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Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Campaign
Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Campaign

Detailed guide on creating and editing regular campaigns, event-based campaigns, and using a pre-built campaign template.

Support Team avatar
Written by Support Team
Updated over a week ago

Below you'll find a detailed guide on creating and editing regular campaigns, event-based campaigns, and using a pre-built campaign template.

First, some general things to note about Campaigns: 

  • If you need to make changes to a campaign, head to Emails > Campaigns, click into the campaign, and select "Edit Automations." 

  • You cannot change any step of a campaign if there are contacts scheduled for that step.

  • As soon as a step is completed, contacts are moved to the next step in the campaign. If there is not a next step, the campaign will complete.

Creating and Entering Campaign Information 

  • Navigate to Emails > Campaigns and click on the "+ New Campaign" button at the top right corner of the page. 

  • Name and describe your campaign (this is for internal use only), place the campaign in a folder to keep you organized, and choose to lock your campaign if you don't want other users (except admins) to be able to make edits.

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Campaigns Started From Scratch

Choose Start from Scratch from the left column:

Choose to create either a Regular Campaign or an Event-Based Campaign --

  • With a Regular Campaign, you can choose what day you'd like each automation step to run. 

  • With an Event-Based Campaign, you will structure the automation steps around a particular date, time and event that you set in BenchmarkONE.

  • After selecting your campaign type, you will be brought to the Campaign Automations screen. 

  • View available automations and add new ones to your campaign by clicking on the + new automation button

Choose your automation step: 

In a Regular Campaign, you can choose which day you would like this step to occur. 

You can also Show Advanced Timers to skip weekends or run the step at a particular time in the user or contact's time zone:

*Note: if you do not set an Advanced Timer, each email will send on the day, at the same time the campaign is started on day 1.

In an Event-Based Campaign, you can specify when you want the automation to run in relation to an event date and time:

For more information on event based campaigns, check out this article.

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  • After selecting the automation, click the "Add Step" button and it will appear on the campaign automation screen.

  • After you add a step, you can edit or delete it by clicking on the pencil-shaped icon at the far right.

  • You can type directly into the "day" boxes to change the day you'd like that step to occur.

  • You can also drag and drop campaign steps to switch up your order using the 3 line icon to the left of the day column.

  • Add additional steps by clicking + New Automation or use the + icons above or below current steps in the campaign. 

When you have added all of your automation steps, click the Continue button at the top right hand side of the page. You will then be brought back to the campaign detail screen: 

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Pre-Built Campaigns

Notes on using a pre-built campaign: 

  • If you chose a folder on the "Campaign Info" screen, the campaign will be added to that folder.

  • The campaign will not be saved to your account until you click "Finish" at the very end. If you click "Back" or do not fully save the campaign, the campaign is not created. The email templates will still exist in your account though. We will not delete any data.

  • The email templates are added to your Email Template library. They will be named "Campaign Name, Email Name." The campaign name is created by you when entering the basic campaign info, while the email name is automatically applied from the pre-built campaign you chose.

  • The emails will not be added to specific folders, they will be located under "All Templates." 

  • If you have a lot of email templates in your account, you can easily search for these by entering the campaign name in the search bar.

Choosing Your Pre-Built Campaign
Select the type of campaign you'd like to download and use in your account. We've added short descriptions under each one to outline how you might best use these.

  • Click on a campaign to bring up a preview box. This will allow you to view the timing, steps, and the email templates included before downloading the campaign and email templates to use in your account. 

  • Once you've decided on the campaign you would like to use, click the Download Campaign Template button to download the campaign and the email templates into your account:

After clicking the button to download, you will be brought to the Campaign Automation screen:

Here you can edit the existing automation steps and add any new automations.

  • Edit or delete a step by clicking on the pencil-shaped icon at the far right.

  • Type directly into the "day" boxes to change the day you'd like that step to occur.

  • Drag and drop campaign steps to switch up your order using the 3 line icon to the left of the day column.

  • Add additional steps by clicking + New Automation or use the + icons above or below current steps in the campaign. 

Remember, you're not limited to only sending emails - we encourage you to really make these campaigns your own! If it makes sense to add a task or notification for follow up, go for it! 

Editing Downloaded Email Templates
To edit the email templates and add the appropriate link automations, click  "Continue" on the campaign automation page, then click into the email name you'd like to edit. This will bring up a preview box where you can choose to view/edit the selected template.

  • After clicking "view/edit," a new tab will open up and bring you to the email template detail view. Click "edit template" to be brought into the editor.

  • Be sure to fill in your company information and edit any other information inside the curly braces ( {{XYZ}} ) before moving on to the link automations.

  • While you are still in the email template detail, click into the automations tab. Here you will want to add the appropriate link automation. These will be really important as it is an additional way to trigger automations within your chosen campaign. Here's a great article on using link automations.

  • After saving, your edits will be reflected within your campaign! 

Once you've finished editing the templates, link automations and have added any additional campaigns steps you might need, you'll be ready to start contacts on this campaign!

To start contacts on your new Campaign: 

  • From Contact List View: Select all or some of your contacts for your campaign by checking the boxes to the left of the contacts. Using the Actions dropdown, select "Start Campaign."

  • For a Single Contact: Use the "Start Campaign" button from their contact record.

  • From an Automation: Add the campaign as an automation on an online form, link click, or a tag rule.

  • From Import: At the end of the import wizard, you will select a campaign to automatically start as soon as the contacts on your spreadsheet are imported.

For Event-Based Campaigns: 

  • From Contact List View: Filter for and select your list of contacts who you would like to invite from the Contact List View. Then, select the Actions drop-down and choose Add Contacts to Event. Select to "Run an Event-Based Campaign" and choose the corresponding one.

  • For a Single Contact: Navigate to the Contact's Record and select the Events Tab. Then, select +New Event. Select to "Run an Event-Based Campaign" and choose the corresponding one.

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