Understand Process Components

Understand Process Components

The process components determine the direction your contacts will take in your journey. The journey's flow can be decided using the process components according to predefined criteria, contacts' behaviour, or at random. The merge process component also allows you to combine two branches of your journey.
Six different process components are available in Zoho Marketing Automation that you can utilise to create a variety of paths for contacts to travel in your journey. In this article, you will learn about these process components and how to use them.

If/Else

This is a simple condition where you can set criteria for contacts to satisfy. When contacts reach this stage of the process they will be checked if they meet the criteria or not and will take the corresponding path.
To configure this:
  1. Drag and drop the If/Else process onto the builder.

  2. Click the Edit icon.
  3. Enter the criteria, the modifier and its value.

  4. Click Add Group to add another condition that can be combined with a AND/OR condition. You can set as many conditions as you want.
  5. Click Save.
  6. Configure the TRUE and FALSE paths with appropriate actions that contacts will take.

Multi-way Split

Segment your contacts based on the criteria you've created using their field value and create separate paths for each segment. You can create up to six paths for the values you provide, and add another path where all these conditions are not met.
To configure this:
  1. Drag and drop the Multi-way split process onto the builder.

  2. Click the Edit icon.

  3. Select the field based on which you will be splitting the journey into paths.
  4. Add the name for the branch and enter the criteria that must be satisfied.
  5. Enter the name of the Else branch for those contacts who do not satisfy any of the criteria you've set.
  6. Click Save.

Check Email Activity

Allow contacts to enter your journey based on their past email activity and select the email actions they should have performed to create various paths.
To configure this:
  1. Drag and drop the Check email activity process onto the builder.

  2. Click the Edit icon.

  3. Select a specific email or a journey email that the contacts who will enter this component have already received.
  4. Select the email actions the contacts should have performed to add the different branches.
  5. Click Save. 

Check SMS Activity

Allow contacts to enter your journey based on their SMS activity and select the email actions they should have performed to create various paths.
To configure this:
  1. Drag and drop the Check SMS activity process onto the builder.

  2. Click the Edit icon.

  3. Select a specific SMS or a journey SMS that the contacts who will enter this component have already received.
  4. Select the actions the contacts should have performed to add the different branches.
  5. Click Save. 

Check WhatsApp Activity 

The Check WhatsApp Activity component lets you split your Journey based on how contacts interact with WhatsApp messages you've sent them. 
To configure this:
Drag and drop the WhatsApp Activity trigger onto the journey builder.

When the configuration panel opens, you'll see two options for which message to track:


Select a specific WhatsApp message.

Choose a WhatsApp message you've sent earlier.

  1. Click the Select dropdown.
  2. Pick the message from the list of WhatsApp messages.

Select a journey WhatsApp message

Choose a WhatsApp message that is part of a journey.

  1. Click the Select dropdown.
  2. Pick the message from the list of WhatsApp messages.

Under "Select branches to add," you'll see a list of possible contact actions. Check the boxes for the actions you want to create separate journey branches for. Each checked action becomes its own branch that contacts can enter.

Here's what each action means:

  • Sent. The WhatsApp message was successfully sent from your end to the contact's phone.
  • Not sent. The contact was excluded from the message send or was not included in the TO list when the message was sent.
  • Delivered. The message reached the contact's phone and was successfully delivered.
  • Failed. The message failed to deliver to the contact's phone after being sent.
  • Read. The contact has opened and read your message.
  • Unread. The message was delivered to the contact's phone but they haven't read it yet.
  • Any link clicked. The contact clicked on any link you included in the message.
  • Specific link clicked. The contact clicked on a particular link (you can choose the link from the dropdown).
  • Read but not clicked any link. The contact read your message but didn't click any of the links in it.
  • Replied. The contact sent a reply message to your WhatsApp message.
  • Read but not replied. The contact read your message but didn't send a reply.
  • Quick Replies. The contact responded using one of the preset quick reply options from your message template.
  • Matches keyword. The contact's reply contains a specific keyword or phrase you define. For example, if a contact replies with the word "offers," this branch triggers. You can choose from "exact match" or "contains" matching from the dropdown.

Once you've selected your message and checked the branches you want click Save.

The component now appears in your journey with separate exit points for each branch you selected. You can connect each branch to the next component or action you want that group of contacts to experience.

Note: 
Matches Keyword - This can be activated when it finds the added keyword in the WhatsApp message replies. For e.g., if you add keyword offers, it'll match the WhatsApp message with the word offers, and send a message, update a field, branch further, or any other available journey action.
Exact match - This is executed when a contact enters the exact phrase of specific words
Contains - This is triggered when the keyword appears anywhere within the contact's reply. For example, if you set "offers" with contains, both "i want offers" and "do you have offers available" would match because the word "offers" appears in each message.

Random Split

You can choose to control the flow of your journey by splitting its path randomly into two groups of contacts.
To configure this:
  1. Drag and drop the Random split process onto the builder.

  2. Click the Edit icon.

  3. Drag the cursor across the indicator to apply the split percentage for each group.
  4. When contacts reach this stage, they will be randomly put into each path.
  5. Configure the two paths with appropriate actions that contacts will take.
  6. Click Save. 

Merge

Allow contacts from multiple paths to enter a single path by using the merge component. To configure this, drag and drop the Merge process onto the builder and connect it with the different paths. When contacts reach this stage they will merge into one path.

Manage Process components

You can edit, delete and clone processes in your journey. Zoho Marketing Automation also allows you to edit you active journey. Read on to learn how to perform these actions.

Manage draft versions of your journey

To edit a process in draft:
  1. Click the Edit icon on the desired process component.

  2. Edit the process and click Save.   
To clone a process in draft:
  1. Click the Clone icon on the desired process component.

  2. A clone of the process will automatically appear on your builder.
To delete a process in draft:
  1. Click the Delete icon on the desired process component.  

Manage live journeys

To edit a process in an active journey:
  1. Click Pause on the top-right of the journey builder and click Edit.

  2. Click the Edit icon on the desired process component.

  3. Edit the process and click Save.  
  4. Click Relaunch to activate the journey again.

To clone a process in an active journey: 
  1. Click Pause in the top-right corner of the journey builder and click Edit.

  2. Click the Clone icon on the desired process component.

  3. A clone of the process will automatically appear on your builder.
  4. Click Relaunch to activate the journey again.


To delete a process in an active journey:
  1. Click Pause on the top-right of the journey builder and click Edit.

  2. Click the Delete icon on the desired process component.  

  3. The process will be deleted from your builder.
  4. Click Relaunch to activate the journey again.

Info
 Related Topics
  1. Read our article to learn how to create a journey in Zoho Marketing Automation.