Overview
You can add exit conditions to a program to remove contacts at any step along the way, providing the contact meets the exit rules that have been set up. This is extremely useful in the case of:
- Lead nurturing programs - If you have a series of emails to encourage someone to sign up for an event, or to fill in a survey, or to make a purchase, then you can use it to exclude people as soon as they have signed up, submitted the survey or made the purchase.
- Re-engagement programs - When sending a series of campaigns to contacts who have not opened in 90 days, for instance, you can then exclude anyone who opens one since the start of the program.
- Excluding VIPs - if you want to keep core marketing communications away from your VIP list , you can exclude them from receiving your mainstream programs.
What is an exit condition?
An exit condition is a program-wide exclusion - if the condition is met by a contact enrolled in the program then they are removed from it, ending their participation. For example, when a contact gets to an exit condition and they are held in a delay node, the contact remains in the delay node, but they are removed from the program before moving to another node.
There are two default exit conditions which always apply:
- A contact reaching an end node.
- A contact unsubscribing from the account.
You can view these by clicking on Exit conditions positioned just above the program builder canvas.
To apply further exit conditions, click on Add an exit condition. You can add up to a maximum of five (on top of the two default ones).
The segment builder will open up to enable you to construct your rule. In this particular example, let's say you want to exclude contacts once they have signed up to your event and have thus been converted. You will want them to exit the program immediately once they have done this, as anything else they receive within this nurturing program will be irrelevant to them.
Drag a Data fields rule into the segment builder, select the IS_SIGNED_UP contact data field as being equal to yes, and then click Apply.
The exit conditions box will update accordingly.
You will need to then save your program to save the newly created exit condition to it.
When activated, your program will then automatically exclude any contacts upon meeting any of the exit conditions.
Editing or deleting an exit condition
To edit an exit condition, just click on Exit conditions to produce the exit conditions box, click on the rule you wish to edit and the segment builder will open up to allow it to be edited.
To delete an exit condition, simply mouse over it and click on the red cross that appears alongside it.
Deactivate to add, edit or delete exit conditions
Exit conditions can't be added, edited or deleted in activated programs. If you wish to adjust your exit conditions in any way, you must first deactivate your program. You need to deactivate a program if you wish to edit any parts of it, or if you wish to delete a program as a whole.
Using exit conditions in re-engagement programs
If you have a re-engagement program in which you send a series of campaigns to contacts who have not opened in the last 90 days, for instance, you can use an exit condition to exclude anyone who opens a campaign since the start of the program.
To do this, you'll want to create a rule using Opens from under the Behaviours section in the rules panel. Drag and drop it into the segment builder, setting it as have opened any campaign they were sent on or after [the date the program began] and then click Apply:
You will need to then save your program to save the newly created exit condition to it.
When activated, the program will permanently exclude any contacts who have opened any campaign on or after your re-engagement program began.
Using exit conditions to exclude VIPs
Another use for an exit condition could be for keeping your core marketing communications away from your VIP list , thus excluding them from receiving your mainstream programs. Again, this ensures you don't send inapplicable and unwanted content to VIP inboxes.
You will want them to be excluded from a mainstream marketing program if they are on your VIP list and marked as a such. This can be done with a Boolean contact data field called IS_A_VIP and thus set up in a similar way to the example used for excluding in a lead nurturing program.
Drag a Data fields rule into the segment builder, select the IS_A_VIP contact data field as being equal to yes, and then click Apply.
You will need to then save your program to save the newly created exit condition to it.
When activated, the program will permanently exclude any contacts who have IS_A_VIP set to yes.
Reporting and statistics
Once your program has been activated, clicking on Exit conditions will provide statistics on the number of contacts who have exited the program via each condition.
Within the contact activity report, contacts who have exited a program via an exit condition you've created will be reported as Exited on exclusion node under the Program outcome column in the Program activity section.