How to Set Up a Playbook from Scratch
- Parker Hutcheson (Deactivated)
This article contains the introductory information for creating a Playbook. A Playbook is the structure of how your Customers are engaged.
Table of Contents
What is a Playbook?
A playbook is a coordinated strategy that brings together a collection of Campaigns. The Playbook Designer will allow you to design strategies for all business use cases.
We want to give you all the information to ensure your team can get off the ground quickly, easily, and efficiently. Let’s look at how you set up the Playbook from scratch (from a blank canvas) with all the information needed to run your customer campaigns.
For more information on a playbook, view the article Getting Started - What is a Playbook?
How do we set up the Playbook from scratch?
You can build your playbook by using the channel and flow controls to create an engagement strategy. Before you get deep into your playbook controls, ensure that your system administrator has set up your instance and that they have enabled the appropriate roles for anyone on your team working on a playbook (Playbook Designer).
These are the basic steps you follow in the Symend application to set up your Playbook from scratch (a blank canvas):
Navigate to Home -> Playbooks in the Symend App.
Click the “New Playbook” button and select Blank Canvas.
Type the Playbook Name and Description and click Create.
The system will create and build your playbook from the template.
Click the “Playbook settings – Entry Conditions” button and view the Playbook settings section.
Click “Edit” from the Playbook settings “GENERAL” conditions section.
Select the Entry condition from the drop-down (these are created segment conditions).
Select the Early exit condition from the drop-down (these are created segment conditions).
Select the Fallback campaign from the drop-down (if created, this is the default campaign for customers to go into).
Click Save.
Click “Edit” from the Playbook settings Send Window section.
Select the Playbook Send window settings when to Allow sending:
Select the time “at the earliest”.
Select the time “at the latest”.
Select the time zone from the drop-down (UTC is the default).
Select the checkboxes for days of the week that are available to send.
Click Save.
Click “Edit” from the Playbook settings Restricted Dates section.
Click the New restricted date button.
Select the restricted date(s) and the Label to note why it’s restricted.
Click Save.
Click the “+” button Campaign settings under Playbook settings flow (this will build the flowchart for the customers in the campaign).
Select the Entry Conditions to Campaign (Audience segment) from the drop-down. When the conditions are met, the customer will enter this campaign.
Enter the Label name for this campaign setting.
Enter a description for what type of campaign this will be.
Click Save and insert.
Select the “+” Campaign Insert button below the created Campaign Setting.
Select the “Actions” that you want to send for this campaign setting:
Send Email to configure sending an email to customers.
Select the Email content source from the drop-down (Note: This is created from the content section of the Application).
Enter a description for the email type to be sent.
Enter a Trigger to send the email:
Select X day(s) to send
Select “Before” or “After” from the drop-down.
Select the desired date field to use.
Select the action you want the trigger to do if it’s outside the Allowable Send Hours, from the drop-down.
Select if you want to skip or send this message if the trigger is the same day as another message sent to this customer.
You can click Remove if you make a mistake and don’t want to add this Send Email trigger to the flow controls.
Click Save.
Send SMS to configure sending a text message to customers.
Select the SMS content source from the drop-down (Note: This is created from the content section of the Application).
Enter a description for the SMS type to be sent.
Enter a Trigger to send the SMS:
Select X day(s) to send
Select “Before” or “After” from the drop-down.
Select the desired date field to use.
Select the action you want the trigger to do if it’s outside the Allowable Send Hours, from the drop-down.
Select if you want to skip or send this message if the trigger is the same day as another message sent to this customer.
You can click Remove if you make a mistake and don’t want to add this Send Email trigger to the flow controls.
Click Save.
Select “Wait” under the Flow Controls to create a holding time to wait to send the customer message in the campaign flow. NOTE: No further steps will be executed until after this amount of time has passed.
Select the Delay number.
Select the amount to be in days, hours, or minutes.
Click Save.
Click the “Validate” button. The system will check that all your settings are correct to run the Campaign.
The campaign will not actually run until you publish it.
Publishing will trigger a re-evaluation of all active Customers in the Playbook.
Click the “Publish” button to publish the Playbook.
The playbook is now ready for your customers.
You could test the playbook with some test data if you prefer if you utilize a data mapping of test customers first.