizmo. He wasn’t ready to buy then, but he has been receiving your monthly newsletter ever since.

Now, he’s suddenly had a change of financial fortunes and is ready to buy. Re-energized, he begins his search again. OfficeAutopilot is watching. Today, Jordan visited your site for the third time in a week, this time to download the gizmo spec sheet. This download triggered an Active Response rule that caused the following: 1. Jordan is automatically subscribed to your ‘hot prospect’ Sequence. A much more aggressive Sequence, Jordan is now mailed a postcard each week for the next eight weeks. 2. Jordan is sent a one-time personalized email – not a glossy newsletter, but a basic text-only message that looks like it was personally written – offering to help him in any way, signed by his sales rep.

But Active Response isn’t done. OfficeAutopilot notices, three days later, that Jordan hasn’t opened that email. Perhaps he’s not an email guy, or his address has changed – who knows?

Whatever the reason, a potentially valuable communication cannot be missed. Jordan’s failure to open that email triggers Active Response to alert his salesperson that Jordan needs a phone call.

This timely response to Jordan’s renewed interest makes all the difference in the world.

Create an Active Response Rule

To create an Active Response rule, click the Add New Rule button in the upper right hand corner of the Active Response pane. Active Response is at the bottom of the Autopilot Tab.

First, name your rule. Best to give it a descriptive name (For example, “put 3 time visitors on ‘Hot Sequence’,” not “Rule 1”) because as you create more and more rules, you’ll want to be able to find and edit them easily.

Then just follow the three step wizard.

Step One: The Event that Triggers Active Response

The first step is to determine what event will trigger the rule. Click the button to add an event. Look over the list of available events and select one from the dropdown box.

Currently, the options are:

Then click the word or words that are [red] and bracketed. You’ll see how this works as you do it. Make your selection and click Save.

You can select as many events to trigger an action as you want, but understand any one of the events you select will trigger your rule. That is, the relationship between multiple selected events is ‘OR’ not ‘AND’.

Once you’ve determined the event that will trigger your rule, move down to Conditions.

Step Two: The Conditions of the Response

Step two is to describe any conditions of the rule. Think of this step as the ‘only if’ step. That is, think to yourself, ‘run this rule when the event in step 1 occurs, but ONLY IF the conditions in step 2 are met’.

Currently, the available conditions are:

You might use conditions when you want an Active Response rule to only apply to contacts that are subscribed to a certain sequence, or that have a particular tag. Or perhaps you only want to apply the rule to newer contacts, or only older ones.

Add conditions the same way as you did in the first step by clicking the button, then clicking the bracketed red words and choosing values from the dropdown window. Continue adding as many conditions as you’d like, but remember that ALL the conditions must be met for a rule to trigger, not just one of them. This is the opposite of step one, where ANY event would trigger a rule.

Of course, you don’t have to add any conditions at all if you’d like to the rule to apply to everyone in your database. In that case, just leave the Conditions section blank, and click Continue.

Step Three: The Action Performed

The last step is to tell Active Response what should happen when a rule is triggered (and any conditions are met). This will usually be to subscribe or unsubscribe a contact to a sequence, add a tag to the contact (or remove one), or edit a particular field in the Contact Record though there are other options you’ll use sometimes.

Like all the other steps, just click the , choose the action you’d like taken from the dropdown box and then fill in the variable words (bracketed and red). Be sure to click Save and Finish when you’re done, and that’s all there is to it!

Currently, the available actions are:

Remember help is always available if you get stuck with the Active Response system. Just click yellow Help link in the upper right-hand of your window for your options.

Active Response Example: We like to know when people are downloading our whitepapers, because we figure that at least those are real people on the other end that have some interest in marketing. We don’t assume that they’re a hot lead, but still, we want to know.

So, we’ve set up trackable links (see the section on trackable links elsewhere) for each of our papers. That way, we know whenever an identified visitor downloads a paper. Virtually all visitors are identified because we only give access to the download page in an email that says ‘click here to download the papers you requested’. When they click that link, of course, we identify them.

FAQs

Some questions we've heard...

"What if I don't have a birthday for someone in my list and they get subscribed to the birthday sequence?"

"How can I set up an email or sequence to be recurring?"

"What if I add a step to a sequence that's already got a number of steps in it? What will happen to my contacts?"

"What if I leave the scheduled time blank for a step?"

"I pulled a message into one of my sequences. I then updated the message in the library, but the message in my sequence still has the old version."

"How do I subscribe or unsubscribe my contacts to sequences?"

"I have contacts subscribed to a birthday sequence, but the steps are not firing. Why not?"

"How do I set up a Rule in a sequence to stop someone from hitting a future step?"

"Can I set up sequences to send text/sms messages to my prospects and clients?"

"On date sequences, I need to offset the date in order to send out a reminder. I want it to go out 1 month before an expiration date. Does 1 month mean the same day a month earlier, or does it mean 30 days before?"

"The steps of my date sequence are appearing out of order. Will they still fire when they are supposed to?"

"How do I tag a sequence?"

"I need to make a sequence based off of when someone doesn't do an action (like doesn't click an email link), but there's obviously no rule triggers for when someone doesn't do something. How can I set this up?"

 "How come my step sequence didn't fire?"

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