Time-based Workflows

Time-based Workflows

This Workflow triggers at the time you specify, either once or recurring.

User scenario

One-time workflow

Jane sends promotional campaigns to all workflows in her mailing list. She wants to give special offers to her active contacts. To decide who the active contacts are, she scores them based on their opens and clicks in a one-month timeframe. She hence creates a one-time workflow, sets the condition as 'Contact Score is greater than 150', and selects 'Send Email' as the action. After composing the email content, she schedules the workflow to trigger after one month and activates it. Though active, the workflow will be triggered only once at that specified time. This action will be performed only once.

Recurrent workflow

Jane wants to push the contacts that join her mailing list to a Zoho CRM module at the end of every week. She hence sets the condition as 'Added time is current week' and selects the action as 'Push contacts to Zoho CRM'. She then sets the time interval as 'Every week on Saturday' and activates the workflow. Thus the contacts added to her mailing list every week will be pushed to Zoho CRM on Saturdays, till the workflow is kept active.

Create a time-based workflow

  1. From the Navigation toolbar, select Automation and choose Workflows.
  2. Click on Create Workflow button present at the top-right corner.
  3. Click Conditional Workflow, and select click Create under Time-based workflow.
    create time based workflow
  4. Provide the following information:
    • Name for the workflow for your reference in the future.
    • Select a mailing list to associate with the workflow. If necessary, you can create a new mailing list.
    • Set up criteria defining the conditions with which your contacts should be categorized. You can set up to six criteria and set the criteria pattern as of your choice.
    • Select an action to be performed. You can select any number of actions:
      • Remove contacts from list: Contacts who meet the criteria will be removed from the mailing list.
      • Add contacts to another list: Contacts who meet the criteria will be added to another mailing list that you specify. If necessary, you can create a new mailing list.
        You can make the target list a smart list. The workflow will add the contacts that meet the specified criteria to the smart list. After the workflow is activated, any contact already present in the smart list that does not meet the criteria will be removed automatically from the list. Also if any contact, that was added to the smart list through the workflow (i.e., those who met the specified criteria), stops meeting the criteria the contact will be removed from the list. Thus the smart list, at any point of time, will hold only those contacts who match the criteria specified in the workflow associated to the list.
      • Send email to contacts who meet the criteria. Create a new campaign and configure content. You can choose to send it immediately, or schedule it for later.
      • Push to Zoho CRM the contacts that meet the criteria. You can either push all contacts to Zoho CRM or update just the existing contacts' Campaigns related information in Zoho CRM. To push contacts, you will have to configure mapping with your Zoho CRM account.
      • Update fields of the contacts who meet the criteria. Select the field to be updated and provide a value for the field. You can choose to update any number of fields. In update field you can do one of the following:
        • Text fields: Overwrite the existing text value or append text to the existing value.
        • Integer fields: Overwrite the existing integer value or add or subtract an integer from existing value.
        • Date and time fields: Overwrite the existing date and time with any value or update to the date and time when the action occurs.
      • Add contact score to contacts that meet the criteria. Select a score to be added.
      • Associate webhook Send details of contacts who meet the workflow criteria using webhooks. Select the webhook you want to associate. If necessary, you can create a new webhook
    • Specify a time for the workflow to trigger. Choose between the one-time trigger and the periodic trigger by selecting the appropriate radio button then schedule the workflow.
  5. Click Activate Now to enable workflow immediately or click Save as Draft for use in the future. When you save as draft the workflow schedule you've set will not be saved. You will need to schedule the workflow while activating.

Once activated, the workflow will be triggered on the scheduled interval. You can pause and reactivate the workflow at any time.
define actions for workflow
specify time as once
specify periodic time

Changing criteria pattern

The default criteria pattern is ''( ( ( ( ( 1 and 2 ) and 3 ) and 4 ) and 5 ) and 6 )'' if you choose all six criteria. However, you can choose between the operators 'And' or 'Or' between the conditions. If you wish to change the position of the parentheses, click the link Change pattern to edit the pattern.

Use Case

You want to filter contacts by creating a view that displays all contacts from automobile industry who recently attended a trade show and whose location is either San Diego or San Francisco. When you specify this criteria using the Criteria Editor, the criteria pattern will be displayed as shown below:

The default pattern is (((1 and 2) and 3) or 4).  However, the required pattern is ((1 and 2) and (3 or 4)). This modification can be made using the Change Pattern option.
create criteria pattern
change pattern

Workflow reports

You can view reports for any active workflow. To view reports:
  1. From the Navigation toolbar, choose Automation and select Workflow.
  2. Select the workflow for which you want to view reports.
  3. Navigate to the intended action and click View Reports.
The report will display a list of contacts on whom actions were performed and a list of those that were missed out, along with the reason they were skipped.
view report

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