Learning Resources: FAQs S

Sequences- Date

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

If you don’t have the birthday (or whatever field you scheduled the sequence around) for a particular contact, the step will be skipped for that contact so you needn’t worry.

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

It will fire the next time 10:00 a.m. comes around.

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

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

There are several ways to subscribe a contact to a sequence.

Automatically

• SmartForms: SmartForms can be set up to automatically subscribe anyone who fills out the online form to a Sequence(s) of your choice. For more about SmartForms™, see page 24. 
• Active Response rules [Note: OfficeAutopilot only]: To automatically subscribe or unsubscribe contacts to sequences based on all kinds of events or actions.

Manually

• One at a time: Navigate to the Contact Details page for the contact you want to subscribe and scroll down to the Sequences and Tags section. Click 'Sequences', then check the boxes to the left of any you’d like to subscribe the contact to, and click 'save'. Unsubscribe by checking boxes on the right of the sequences you want them taken off of.
• More than one at a time (or an entire group): Select the group from the main Contact screen

Then…

To subscribe all in the group: Just select (in the 'Group Actions' pane at the bottom of the contacts screen) ‘All in Group’ and then click the "Subscribe to Sequence" button.

To subscribe just some of the Contacts:  Click the check box next to each contact you want to subscribe and then choose ‘Selected’ (in the Group Actions pane) and click the "Subscribe to Sequence" button.

There are a couple of different ways to unsubscribe a contact from a sequence:

1. Manually in the Contacts Tab:

1. One Contact at a time—from that contact’s details in the section called 'Sequences and Tags.'

2. A whole group or with multiple contacts checked by using the 'Subscribe/Unsubscribe Sequence' option under 'More Options' in the 'Group Actions' bar.

1. Automatically

1. You can set up an Active Response rule that causes a contact to be removed from a sequence if any number of conditions (that you choose) are met.

2. You can schedule a rule step within a sequence, which unsubscribes a contact from a sequence if the conditions of the rule are met. Note that this differs from when that rule step goes out.

3. When creating a sequence, you can select the box, “Unsubscribe after last step” which will do just that.

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

More often than not, this is because the step is not set to fire every year. This can be done by clicking the "Advanced" link under the calendar used to schedule steps in your date sequences. Once you click the link, there should be a check box labeled "Run this step every year". For any sequence or step you want to fire based on a recurring date (birthday, anniversary, renewal date, etc), you'll want to make sure this box is checked as it tells our system to only look at the month and day and ignore the year when choosing when to fire 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."

Updates to messages in the library do not currently update sequences automatically. The reasoning behind this is that messages in the library can be pulled into multiple sequences or can be used for broadcasts and a simple change for a one off email does not necessarily need to be changed in the sequences as well. If you intend to have these changes reflected in your sequence(s), you'll want to pull the message in the(se) sequence(s) as well.

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

When you edit/create a new step in a date sequence, the order of steps on the left is not arranged in the order in which they will fire (as opposed to a step sequence) but instead in the order of type of step i.e. postcard step, rule step, task step etc. These steps, despite being out of sequential order, will still fire on the date and time that they are scheduled to.

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?

1 month is one calendar month. So, if you have an email set to fire 1 month before a contact's expiration date (which happens to be August 13th), the email will go out on July 13th.

Sequences- Step

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

[Note: OfficeAutiopilot only]

Here's how to create a sequence that repeats daily (or weekly or monthly, but in this example we'll show you how to do it for a daily recurring sequence). This is a two-part process.

1. Create a unique tag. We will use the tag "Daily Email Reminder" for the example.
2. Create the sequence. We will use the name "Daily Reminder Sequence" for the example.
3. In the sequence, the first step should be a rule that removes the tag "Daily Email Reminder" Don't worry that you haven't yet tagged. Set the step to fire immediately.
4. The next step is the daily email (or any other step type for that matter) with the time of day you would like it to fire.
5. The last step of the sequence is a rule that adds the tag "Daily Email Reminder" to the contact on their way out of the sequence. (set to go off immediately after the previous step).
6. Important Note: Be sure to check the "Unsubscribe after last step" box in the sequence.
7. Next, create an active response rule with the criteria,
1. "When the contact leaves the "Daily reminder Sequence" and they have the tag "Daily Email Reminder", then subscribe them to the sequence "Daily reminder Sequence."

Here is an example of how that active response rule will look:

1. When should this response be triggered? When contact leaves "Daily Reminder Sequence."
2. What are the conditions of the response? Is in (the tag) "Daily Email Reminder."
3. What Should Happen? Assign the contact to "Daily Reminder Sequence."
4. Once those steps are complete, subscribe the contact to the "Daily Reminder Sequence"  and you're all set to go.

"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?"

Imagine this scenario: You have a sequence with 10 subscribers. One was just subscribed today, and one has been subscribed for a year, and the others are scattered in between. There were only three steps in your sequence, occurring on day 0, day 5, and day 7. Today, you add another step to the sequence for day 15. Here’s what’s going to happen: everyone who’s been subscribed 15 days or longer will receive the new, day 15 step as soon as the scheduled time comes around – even if they’ve been subscribed for a year. The others will receive it when they hit day 15 as you'd expect.

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

It will fire the next time 10:00 a.m. comes around.

"How do I tag a sequence?"

Just click on the NAME of a sequence (not on the magnifying glass). It will drop down the sequence stats (which are GREAT to reference, by the way), and RIGHT below the name of the sequence will be 'Seq. Tags.'. Click on it and it will let you create new tags, and add tags to the seq.

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

There are several ways to subscribe a contact to a sequence.

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

"Immediate" steps fire either upon subscription or 10:00:am every day. If the contacts were already subscribed and the sequence was paused, the step won't fire till the next day at 10:00 am. This exists so that people who are too lazy to set a time on their steps don't wind up with all their e-mails going out at midnight every day.

Automatically

• SmartForms: SmartForms can be set up to automatically subscribe anyone who fills out the online form to a Sequence(s) of your choice. For more about SmartForms™, see page 24. 
• Active Response rules [Note: OfficeAutopilot only]: To automatically subscribe or unsubscribe contacts to sequences based on all kinds of events or actions.

Manually

• One at a time: Navigate to the Contact Details page for the contact you want to subscribe and scroll down to the Sequences and Tags section. Click 'Sequences', then check the boxes to the left of any you’d like to subscribe the contact to, and click 'save'. Unsubscribe by checking boxes on the right of the sequences you want them taken off of.
• More than one at a time (or an entire group): Select the group from the main Contact screen

Then…

To subscribe all in the group: Just select (in the 'Group Actions' pane at the bottom of the contacts screen) ‘All in Group’ and then click the "+ More Actions" link and then "Subscribe to Sequence".

To subscribe just some of the Contacts:  Click the check box next to each contact you want to subscribe and then choose ‘Selected’ (in the Group Actions pane) and then click the "+ More Actions" link and then "Subscribe to Sequence".

There are a couple of different ways to unsubscribe a contact from a sequence:

1. Manually in the Contacts Tab:

1. One Contact at a time—from that contact’s details in the section called 'Sequences and Tags.'

2. A whole group or with multiple contacts checked by using the 'Subscribe/Unsubscribe Sequence' option under 'More Options' in the 'Group Actions' bar.

1. Automatically
   

1. You can set up an Active Response rule that causes a contact to be removed from a sequence if any number of conditions (that you choose) are met.

2. You can schedule a rule step within a sequence, which unsubscribes a contact from a sequence if the conditions of the rule are met. Note that this differs from when that rule step goes out.

3. When creating a sequence, you can select the box, “Unsubscribe after last step” which will do just that.

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

"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."

Updates to messages in the library do not currently update sequences automatically. The reasoning behind this is that messages in the library can be pulled into multiple sequences or can be used for broadcasts and a simple change for a one off email does not necessarily need to be changed in the sequences as well. If you intend to have these changes reflected in your sequence(s), you'll want to pull the message in the(se) sequence(s) as well.

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?

For rules like this, you'll want to setup the original sequence assuming that people will not do the action and then create rules to remove them from the sequence when they take the action. For example. Have a sequence that sends out an email with a link to your site. 10 Days later have a second step set to follow up with people who didn't click the link. Next, create an Active Response rule that removes them from the sequence if they click the link. Because the rule is an Active Response rule, it will fire globally (regardless of when they actually click the link), so as long as they do it before that second email is set to fire, they won't get the follow up bugging them to check out your webpage.

Segmenting (Groups)

"I'm confused. What's the difference between tags and groups?"

The difference between tags and groups is fairly simple. Tags are additional flags you can put on your customers that aren't covered in other fields. Tags can be something like "prospect", "client", "former customer", etc. Tags make it easy to send marketing material to one type of contact. Groups, on the other hand, are essentially like setting up a quick search. It allows you to filter your contact list based on one or more fields. You can create a group based on the value of a field, such as 'State equals California' or 'Tag equals prospect'. 

Settings

"Hey! Why did my home address show up at the bottom of my outgoing emails?!"

Shipping Labels

Why are my Shipping Labels not able to be opened or are blank? The packing slips and fulfillment CSV still open...

SmartForms

"How can I post your form to Facebook?"

Currently just copying/pasting the form code does not work in Facebook. We are working on a future work around for this, stay tuned!

"How can I set it up so that the thank you page on my form opens in a new tab?"

This can't be done in our editor, unfortunately, however you can accomplish the same thing by editing the HTML version of the SmartForm code. You're going to want to find the section of the code that looks something like this:

<form class="moonray_forms" action="http://moonraymarketing.com/form_processor.php?" method="post" onsubmit="return checkForm765(this);">

You're simply going to want to add this bit of code onto the end: target="_blank" before the >, so it looks like this when you're done:

<form class="moonray_forms" action="http://moonraymarketing.com/form_processor.php?" method="post" onsubmit="return checkForm765(this);" target="_blank">

"Why can't I click on a field to type in information on a SmartForm located on a landing page?"

More often than not, the reason behind this issue is that during the creation of the landing page one of the layers overlapped part or all of a field on your SmartForm. The way to check this out would be to go into your landing page editor for the page in question, then begin clicking on layers one after another and making sure that the adjustable orange lines don't overlap any other fields or layers. If they do, you'll want to resize and position the affected layer so that it no longer overlaps and still looks good.

"I'm getting a lot of "junk" form fillouts from what I assume are bots. How can I stop this?"

You can help decrease the amount of bot sign-ups by using a Captcha image. These are the random sets of characters you sometimes are required to enter at the bottom of forms. You can enable these by clicking the "Identity Captcha Image" checkbox on your SmartForm editor screen. Captcha will greatly decrease the amount of "junk" fillouts you see (if not completely eliminate them), but may also reduce the number of legitimate fillouts you get as some users are hesitant to take the extra step.  It's just something to keep in mind.

"Is there a way to change the font size on a SmartForm?"

Yes, I will walk you through the steps. You will have to use the "Pure HTML SmartForm" code type.

Click on the magnifying glass of the form you wish to use and change. You will notice towards the top of the "Pure HTML SmartForm" the text that looks like this: <form action="http://moonraymarketing.com/form_processor.php?" id="moonray_forms_179" method="post" >

This is where you can add the code to change the text size. The formatting is as follows

style="font-size:24px;"

In this case, the font size would be 24.

An example of what the code should look like is here:

<form action="http://moonraymarketing.com/form_processor.php?" id="moonray_forms_179" method="post" style="font-size:24px;">

"I want to drive people to a landing page via a PURL and show them a form that already has their contact info filled out. How?"

"Why when I set the Thank You page to the same page using the drop down selector and the form is filled out I get the new information but an old lead disappears?"

It's because when a Thank you page is selected using the drop down menu it makes the thank you page a PURL, and if a form is filled out on that PURL it's going to update the information of the contact record associated with that PURL.

Here's an example:

You've just handed Sam a big pile of people who have opted in at the latest conference and you need them all added to the system. In order to make Sam's job easier you have created a landing page with a SmartForm on it, to make it even easier you got clever and set the thank you page to be the same page (the landing page with the form on it). This way Sam only has to fill out the form, hit submit, and fill it out again, flawless right? Wrong, it's going to take the first person Sam fills out the form for and update their information over and over because the system believes it's the same person given that their visiting that PURL.

The best way to correct this would be to manually type in the URL of the page to avoid the system making it a PURL, now Sam is able to mindlessly enter contacts into your system all day without having to ever type in the URL!

"I'm using the HTML version of my form and I'd like to change the text color for the whole table without having to edit each individual cell. How do I do this?"

Near the beginning of the "editable" (not edible) part of your form code, you should have the table declaration (it looks like <table>). In here is where you can add the code to change the text color. You'll just need to add the following chunk of code between the "e" and ">" of the table declaration; style="color: [text color];" (where [text color] is the color of the text. For example, if you want the color of the text on your smartform to be blue, you would have the following table tag.

<table style="color: blue;">

[table code]

Split Testing

"How do I split test my postcards?"

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