Best practices on Engagement program/ Nurtures

1. Adding Email to a Single Stream Engagement Program:

• No, leads won't receive existing content again. Adding an email on top only affects new leads entering the program. Exhausted leads won't be retriggered, and the new email becomes the first touchpoint for new leads.
• Yes, exhausted members with normal cadence will receive the new content added to the stream (given that they're emailable and haven't reached their communication limits).

2. Adding Emails to Activated Programs:

• Add content to the right stream and in the correct position. The order of content matters a lot in engagement programs. Marketo sends the first unsent content to each member in the respective engagement program stream. If you add new content offer(s) at the wrong position, people will be sent the content in the incorrect order.
• Engagement metrics: Monitor engagement metrics like open rates and click-through rates after adding the new email to assess its impact.
• Program goals: Ensure the new email aligns with the program's overall goals and target audience.

3. Adding Leads to Activated Programs:

• Segmentation: Ensure new people meet the program's criteria and target audience. Have a nurture eligibility smart list, and use that as a filter in the campaign(s) that add people to the engagement program. You can also use this smart list as a criterion to unpause/pause people already in the engagement programs. Adding irrelevant leads can affect engagement metrics.
• Entry point: Decide whether new leads should start at the beginning of the program or enter based on specific triggers or actions.

4. Adding Content to a Stream in a Multi-Stream Program:

• Impact on other streams: Adding content to one stream won't directly affect other streams unless they share triggers or dependencies.
• Target audience: Ensure the new content aligns with the specific stream's target audience and contributes to its objectives strategically.
• Overall program flow: Consider how the new content fits into the program's overall narrative and user journey across all streams.

5. Pausing Nurture Programs:

• Holiday break/temporarily suspend program: Pause during the times people would likely not engage with the content, e.g., during Christmas/New Year holidays.
• Low engagement: Consider pausing if engagement metrics significantly drop, indicating an issue with the content or targeting.
• Campaign changes: Pause if making significant changes to the program's goals, audience, or content to avoid sending outdated or irrelevant information.

6. Removing Leads from Nurture:

• Unsubscribes: Automatically remove leads who unsubscribe to avoid sending unwanted emails.
• Inactive leads: Remove leads who haven't shown engagement for a predetermined period to improve program efficiency.
• Change in qualification: Remove leads who no longer meet the program's target audience criteria. You can create a campaign to manage the cadence of members - Pause if they don't satisfy the nurture eligibility and Un-pause (i.e., change cadence to Normal) when they again satisfy/meet the nurture criteria. You would need to create nurture operation campaigns to manage this

7. Important Reporting Metrics:

• Open rates: Track email open rates to assess content relevance and audience interest.
• Click-through rates: Monitor click-through rates to see if recipients engage with call-to-actions.
• Conversion rates: Track conversions (e.g., downloads, form submissions) to measure program effectiveness in achieving goals.
  • Opens and Clicks could be inflated due to MPP, email scanners, and bot activities, so it's important to not rely on just those metrics and also take into consideration other metrics such as conversation rates for gauging the performance.
• Engagement score: Utilize Marketo's engagement score to identify leads progressing through the program and engaging with content.
• Unsubscribes and bounces: Monitor unsubscribe and bounce rates to identify potential issues with content, targeting, or deliverability.

Tailor your approach based on your specific program goals, content, and audience. I hope you find this helpful. Please let us know if you have questions. Lastly, there are plenty of insightful threads, blogs, and articles on Engagement programs in the Marketing Nation community!