A journey is a set of automated tasks or predefined events, rules and actions that are configured to accomplish a specific goal such as timely reminding customers about their abandoned carts, advertising latest products, greeting new visitors to a brand’s online store etc. Within a journey, communication triggers can be configured based on whether a visitor performs or doesn't perform certain predefined actions on your organization’s website. The visitors will consequently receive messages via different channels such as email, SMS etc. These messages are designed primarily to engage, encourage and influence the visitors to make purchases thereby help your organization to boost conversions as well as retain its existing customer base.

The foremost step while creating a journey is to choose a ‘trigger’ that determines how the journey will proceed onwards. The trigger might be based on subscriber activity such as an online purchase or it could be associated with an occasion like someone's birthday. When a preconfigured action is performed by a visitor, or when a specific date rolls around, the journey will be triggered and get automatically deployed.

One of the main objectives of a journey is to create an omnichannel messaging experience. NotifyVisitors enables you to create journeys using various conditions and logics in order to engage visitors. The conditions and logics set within a journey can be configured in a manner to either include (enter) or exclude (exit) customers within a journey.

How Predefined Journeys Work

Predefined Journeys are those journeys in which events, triggers, actions and delays are predefined such that the journey follows a premeditated pattern. However, certain predefined journeys can be reconfigured either by tweaking the existing pre-configurations or by the inclusion of new actions, events, triggers, time delays etc. In other words, in a predefined journey the logics and conditions are preset, but in certain cases these can be altered and new conditions can be added.

For instance, in the NotifyVisitors Standard Cart Abandonment Journey you can not only replace, customize the preconfigured main event and the predefined conditions but also include new conditions, logics, actions and even alter time delays for the main event.

Predefined Journeys In NotifyVisitors

To create a predefined journey, follow the steps mentioned below:

1. Navigate to the NotifyVisitors Dashboard > Journey > Create New Journey.

2. Upon clicking the button titled ‘CREATE NEW JOURNEY’, various predefined journey templates would appear on-screen as shown in the screenshot provided below.

3. Select the Predefined Journey Template of your choice by clicking on the button titled ‘CUSTOMISE’. Once you click on this button, irrespective of the template you choose, a new pop-up would appear on screen, similar to the one shown in the screenshot provided below.

4. Within this pop-up, there will be a brief description about the chosen predefined journey template. There will be a text box titled ‘Journey Name’ wherein you will have to enter a name for the journey you are about to create. Additionally, there will be a dropdown titled ‘Trigger’ from which you can select the event that would trigger the journey.

The pop-up will also display a flowchart of the entire predefined journey, to give you an accurate idea of how the journey will proceed in case it is deployed as it is i.e. without being tweaked or customized.

Journeys To Prioritize On First

Here are some Journeys which you should prioritize on, in order to get started right away.

Welcome Series Journey

The Welcome Series Journey is an automated journey designed primarily to greet new customers when they register on your organization’s website or subscribe to your company’s newsletter. The main objective of this particular journey is to forward a greeting message to subscribers at the right time. Therefore, such a journey helps you get started with the process of engaging new customers early on. In other words, the welcome series journey is a great way to nurture new customers since it offers you a chance to make a great first impression on prospective buyers. This specific journey introduces subscribers to your brand and subsequently converts them into first-time customers. Currently, NotifyVisitors offers two types of totally customizable Welcome Series Journeys.

Click here in order to learn more about the different types of Welcome Series Journeys.

Cart Abandonment Series Journey

Cart Abandonment Journey acts as a means to formally remind as well as encourage both existing and prospective customers to continue their purchase process from the point where they abandoned it. The Cart Abandonment Journey at times even helps businesses identify what exactly led the customer to abandon the purchase process.

Information such as this can then be leveraged by businesses to maneuver their marketing strategies to convince the customer to ultimately complete the purchase. For instance, if a customer abandons the purchase process after landing upon a page which displays the shipping price, then that customer can be offered a choice between free shipping and a discount. The Cart Abandonment Journey gets triggered based on the customer’s activity on your e-commerce store. Currently, NotifyVisitors offers three types of totally customizable Cart Abandonment Journeys.

Click here in order to learn more about the different types of Cart Abandonment Journeys.

Winback Series Journey

A Winback Journey re-engages customers who purchased products from your organization in the past, but haven’t bought again for quite some time. So, the primary focus of this type of journey is to retain existing unengaged customers by informing them about newer versions of those products which they had purchased in the past, as well as advertising latest products related to their previous purchases. Furthermore, this type of journey is entirely customizable based on the products previously purchased by such unengaged customers and also on the number of purchases they've made.

Click here in order to learn more about the different types of Winback Journeys.

Post Purchase Series Journey

A Post Purchase Journey conveys gratitude towards those customers who purchased products or services offered by your organization and makes them aware of other products related to their previous purchases which they might be interested in. Advertising similar or related products to the customers helps drive business since such a marketing strategy enhances the probability of gaining additional conversions. Moreover, conveying admiration for making a purchase and timely informing customers about other products, implicitly communicates your organization’s concern for their needs and product preferences.

Click here in order to learn more about the different types of Post Purchase Journeys.

Browse Abandonment Series Journey

A Browse Abandonment Journey is designed to re-engage those online store visitors who cursorily navigated through your organization’s website but didn't browse for any products or added anything to the cart. Once such a visitor leaves the website, a short invitation or a brief presentation about your business can be forwarded to them in order to encourage them to revisit your website or online store and consequently make a purchase. When setting up this type of automation, it is crucial to bear in mind the degree of customers' engagement with your brand. You shouldn't send too many messages if they just visited your ecommerce store once, since such a practice can possibly tarnish a brand’s reputation. So, be cautious while setting up the quantity and frequency of the automated messages and ensure that your workflows do not overlap.

Click here in order to learn more about the different types of Browse Abandonment Journeys.

Common Configurations For Predefined Journeys

NotifyVisitors offers certain advanced features which users can leverage to enhance the overall performance and efficiency of predefined journeys. These sophisticated features in turn enable the user to gain a much more granular & functional control over their Journey’s Workflow. They are outlined below:

Setting Precise Time Delays for Reminders

As mentioned earlier in this article, setting appropriate Time Delays is crucial for the success of any Journey. This section details the process to set precise time delays for reminders. Although NotifyVisitors pre-configures the time for its Welcome Series and Cart Abandonment Journeys to forward messages/ reminders, users are provided with the flexibility to set as well as tweak the Time Delays for any reminder as per their desired marketing strategy.

The process to set up and tweak the Time Delay for any reminder is as follows:

1. Navigate to NotifyVisitors Dashboard > Journey > Create New Journey.
2. Create a new Welcome Series or Cart Abandonment Journey.
3. After clicking on the ‘Create Journey’ button, you will arrive at a page where you can customize your entire Journey.

4. Irrespective of the type of Welcome Series or Cart Abandonment Journey you might have chosen to create, you will notice that there will be an Event box (Checkout Update Event box in the screenshot below) on the customization page, with arrows coming out from it through a node. These arrows would in turn end on a node of another box which represents a message reminder that could be of any type such as Email, SMS, WhatsApp etc.

5. When you hover the mouse cursor on any of these arrows, a settings wheel would appear. Click on that settings wheel.

6. Upon clicking the settings wheel, a new pop-up titled ‘TIME TO TRIGGER’ would appear on-screen.

7. Within the ‘TIME TO TRIGGER’ pop-up there will be an input box in which you can enter an integer value along with a dropdown from which you can choose between three options viz. minutes, hours and days. To set up a precise time delay for any reminder simply enter an integer value in the input box and select one of the three options from the dropdown.

8. Click on the ‘Submit’ button within the pop-up. Hover over the same arrow once again and notice that alongside the settings wheel, the Time Delay you just set will be mentioned. You can edit the Time Delay again by clicking on the settings wheel.

Using Multiple Channels To Forward Reminders To Customers

Reminding customers to complete their abandoned purchase, using multiple channels instead of one, enhances the probability of eliciting instant responses from them, which in turn could maximize an organization’s turnover. 

NotifyVisitors offers its users the flexibility to utilize multiple channels besides email to send reminders to current and prospective customers. Users can send reminders via Email, SMS and WhatsApp. Additionally, they can send Web Push as well as App Push notifications and even deploy NPS surveys to gain customers’ feedback.

The process to use multiple channels to send reminders to customers is as follows:

1. Navigate to NotifyVisitors Dashboard > Journey > Create New Journey.
2. Create a new Welcome Series or Cart Abandonment Journey.
3. After clicking on the ‘Create Journey’ button, you will arrive at a page where you can customize your entire Journey.

4. Irrespective of the type of Welcome Series or Cart Abandonment Journey you might have chosen to create, you will notice that on the Journey’s customization page, there will always be a box that represents an email message reminder. You can choose to keep or remove this default email message reminder.

5. To remove any default reminder simply click on its box and a tiny cancel or cross icon would appear right next to the top left corner of the box. Click on that tiny cross icon to remove the reminder. In place of this reminder you could choose to add another reminder which uses a different channel.

6. To add a new message reminder simply drag and drop the SMS, Email or WhatsApp module, present under the Actions Tab, into the Journey customization window. Upon doing so, a new pop-up would appear on-screen for the chosen module, wherein you can either create a new reminder by clicking on the ‘Create’ button or select an already existing pre-configured reminder from the dropdown.

7. In case you choose to create a new reminder by clicking on the ‘Create’ button, a new frame would appear on-screen wherein you can customize both the visual and functional elements of the reminder.

8. If you choose a pre-configured reminder from the dropdown then within the same pop-up, a text input box/field titled ‘Name’ would appear wherein you would be required to enter a new name/label for your reminder module/element. Enter a name and click on the ‘Submit’ button.

9. After clicking on the ‘Submit’ button, a new frame would appear on-screen wherein you can choose to customize both the visual and functional elements of the pre-configured reminder or continue without making any customizations to the pre-existing configuration.

10. Within the new frame that appears on-screen wherein you can customize both the visual and functional elements of your message reminder, there are three sections namely ‘Recipients’, ‘Content’ and ‘Review’. All customizations for the reminder are done in the first two sections and in the last section you can review them. Click on ‘Finish’ once you have reviewed them.

11. Upon clicking on the ‘Finish’ button a new pop-up would appear on-screen, wherein the type of channel for the reminder along with the name of the message reminder will be mentioned. A clickable pencil shaped button will also be available right next to the name of the message reminder, using which you can re-edit your reminder or campaign. Within the same pop-up, there will be a ‘Submit’ button as well.

12. In case you do not wish to re-edit your reminder or campaign, simply click on the ‘Submit’ button to finalize your reminder and once you do so, a new box having the same title as the name you provided for your reminder, would appear in the Journey Customization Window. This box would also have a circular shaped node titled ‘in’ at its top.

13. Notice that within the Journey Customization Window, there will also be a Checkout Update Event box with a circular node at its right side. Click on that node and while holding the click button, drag the mouse cursor on to the ‘in’ node of the Reminder box you just created.

14. Notice that an arrow appears in the Journey Customization Window that represents a link between the Checkout Update Event box and the Reminder box. This link signifies that when the Journey is deployed and the Checkout Event gets triggered then the reminder would also get triggered after a certain time delay.

15. Upon making this connection, a new pop-up titled ‘TIME TO TRIGGER’ would appear on-screen wherein you can set the exact time delay after which the reminder would be sent once the Checkout Update event gets triggered.

The above mentioned process can be repeated for any module/channel under the Actions tab of the Journey’s customization page.

Split Delivery

Nowadays, organizations refrain from sending the exact same message to all of its customers. That is to say, organizations eschew from sending identical reminders to each and every customer. Organizations prefer to randomly forward differently designed variations of the same message to various sections of its customer base. 

Since, a message that conveys a piece of information can be phrased & designed in multiple formats using distinct catchy headlines, titles, images etc., organizations intend to experiment with such variations by sending the same message styled in different ways to discrete sections of its customer base.

This practice is espoused by companies because they do not know beforehand which message design pattern would be more appealing to their customer base. Businesses realize that if an identical message with the same design pattern is forwarded to the entire customer base, then it is possible that most customers might not find the message tempting enough to respond to. So, in order to avoid such a scenario, companies adopt the above mentioned practice.

In case you do not already know how to use NotifyVisitors Split Delivery feature, then kindly check out our guide for the same by clicking on the link provided below.

Optimize Email Campaigns With A/B Testing and Split Delivery | NotifyVisitors

Additional Settings And Triggers

Check out the following articles in order to learn how to configure additional settings such as Actions, Journey Run time, Journey Re-enter, Journey Timeout, Exit Trigger, Goal Trigger etc.

Configuring additional settings such as Journey Run Time / Timeout / Re-enter, Exit & Goal Triggers etc.

How To Create A Journey | NotifyVisitors

Configuring Triggers

How To Set Triggers In Journey | NotifyVisitors

Configuring Actions

How To Set Actions In Journey | NotifyVisitors

Dedicated Email Editor For Message Reminders

NotifyVisitors provides granular design control over email reminders in order to enable users to style their messages in accordance with their organization’s design strategy. We understand that organizations don’t just want to deliver a reminder, they want it to uniquely represent their brand’s identity, since every organization has its own style of communication, proprietary fonts, company logo as well as unique marketing tactics.  

For this reason NotifyVisitors provides the flexibility to add brand specific graphics, fonts, interactive content and other modifications that resonate with your organization’s design scheme. Users can edit pre-configured emails within the Journey and even design new email reminders from scratch using our Rich Text Editor and our Drag & Drop Editor which also has plenty of pre-designed email templates.

Customizations are provided not only to refine the message reminders on an aesthetic level but also to tweak them on a strategic & functional level. Users can design the reminders to include discounts, add clickable ‘Complete Your Order’ buttons which redirect to the customer’s checkout web page, perform split delivery, set reminder delay times and perform many more functional tweaks for their email reminders. Check out our guide on how to use Email Editor in NotifyVisitors by clicking on the link provided below.

How to Use Email Editor in NotifyVisitors | NotifyVisitors

Guide on how to use liquid tags in reminders.

Using Personalization Tags In Campaigns | NotifyVisitors