In this lesson, you’ll learn about and implement the first part of the workflow containing the acquisition strategy for your newsletter with a double opt-in subscription.
Double opt-in is the optimal subscription model for your email lists and will help you to build a solid and refined database. With Connectif, you can create a contact acquisition workflow with double confirmation of the subscription to grow and improve your email lists with a single strategy.
Objective: Acquisition.
Elements used: Popup, form in web content.
Implementation time: < 1 hour.
We recommend following all the steps and implementing this strategy from scratch in your account. However, if you need a short cut, you can use the Double Opt-in Newsletter Subscription, template in the Workflows Templates Directory.
Lesson summary
In this lesson you’ll learn about:
- The "Home" node, for configuring audiences.
- The "On page visit" node ,to detect contact visits.
- The "Check value" node , to split the flow based on contact information.
- The "Send web content" node, to target contacts with different formats.
- The "On opening of web content" node , to detect which contacts interact with your content.
- The limitations in nodes to delimit their activation.
- How to create a popup in Connectif via the web content editor.
- How to add a form to web content, in this case, to the popup.
This is the most important lesson of the entire course, as you’ll learn how the workflow editor and the node interface work. This information will serve as a basis for all the strategies that you develop with Connectif.
At the end of the lesson, you will have created in your account:
Part one of the acquisition strategy contained in this workflow, by which you can send a popup registration form to contacts who visit your page and are not subscribed to your newsletter.
Strategy configuration
STEP 0. Workflow creation
How the Workflow Editor works
In Connectif, the workflow editor is the feature that allows you to create and edit workflows to establish the different strategies with which to improve your business results.
You can access the Workflow editor from Workflows, by clicking Create new workflow.
The workflow editor interface is made up of three blocks:
1. Create, options and errors: to start the workflow, save or discard the changes made, or export or delete it. There are also options that act on the entire workflow, such as:
- Show incident report: to show any errors that need to be resolved before starting the workflow.
- Add new note: to add notes in the workflows.
- Select mode: to outline a selection area by holding down the left mouse button and dragging.
- Dashboard display options: to change the dashboard display. There is also the option to Clear all, to delete all nodes.
2. Design panel: to visually build the workflow using the structures and components of the node selection menu. The "Start" node, will always appear in it, since it is the starting point of all flows and the place where the workflow audience is configured.
3. Node selection menu: to navigate through the different nodes available and configure the workflows by dragging them to the design panel. You’ll find these different types of noden:
- Trigger nodes: reactivate the flow when a contact performs an activity on your page or meets a certain condition.
- Condition nodes: are used to filter contacts, allowing you to segment the actions of a workflow more precisely. The moment a user arrives at a condition node, it checks if they meet its requirements and should be directed through the flow.
- Action nodes: are used to execute specific operations within flows. The moment a user arrives at an action node, their activity begins.
How Connectif nodes work
The nodes act as stages on the journey that the contact follows through the workflow. To continue on their way, the contact must carry out an activity, fulfill a condition, or be targeted with an action, depending on the node they are in.
Each of the Connectif nodes has an interface that allows you to configure its activity and limitations and to know the data that each one exports:
1. Configuration: to establish which activity should trigger it (in the case of Trigger nodes), which condition the contacts must meet to continue through the flow (in the case of Condition nodes) or what activity the contacts will carry out when they reach it (in the case of Action nodes). Each node has its own configuration options – the following example shows the configuration of the "On page visit" node.
2. Limitations: to delimit the activity of the node and establish the conditions under which it will not operate, except in condition nodes that do not have limitations because they themselves function as a filter. They allow you to automatically pause nodes, temporarily or permanently. Furthermore, it is important to highlight that if limitations are combined, the most restrictive will always have priority.
The existing limitations are:
- Deactivate after triggering: the node is deactivated for a contact after being triggered for the first time.
- Max. triggers per Contact / Contact: the node is deactivated for a contact after it has triggered a certain number of times.
- Deactivate temporarily after event: node is deactivated for a contact temporarily and is triggered again after a specified period of time.
- Max. total no. of triggers / Total limit: the node is deactivated after it has been triggered a certain number of times across all contacts, whether or not it has been triggered for the same contact or not.
3. Data: to be able to review the information that is imported and exported within each node through the flow.
How to create the workflow for this strategy
1. In your Connectif account, click "Workflows > Create new workflow" and then Create blank workflow.
2. Click (Edit) and name it "Double Opt-in".
3. Click Apply to save the new name of your workflow.
STEP 1. "Start" node
How the "Start" node works
The "Start" node is used to establish the contacts to be targeted by the strategies, so this node will be present in all workflows and all flows will start from it.
In the node interface you can configure the target audiences for the strategy as well as the data sources, i.e. if it will be activated for existing contacts, new ones that enter from the activation of the workflow, or for both.
How to configure the "Start" node for this strategy
(This node will establish the target audience for the workflow).
4. Click (Edit node settings) for the “Start” node.
5. Under Select limitation, check "All my list".
6. Under Select data source, check "All existing and new".
7. Click Update.
In this step, we have told Connectif to activate the workflow for all contacts that visit the website, both new and existing.
STEP 2. “On page visit” node
How the "On page visit" node works
This node is used to respond when a contact visits a web page.
In the node interface, you can configure the pages and devices that will activate the node, as well as those that are excluded.
How to configure the "On page visit" node for this strategy
(This node will detect the contacts that visit the website).
8. In the node selection menu, go to "Triggers > Web" and drag the "On Page Visit" node into the editor so that it connects to the "Home" node.
9. Click (Edit node settings) in the “On page visit” node.
10. In the Limitations, tab, uncheck the "Deactivate after triggering" box. In this case, no additional limitation is added as later you’ll create an external limitation from the "On opening of web content" node to temporarily disable this path.
11. Click Update.
In this step we have told Connectif to send the contact to the next action when they visit any web page from any device.
STEP 3. “Check value” node
How the "Check Value" node works
This node is used to check the value of the data imported by the previous nodes and to filter the contact journey based on it.
In the node interface, you can configure the data to be reviewed and the coincidence it must have, which will serve as the condition for distributing the contacts.
How to configure the "Check value" node for this strategy
(This node will check if the contact is subscribed to the newsletter).
12. In the node selection menu, go to "Conditions > System" y and drag the "Check value" node into the editor, so that it connects to the "On page visit" node.
13. Click (Edit node settings) of the “Check value” node.
14. Drag the "Newsletter subscription status" field from "Contact" to the block on the left. This way, you are telling Connectif to check the newsletter subscription status in the contact form.
15. Then under "Operator", select "Is equal to".
16. Drag the "Literal" value to the block on the right and select "Subscribed". This value indicates that, on the contact sheet, the newsletter status of the newsletter must be Subscribed.
17. Click Update.
In this step we have told Connectif to check if a visitor’s newsletter subscription field has the status "Subscribed", which is the value that is included in their contact sheet. If they are not subscribed, the flow will continue and the subscription popup will be shown. If the contact is subscribed, the strategy will stop.
STEP 4. “Send web content” node
How the "Send web Content" node works
This node is used to display specific web content from the formats available in Connectif (Popup, Inline, Full Screen, Slide In or Floating Bar) to contacts that reach that part of the workflow.
In the node interface you can configure the content and how it will be displayed, allowing you to choose existing content or create a new one.
How popup web content works
Pop-up web content is displayed as a window that partially overlaps the rest of the page, at any position on the screen. It is used to draw attention to a specific aspect at a certain time, requiring the contact to interact with it.
Pop-up web content is designed in the Content editor, so no programming knowledge is required to create it.
A pop-up generates statistics related to views, interactions and participation in the purchase process.
How to create the popup for this strategy
(In this step, you’ll create the user acquisition popup for the newsletter, which will be sent by the node).
18. In the node selection menu, go to "Actions > Web" and drag the "Send web content" node into the editor so that it connects to the "Check value" node.
19. At the junction of this node with the “Check value” node, click on the circle until "No" appears. This way, you’ll tell Connectif to show the popup to visitors who do not contain Subscribed in the Newsletter subscription status field of their contact file.
20. Click (Edit node settings) and Create new content to generate new content.
21. When creating new content, select Popup, as the type, give it a name, and click Create new content.
22. In the Tools (3) panel, click the General tab to edit the overall appearance of your popup. You can also access this by clicking General properties on the design panel. Some of the most prominent are:
- Name, to identify what your popup will be called.
- Layout, to determine its position on the screen.
- Animations, to define the effects with which it is displayed and closed.
- Content background and Background layer, to choose the color and effects of the background.
- Close button, to determine how it will be displayed.
23. Click the Components tab to access the design options for your popup.
- Under Layout, choose the distribution that best suits your needs. If none is included, the single column structure will be used by default.
- Under Elements, add a text field to add your form. If you like, you can also add other elements to the design, such as: "Text", "Image", "Button Link", "Divider", "Space", "Products", "HTML", "WhatsApp", "Video" and "Countdown". Edit the components to configure their design and text.
- Under Form elements:
- o Add a text field and add "Name" to collect the name of the contact. Edit it to configure its design and text.
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- Add an email field to collect the email address and, under Validations, mark it as required. Edit it to configure its design and text.
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- Add a checkbox for accepting the Privacy Policy, click (Edit as HTML), and modify it to include a link to your page (you can take the code from the example and customize it). In Validations, indicate that at least one option must be checked to make it mandatory for contacts to accept it.
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- Add the form submit button and edit it to configure its design and text.
24. On the Formtab, configure the parameters for the form submission:
- In Form type select the Add option so that contacts who complete the form are registered and identified with the user who performs the action. If Event is chosen, the information would remain in the workflow but would not be recorded in the contact file nor would the visit be associated with an email address.
- In Email identifier, select the Email field that you added in the previous step, so that this information is updated in the contact file.
- Check the Close content on submit option so that the popup closes when the contact submits the form.
- In this case, don’t check the option Subscribe contact to newsletter on form submit, since this subscription must be confirmed by the contact via the email that we’ll configure in the next lesson.
25. Click Save to keep your changes to the layout and Back to selector to go back and finish configuring the node.
How to configure the "Send web content" node for this strategy
(This node will show the popup you have just created to contacts who are not subscribed to the newsletter when they visit the website).
26. Select the popup you just created and click Next .
27. Choose when the popup will be displayed. In this case, check “After a few seconds” and, in “Show when time has elapsed”, set "5" seconds, so that the content is displayed when the contact has browsed for that time on the page. You can also choose to show it immediately, at the moment before the page is abandoned, when the contact scrolls to a certain point or after a period of inactivity.
28. Click Next , and then, on the Limitations tab, uncheck the "Limit per contact" box so that this content can be shown more than once to contacts, provided they still meet the criteria.
29. Click Update .
In this step we have told Connectif to send the popup with the subscription form that we just created to visitors that arrive at this part of the flow. In this strategy we have configured a popup so that the contact inevitably has to interact with it, either to close it or to submit the form.
STEP 5. “On opening of web content” node
How the "On opening of web content" Node works
This node is used to react when any web content is displayed (as shown in the image), except for inline content which, when placed inside the page, is not understood as pop-up content.
In the node interface, you can configure whether it will be triggered by a specific piece of content or by any content of a certain type.
How to configure the “On opening of web content” node for this strategy
(This node will detect when the popup is displayed, allowing you to add limitations that prevent it from being displayed again during browsing).
30. In the node selection menu, go to "Triggers> Web" and drag the On opening of web content" node into the editor so that it connects to the "Send web content".
31. Click (Edit node settings) in the “On opening of web content”.
32. Click One specific content.
33. Select the "Popup" content that you have configured in the previous node.
34. Under Limitations, uncheck the "Deactivate after triggering" box.
35. Create an external limitation in Limitation to other nodes. To do this:
- In the Select node dropdown, choose the "On visiting any page" option to limit this node.
- In Select limitation type, choose the option "Deactivate for a period" and write “1” in the “Day" field.
- Click Add external limitation to save your settings. In doing so, you’ll limit the path of the "On page visit" node (step 2), and if a contact opens the popup but does not subscribe to the form, it will not be shown again until after one day even if they visit the website again.
36. Click Update.
In this step we have told Connectif that, once the newsletter subscription popup is displayed, if the visitor does not submit the form, the path of this branch should not start again until a day has passed.
Result
After completing these steps, you will have set up the first part of this strategy, which will show a popup inviting your website visitors to subscribe to your newsletter. Remember that this is the first part of the strategy, so we recommend that you continue with the course to complete it.
Continue your tour
Now that you've completed this lesson, continue setting up this strategy in your account by following the steps in the following article.
Congratulations!
You’ve reached the end of the tutorial.
Back to the course
Access the complete course index and explanation of each lesson here.
Further reading
If you want to dive deeper into any of the topics covered in this lesson, you can access the guide documentation:
- "Audience" node, to learn about the options for configuring audiences in your workflows.
- Types of web content in Connectif, to find out about the other format types (in addition to the popup) that you can create and integrate into your website directly from Connectif.
- Web content editor, to learn more about how to create your web content.