The neat and scalable marketing automation framework

Based on many years of experience, we have developed this methodology to help you create the most effective, complex sales and marketing processes with SalesAutopilot.

1. A "primary list" is the broadcast list. If we are using a CRM list, then this will be the CRM list also. Use a "Classic" newsletter list (where a given email address can only be added once). That’s the default setting for mailing lists, so all you have to do is NOT change that setting.
2. Every subscriber has to be added to the primary list.
3. You cannot directly subscribe to the primary list. That means that the primary list has no signup form which is used on our website and where people can sign up. However, you can have a signup form that was created to internally add subscribers/contacts to the list. For example, the people we meet at a business event or roadshow. However, we DO NOT record these contacts to send newsletters to them. If they subscribe to our newsletter, then they have to subscribe to a "secondary list" (or we have to subscribe them ourselves), but we will come back to that.
4. You have to have a secondary list for every communication process. A communication process refers to those who are receiving the same email series, follow-up, or auto-responder series. It can also apply to those who are receiving slightly different emails, but based on the same logic.
5. Every relatively short term communication is sent to a secondary list. That means that after a lead magnet signup, the lead magnet delivery email and the related follow-up is sent to the secondary list.
6. Every absolute communication is sent to the primary list. Such are, for example, your Easter campaign, your Christmas campaign, etc. It is sent to this list because for this list you can set up conditions which filter subscribers based on which secondary lists they are subscribed to, and which ones they are not.
7. Every internal (within your business) cross-selling campaign is sent to the primary list (even if the campaign is timed relatively). This means that when someone signs up to one of the secondary lists and receives a newsletter and sales series, we don’t simply leave them alone after that. Instead, we send them some additional emails, in which we draw their attention to other opt-in possibilities. This is also sent to the primary list, because on the primary list we can filter subscribers based on what they have subscribed for. Of course, we don’t promote opt-in possibilities which they have already taken advantage of.
8. In the primary list, we keep track of which secondary list a subscriber has subscribed to with DATE fields. The benefit of using a date field is that it allows us to tell whether a subscriber is on a given secondary list (xyz subscription date is NOT EQUAL TO 0000-00-00, YYYY-MM-DD). The date field also allows us to promote opt-in possibilites, as described in point 7, a certain amount of time after the initial opt-in, meaning with a relative delivery schedule.
9. There are at least two actions related to every secondary list (subscription and profile update). If the subscriber is already on the primary list, they will not be subscribed again. With the profile update action - which is always performed - we transfer the date of subscription to the secondary list into the primary list.
10. Other details can also be transferred to the primary list with an action or actions. In the case of order list type of secondary lists, you can save the date of first and last purchase in the primary list. We save the date of subscription to the secondary list in the date of last purchase field of the primary list. We also save the date of subscription to the secondary list in the date of first purchase field of the primary list, but ONLY IF that field is empty. (Select the "Only if the value of the field is zero or no value" option under "When should the action overwrite a field’s value?"). You could also have a field that saves the number of times a customer has purchased from you. For this you will need a numerical field in the primary list, which will be increased by one with a profile update action at every purchase. Or there could be a "Date of next purchase" field, which would be field out with the curdate() function. (You can fiend the details on the action editor page.)
11. Managing double opt-in signups. For every double opt-in type of secondary list, there also has to be a status field in the primary list. You have to know the following things about that:
    1. This status field is an "ordinary" dropdown list type of field in the primary list. E.g. "Newsletter subscription status"
    2. The possible values of the status:
       1. Unconfirmed
       2. Confirmed
       3. Unsubscribed
    3. The profile update action related to the sign up form of the secondary list has to set the status to "Unconfirmed"
    4. You have to set up an action that is triggered by clicking on the "confirm signup" link in the signup confirmation email, and the action has to change the status to "Confirmed"
    5. When you send emails to the primary list, you have to make sure that only those people receive it as a result of their subscription to a secondary list, whose status in this field is "Confirmed"
12. Managing unsubscribes. This has to be managed in two ways.
    1. In case of single opt-in: when you send emails to a secondary list, every email has to have an unsubscribe link + you have to set up an unsubscribe action for the secondary list, which will change the value of the subscription date to the secondary list field in the primary list to "0000-00-00".
    2. In case of double opt-in, the unsubscribe action has to change the status field, in the primary list, related to the secondary list to "Unsubscribed. When you send emails to the primary list, there has to be an unsubscribe link to a page on your website, which is a static page, and you have to set up two actions for this link. One of them will unsubscribe them from the secondary list, and the other will unsubscribe them from the primary list (it either changes the date to "0000-00-00" or the status to "Unsubscribed".