Knowledge Base: Automation Rules
Concept
Automation rules allow you to perform certain marketing and sales actions based on criteria that you specify. For example, you may set the system to automatically assign all prospects with a country value of Canada, the United States, or Mexico to your North American sales representative.
Instructions
- Click on Marketing in the left
navigation.
- Click on Automation in the resulting
sub-navigation.
- Click the hyperlink + Create new automation
rules at the top right of the Automation Rules
table.
- Choose a Name for the rule for internal
use.
- Filter by Campaign so that only prospects tagged with a certain campaign will be affected by the rule.
Note – Do not select a campaign if the rule is expected to work across multiple campaigns (e.g., Assignment of a prospect to a sales representative).
-
Select a Match type
-
Match All – All aspects of the Rule must be satisfied in order to take the action(s)
- Match Any – Only one aspect of the Rule must be satisfied in order to take the action(s)
- Rules – Add or Remove Rules by pressing [+]. See below for a table of rule options.
-
Actions - Add or remove actions to take place when your rule criteria is met. See below for a table of action options.
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Click Create automation rule to save the rule.
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Your rule will be saved in "pause" mode, allowing you to complete all the components of your campaign before activating the rule. To activate the rule, locate your new rule in the Automation Rules table and click Resume. Rules can be paused and resumed at any time.
Rule Groups
Within an automation rule, complex rules can be created by adding a new rule group. Rule groups allow you to construct combinations of criteria while reducing the restriction of "match all" and "match any" requirements. The flexibility of rule groups allows users to combine multipart rules that would have previously been two separate rules. For example, within the same rule, assignments to a sales representative can be qualified by both location and industry by using two groups.
Notes:
- An automation rule will only affect a matched prospect once. If you want to change a rule and have it affect the same prospects again, you would need to delete the first rule and recreate it with the changes.
- Automation rules are retroactive and will affect prospects who met the triggers in the past.
- Deleting an automation rule will stop it from running, but the previous actions will not be undone. It will resume if the rule is ever undeleted from the Recycle Bin.
Video
Common Rules
| Rule | Definition |
| Prospect time | Lets you define an action based on the number of days passed since the prospect has been created or since the prospect's last activity. Also, if you choose 'is blank', it will include everyone who has no activity on your site, while 'is not blank' will include anyone with any activity on your site. |
| Prospect form field | Lets you define an action based on the data that the prospect entered into a form or that was imported for that form field. You can use this rule for each existing form field. |
| Prospect query | Lets you define an action based on a search that the prospect performed, either from site search, paid search, or organic search. |
| Prospect assigned user | Lets you define an action based on the user currently assigned to a prospect. |
| Prospect email status | Lets you define an action based on whether or not the user's email status is Opted Out or Do Not Email. |
| Prospect file | Lets you define an action based on whether a specific non-image file hosted within Prospect Insight was accessed (clicked). |
| Prospect form | Lets you define an action based on the form managed by Prospect
Insight that the prospect viewed or filled out. If the form is on a
Prospect Insight landing page, you will want to use "Prospect
landing page" for your rule instead. |
| Prospect form handler | Lets you define an action depending on the form handler in use. |
| Prospect landing page | Lets you define an action depending on whether a specific landing page was completed or viewed. |
| Prospect campaign | Lets you define an action based on a specific campaign. |
| Prospect list | Lets you define an action based on a specific prospect list. |
| Prospect score | Lets you define an action based on a prospect's score relative to a value that you define. |
| Prospect grade | Lets you define an action based on a prospect's grade. |
| Visitor hostname | Lets you define an action based on the host that the prospect is coming from. |
| Prospect opportunity status | Lets you define an action based on a prospect's opportunity status: won, lost or created. |
Common Actions
| Action | Definition |
| Assign prospect to list | This action will assign a prospect to the list of your choice when the requirements of the rule are fulfilled. |
| Assign prospect to user | This action will assign a prospect to the user of your choice when the requirements of the rule are fulfilled. This will not reassign prospects who already have an owner. |
| Assign prospect to queue | This action will assign a prospect to the salesforce.com queue of your choice when the requirements of the rule are fulfilled. This will not reassign prospects who already have an owner. |
| Assign prospect to user in group | This action will assign a prospect to a user in the group of your choice (round-robin lead assignment) when the requirements of the rule are fulfilled. This will not reassign prospects who already have an owner. |
| Change profile criteria | This action will change grading criteria for a profile when the requirements of the rule are fulfilled. |
| Change prospect score | This action will add or subtract a specified number of points from the prospect's score when the requirements of the rule are fulfilled. |
| Change prospect field value | This action will change a field value to the value of your choice when the requirements of the rule are fulfilled. |
| Change prospect campaign | This action will change the campaign a prospect is associated with when the requirements of the rule are fulfilled. |
| Change prospect profile | This action will change a prospect's profile when the requirements of the rule are fulfilled. |
| Notify assigned user | This action will notify the assigned user when the requirements of the rule are fulfilled. |
| Notify user | This action will notify the user of your choice when the requirements of the rule are fulfilled. |
| Remove prospect from list | This action will remove a prospect from the list of your choice when the requirements of the rule are fulfilled. |
| Send prospect email | This action will send a prospect the email of your choice when the requirements of the rule are fulfilled. |
| Mark as reviewed |
This action will mark a prospect as "reviewed" |