The Custom Date marketing automation allows you to target supporters based on a custom date field. You can target supporters who are approaching a particular date as specified in the custom date field. The automation can be used to inform supporters that the date is approaching, and request that supporters update their details before the date.
Field Configuration and Date format
The field should be configured in the account as an untagged supporter field. Untagged fields have no predetermined definition or functionality in Engaging Networks and can be used to store any type of data. The date format for this automation should be YYYY-MM-DD. Values in that format can be imported into Engaging Networks from the front end or can be included in a regular CRM data sync via API import.
Choosing your audience
The Custom Date automation allows to you send a series of messages, so start by clearly naming the automation in Settings before selecting which supporters you would like to target. The marketing automation has two options for targeting supporters based on their custom date:
- Send a series of messages
- Send a series of messages, and exit based on a custom date
Also, as with all marketing automations, you will need to select an Opt-in question under ‘Who belong to the following subscription lists’. If you want, you can also be more specific by adding filters (Filter the list based on these criteria:), for example to narrow the affected supporters down to donors who entered through particular pages, or who are from a particular country, etc.
Select the custom date field to be applied to the automation, and choose whether you want your supporters to exit the automation if the custom date field is updated while they are on the journey.
You can set how many days or months before or after the first email is sent out:
For more information on how to choose entry criteria for your automations, and how to use the filters, please see this article which covers this in more detail.
Example Use Case
This automation can be used to send emails to supporters based on dates that are imported into Engaging Networks from an external CRM (values formatted as YYYY-MM-DD). For example, perhaps you have a membership program with renewal dates and you want to send members a reminder to renew prior to expiration. The renewal date for each supporter would need to be imported onto their record and they would enter the automation based on that date and the filters configured in the automation.