Nurture and customer reactivation pattern: From Zoho CRM to MH and back the to CRM

Nurture and customer reactivation pattern: From Zoho CRM to MH and back the to CRM

Hi folks,

 Last night Zoho's support team and I worked out a way to perform a very important use case.  Most of use have Zoho CRM, and we'd like to be able to send specific contacts from the CRM into MH for nurturing (if they are a recent customer) or reactivating (if they have not purchased for a while.)   Different customers should be able to receive different 'customer journeys' based on some sort of information held in the CRM. During the customer journey in MH, major events should be posted back to the CRM and the CRM contact record update.  Once the customer's journey has been completed in MH, the is remove from MH (so as to keep number of leads in MH within account limits.)

Here is a summary of the process:

 CRM Contact -> Added to MH list as a new Lead -> Added to MH Journey -> Journey actions -> Update CRM -> Upone journey end, lead is removed from MH.

 Here is how set up the CRM to MH to CRM process

 Phase 1: Set up Zoho CRM Customer Journey field and Views

 1. In Zoho CRM, create a pick list field for Contacts called "Customer Journey."  Populate this field's options with the types of journeys you plan. For example:  No Journey Active, Reactive Cold Customer, Nurture Recent Customer.  Make sure to set this as a logged field, so that you can track whenever this field is changes - it'll have a big impact on the messages that your customer's get, so knowing when and who edited is important, along with being able to see if you've already put a contact on a particular journey in the past.

 2. Add the new Customer Journey field to your Contact screen layouts as you see fit. I added my Customer Journey filed directly next to the Email Opt Out field.

 3. From the Customer list in Zoho CRM, create a view for each of the values of the Customer Journey field. For example, to get a view of only those customers flagged for the cold customer reactivation journey, you would set up a view as follows:

 View "Reactive Cold Customer" 

Customer Journey = "Reactive Cold Customer" +

Opt out = false

 Phase 2: Set up MH synchronized lists and journeys

 1. Create a new list in MH called "To remove from MH"  This list will be used to hold all leads that have completed the journey in MH.  Think of it as a holding cell for leads that are no longer needed in MH (though they are in the CRM now.)

 2. Create a list for each customer journey you plan to run. In other words, for every option in the Zoho CRM Customer Journey field you will have a list in MH (except, of course for No Journey Active).  Each of these lists sould be created as a Zoho synchronisation based list, using the appropriate Zoho Contact View as the parameter for the sync.

 IMPORTANT: BE SURE TO MAP THE CRM CUSTOMER JOURNEY FIELD INTO MH WHEN SETTING UP THE SYNC.

 You may also wish to map any other fields from the CRM that may be useful in the customer journey. 

 And make sure ALL LISTS SHARE THE SAME FIELD MAPPING (otherwise you run the risk of writing back black data in the CRM later on.)

You can set up the frequency of the sync as you see fit, but for me, weekly syncing seems perfect.

Setting up lists this way means that whenever you set a Zoho Contact’s Customer Journey field to a specific journey from the pick list, it is added to the corresponding MH list.

 3. Create MH journeys for each of your sync’ed lists. 

Each journey trigger is a lead being added (newly synced) to the corresponding list.

You can do whatever you want inside these journeys:  send emails, promotions, SMS messages, track clicks, and so on.  All the stuff that MH is build for.

Don’t forget – if you’ve mapped field from the CRM, you can use that information to make highly personalized journeys.  For example, I have mapped a customer CRM field (checkbox) that the customer has an interest in a specific product category (sci-fi), so can tailor specific MH emails to them during customer journeys.

Also remember that you can set can set a value of a field in a MH journey. For example, during a journey I could see that a lead has clicked on a link to sci-fi games, so I could then set the mapped sci-fi interest field to True.  Note that doig this does NOT write it immediately back to the CRM…

To write information capturing during MH journeys, you the ZohoCRM block in the journey, and map all fields you wish to update.

I am also writing significant events in the MH journey back to the CRM as completed tasks.  For example, if a lead clicks on a specific link (say, to buy a product), I use the ZohoCRM Create Task block to create a complete task letting me know what the CRM contact did.

4. When a contact is about to finish a MH journey, use the Add To List journey black to add them to the "To remove from MH"   The remove them from the list they are currently on  

5. Set up a journey for the “To remove from MH” list which does the following:

Use the Update Field Block to change the Customer Journey field to “No Journey Active”   

Uses the Zoho CRM Task block to write a completed task to the CRM, so we have a record of when the customer’s journey was completed.  Also, write back all mapped fields to the CRM, including the Customer Journey field! This is super important, because this is the flag that will stop the contact being re-added to the previous list.


Automated Customer Journeys Activated by the CRM - Yep Done!

That’s it!  You now have set up a process where all you need to do in the CRM is select the type of customer journey you want a contact to experience, and MH will take care over everything else…

 

Adding the contact as a lead to an appropriate list.

Performing various actions for the customer (lead) added to the list

Removing the customer from the list once completed


Tracking important events as tasks in the CRM

Updating the CRM records once the journey is completed


Tidy-up: Keeping Your Lead Count Down


To stop MH from filling up with too many leads, be sure to limit the number of CRM contacts you are pushing into it.   I am only planning to push about 100-150 CRM contacts a week into MH leads.

As these leads complete their journeys are moved into the “To remove from MH.”  Once every week, I will delete all leads in this list, since they are no longer needed. Since all the important information is stored back in Zoho CRM, that is not a big problem.

I hope this process helps of Zoho fans.

MH still feels like a relatively immature product, but its potential to create highly personal customer experiences is compelling.  I can't wait to see how Zoho grows this product.


    • Sticky Posts

    • Marketer’s Space - Automating CRM Actions with Journeys – Part 2

      Hello marketers! Welcome back to another post in Marketer’s Space. In our previous post, we explored how CRM actions in Journeys help marketing and sales teams work together by nurturing CRM leads and pushing only engaged prospects back to sales. If you

    • Introducing automation and utility conversations in WhatsApp marketing

      We’re excited to announce the addition of two new features to our WhatsApp integration: Automation and Utility conversations. These enhancements will allow you to streamline your marketing efforts and engage with your customers more effectively by automating

    • Tip of the week 02 - The art of 'seeing' your leads

      What's the last page that your lead visited before signing up for your brand? What was the page that first convinced your lead to explore more about you? Where are your leads coming in from? Well, these are some perennial questions today's marketers live upon. And, knowing the answers to these questions is crucial, considering the vitality of leads in every business. In the journey of finding lead opportunities, it's important to understand that every detail about a lead is useful. While the channels

    • Zoho Marketing Automation Update: Topics, Contacts, and List Management

      At Zoho Marketing Automation, our highest priority is making it easier for you to use our product to accomplish your business goals. With that in mind, we are updating three of our pivotal features: Topic, Contacts, and List Management.   These existing

    • Important: Zoho MarketingHub is now Zoho Marketing Automation

      Hello Everyone,   We hope you all are doing well. We'd like to notify you that we have rebranded Zoho MarketingHub to Zoho Marketing Automation. We'll discontinue using the term "MarketingHub" from May 26, 2021. However, there will be no changes in the

    • Recent Topics

    • Microsoft PowerPoint files Extremely slow to save

      I and others on my team have noticed that Microsoft PowerPoint documents are extremely slow to save when using WorkDrive. It always takes over 30 seconds to save a file. Word and Excel files seem to save in a typical length of time, but PowerPoint is

    • How can users unblock their blocked Zoho Mail accounts?

      After the reason for the account block (storage exceeded, spam detection etc.) has been rectified, the user can unblock the account from the UnBlock Me page. Account support@edu2review.com  Edu2Review is an education review platform, we rate the quality

    • Adding additional fields for batch information

      Hello, I am looking at adding additional information into our inventory module. we would like to be able to see up to 8 attributes that will be individual & different for each batch (i.e. batch specific information) but currently I seem to only be able

    • Dynamic Pickup List Values using Deluge and Client Script

      I would like to dynamically show Pickup List Values For example we need to fetch some data from an on premise application and display it so they can choose and pick This can be done in Creator but I didn't find anything for CRM

    • Validation Rule for Controlled Stage Movement in Deals Module (Deluge Script)

      For keeping a control over module stage or status, you can use the below deluge script. The below deluge script defines validation control over deals module stages: // Function to validate allowed stage transitions in the Deals module map validation_rule.LeadStatustValidation1(String

    • Pick List Issues

      I have created a pick list that looks at a table in a sheet, it selects the column I want fine. Various issues have come along. The option to sort the pick list is simplistic, only allows an ascending alphabetical sort. Bad luck if you want it descending.

    • Four types of task dependencies

      "Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs."                                                                                                                  - Henry Ford Projects, small or large, are driven by simple work units called tasks. Monitoring standalone tasks might look simple but as the workflow becomes elaborate, tasks may start relying on one another. In project management, this relationship between tasks is termed as "Task Dependencies". Dependency between tasks arise

    • 1099 tracking

      Do zoho books offer feature of tracking for 1099's for contractors, etc? Quick books offers this feature and wondered when/if Zoho books will do same

    • VAT-type Taxes in US Edition?

      I'm located in the US, and I use the Zoho One US edition of Books. We are in the process of registering with Canadian authorities for their GST / HST, which is a VAT-type of scheme. It is not immediately obvious to me how one would deal with input tax

    • 2 users editing the same record - loose changes

      Hello, I'm very new to Zoho so apology if this has been addressed somewhere i can't find. I have noticed the following: If we have 2 users put an inventory item in edit mode at the same time: say user1 click on edit and user2 while user1 is still in edit,

    • Schedule sms to be sent later

      When will you make available an option to send sms's at a later time??? You finaly have this option available on emails, so it will be very useful to have it also with sms. Our sms provider, has already this available but we cannot use it because you

    • Ecommerce integration with prestashop

      Development of campaigns integration with prestahop. When???

    • How to create an article containing images and rich text via the api?

      Hi, I'm trying to migrate our kb articles from our previous helpdesk service, and import them to ZohoDesk. Is there any way to create an article that contains images?  Is it possible to add formatting to articles created via the API? Thanks, Adam.

    • Number of statement execution limit exceeded on deluge scheduled function

      I'm working on a send email functionality in creator that sends out crew work orders at the end of the day each day for the next day. I'm running into the issue that zoho is unable to handle the number of statements that I am doing to be able to successfully

    • Color of Text Box Changes

      Sometimes I find the color of text boxes changed to a different color. This seems to happen when I reopen the same slide deck later. In the image that I am attaching, you see that the colors of the whole "virus," the "irology" part of "virology," and

    • Zoho SignForm In Progress But Cannot Be Completed

      If a person starts signing a document (via SignForm), but closes the window before submitting, Zoho marks the document "in progress", but how do they finish signing it?

    • How to show Assemblies AND component items in a report

      Hi Is there any way in Analytics to create a report that shows the Composite Item AND the Component Items with mapped quantity? It seems that the component item is not exposed in any table that I can find. Also, the same question but for Stock on Hand.....this

    • Mandatory Messages for Specific Members in Zoho Cliq Channels

      Hello Zoho Cliq Team, We hope you're doing well. We would like to request a feature enhancement to Zoho Cliq that would allow marking certain messages in a channel as mandatory for specific members — with built-in tracking and reminders. 🎯 Use Case:

    • Admin Access to Message Read Statistics in Zoho Cliq

      Hello Zoho Cliq Team, We hope you're doing well. We would like to request a feature enhancement that would allow admins or channel owners to view read/unread statistics for messages, even if they were not the original sender. 🎯 Use Case: Currently, in

    • Online Member Visibility in Channels (Similar to WhatsApp Group Presence)

      Hello Zoho Cliq Team, We hope you're doing well. We’d like to request an enhancement to Zoho Cliq’s channel experience by introducing online presence indicators for channel members — similar to how WhatsApp shows how many people in a group are currently

    • Show ticket field in Zoho Desk only if that same field is not empty (API‑created records)

      Zoho Team , We have a ticket workflow where every ticket is created via API based on dynamic logic from an external form. That form has complex logic and already decides what’s relevant to ask, and the API only populates fields in Zoho Desk based on that

    • Multiple Products on Ticket

      Good morning. We will classify all tickets based on the product. Users sometimes send different requests on the same ticket, so we are facing some challenges. Is there a way to add more than one product to the ticket, or is there a way to tie the product

    • Não recebo Email de confirmação e validação de cadastro do PagSeguro

      Olá, utilizei uma das minhas contas de email Zoho para criar um cadastro no PagSeguro, contigo o email com o link de confirmação da conta não chega no meu email Zoho (nem.ma caixa de spam, nem na lixeira, e nem em outras pastas). Outros emails do PagSeguro

    • Does Thrive work with Zoho Billing (Subscriptions)?

      I would like to use Thrive with Zoho Billing Subscriptions but don't see a way to do so. Can someone point me in the right direction? Thank you

    • accounts payable and receivable subaccounts

      How to create accounts payable and receivable subaccounts? Being that I have several clients and in my balance sheet have to specify the accounts of each client and not only appear "accounts receivable or accounts payable" ??

    • DUPLICATING WORKFLOWS IN CREATOR

      Hi all, I want to duplicate and slightly amend 3 workflows in Creator so that I don't have to keep typing in all the rules and properties each time. I can see lots of videos on CRM with the 3 dots at the top of the workflow, but nothing like that in Creator.

    • Add SKU to query options in `items` API endpoint

      It would be very useful to be able to pull items by SKU in the API as this is a commonly used unique ID that tends to be consistent across systems.

    • Estimates and invoices being sent from company-wide address, rather than individual

      In our organization, team members send estimates and invoices through Zoho Books by using the "Send Email" function. However, for certain users, the system defaults to sending estimates and invoices from a shared organizational email address (e.g., company@example.com)

    • Need profit margins for books in estimates & invoice

      https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/community/topic/show-my-cost-or-profit-while-creating-estimate

    • Decimal places settings for exchange rates

      Hello, We are facing issues while matching vendor payments with banking feeds. As we often import products/services exchange rate comes into play. Currently, ZOHO allows only six digits for decimal places. We feel that conversions like JPY to INR require

    • Item Level Notifications

      I need to create a custom workflow based on the creation of an estimate that has a SKU/Item name that matches certain criteria. I can have it generated based on a total amount, but not at the item level. Is this possible?

    • Cannot categorize a bank deposit to an income sub-account

      When I go to categorize a bank deposit, I am not able to see any income sub-accounts. If I set up an income account without a parent, then I am able to categorize a transaction into that account, but as soon as I make it a child account, it disappears

    • ZV Extension passkey changes in v5.7.0

      Has there any changes to the how passkeys are managed in ZV - Chrome extensions v5.7.0? Namely, if the passkeys were already implemented/enforced as 2FA on a certain webpage, but ZV does not track them yet. Would that be the issue for my use case?

    • What's New in Zoho Billing - August 2025

      Hello everyone, We are excited to share the latest updates and enhancements made to Zoho Billing in August 2025 to improve your overall billing management experience. Keep reading to learn more. Notify Customers About Subscriptions via WhatsApp Business

    • How do I get my account id?

      Hello, I followed the instructions to get a list of accounts of the currently authenticated user (which is me, and I am logged in). But when I follow the below instructions I get the following error: ERROR: {"data":{"errorCode":"INVALID_TICKET","moreInfo":"Invalid ticket"},"status":{"code":400,"description":"Invalid Input"}} Instructions that I am following: GET - User account details Purpose The API retrieves the list of accounts of the currently authenticated user.  Request URL  http://mail.zoho.com/api/accounts

    • Why are tasks not showing in Zoho Calendar?

      Hi there, I updated the Zoho calendar preferences for Task records to show on the calendar together with Meetings and Calls - see attached screenshot. Despite of that, Task records still won't show on the calendar. Is there a specific reason why this

    • Zoho Payroll: Product Updates - July 2025

      Over the past month, we've focused on making Zoho Payroll more flexible, compliant, and easier to use—whether you're processing complex payouts, ensuring accurate calculations, or meeting local tax regulations. Here's what's new: One-Time Payments and

    • Discussion for “sub product”, “sub item” or “child products”

      Hello everyone, In some CRM systems, there is the ability to associate products in a hierarchical manner within a quote. For example: Product A: Gold Plan Product B: Setup Product C: Connector Product D: Silver Plan Product B: Setup Product C: Connector

    • Retrieve Accidental Deleted User

      Is there a way to undelete a user who accidentally deleted themselves?

    • Request for Support - CRM Integration Issues

      I’m reaching out to request assistance with the following items: 1. Zoho Forms Integration with Zoho CRM We are currently using Zoho Forms to send the Global Credit Application form to our customers. The intended workflow is for the form submissions to

    • Next Page