Customize your drip messaging campaigns with in-app automations — no integrations required.
What is an automation rule?
An automation rule lets you choose different actions and messaging based on your contacts' actions and responses.
This allows you to move contacts to different groups and campaigns based on their responses without having to do anything manually.
A "rule" executes a specific action when a recipient of a message replies in a specific way or performs a specific task while they are added to a campaign.
Automation rules exist in drip messaging campaigns. These are sometimes referred to in Skipio as SMART Campaigns.
Steps for creating automation rules in drip messaging campaigns
Navigate to the Campaigns page by selecting the megaphone icon in the left-hand navigation, below the calendar.
Create a new campaign and enter the campaign information like the Campaign Name, Campaign Description, Keywords. Then click the (+) to add your first message.
At the bottom of the new message, you will see + ADD RULE. Select that to start creating your rule.
An attached menu will appear with all of your rule options.
Execute rule when
Rules are essentially if/then statements. The "if" part of this function is the part where it says “Execute rule when." You have four options here:
- Message is sent. If the message that this rule is attached to is successfully sent, then the action will take place.
- Contact replies with any response. If a contact replies to this message in any way, shape, or form, then the action will take place.
- Contact replies with a link click. If the contact clicks on the link in this message, then the action will take place.
- Contact replies with an expression. If the contact replies with a specific response that you have set up, then the action will take place. This specific Execution requires a little further explanation, so here is an example.
Contact replies with expression
When you select "contact replies with an expression," you create an expression. An expression is simply a word or phrase (has to be spelled correctly) that you will create as a Skipio user, where, if a contact replies to your campaign with that specific word or phrase, the rule will be executed. So if the expression is "yes" and your contact replies with "yes" in their message, then the desired action can be carried out.
Action that takes place
The "then" part of this function is where you determine what will happen with this contact if they execute the rule you set up. You can:
- Remove them from the campaign.
- Add them to a specific group: You choose a group that exists in your Skipio account you would like them to be added to.
- Add them to a specific campaign: You choose a campaign that exists in your Skipio account you would like them to be added to.
You can cause all of these to happen in response to a single execution of a rule. So, if your contact executes the rule, they can be removed from the campaign, added to a group, and added to another campaign. You can also add rules to every message in your campaign.
Once you finish creating your campaign and hit save, you can start adding contacts to the campaign and the automation rules will run accordingly!