Important: Zoho Campaigns updates on features and functions

Important: Zoho Campaigns updates on features and functions

Note: Based on our users' and partners' feedback for the below post, we have reverted all the changes mentioned here. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused. Please read this post to understand our goal behind these changes and what's our way forward. 

Hi everyone! We hope you are all fine. For a while now, we at Zoho Campaigns have been considering shaping the product solely into an email marketing platform. So, we'd like to notify you that we're discontinuing a few features in Zoho Campaigns while retaining the features that will make our customers' journeys more effective. We have decided to make the updates as we believe that the alternatives available will eliminate redundancy in usability.

Discontinuation doesn't always equate to drawbacks—it also means moving towards achieving something good. Along these lines, by removing a few features and focusing only on the most relevant ones, we believe we're providing you with the most efficient version of Zoho Campaigns yet.

We realize that all these updates might cause you to have a few questions, but don't worry—our support team is here to answer them. We've also curated a Frequently Asked Questions page that will address many of your questions regarding the updates.


Features that are being removed

Automation
  • Automation Autoresponders except the Date-field autoresponder
  • Reminder loop
  • Send SMS
  • Send Survey
  • End-of-Workflow actions
  • Three-way condition
  • Move to end of workflow
Campaigns
  • Social Campaigns
  • SMS Campaigns
Email Campaigns
  • Chain Campaign
  • Child Campaign
  • Send to other list
Advanced Campaigns
  • Form Campaign
  • Coupon Campaign
Content Approval

Export Policy

Reports

Integrations
  • Google Contacts
  • MS 365 Contacts
  • PayPal
  • Unbounce
  • All SMS integrations
  • Social integrations (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumbler)

Details of Zoho Campaigns' changes

Automation

Automation aims to increase the efficiency of tasks, thus we have stopped a few features in workflows and a few types of autoresponders. We've done this to eliminate redundancy.

Autoresponders

Autoresponder types
  • Signup-based
  • Closed group
  • Calendar
  • Email action
  • Smart series
  • Cyclic
We're discontinuing the above autoresponders from April 20, 2021 because you can achieve similar objectives using Workflows. With the exception of the Date-field autoresponder, you won't be able to create or launch any new autoresponder-based activity after the above mentioned date

However, you will be able to run the live autoresponders and view their reports till June 30, 2021.

Workflow

  • Reminder loop
  • Send SMS
  • Send survey
  • End-of-workflow actions
  • Three-way condition
  • Move to end of workflow
We're stopping the above workflow components on March 24, 2021, so you will not be able create workflows using these components after that date. However, you can still view and edit your currently activated workflows containing these components till then. After this date, you will not be able to view any reports related to these components.

Campaigns

Social Campaigns

You won't be able to create social campaigns from April 20, 2021. You will be able to run and edit your existing active campaigns and check reports related to all your social campaigns till then. After this, none of these functionalities will be available to perform. However, you can manually share the email campaigns on your social media wall or use the public URL that we will generate for you.
If you want to continue using Social Campaigns, you can opt for Zoho Social, our platform specifically designed for social media.

SMS Campaigns

You will not be able to create new SMS campaigns after June 30, 2021. All your currently active SMS campaigns will be supported in Zoho Campaigns till then. You can edit existing campaigns and view reports associated to SMS campaigns only till June 30, 2021.

We've stopped this service to make Zoho Campaigns a more efficient singular marketing platform. If you are user of SMS campaigns in Zoho Campaigns, we advise that you shift to our multi-channel marketing platform, Zoho MarketingHub, which helps you do end-to-end marketing for your business.

Our team will help you effortlessly migrate all your data to Zoho MarketingHub, so there's no need to worry about this transition. We'd like to assure you that all the features supported in Zoho Campaigns will be supported in Zoho MarketingHub as well.

The following features (Email Campaigns and Advanced Campaigns) will not be supported in Zoho Campaigns from March 24, 2021. We are stopping these features as they were a little redundant and confusing for our users. We have included alternatives for each one below.

Email Campaigns

Chain Campaign and Child Campaign

Chain campaigns and child campaigns allowed you to send follow-up emails to contacts based on their engagement patterns. However, from March 24, 2021, you will not be able to create new chain and child campaigns. Your existing campaigns will be supported till June 30, 2021, and up to this date you will also be able to view reports associated to both chain and child campaigns.

While these two features will be stopped in Zoho Campaigns from June 30, 2021, you can continue achieving behavior-based engagement by using our workflows feature.

Send to other list

You previously opted for "Send to other lists" when you wanted to send the same campaign to different lists over and over. Since you can achieve this by cloning your campaigns and sending them to the other lists, we've decided to stop this feature from March 24, 2021.

Advanced Campaigns

Form Campaign

Creation of form campaigns will be stopped after March 24, 2021. In the future, you can directly add your signup forms to your email campaigns. The removal of form campaigns will eliminate redundancy from Zoho Campaigns and simplify organic list building.

Coupon Campaign

We are currently reworking this feature so you won't be able to create any new coupon campaigns after March 24, 2021. However, we'll relaunch the feature soon for you to experience better email marketing.

We know that coupon campaigns are aimed at increasing engagement among email recipients. They can be the perfect incentives while sending out an ecommerce campaign. So, we are not discontinuing this feature but instead simply making it better for your email marketing experience.

P.S. Going forward, you will not be able to create any campaigns using these features. However, the email campaigns that have these features associated will continue to run until June 30, 2021.

Content Approval

We are reworking our content approval feature, so it won't be available in Zoho Campaigns from April 24, 2021. However we will relaunch it soon so that you can seamlessly create engaging email content for your subscribers.

Export Policy

This new update will allow you to configure export policy every time you export leads as opposed to the old method where you needed to do this at the organizational level.

Reports

Google Analytics

We're planning to rework this integration and relaunch it in the future. However, you'll be able to view these reports till June 30, 2021.

SMS campaign-based report

Since we are aiming to shape Zoho Campaigns solely as an email marketing platform, we won't be providing service related to SMS campaigns after June 30, 2021. You will still be able to view these reports till then.

Integrations

  • Google Contacts
  • MS 365 Contacts
  • PayPal
  • Unbounce                                                                                                                                                                                               
The above integrations will be discontinued from March 24, 2021. If you've already set up any of these integrations, you can continue to use them till June 30, 2021. 
  • All SMS integrations - All SMS integrations will be discontinued from June 30, 2021
  • Social integrations (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Tumblr)- You won't be able to integrate with social platforms from APRIL 20, 2021. However, you can see your previous campaigns reports until June 30, 2021.        
Check out our Frequently Asked Questions to learn more 

What's the way forward?

We can understand you might have a lot of doubts regarding these updates, so we ask that you check out our Frequently Asked Questions, which will have all the necessary answers related to the updates.

If you have any questions related to pricing and data migration, feel free to contact our support team. We're always there to help you have the best Zoho Campaigns experience.



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