Activities

Activities are actions that a program executes. You can include any number of each activity.

Note: If you use a filter to target customers, the filtering mechanism automatically removes duplicates. If you are using a SQL view to target customers, they might receive duplicate messages.

To specify activity settings, right-click an activity on the canvas and select Properties.

Available activities

The following activities are available:

Start collaboration

Important: This feature is only available if Distributed Content Collaboration is enabled for your account.

Sends the content collaboration task to contributors.

For information about Distributed Content Collaboration, see Distributed Content Collaboration--Overview.

Send email campaign

Sends the associated email campaign to customers.

Note: On running validation, Program will display a validation error if you select a campaign whose approval status is either Needs Approval, Pending Approval, or Rejected State (if campaign approval is enabled for your account).

If you created any Multivariate Testing (MVT) for email and push campaigns, you can also test different versions of a campaign. For more information about MVT for email, see Running Multivariate Tests for Email channel. For more information about MVT for mobile apps, see Running Multivariate Tests (MVT) for Push campaigns.

You can use the seed list selected in the Campaign Wizard as a seed list when sending a campaign via a Program activity. To do this, select the Enable seed launch when this activity is executed check box.

To prevent slow responses or even a shutdown from too much volume, select the Apply launch throttling check box. Launch throttling controls the rate at which messages are sent.

Throttling settings work the same way across all channels (Email, SMS, Push, and so on.) Account administrators can add default throttling settings at the account level. Marketers can override the default settings at the campaign level, and they can add throttling settings for a campaign when there are no default settings. Both account level and campaign level settings are optional. For more information, see Throttling a campaign launch.

You can configure alerts, view campaign information, and preview the campaign. Note that if you set any of the following options in the Campaign, then change them in Program, the program settings take precedence. The following options are available on the Send email campaign activity dialog:

  • Send a progress notification to one or more email addresses

    To do this, select the Send progress alerts to check box and type the addresses in the field, then select an option from the When drop-down list. Separate multiple addresses with either commas or semicolons (;).
  • Send email notifications to specified addresses if the launch fails for any reason

    To do this, type the addresses in the If launch fails, notify field. Separate multiple addresses with either commas or semicolons (;).

    The email notification contains information that identifies the campaign and program, and a pointer to the error in the Campaign Dashboard.
  • Preview the campaign

    To do this, click Preview Campaign.
  • View the Campaign Dashboard
    To do this, click Campaign Properties.

Send SMS message

Important: This feature is only available if Program SMS is enabled for your account.

Triggers a Short Message Service (SMS) text message that you enter. The message text is limited to 160 characters (GMS) or 70 characters (UCS-2). For more information, seeSMS Campaigns.

Send push campaigns

Important: This feature is only available if Push Campaign is enabled for the account.

Tip: This activity is available from the Push Interactions menu on the palette.

Sends an associated Push campaign. You can launch the Push campaign using the Customer activated event.

Note: As of 21A, Responsys supports Program launch for Message Center direct campaigns. However, your account must be enabled for the Multichannel feature.

Throttling settings work the same way across all channels (Email, SMS, Push, and so on.) Account administrators can add default throttling settings at the account level. Marketers can override the default settings at the campaign level, and they can add throttling settings for a campaign when there are no default settings. Both account level and campaign level settings are optional. For more information, see Throttling a campaign launch.

For more information about Mobile App campaigns, see Mobile App Overview.

Send in-app campaign

Important: This feature is only available if App Channel List and In-App Campaign are enabled for the account.

Tip: This activity is available from the Push Interactions menu on the palette.

Sends an associated in-app campaign. You can launch the in-app campaign using the scheduled filter of the App Channel List filter. For more information about the App Channel List filter, see About App Channel List filters.

For more information about Mobile App campaigns, see Mobile App Overview.

Throttling settings work the same way across all channels (Email, SMS, Push, and so on.) Account administrators can add default throttling settings at the account level. Marketers can override the default settings at the campaign level, and they can add throttling settings for a campaign when there are no default settings. Both account level and campaign level settings are optional. For more information, see Throttling a campaign launch.

Send message center campaign

Important: This feature is only available if Multichannel is enabled for the account.

Tip: This activity is available from the Push Interactions menu on the palette.

Sends an associated message center campaign. This stage supports both bulk launch (that is, the regular campaign targeting options) and triggered launches (through entry stages such as REI Custom Event for retargeting scenarios or Customer Activated for subscriber onboarding).

For more information about Mobile App campaigns, see Mobile App Overview.

Throttling settings work the same way across all channels (Email, SMS, Push, and so on.) Account administrators can add default throttling settings at the account level. Marketers can override the default settings at the campaign level, and they can add throttling settings for a campaign when there are no default settings. Both account level and campaign level settings are optional. For more information, see Throttling a campaign launch.

Send SMS campaign

Important: This feature is only available if Oracle Responsys SMS is enabled for the account. For more information about Oracle Responsys SMS, see Responsys SMS Overview.

This activity sends an associated Oracle Responsys SMS campaign and is available from the Mobile interactions menu on the palette.

You can configure alerts, view campaign information, preview the campaign, and create a new campaign. Note that if you set any of the following options in the Campaign, then change them in Program, the Program settings take precedence. The following options are available in the Send SMS campaign activity dialog under Settings & options:

  • Apply launch throttling to the campaign

    To prevent slow responses or even a shutdown from too much volume, select the Apply launch throttling check box. Launch throttling controls the rate at which messages are sent.

    Throttling settings work the same way across all channels (Email, SMS, Push, and so on.) Account administrators can add default throttling settings at the account level. Marketers can override the default settings at the campaign level, and they can add throttling settings for a campaign when there are no default settings. Both account level and campaign level settings are optional. For more information, see Throttling a campaign launch.

  • Send a progress notification to one or more email addresses
    To do this, type your desired email address in the Send progress notification(s) to field. Separate multiple addresses with either commas or semicolons (;). You can choose to have progress notifications sent with the following conditions:
    • When skipped messages exceed a certain percentage
    • For messages sent every 5%, every 10%, every 20%, every 25%, or on launch completion
    • When the launch starts
  • Send email notifications to specified addresses if the launch fails for any reason
    To do this, type the addresses in the Send failure notification(s) to field. Separate multiple addresses with either commas or semicolons (;).
  • Preview the campaign

    To do this, click Preview campaign.
  • Create a new SMS campaign
    To do this, click Create new.

Send MMS campaign

Important: This feature is only available if Oracle Responsys MMS is enabled for the account.

Tip: This activity is available from the Mobile interactions menu on the palette.

Sends an associated MMS campaign to customers.

Throttling settings work the same way across all channels (Email, SMS, Push, and so on.) Account administrators can add default throttling settings at the account level. Marketers can override the default settings at the campaign level, and they can add throttling settings for a campaign when there are no default settings. Both account level and campaign level settings are optional. For more information, see Throttling a campaign launch.

Tip: To preview the selected campaign, click Preview campaign in the Send MMS campaign activity dialog.

For more information about MMS, see Oracle Responsys MMS Overview.

Send Web Push campaign

Important: Available only if Web Push and Multichannel are enabled for the account.

Sends an associated Web Push campaign. This stage supports both triggered and bulk launches.

You can configure alerts, view campaign information, preview the campaign, and create a new campaign. Note that if you set any of the following options in the Campaign, then change them in Program, the Program settings take precedence. The following options are available in the Send web push campaign activity dialog under Settings & options:

  • Apply launch throttling as defined in the campaign

    To prevent slow responses or even a shutdown from too much volume, select the Apply launch throttling check box. Launch throttling controls the rate at which messages are sent. Throttling settings work the same way across all channels (Email, SMS, Push, and so on.) Account administrators can add default throttling settings at the account level. Marketers can override the default settings at the campaign level, and they can add throttling settings for a campaign when there are no default settings. Both account level and campaign level settings are optional. For more information, see Throttling a campaign launch.

  • Send a progress notification to one or more email addresses

    To do this, type your desired email address in the Send progress notification(s) to field. Separate multiple addresses with either commas or semicolons (;). You can choose to have progress notifications sent with the following conditions:
    • When skipped messages exceed a certain percentage
    • For messages sent every 5%, every 10%, every 20%, every 25%, or on launch completion
    • When the launch starts
  • Send email notifications to specified addresses if the launch fails for any reason

    To do this, type the addresses in the Send failure notification(s) to field. Separate multiple addresses with either commas or semicolons (;).

  • Preview the campaign

    To do this, click Preview campaign.
  • Create a new Web Push campaign

    To do this, click Create new.

Multichannel programs support sending Web Push campaigns. For more information about Web Push campaigns, see Launching a Web Push campaign with Campaign Designer.

Prepare campaign

Personalizes and builds email messages ahead of time to ensure that they are ready at the specified time. This is useful when the campaign must be sent at a specific time, such as a flash sale.

You can follow the Prepare campaign with either a timer or a Send email campaign stage. You must specify the same campaign in the Prepare campaign and Send email campaign stage.

Using timers with Prepare campaign

To ensure that all enactments arriving in a batch are sent to the Prepare campaign stage, use a timer before this stage.

To ensure that all messages are ready when needed, use a Timer after the Prepare campaign stage that provides enough time to prepare messages.

Prepare campaign properties

Campaign--the campaign to prepare. This must be the same campaign specified in the Send email campaign activity.

Campaign send time--the time to move the messages to Send email campaign or the Timer. If the campaign prepare is still in progress when Campaign send time is reached, messages will only move to the next stage (Send email campaign) after they are all prepared. As of the Responsys 22A update, messages are not held over until the send time on the following day. For example, if the campaign send time is 1:00 pm, but then messages aren't all prepared until 2:15 pm, then the messages are moved to the next stage beginning at 2:15 pm (the time they are all done) rather than being held until 1:00 pm on the following day.

Set data

Sets a list field or profile extension table field either to a value, changing it by a specified amount, or to a value supplied by an event or an entry tracking variable. You choose the method, the list or profile extension table, and the field to update.

Important: If it is enabled for your account, this stage can update up to 10 fields for a list or profile extension table. If it is not enabled, you will need a Set data stage for each field you would like to update.

Warning: If data redaction is enabled for your account, ensure sensitive customer data from redacted columns are only written to columns designated for redaction. If your program contains sensitive customer data, writing the data to a column not designated for redaction will expose that data. You can contact a Responsys user with the Data Director or Account Administrator role to find out if a column is redacted or not.

Get data

Updates entry tracking variables during the program flow. You can use this activity in combination with the Data Switch to send a customer on a different path based on the most current non-profile information. For example, if the customer's order is shipped, you can send a follow-up promotion; otherwise, send the shipping status.

Add display campaign

Important: This feature is only available if Display is enabled for the account.

Adds customers to the selected Display campaign.

To select a Display campaign:

  1. Right-click the element and select Properties.
  2. Click Select, click the name of the campaign you want, and click Select.
  3. Click Done.

Remove display campaign

Important: This feature is only available if Display is enabled for the account.

Removes customers from the selected Display campaign.

To remove the Display campaign:

  1. Right-click the element and select Properties.
  2. Click Remove.
  3. Click Done.

Holdout group

Important: This feature is only available only if Holdout Groups are enabled for the account.

Creates a holdout group. Use holdout groups to compare performance of contacts who received a campaign to those who did not. The holdout group is the percentage of the audience who do not receive the campaign.

Use this activity as a path for an Allocation switch, where you specify the percentage of the audience that should not receive a campaign.

Use the holdout group properties to select the campaign to use for comparison. You can select either all campaigns in a program or a specific campaign.

The comparison data is available in the Holdout Group CED feed. For more information, see Exporting Event Data Feeds.

Next steps

Events

Timers

Switches

Learn more

Designing programs

Events

Timers

Program, Send SMS Message, Send Web Push Campaign, Send Push Campaign, Send In-App Campaign, Send SMS Campaign, Send MMS Campaign, Prepare Campaign, Set Data, Get Data, Add Display Campaign, Remove Display Campaign, Holdout Group