1 Overview
2 Types of Behavior Automations
3 Creating a Behavior Automation
- 3.1 Creating a Date Trigger
  - 3.1.1 Example: Internal Reminder
  - 3.1.2 Example: Birthday Postcard

Overview

Behavior-based automations, also known as Sparks, are events that happen in the future that can set off (ignite) a series of actions. Common events are visits to a certain page, web form submissions and more.

Types of Behavior Automations

There are two types of behavior automations, Real Time and Date. A Real Time automation triggers a set of actions based on an event such as a form submission, email open, website visit, etc. A date based automation triggers a set of actions based on a day in any calendar year. Use cases for date automations are explained in more detail below.

Creating a Behavior Automation

To create a behavior automation do the following:

Go to New > Automation
Select either Behavior or Date

Configure automation options:

Name = Name of the automation
Trigger = The trigger for the automation (document download, form submission, etc.)
Criteria = Used for a Date based automation
Description = A description of the automation

All automation actions are repeatable by default:

Creating a Date Trigger

Date Triggers, or day triggers, use a date or date & time value stored in the database to launch a series of actions. Here are some examples of when a date trigger might come in handy:

Sending a postcard, email or text message a week before someones birthday.
Sending reminders to your sales team (or the lead owner) when a customer's contract is about to expire.
Sending reminders to your sales team if a customer has a contract that's about to expire with another vendor.
Schedule reminders for your support team or sales team to check in at various intervals after a contract begins or before it ends.

Works for Any Criteria with Date or Date & Time Data Type

Any Lead Liaison Standard or Custom field with a Date or Date & Time Data Type value may be used with a date trigger.

Example: Internal Reminder

In the example below we'll setup a date trigger to send the salesperson an internal notification when a customer's contract is 100 days out from expiration:

Create a new automation and select Date
When Date is selected from the drop down a "Criteria" field shows up with a list of all criteria with a data type of Date or Date & Time.
Select the criteria you'd like to use. In this case, we'll use "Last Donation Date".

Set the filter up as shown in the screenshot below:

Click the Next button
Add the Send Alert action to the canvas
Notice that any Lead Liaison Standard or Custom field can be inserted into the alert, including the Date and/or Date & Time value you're using to trigger the action

Example: Birthday Postcard

In the example below, we'll send only our customers a postcard about one (1) week prior to their birthday.

Create a new automation and select Date.
When Date is selected from the drop down a "Criteria" field shows up with a list of all criteria with a data type of Date or Date & Time.
Select the criteria you'd like to use. In this case, we'll use "Birthday".

Set the filter up as shown in the screenshot below. We differentiate customers from prospects, partners, and others using the "Type" field so we'll add that as additional criteria:

Click the Next button
Add the Webhook you created to send a postcard to the canvas. More on sending direct mail using webhooks can be found here.