Note: This article only applies to your community if your Firstup contract includes this functionality. Please contact your Customer Success Manager with any questions about feature availability for your community.

JOURNEY INSIGHTS - COMING SOON!

At the heart of any successful company is its workforce, and the way employees perceive their value within an organization significantly impacts their overall experience. One powerful method to demonstrate appreciation and foster engagement is by customizing their journey within the company, aligning with their individual needs and timelines. In this article, we delve into the concept of Journey Automation, a tool designed to automate personalized communication sequences, enriching the employee experience and driving meaningful engagement.

Understanding Journeys

Journey Automation is a versatile platform for Brand Super Admins to orchestrate individualized communication flows effortlessly. By seamlessly stringing together content, journeys enable administrators to extend next-level personalized content to every user who enters a journey. Before delving into the specifics, it's essential to differentiate between a campaign and a journey.

Campaign

• A singular, mass communication endeavor encompassing content, targeting (audience and/or topic), and delivery parameters.
• Primarily used for broadcasting group messages, such as company updates or newsletters, as well as posting to topics.

Journey

• Comprises one or more campaigns interconnected via event triggers and decision trees, facilitating tailored 1:1 communication experiences.
• Content is the only part of the campaign or template pulled into the journey. All Deliver page settings associated with the campaign or templates are ignored because the journey defines the audience and schedule.
• Empowers administrators to craft personalized journeys for individual employees, spanning various touchpoints like onboarding, promotions, training, and more.

Key components of Journeys

• Communication: Thoughtfully curate the content included in each communication step.
• Events: Initiate journeys based on specific data or user events such as registration or start date.
• Rules: Incorporate split logic, delays, and audience filters to tailor the journey flow.

Journeys Page

The Journeys page offers a comprehensive overview of all active, draft, and archived journeys, enabling easy monitoring and management. To access the Journeys page in Creator Studio, click the Journeys tab on the left-hand navigation menu.

On the Journeys page, every row provides an overview of each journey: name, date created, creator, status (active or draft), and the number of members currently in the journey. Here, you can search for Journeys in the list by the journey name, making it easy to find the one you are looking for. You can also use the filters to narrow your search even further. Clicking on a journey lets you view the journey flowchart and modify configurations for its individual steps. Clicking on a journey in an active state will also let you drill into journey metrics and journey engagement on a per-step basis. Additionally, clicking on the vertical ellipses also allows you to view and edit journeys, as well as archive or stop journeys according to your community's needs. Click Create on the left navigation menu and then select Journey or click the + Create Journey button on the Journeys page to create a new journey.

Filter Views

You will notice two tabs on the Journeys page: Current and Archived.

Current

Current contains a list of all journeys that are in the Active, Active with Draft, or Draft states (basically everything that is not archived). The filters here allow you to filter by:

• State: You can filter the list to only show Active or Draft as an example. So, if you wanted to just see active journeys, you could do so. Within the state filter, you will notice the following states:
  • Draft - This will list all journeys that are currently in a draft state.
  • Active - This will list all journeys that are currently in the Active state or Active with Draft state.
  • Processing - This will list all journeys that you have "Activated" but may still be "processing." For instance, if you add a lot of content with multiple videos, we have to process those videos. If you publish the journey before those videos have finished processing, the journey will enter this processing state, and then will automatically move to the Active state once processing is complete.
• Author: Filtering by author will list journeys created by the selected user.
• Created Date: This will allow you to use a calendar picker to select the time frame for when the journey was created.

Archived

Archived contains a list of all journeys that you have explicitly archived and no longer want in view. Only journeys that are in the Draft state can be archived. If a journey has completed running, you must "Stop" the journey in order to archive it. The filters here allow you to filter by:

• Author: Filtering by author will list journeys created by the selected user.
• Created Date: This will allow you to use a calendar picker to select the time frame for when the journey was created.

Journey States

• Draft: Journeys in a Draft state are not "on" in any way. A journey is in Draft state typically when you are building it out for the first time. A journey can also be in a Draft state after you "Stop Journey."
• Active: A journey is in an Active state after you have published it. Depending on the journey type (Recurring or Event Based), people can continue to qualify for a journey in its active state. One Time journeys will also be in an Active state, but remember, it is possible that it has not yet run if it has been scheduled for a future time, or members are flowing through it. Members will only be able to qualify for this journey at the time it runs based on what you set as the schedule.
• Active with Draft: An Active with Draft journey means that the journey is still running and nothing has changed for members in the journey. Additionally, new members will continue to qualify. In this scenario, there is just a duplicate draft version of what is active that you can edit. You are able to edit pieces of content, wait step duration, and qualification criteria while it is in a draft state, and then you can publish if you choose, and it will overwrite the version that is currently active. Any journey members will be uninterrupted and will remain exactly where they are in the journey. For instance, let's assume:

• You have Communication A, followed by a wait step, followed by Communication B.
• The wait step is 5 days.
• There are 2 people in that step with 3 days left.
• You replaced Communication B with Communication C.
• You publish the draft and overwrite the currently active version.
• The 2 people in the wait step will receive Communication C when they exit the wait step in 3 days.

This is what enables us to support updating content that needs to be updated in live journeys. You can also simply delete that draft from the menu on the journey list page, and it will go from an "Active with Draft" state to just an "Active" state if you wish to discard your changes. In this case, it will be like a draft was never even created and it will continue to run as previously built.

Starting a Journey

When creating a new journey, you are presented with a set of templates and a "Blank Canvas” option. The template list serves as examples to inspire and offer best-practice guidance for content creation, focusing on drip-style sequences—they are also a great way to get off the ground sprinting. Once you have selected the blank canvas or a template, name your journey and click the Start Journey step.

Start Types

To initiate a journey, you must first select a start type. All users who meet your start criteria will be pulled into the journey. There are 3 journey start types: one-time, event, and daily. The start type you choose will depend on the goal of your journey.

One-time

One-time drip sequences are journeys that begin at a specific time and are sent to all employees who meet the defined audience criteria simultaneously. This type of journey will either run once immediately or once at the scheduled time. One-time journeys commonly include company-wide events like benefits enrollment, annual surveys, holidays, and performance reviews. In this scenario, all users are included in the journey unless the creator applies audience filters. One-time journeys run once and never again.

Ex. In the following example, the journey will start immediately for both Brand Super Admins and Community Admins.

Event

Currently, two events can initiate a journey: receiving an Invitation to Firstup or signing up to Firstup. When either of these events happens, a user is placed in the journey. In this scenario, only individuals who undertake the specific event are included. And like with the one-time start type, the creator can apply filters to refine the audience.

Invitation to Firstup: For journeys that are published with this start type, when someone is invited to join your community on the Firstup platform, they will immediately be qualified for this journey and will enter at that time. Much like other start types, you can also apply additional audience criteria to the start step to filter down who you are targeting with the journey so that only people who meet certain criteria are entered into the journey when they are invited to Firstup.

Sign Up to Firstup: For journeys that are published with this start type, when someone who has been invited to join your community on the Firstup platform completes sign-up, they will immediately be qualified for this journey and will enter at that time. Much like other start types, you can also apply additional audience criteria to the start step to filter down who you are targeting with the journey so that only people who meet certain criteria are entered into the journey when they complete sign-up.

Ex. In the following example, the journey will start when a user is sent an invitation to Firstup.

Daily

These automated sequences are triggered individually for each person based on a date field in their profile. This personalized timing caters to specific events in each individual's journey, like onboarding, promotions, offboarding, birthdays, work anniversaries, and similar occasions where start dates vary. With daily starts, the audience is checked every day at the specified time to see if any of its members meet the criteria to start the journey. The daily run time is the time at which the journey will run every day.

For instance, if a journey is scheduled at 3:00 PM CST to run at 8:00 AM CST, the first run will be the following day at 8:00 AM CST and then every day after that. Conversely, if a journey is scheduled at 3:00 PM CST to run at 3:30 PM CST, the first run will be the current day at 3:30 PM CST and then every day after that.

Much like One-time starts, you can also apply additional audience criteria to the start step to filter down who you are targeting with the journey. Anyone who meets the criteria you set in the Filter Members section of the start step will qualify immediately when you publish it. Similarly, when the journey runs the following day, anyone who meets the criteria that day will qualify at that time. You do not have to worry about previous people who have qualified qualifying again. Once they are in the active journey, they cannot re-qualify. The journey would have to be completely stopped (where everyone would get kicked out) and re-started in order for re-qualification to happen.

Note: To learn how to create custom audiences for a daily batch start, refer to Create an Advanced Custom Audience. Also, see Journeys - Audience Date Attributes and Operators.

Example Use Cases

• Start date is today. (Onboarding)
• Start date was (x) days ago. (HR check-in)

Ex. In the following example, the journey will run for members of the Education audience every day at 8:30 AM CST.

Adding Journey Steps

Once you have selected your start type and defined your audience, you can add additional steps to your journey by clicking the plus sign between the default steps. 

Note: The Start Journey and End Journey steps are part of every journey and cannot be deleted; however, the steps in between can be edited and deleted.

Steps

Journey steps include start, communication, decision, delay, and end. There is no limit on the number of steps that can be added to a journey.

Start

The start step is the initial step of the journey where the start trigger and audience defines the beginning of the journey.

Communication

In the communication steps of your journey, you can create a content from scratch or add content from existing campaigns directly into the journey framework. In addition to campaigns, all templates from the template library are also available to add to a journey. All campaigns visible on the Campaigns page, including published, scheduled, draft, and archived, are available to add to a journey. The search and filter functionalities for campaigns within journeys mirror those available on the Campaigns page.

Click Create New to create content from scratch. New content creation will mirror the same design flow as a regular campaign, including preview options for each channel. Since only content is pulled into a journey, Deliver settings will not be available; however, you will be able to select an author for the content.

If existing campaign content is added to a communication step, it becomes independent of the original campaign. Only the design elements are copied; specific campaign or template details are not transferred. You can customize the email alias, subject, and preview text directly within the journey communication step. Any updates or actions made to the original campaign will not affect the journey communication.

Note: Since only the content from existing campaigns is pulled into the journey, settings from the Deliver page of the campaign or template are ignored, as the journey defines its own audience and schedule.

You can modify communication content directly within the communication step by clicking Edit or you can choose to Replace the current communication with brand-new content, an existing campaign, or a template.

Analytics for the journey communication will be available at the journey level through the Engagement or Members view.

Each member who interacts with the journey communication will receive a personalized version of the message. This differs from campaigns, where content is typically shared among multiple users. Journey messages are designed for one-to-one communication.

When inserting content, you can search by name or refine your search based on status, initiative, author, creator, and other criteria to find the relevant campaigns or templates.

Once a campaign or template has been added and content has been finalized, select the Ready for Publish checkbox under the Configure tab. A journey cannot be published without the checkbox selected for each communication. If any changes are made to the communication post-publication, the checkbox will have to be checked again before publishing the updated journey.

The Configure tab is also where you will select which channels you want members to be reached at: Email, Notification Center, or Push. You can edit the email alias, subject line, and preview text for that communication only. Refer to Notifications for more details on customizing these fields.

Note: Notification Center must be selected in order to utilize Push.

Under Channel Delivery, selecting Optimize which channels to leverage will allow the system to determine the best channel to reach audience members based on their user behavior. You also have the option to send a communication to each selected channel.

Click the Preview tab to preview how your communication will appear in email.

Decision

Decision steps are a great way to direct different audiences down tailored paths within a similar journey. For example, you can create distinct onboarding tracks for managers and individual contributors, all seamlessly managed within a single journey. Use the decision step to send different audiences down their own track within the journey or to end the journey for one or some audiences. Decision steps can be added, reordered, configured, and deleted.

Decision steps can be added anywhere in a journey. There are no limits to the number of decisions you can have in a journey, nor are there limits on the number of splits you can have within a single decision step. Splits are mutually exclusive. You will only qualify for the first split in any single split decision guaranteeing that you do not end up going down two paths in the same journey.

Note: While there is no limit to the number of branches that can be added to a decision step, a large number of branches can be difficult to work with.

When splitting the audience, you can decide which communications to send to each audience. You can also split the audiences further or choose to end the journey for one or more audiences. 

Note: Order matters! If a member is included in the first split, they won’t be considered for the second.

Delay

Delays determine how long you want to wait before the journey proceeds to the next step or the end of a journey. Delay steps can be added, reordered, configured, and deleted delay.

Delay steps are generally inserted between communication steps as "holding periods." You can specify the number of hours or days a member should wait before proceeding through the journey. This level of detail lets you schedule actions with precision. For example, you can set up a message to be sent first thing in the morning when someone starts their job, and another message at the end of their first day to check in with them.

Note: We recommend placing a delay step between communication steps unless you want communications to piggyback immediately.

End

A member reaches the end step once they have completed the journey or if their journey has ended by way of a decision step.

Journey Management

Ending a Journey

Participation

• Members can't be in the same journey more than once. If a member qualifies to enter the journey again while in it, that entry will be ignored, and the member will keep progressing through the current journey.
• Members can only re-enter a journey once it has been stopped and restarted. Even if a member completes a journey, they cannot re-enter while the journey is still active.

Editing an Active Journey

The configurations of all of the steps can be edited without kicking members out of the journey. The only restriction is that steps cannot be added or removed. Also, branches in a Decision step cannot be added or removed. You can edit an active journey by selecting Create draft from the ellipses menu on the Journeys page.

Pausing a Journey

Pausing a journey will prevent new members from entering the journey. All current members will remain in the journey, but will not move forward until the journey is resumed.

Stopping a Journey

Stopping a journey is different from ending a journey. Ending a journey is a journey step, triggered by rules within the journey. Stopping a journey requires a user to stop the journey on the Journeys page manually. Stopping a journey will remove all members and turn the active journey back to its original draft state. This action cannot be undone.

Journey members who were removed from the journey when stopping it, CAN re-enter that journey if it is reactivated and they meet the criteria again

Archiving a Journey

You can archive journey drafts or older journeys that may have already run, and you want to retire. Active journeys cannot be archived. Only draft journeys can be archived. Active journeys must be stopped and reverted to drafts before archiving them. When a journey is archived, it is removed from the main Journeys page list view. Archived journeys can be filtered for and unarchived at any time, turning them back into drafts and making them visible in the primary Journeys page list view. Archived journeys cannot be published directly; they must be unarchived before publication.

Error Handling

The system runs validation when publication is attempted, and any errors must be fixed before the journey can be published.

Reporting

Two types of reporting features are available: Member and Engagement. Please refer to the Glossary of Terms for more details on these engagement metrics.

Member

Member reporting exists as an overlay on each journey step and provides different information depending on the step.

For the Start Journey step, Started refers to the total number of members who have entered the journey (including those who have completed it), and In Progress refers to the number of members currently in the journey. Typically, members in progress are currently in a delay step.

Note: The number of members who have started the journey may include members who have also completed a journey. Typically, members in progress are in delay steps.

The Communication step includes the total number of Members Targeted, Members Skipped, and Members Delivered. Members Targeted is the total number of members who were sent the communication. Members Skipped refers to how many members we were unable to send the communication to (invalid email, blocked user, etc.). Members Delivered is the number of members the communication was successfully delivered to.

The Delay step shows you how many members have Entered the step, the Current number of members waiting for their next communication, and the number of members who have completed the wait and have Exited the step.

For a journey without decision steps, the End Journey step displays the total number of users who have both started and Completed the journey. If decision steps were added, the Completed number will refer to the number of members who have completed that specific journey split/pathway.

Engagement

The Engagement report is accessible via the Reporting tab in the configuration drawer for each communication step only. Engagement only applies to the communication steps because it calculates engagement with the actual journey content. These steps will display as Sent, Delivered, Opens, and Clicks for each channel selected for the communication. Please refer to the Glossary of Terms for more details on the metrics below.

FAQ

Can people re-qualify for a Journey once they have already qualified?

Not while the journey is active. Only after stopping and restarting the journey will people be able to re-qualify for a journey they already qualified for.

How do I see who is in a journey?
You can see this in the Journey Insights report. (Journey Insights - COMING SOON!)

Can you remove people from a journey?

Stopping the journey will remove everyone from it.

Can you edit a live journey?

Yes, you can. When you edit a live version of a journey, we create a “Journey Draft.” You are free to make edits to the journey draft while the members in the live version of the journey remain uninterrupted. When you are ready to publish the draft, it will overwrite the current live version of the journey and all members will remain exactly where they are in the journey. Note: We only allow you to make changes to the existing steps of a journey that is live with a draft. You cannot add or remove steps of the journey that is live with a draft.

Which time zone is being used for One-Time starts? 

For One-Time starts, the timezone is based on the user who sets up the journey. For Event starts, there is no concept of time zone because the journey is just listening for the event to happen. For Daily starts, you can specify the timezone for the journey to run in.

If a user wants to create a journey that starts at 9 AM in both the US and UK time zones, is the guidance to create 2 separate Journeys?

Yes. The user would need to either create two journeys and specify the time zones, or they can use split decisions with hour delays for different time zones.